Remedy often treads a creative path of grit, absurdity, and epic weirdness that gives us some of the best single-player experiences in the gaming industry. As we venture into yet another thriller with Alan Wake 2, we can’t help but wonder about the studio’s larger universe that interconnects its games in a subtle yet between-the-lines way.
Between bullet-time action sequences in Max Payne and using a flashlight as a safe haven, the Remedy Connected Universe (RCU) has been expanding through multiple games.
It wasn’t until Control that Remedy made it official that their games are, in fact, interconnected. They’ve spoken a bit more about ‘easter eggs’ that players can spot in the upcoming Alan Wake game, and now is undoubtedly a solid time to be aware of what connects these worlds in the first place.
The Protagonist’s Psyche – A Common Playground for Remedy
With each project Remedy embarks on, the focus is always on the lead protagonist trying to make sense of the bizarreness around them. In Control, Jesse Faden spends her time dealing with newfound forces of evil manifested through an environment filled with things that fly, shoot, and lurk around. These are ‘objects of power’ that hold significance in the overarching narrative of RCU. You see, Control isn’t the only game where objects of power exist.
If we delve deeper into the world of Alan Wake, the most common form of storytelling happens through Alan’s typewriter. It may be just another writer’s tool for many, but Alan’s world is very well weaved by the typewriter’s supernatural existence. Taking another look at Control, there are Easter eggs the player can stumble upon when looking at a few documents that directly link to Alan Wake.
For instance, some paperwork within the game suggests that Alice Wake visits an office in Control’s world to find out more about Alan’s disappearance from Bright Falls. It also foreshadows the ongoing narrative around Alan Wake 2’s plot. Meanwhile, in Alan Wake, the player often comes across a TV show called Night Springs, which is produced by FBC (from Control) and written by Alan himself.
Another game that directly links itself to RCU’s ongoing storytelling is one of the earliest works by Remedy. In Alan Wake, it’s mentioned how Alan has written a popular Neo-Noire-themed cop thriller called Alex Casey. What does it link to? Yep, you guessed it-Max Payne. Much of the events and painful circumstances that take place in Max’s world were indeed crafted by Alan Wake.
Remedy Will Keep Exploring the Interconnected Worlds of Their Characters
In the words of Remedy’s creative director, Sam Lake:
The idea that the tales told in some of our games would be connected to each other, a connected world of stories and events with shared characters and lore. Each game is a stand-alone experience, but each game is also a doorway into a larger universe with exciting opportunities for crossover events.
We do love to put Easter eggs, nods, winks, and echoes of our previous works in.
Sam Lake’s major work in Control was quite a faithful dive into a new kind of storytelling-not limiting a character’s journey to a single game. The Easter eggs, references, and foreshadowing pave a brilliant path for Remedy’s unique brand of storytelling. When players experience the stories of these troubled protagonists, there’s a fourth wall that breaks itself-how far can the narrative escape the creator’s cage? This is a theme often explored in Alan Wake.
And, when this cage is opened, you have multiple worlds linking themselves to stories of the supernatural and bizarreness that only one Remedy is capable of handling. We can’t wait to see how this is explored further in Alan Wake 2. What are your thoughts on Remedy’s connected universe? Let us know in the comments.
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