Remedyverse Connections in Alan Wake II

 Again, I haven't finished the game yet, but with Control's AWE expansion, Remedy made it clear that they're looking to connect their games in a singular universe (multiverse?) So, I thought I'd touch on what I've noticed about connections to Control (and other games) in Alan Wake II.

This is certainly a spoiler-filled post, so here's a cut:

SPOILERS AHEAD:

Right off the bat, we should make it clear that Alex Casey, the noir-detective written about in Alan Wake's books, is very clearly meant to be Max Payne. I haven't played those games, but we can more or less assume that there's a thematic line drawn between the two characters. Of course, there are two Alex Caseys in this story - one is the "fictional" one that Alan encounters in the Dark Place, finding himself killed in various tragic moments and whose investigations into the Cult of the Word provide Alan with fodder to change the environments he searches. The other, "real" Alex Casey is Saga Anderson's partner at the FBI. But actually, there's also a third Alex Casey, or an "Alexi Kase" found in the Finnish arthouse film "Yötton Yö" made by filmmaker Tom Zane (or Tom Seine).

And found throughout the game is a familiar Finnish janitor - Ahti, our first friendly face at the Oldest House in Control, shows up in both the Dark Place to help Alan and in Bright Falls, evidently as a resident at the Valhalla Nursing Home set up by Barry Wheeler for Tor and Odin Anderson. Ahti also shows up in live-action in Yötton Yö when you get to see it in the cinema in the Dark Place. As ever, he's cryptic and strange - you go back and forth on whether he's a real person or the projection of some powerful supernatural entity. But he definitely seems like a good guy. Interestingly, in the supposedly 1960s-era film in which he plays... himself? He talks about trying to get a job at the FBC, mistakenly believing that Alexi Kase works for them, and not the FBI. So maybe he wasn't always in the Oldest House?

In the first part of the game, when you explore the area around Cauldron Lake, you come across an outpost run by the Federal Bureau of Control. The FBC plays a bigger part later on in the game, but its presence is unmistakable from the beginning, and one gets the sense that the alert that went off at the end of Control's "AWE" expansion originated at this station.

A more obscure Control reference pops up during one of Alan's visits to his and Alice's apartment in the Dark Place - a computer has a number of emails that include some from Barry Wheeler. Barry's acting as an executive producer on adaptations of the Alex Casey books (he's seen a therapist who has gotten him to believe that the supernatural events around Alan's disappearance were just fabricated to paper over the trauma of watching his best friend commit suicide by jumping into the lake). Far more worrying is that Barry has gotten roped into the Blessed organization, with its leader Chester Bless, and which we know from Control is a paracriminal organization that has directly targeted FBC agents, even killing one with an Altered Item. Barry does not seem to have been fully initiated into the whole "murder" thing, and just thinks they're a group of Hollywood hippies, but holy crap should we keep an eye on that.

Less directly, the figure of Warlin Door, whom we meet as the host of a talk show that serves as the introduction to most of Alan's chapters, is likely the copyright-friendly version of Hatch from Quantum Break (sadly, Lance Reddick, who portrayed Hatch, died, so if he were originally intended to be cast in the role that would be a stronger confirmation - though David Harewood does a great job with the role, embracing the mix of absurdity and menace). Shawn Ashmore, who played the player character in Quantum Break, here appears as Sheriff Breaker - the cousin of the sheriff from the first game - who is warped away to the Dark Place seemingly by Warlin Door early on in Saga's storyline, and shows up in the various locations in Alan's story with some clues and hints, and seems to be on his own mission. I feel like an idiot for not noticing until now that the guy's name is freaking Breaker. As in, Quantum Breaker. Might our Sheriff have been some kind of time-displaced action hero in another timeline?

Lest we forget, as well: when speaking with Dylan Faden in Control, he does mention meeting someone named Mr. Door, who shows him all the various realities but refuses to let Dylan introduce the Hiss to them.

Delightfully, in the dressing rooms at the talk show, you can find a book by Dr. Casper Darling called "My Interpretation of Many Worlds," with his face on the cover. Darling also shows up rarely on some television sets in the Dark Place.

There is also the most fleeting glimpse of what I believe is Jesse Faden (Courtney Hope) at the end of one of these inexplicable television appearances. Sheriff Breaker's whiteboards trying to figure out who Warlin Door is do make mention of a "red-headed lady," who could easily be Jesse.

Anyway, that's everything I've been able to spot (not counting, of course, connections to the first game, which you could just say is "the whole game.")

I don't think these connections are enough to create a continuity lockout - there's enough of a challenge to wrap your head around the game as it is (particularly Alan's side of things). But it does feel rewarding to recognize these shared details.