Summary
- Alan Wake 2 includes various cultural references, such as Twin Peaks and Control, creating an immersive and interconnected universe.
- The game pays homage to Remedy Entertainment's previous titles, including Death Rally and Quantum Break, through hidden easter eggs.
- The influence of Stephen King's The Shining can be seen in the atmospheric setting of the Oceanview Hotel, while a Lego easter egg adds a quirky touch to the game.
Alan Wake 2 poses an incredibly dense narrative and world-building with quirky characters, spooky environments, and metatextual devices throughout its single-player experience. While some of the cultural influences in Alan Wake 2 are obvious, others are either hidden away in obscure locations or subtle enough that drawing a comparison isn’t exactly straightforward.
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From genre-defining films to popular TV shows to Remedy Entertainment’s own publications, here are some of the best Easter eggs that might go unnoticed by many players on their first playthrough of Alan Wake 2.
7 Twin Peaks
Right off the bat, the influence of Twin Peaks is undeniably prevalent in Alan Wake 2’s setting, the town of Bright Falls. If the coffee-loving FBI agents aren't too much on the nose, then the one-to-one recreation of Double R diner from Twin Peaks to “Oh Deer” Diner in Alan Wake 2, down to the same mountains-scenery in the wallpaper used in both the diners, is definitely an obvious one. Then there’s the very conveniently named “Mirror Peak” mountain overlooking Cauldron Lake in Alan Wake 2, an ode to the “Twin Peaks” range from the hit TV series.
Though these references were prevalent in the original Alan Wake back when it was released in 2010, Alan Wake 2 turns it up a notch by corresponding to Twin Peaks: The Return in particular. Just like Agent Dale Cooper’s evil Doppelganger, Mr. C, Alan Wake 2 presents its own terrifying counterpart of Alan, who goes by the name of Mr. Scratch. The story beat of Alan being trapped in a dark alternate reality, The Dark Place, for 13 years is a good callback to Dale Cooper’s 25 years of waiting in a similar nightmare dimension, The Black Lodge.
To drive the point home, Alan Wake 2’s deluxe edition even includes the “Celebrity Suit” which is again a like-to-like comparison with Dale Cooper’s FBI attire, not that white shirts, black suits, and black ties aren’t uncommon, but Remedy certainly loved referencing a tv series that their creative director, Sam Lake, is a huge fan of. Speaking of in-game skins, fans of Alan Wake's American Nightmare will be delighted to see the flannel shirt make a return in Alan Wake 2 as well.
6 Control
- Players can find the duck in the Sauna in Watery after Chapter 3 begins.
- Players can find the pink flamingo cutouts near Huotari Well in Coffee World after Chapter 3 begins.
- The book, "My Interpretation of Many Worlds", can be found lying on the desk in Alan’s dressing room in Door’s Talk Show studio
Including easter eggs and self-references to games from the same developers is fairly common practice, and with Alan Wake 2 and Control being in the same connected universe, RCU, the developers must have enjoyed putting these hidden easter eggs throughout Alan Wake 2.
Without spoiling much, the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC) plays a very active role in the narrative of Alan Wake 2 where the enigmatic janitor, Ahti's multiple appearances throughout the story, and the nursery rhymes research are just one of the many ways the FBC is monitoring the situation in Bright Falls. At the start of Chapter 3 of Saga in Watery, after interacting with elderly gentlemen who love to describe the benefits of the sauna, players can actually head inside the sauna and take a peek inside a metal bucket to see a familiar duck inside it. This is a reference to the same duck that players have to chase around as Jesse Faden in Control during a side mission.
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Similarly, later in the chapter when Saga heads to the Coffee World, players can find multiple pink flamingo cutouts, which are strikingly similar to the altered world item in Control, where players must cleanse it to obtain it as a collectible during one of the side missions in the game.
Finally, another callback to Control’s charismatic professor, Dr. Darling makes an appearance on the cover page of his book, which is found in Alan’s dressing room.
5 Death Rally
- The Death Rally arcade is situated in room 105 of Elderwood Palace Lodge, in Bright Falls.
