The 2008 short film spawned a franchise that forever changed the modern cinematic landscape. Iron Man was soon followed by the rest of the original films, culminating in The Avengers, which had a monumental impact on cinema, bringing together characters from all over the canon and rewarding viewers who took the time to view every piece of media in the series. This concept of shared universes has now permeated almost all environments, and other film companies are trying to capture the same magic as the Marvel cinematic universe, and even game developers are involved in this phenomenon. Remedy Entertainment and its upcoming Alan Wake 2 are just one example of this.
Having started with simple references and Easter eggs in the first Alan Wake, Remedy Entertainment has now confirmed that some of its games actually share a common universe, potentially opening the door for future teams and shared storylines. While there is certainly potential, Remedy has not confirmed how prominent its Connected Universe will be in future games, such as the highly anticipated next release, Alan Wake 2.
link: How Alan Wake 2 Can Include Live Action Elements
History of the connected Universe Remedy
Although Remedy has always loved adding Easter eggs and references to her games, Alan Wake has taken this to a new level. Released in 2010, Alan Wake contains quite explicit references to Max Payne. One of the most obvious references to Max Payne is Alan Wake’s most popular fictional creation, Alex Casey, a man who lost his wife and child and became seriously addicted to painkillers. To top it all off, Alex Casey is briefly voiced by James McCaffrey, who voiced Max Payne in the original Remedy games.
However, these mentions do not mean that Max Payne is a character in the Alan Wake universe, in fact it almost suggests the opposite, that Max Payne is just a fictional creation. But Alan Wake does make pretty big references to some characters and organizations that won’t appear again until “Control” 2019. During Alan Wake, players can hear mention of the Federal Bureau of Control, as well as the city of Ordinaries, who play an important role in the history of Control. This is the real beginning of the Remedy Connected universe.
In 2020, Control received the Expansion 2: AWE add-on, in which Alan Wake plays a fairly important role. This DLC was the first major crossover for Remedy games, and shortly after its release, Remedy’s creative director confirmed that Remedy Connected Universe is an official project and that future games will be stored in the same shared universe.
How The Remedy Connected Universe Can Affect Alan Wake 2
After Remedy announced its Connected Universe, it also confirmed that Alan Wake 2 would definitely exist in it. At the moment, there is no official information about what exactly this means, or to what extent Alan Wake 2 will bring external plot points, settings or characters. Since this is the first complete game officially installed in the Remedy Connected Universe universe, it may make sense for the developer to start rather slowly, adding only elements that have already passed in the second Control expansion.
Apparently, Alan Wake 2 abandons the action-oriented gameplay of its predecessor and instead changes it to a full-fledged survival horror mechanic. While it doesn’t immediately match the tone of Control, characters, settings, and enemies can definitely move into the horror genre. Since Quantum Break belongs to Xbox, it is unlikely that any characters or storylines of this game will appear in Alan Wake 2, and although technically Max Payne no longer belongs to Remedy, the developer is currently working on a remake of the first two Max Payne games, which can retroactively link these games to the Connected Universe from Remedy and thus, to some extent, end up in Alan Wake 2.
Regardless of any overlapping characters or settings, it is likely that Alan Wake 2 will still remain a separate game with its own story. According to recent tweets, the developer has stated that Alan Wake 2 represents the most ambitious story he has worked on so far, with a monumentally large script. It seems that Alan Wake 2 will be primarily a sequel to Alan Wake, and only then part of the general universe.
The release of Alan Wake 2 is scheduled for 2023 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
