Control is a video game developed by Remedy Entertainment and released on August 27, 2019.
Control exists in a shared universe with the Alan Wake franchise, and there exists multiple allusions between the two.
Control allusions[]
References to Control in Alan Wake[]
- In Alan Wake's American Nightmare in the song Balance Slays the Demon, there is a hidden backwards message that when played in reverse says "It will happen again, in another town, a town called Ordinary", which is where Jesse and Dylan Faden grew up and become a part of the Ordinary Altered World Event.
References to Control in Alan Wake Remastered[]
With Alan Wake and Control now firmly connected, Remedy Entertainment decided to add references to Control in Alan Wake Remastered. Below are references you can find in the remaster:
- In Episode 1, there is a poster of Thomas Zane which was changed to be in line with certain details in Both Control and AWE.
- In Sheriff Breaker's office, a letter can be found for Frank Breaker, with the name Federal Bureau of Control stamped on it.
References to Alan Wake in Control[]
- Dylan Faden mentions that in one of his dreams, he saw many worlds, including one where "a writer wrote a story about a cop," and another where "the cop was real" - a dual reference to Alan Wake and Max Payne.
- A Bureau file details their plans to revive the cancelled Night Springs TV series - which was featured prominently in Alan Wake - in order to monitor the public perception of the paranatural.
- One of the Altered World Event case files in the game details an AWE occurring in Bright Falls, Washington in 2010, which offers a summary of the game's events, which the Bureau is revealed to have responded to and conducted cleanup of. Multiple documents refer to this AWE.
- After she visits him in the Foundation, Ahti gives Jesse Faden his cassette player, which includes the song "Take Control" performed by Old Gods of Asgard.
- Thomas Zane is mentioned to be Jesse Faden's favorite poet.
- The Typewritten Page is an Altered Object under containment in the Federal Bureau of Control's Panopticon, that their tests confirm was written by Alan Wake. Approaching it causes a vision of Alan to appear and narrate the first paragraph of the note.
- Control's Expansion 2: AWE explicitly connects the two games, hinting that Wake was responsible for creating the FBC and orchestrating the events of Control in a bid to create his eventual escape. Emil Hartman is revealed to have become a monster taken over by the Dark Presence and the Hiss, formerly contained by the Bureau but now running rampant through the Bureau's Investigations Sector, and he is tracked down and defeated by Jesse Faden to ensure the Bureau's safety. Finally, Frederick Langston mentions receiving a report of another Altered World Event taking place in Bright Falls, but notably several years in the future.