Control: AWE DLC - This is how Alan Wake is connected to the history of Control

For those of you new to the world of Remedy, was a horror shooter from the Xbox 360 era, where the titular writer struggled to come out of his own horror stories. It's a mishmash of and, with a bit of tossed in. (the game) spawned a mini-sequel, but the series barely sold big numbers as or Remedy's latest hit.

So now we have a sequel to Alan Wake's story in. What are the links? What does all this mean? We will try to explain as simply as possible. Take your extra-powerful batteries, because we'll shed some light on the link.

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How is connected to?

In the world of, strange events are called AWE (Modified Global Events) - and the Federal Office of Control is what monitors these strange paranormal activities. Events that took place in the town of Bright Falls on, are considered AWE in. And for good reason!

ADMIRATION DLC, you will visit the Bright Falls AWE chamber where the events are studied. But you will have to explore the whole Secto surveysr to reach it - the sector was lost after a creature called Shadow Hartman escaped confinement, ransacking the area and spreading darkness like the plague. The firewalls were sealed and the people trapped inside were left to fend for themselves.

So let's go back. Who / what is Shade Hartman? Dr. Hartman is a character in - He's the psychiatrist in charge of Cauldron Lake Lodge, the huge facility overlooking Alan Wake's writer's cabin on the lake. During the events of the game, Hartman is captured and encouraged to use his strange power to rewrite reality. This is extremely important in the world of.

After disappearing into the depths of Lake Cauldron at the end of, agents of the Federal Office of Control were sent to interview anyone who could help explain things. One of those people was Dr. Hartman - and Dr. Hartman made the unfortunate mistake of admitting that he wanted to encourage people to use strange powers. It's a huge offense in the world of, and Hartman is immediately detained.

So why does Jesse meet Alan Wake? Jesse, the new director of the FBC, responds to the emergency in the investigative sector because Alan Wake writes it down. Alan Wake changes reality just by writing it down on his typewriter - even though he doesn't know why he writes what he does. He is lost in the ocean of darkness, and his the mind is fractured. Why is Alan Wake writing it? Because he needs to escape.

Alan Wake contacts Jesse Faden because he needs a hero for his story - so he infects the captured Hartman with darkness, turning him into a stupid creature of destruction. We don't know if Alan Wake is behind this, or his infamous alter ego M. Scratch. In addition to the evil twin, Alan Wake also has to face another mirror of himself - Thomas Zane. It's all incredibly confusing, but Thomas Zane no longer comes across as a man in a wetsuit who was once a poet. Now Thomas Zane appears as a lookalike for Alan Wake who was once an actor.

Confused yet? To be even more confused, we don't just see Alan Wake in his punching room - briefly on TV you'll see Dr Darling. Dr Darling is the CBF's chief researcher and principal scientist - and he's played by voice actor Alan Wake Matthew Porretta. So now we have four different Alan Wake doppelgangers.

The last bomb thrown just before the final battle is the biggest. Alan Wake writes that he needed something special to make Jesse a hero - while the writing implies he is talking about the nightmarish form of Shadow Hartman, it could also refer to Whistle. Did Alan Wake write a disaster for the FBC in order to lure Jesse in, appoint his manager, and finally help him escape his AWE-inspired predicament?

This is a lot to understand. We don't get any concrete answers in this game, but I feel like it's not the last we'll see or. In the final cutscene, an alert for Bright Falls goes off - but the date isn't for yet a few years. This is what I call a tease.