Remedy Entertainment was put on the map thanks to the cult-classic status of Max Payne and Rockstar Games acting as publishers to bring Remedy’s vision to mainstream audiences. However, Max Payne was still not Remedy’s first foray into video games, that title is held by Death Rally, an arcade vehicular combat racing game released back in 1996. Regardless of how many players remember that game, the developers still remember it fondly, because in Alan Wake 2, there is a glimpse of it.
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In the Bright Falls area, players can enter Elderwood Palace Lodge as Saga. Heading to the corridor, the first room on the right, room 105, will have a Death Rally arcade cabinet in the corner. Sadly, players cannot interact with it, but its mere presence is a good Easter egg to how it all started with Remedy.
4 Quantum Break
- Saga Anderson, Alex Casey, and Tim Breaker, all have ties to Quantum Break
Early during Chapter 1 of Saga, players will be introduced to Bright Falls sheriff, Tim Breaker. The name is a play on the words time breaker, sharing the sheriff’s likeness to the protagonist of Quantum Break, where both characters are played by actor Shawn Ashmore. There are other connections that players can make as they progress further into the story.
However, one scene that stands out is the synchronized coffee drinking between the two FBI detectives, Saga Anderson and Alex Casey in one of the early cutscenes of chapter 2 of Alan Wake 2. This scene is strikingly similar in framing to a movie trailer that players can uncover in Quantum Break. Interestingly enough, the trailer in question is an Easter egg of what Remedy might have figured Alan Wake 2 would be like, back in 2016 at Quantum Break’s launch. The trailer in Quantum Break is even titled “The Return” which is also the name of one of the manuscripts that is central to the story of Alan Wake 2.
3 The Shining
- The bathtub is located in Room 101 of The Oceanview Hotel, which first becomes accessible during Chapter 5, Room 665, on Alan’s side of the story.
The titular Alan Wake is a fan of horror thriller stories and a lot of that comes down to Remedy’s admiration of Stephen King’s works like The Shining among others. The original Alan Wake, apart from opening with a quote from Stephen King, included a recreation of the classic “Here’s Johnny” scene from The Shining, albeit with Alan being on the receiving end of an axe smashing through wood.
In Alan Wake 2, the references to The Shining are more subtle. After beginning Chapter 5 on Alan’s side, titled “Room 665”, players will notice that upon entering the Oceanview Hotel, the atmosphere and layout are eerily similar to the Overlook Hotel that Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining puts on screen. A more specific instance of an Easter egg is the one-to-one bathtub visual from Alan Wake 2 in room 101 with curtains halfway open, just like the terrifying scene from The Shining, although, thankfully there is no spooky naked lady here in the Oceanview Hotel, nor is the room number 237 as it was in The Shining.
2 Lego
- After entering Caldera St. Station from the ticketing counter, players can find the train to the extreme right of the platform.
This easter egg is a surprising one to incorporate given the tone of Alan Wake 2 but if anything, it adds to the quirkiness of the game. Once players set out into the hellish fictional New York setting during Alan’s second chapter, “Casey”, their first objective will be to make their way into Caldera St. Station.
Past the ticketing counter of the station, players will come across a stationary train with the code 9467. A very particular four-digit number, that upon googling, returns the same code for the Ghost Train Lego set. Coincidence? Highly unlikely given the haunted landscape of The Dark Place that Alan finds himself in.
1 Max Payne
- Voiced by James McCaffrey
- Face provided by Sam Lake
Max Payne's identity is closely attached to Remedy's DNA for making dark stories with a touch of film noir to them. The influence and success of the series is one of the reasons why the company has plans to bring remakes of the original Max Payne and its sequel to current-gen hardware.
For anyone who has played any amount of Alan Wake 2, the character of Alex Casey, especially in Alan's Dark Place is for all legal purposes, a recreation of the character of Max Payne down to his leather jacket and philosophical inner monologs. The more "Echoes" that players discover in Alan Wake 2 on Alan's side of the story, the more striking the resemblance sparks between the characters of Alex Casey and Max Payne.
Alan Wake 2
- Released
- October 27, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Remedy Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
- Epic Games
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror
- Metascore
- 90
