While this was initially thought to be just secrets, Remedy has now revealed that these games are part of a larger universe, rightly dubbed the Remedy Connected Universe. While the only two confirmed games within the universe are Alan Wake and Control, almost every game by the developer somehow fits into this overarching universe – intentionally or not. With Alan Wake 2 slated for release next year and Max Payne 1 and 2 remakes on the horizon as well, it’s the perfect time to dive into this maze of connections that all collectively form the Remedy Connected Universe.

The baseline for this universe was established with 2019’s Control, so let’s start from there. As fans of the game might already know, Control sees players controlling Jesse Faden – a woman who’s on a quest to find her long-lost brother Dylan and uncover the truth behind the mysterious entity called Polaris. This quest leads her to the FBC headquarters, where she is promptly chosen as the director of the institution all while an otherworldly plague known as the Hiss has invaded the building’s premises. Keeping further plot details aside, Control is all about this organization that deals with the supernatural events which the game calls AWE or Altered World Events. Things that bring about these altered world events are called Objects of Power, and they can be anything from a flamingo statue to a slide projector to a well, you guessed it – a typewriter.

This is where Alan Wake fits into the connected universe. You see, Wake’s typewriter is actually considered to be an Object of Power – which combined with some magical properties of Cauldron Lake, makes the works of art created there somehow come true. Control’s DLC expansion AWE establishes even more connections between the two games, such as revealing that Alan’s wife Alice had been visiting the offices of FBC to talk about Alan’s sudden disappearance in Bright Falls. The FBC was, of course, well aware of the strange happenings in Bright Falls and the run-in of the Dark Presence with Wake – and had even nominated him as a prime candidate for the position of director.

According to Control‘s optional documents, FBC had also conducted an extensive investigation of a possible AWE in Bright Falls back in the 70s, when the famous poet Thomas Zane suddenly went missing, but the investigation never reached a definitive conclusion. During the end of the DLC chapter, fans are also teased of a future AWE set to happen very soon in Bright Falls – which we are assuming directly relates to whatever Remedy has in store for Alan Wake 2.

Another solid connection between the two games is Night Springs – a TV show dealing with paranormal activities that players can see throughout Alan Wake. As it turns out, Night Springs is actually produced by none other than the FBC – in an effort to normalize the supernatural for the common people. What’s more is that Alan is said to have written multiple episodes of this TV series, one of which seems a direct nod to the events that take place in Control. Fan theories suggest that Control and FBC may actually be all a part of a story that Wake might be using to somehow climb out of the Dark Presence – although that’s something we will get to know in the upcoming Alan Wake 2.

Control protagonist Jesse Faden found the Slide Projector object of power in the town of Ordinary, which kickstarted an AWE leading to a sudden disappearance of all the adult population of the city. This town of Ordinary connects Quantum Break to the RCU, as players can actually see multiple references to the events of Alan Wake and Control through graffiti and notes scattered around the game. Furthermore, an optional cutscene in Quantum Break shows Will Joyce preventing a critical miscalculation in a time-traveling experiment, which leads to a massive power outage in Ordinary. These are all loose connections and probably wouldn’t be built upon with future games from the developer, since the rights to the Quantum Break IP reside with Microsoft and not Remedy.

Then there’s Max Payne. Since that was the developer’s first proper game (if you exclude Death Rally), there wasn’t any concept of a connected universe, so the game doesn’t have any bespoke connections with Alan Wake or Control. However, we do know that Alan Wake was the author of a neo-noir drama by the name of Alex Casey, which saw an undercover cop exacting revenge for the death of his loved ones. We see a couple of pages of this novel during one of Alan Wake’s early sequences, which match the script for Remedy’s breakout success. Between this and the appearance of Sam Lake in an in-game interview, the original model for Max Payne being the model of the protagonist in Wake’s novel – we can more or less come to the conclusion that the events of Max Payne were indeed fabricated by Alan. It’s possible that we see more of these connections and references fleshed out with the Max Payne remakes, but given the fact that the Max Payne rights are owned by Rockstar and not Remedy – one shouldn’t expect these connections to be further expanded upon even if Max Payne as a series returns with a new entry in the near future.

Remedy also produced an Alan Wake spinoff in the form of 2012’s Alan Wake: American Nightmare, but the game is believed to not be a part of the canon universe – and apart from a mention of the town of Ordinary, there’s little to no connections of the game with the connected universe. Lastly, there’s CrossFireX, whose single-player campaign was developed by the Finnish developer itself. While the game’s narrative still touches upon similar themes such as time travel and supernatural elements, the game seems to be taking place in its own separate universe with no connection to the developer’s other titles – except for the odd mention of them through secrets and whatnot.

This connected multiverse wouldn’t be complete without a mention of Poets of the Fall, a Finnish alternative rock band that has provided music for most of Remedy’s games. The band has appeared under several aliases within the games such as Old Gods of Asgard – and has provided excellent tracks such as the likes of Take Control in Control and Children of the Elder God in Alan Wake alongside tracks like War that are credited with the band’s official name in Alan Wake.

To conclude, Remedy Connected Universe is an interesting premise, and one that the developer has been slowly and steadily building towards. Given how distinct of a style Remedy has perfected with so many of its games over the years, it kind of makes sense for them to have some sort of solid connection to each other. Fans are going to be treated with a ton of related information in the near future, thanks to Remedy’s upcoming releases which include a sequel to Control, its multiplayer spinoff Condor, 2023’s Alan Wake 2, and full remakes of Max Payne 1 and 2 built using the Northlight Engine. 

