Remedy Entertainment’s Control contains many references to her previous titles. Most notably, several collectible documents can be found that tell the events of the title of Remedy 2012 Alan Wake and integrate the story of that game into the canon of Control. Now the trailer for the next expansion for the game, titled AWE, has been released, and fans of Wake are finally happy with the news – the gruff writer will play a central role in this new DLC.
In light of this news, I definitely decided to install and play Alan Wake, as I had put it off for too long. I was a big fan of Control and was envious to see what else Remedy had to offer. In the wake of the AWE reveal, Remedy said that Alan Wake en Control are part of their own “Remedy Connected Universe.” The new expansion is the first crossover event in this continuity. But, that is not to say that this is a new idea for Remedy, nor to lead writer Sam Lake. Lake plants the seeds for the story of Control very early – in the 2012 spin-off American Nightmare by Alan Wake, turning the texts back into one section of one of the game’s songs in public hidden speech that says, “It’s going to happen again, in another city. A city… called just that.” Control main character Jesse Faden, and the site of a notorious Altered World Event. During my 2010 playthrough though Alan Wake, I discovered that there is even earlier evidence linking the two games – in a game that was released nine years before its “continuity partner” would be released.
A reasonable amount of context is needed to understand this Easter egg. In Control, the oldest house, the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control and the institution of the game, is located in Manhattan. It is another global building, with interior geometry constantly shifting and changing. Most people, however, can not even enter it – only selected individuals are able to experience the existence of the Old House itself, despite the impressive, hard-to-miss brutalist architecture. The Oldest House is directly inspired by the real Thomas 33 Street (like the AT&T Long Lines Building), an equally mysterious building that unfolds like a smart, concrete inch. According to poorly found documentation in Control uncovered by reddit user TheSunny0ne, Thomas Street 33 is in fact the address of the Oldest House within the canon of the game.
In Alan Wake, There are several flashback sequences, two of which take place in Alan’s apartment in New York City. One is set on a clear day, while the other is set during a snowstorm. During the bright flashback, as you look out over Wake’s balcony, you will notice a skyline of the city in the distance.
However, if for some reason you, like me, decide to squint in the snowstorm during the other flashback, you will notice that the balcony now appears to be on a hard-to-see building on the other side of the street .
Zoom in, and you can see beige-ish, vertical columns and lines. That seems a terrible bit like 33 Thomas Street already.
That said, Alan Wake lives opposite a brutalist skyscraper strikingly similar in appearance to 33 Thomas Street that disappears from time to time. In other words: Alan Wake lives opposite the Old House from Control, and can sometimes observe it. Oh my.
Well, remember, both Alan Wake en Control were developed by Remedy Entertainment, and Sam Lake was the two lead writers. What little can we see of the Alan Wake the exterior of the building does not exactly match the appearance of the Old House inside Control, more like his real opponent. But that can just be lured to Sam Lake without having a definitive design for the Old House in mind Alan Wake’s production. Speaking of which, I’ll do this now, because it’s emphatically clear: Assuming I did not suffer from a severe case of apophenia (seriously, I’m not crazy, right? You see the building too?), Then Sam Lake put in a Easter in Eggs in a game that was released in 2010 (a game that also had a notably long development time) that predicted the setting of a game that would not be released until 2019. What an incredibly, intricately planned little secret. Well done, Sam Lake. I will take my reward for discovering it now.
