Remedy Entertainment has been a mainstay developer in the games industry for over 20 years. Its catalog has diversified greatly, but it's easy to see 2019's Control as a breakout hit, gathering multiple Game of the Year nominations and receiving awards like Best Art Direction at The Game Awards 2019. Hot off of Control: Ultimate Edition coming to next-gen consoles this year, Remedy is looking back to one of its older, less appreciated titles with Alan Wake Remastered releasing in October.
Alan Wake Remastered debuted at the PlayStation Showcase 2021, promising a quick turnaround on the revamp of Remedy's action-adventure thriller from 2010. This remaster is notable for a few reasons, but largely because the original game was an Xbox-exclusive that will now be available on PlayStation 4 and 5. After Control's success it's likely Alan Wake will be a more successful release. However, both new and returning players familiar with Control will also probably find it to be a uniquely different experience in 2021 thanks to how Jesse Faden's journey through the Oldest House set up an expanded universe for Remedy's games.
Control's Expanded Universe
Control begins simply enough; Jesse Faden is a seemingly normal girl off the streets of New York who enters the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC) in search of her brother, Dylan. However, Jesse turns out to be anything but normal, having become attached to a paranatural resonance-based entity (later named Polaris) after she and Dylan discovered a slide projector that opens a gateway to new dimensions. This led to a traumatizing incident in which every adult in the town of Ordinary, Maine disappeared and the siblings had to save themselves from interdimensional monsters.
Later called the Ordinary Altered World Event (AWE), this caught the attention of the FBC, a top-secret agency investigating supernatural incidents. Jesse comes to its headquarters, called the Oldest House, because the FBC separated her from Dylan after the incident years prior. She comes to find the bureau nigh-destroyed by another resonance-based force called the Hiss let loose by the slide projector (one of many "Objects of Power" kept in the Oldest House), and in her quest to stop the world's end she becomes Director of the FBC.
As much as Control makes for an excellent character study, much of its success comes from an intriguing world seeped in "new weird" horror/sci-fi conventions that poke fun of how a bureaucracy would study objects and events seemingly beyond human comprehension. It also builds a rich mythos that comes to incorporate the events of Remedy's previous venture, Alan Wake.
Alan Wake: Recontextualized
Alan Wake follows its titular protagonist as he goes on a retreat with his wife, only to work on a mysterious typewriter that alters reality to match his writings. The game's presentation and concept clearly harbor influence from the works of Stephen King and David Lynch, and that kind of dark surrealism was successful for its time.
That being said, Control takes its predecessor's premise and runs with it. Some of the files Jesse finds scattered throughout the Oldest House discuss the "Bright Falls AWE," recounting the events of Alan Wake as an investigation by the FBC. Not only does this genius bit of worldbuilding expand Alan Wake's story into one of a million potentially interesting supernatural stories in that universe, it also opened the door for an interconnected universe that Remedy is capitalizing on.
Another Altered Item players can find contained in the Oldest House is coffee thermos from Bright Falls, Washington's Oh Deer Diner, which flavor text suggests was discovered at Cauldron Lake before Alan Wake disappeared. Control's "AWE" expansion focuses on Jesse having to stop a beast that crosses over the Hiss with Alan Wake's Dark Presence, and the two Remedy protagonists interact throughout its story.
The end of this DLC teases another AWE meant to take place in Bright Falls sometime in the future. With Remedy confirming its next game will tie into both Control and Alan Wake, it's likely this AWE is what players can expect to experience. For now, those who want to get ready can revisit the adventure that started it all with Alan Wake Remastered, only the experience will feel much richer in retrospect.
Alan Wake Remastered releases October 5, 2021 for PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.