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

It’s that time of the week again for the new free games on the Epic Games Store. There’s a lot of strong feelings surrounding the storefront, but if you can take a breath about it for a moment, you can download both Alan Wake’s American Nightmare and Observer.

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is a standalone pseudo-sequel to Alan Wake, which was free on the Epic Games Store earlier. You play as Alan Wake, who must battle through hordes of terrors as you’re haunted by the evil doppleganger Mr. Scratch.

Obersever is a horror game from Bloober Team, the developers of the most recent Blair Witch game and Layers of Fear. It takes place in a cyberpunk setting, where you must hack into the minds of depraved criminals, though things aren’t as they seem, with mysteries about who is watching whom.

Both games are free from today until October 24th. When they go out of rotation, they will be replaced with Layers of Fear (another game from Bloober Team) and Q.U.B.E 2 until the end of the month.

Remedy are an extremely talented studio- they changed the game with Max Payne, and while Alan Wake‘s impact wasn’t as far reaching, it was an excellent game that remains beloved to this day. And sure, they dropped the ball with Quantum Break, but everyone is allowed a dud or two- Quantum Break doesn’t take away from their talent and what they have accomplished so far. Especially when Remedy have a chance to learn from where they went wrong, and grow in the future.

Speaking to Polygon, Remedy’s Game Director Mikael Kasurinen got introspective about where the studio went wrong with Quantum Break, and to a lesser extent, Alan Wake.

“If you go back and look at Alan Wake ten years ago you could see us talking about it about how we dabbled with the idea of driving around in a car in an open environment. You could see even then that desire to go in that direction,” Kasurinen said.

“One way to tell a story is to create a rich world you can get to explore. When you look back at Alan Wake and Quantum Break, you can see we spent a lot of time looking at the shape of those worlds, the cities, towns, neat characters, maps. We spent a lot of time in crafting those universes, if you will. The gameplay is actually a linear story through those amazing, complicated worlds. In one way, it’s a bit of a lost opportunity.

“I think they could have been bigger [games] easily. Alan Wake had a long history of development, but it was through years of events that it took the shape it took. A lot of concepts were created through that journey. It felt like there was this world of concept and complex storyline that was left aside. The key point that we learned from that experience is that the world building we do needs to connect with the gameplay. Gameplay needs to enable organic experiences and interactions with the world. We still want to create strong worlds, but the game should be crafted in such a way that allows this exploration.”

I personally am glad to see Remedy coming around to this. While I am not of the school of thought that every video game ever needs to be open world, interactivity and player agency are still key components of a video game- the more that there is of either in a video game, the better. I am glad to see Remedy recognize that. Hopefully their next game is as much of a departure from their output so far as Max Payne was from third person shooters until then.

Alan Wake may not have been as much of a commercial success, but it ended up becoming a cult classic that was loved by many- many who await a follow up to it, especially given that Remedy’s newest title, Quantum Break, was a bit of a disappointment. An Alan Wake sequel has been discussed many times, but the end result has always been a bit of teasing or friendly references, with no sequel announced or even hinted at.

According to Phil Spencer, however, the reason might be that Remedy themselves aren’t interested in making the game right now. Speaking in an interview with Stevivor, Spencer implied that the hold up wasn’t from Microsoft’s end.

“How do I put this?” he said. “Well, the developer… the developer has to want to make the game.”

That’s not much of an issue- I can understand and respect Remedy wanting to do their own thing, and come out with something new, instead of working on something they’ve already done before. Still, it has to be a bit of a bummer to people who are still out there hoping for a sequel.

An Alan Wake sequel has been teased for a long time now- Remedy has already spoken of its desire to return to the franchise, and there have been plenty of indications over the last few years that Microsoft does not intend to just let the IP lie dormant. And now, it seems as though all of those indications were true- a new trademark has been filed by Remedy. And what is it for? Alan Wake’s Return. Call me hopeful, but for some reason, that trademark makes it sound as though Alan Wake will be, you know, returning.

The last we saw, the titular hero’s story was left hanging in a cliffhanger at the end of American Nightmare, the expansion for the original game- so a sequel was basically something that was necessary at this point, if only to resolve the plot threads. It seems as though we will be getting that sequel.

Presumably, Alan Wake Returns will be made available on Xbox One and Windows 10. If and when we learn more about it, we will let you know.

(via NeoGAF)

Remedy have sweetened the deal on their upcoming Xbox One/Windows 10 exclusive, Quantum Break. Buy the game from the Xbox Live store, and you will get a free copy of Alan Wake, no questions asked, with it. This will, naturally, be the Xbox 360 version of the game, running via the Xbox One’s backwards compatibility feature. This copy of Alan Wake will come with The Signal and The Writer DLC.

That’s not where it ends, either- pre-order Quantum Break from the Xbox Store, and you not only get Alan Wake and its DLC free, you also get a copy of Alan Wake: American Nightmare as well. Now that’s one juicy pre-order bonus that would push me towards pre-ordering the game digitally!

Quantum Break is Remedy’s long anticipated third person action game about a man with the power to control time. It is launching on the Xbox One and PCs running Windows 10 this April.

We have a new trailer for Alan Wake: American Nightmare, and this prepares gamers for the launch of the game on Xbox Live next week.

Yep, it’s a launch trailer. The game’s main premise is about Alan Wake escaping his double, Mr. Scratch while battling him in a grim looking world.

It also has an arcade mode called, “Fight Till Dawn”, which as the name implies consists of you fighting a lot of baddies and scoring big!

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

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