To coincide with the anniversary of Control, Remedy Entertainment release the Control's second and final DLC: AWE. The second expansion will take players into a new sector of the Oldest House to discover (after ten years) the fate of the writer Alan Wake.
Once upon a time in Bright Falls
Alan Wake has been in the dark for ten years now and today no one could imagine what his fate was but, a glimmer of hope lit up when an easter egg was found inside Control with clear references to the events of Bright Falls, including in fact the events of Alan Wake within the narrative universe of Control.
It is no coincidence that the Federal Bureau of Control deals with investigating the so-called Altered World Events (in English Altered World Event) and among the many files check the one relating to Bright Falls. From the very first minutes we will come into contact with Alan Wake, resent his words, his obsession in the typewriter and his words that come true echo again after so long as if it were a letter written directly by Sam Lake to the fans who were waiting. with anxiety for too long now about the news on the damned writer.
After a very important video for the narrative purposes of Remedy Connected Universe, Jesse will have to contend with a monstrous figure hiding in the darkness. Such a being is none other than Dr. Emil Hartman, the psychologist at the head of the hut of Cauldron Lake. The doctor survived the events in Bright Falls after Wake's arrival, and it is possible to find some tapes of interviews with agents from the Federal Bureau of Control. Hartman however, in addition to coming into contact with the dark presence, he is exposed (during the events of Control) to the resonance of the Hiss and what comes out is a frightening creature that we will have to face during the AWE expansion.
Anyone who wants to try AWE will necessarily have to recover the events of Alan Wake in order to fully appreciate every single quote, phrase or clue about the future that lies hidden for the writer who has been fighting against darkness for the past 10 years although it is possible to start the expansion after finishing the seventh mission of the main AWE campaign, so you don't necessarily need to have finished the game as required The Foundation.
Short but intense
Unlike The Foundation, AWE is a DLC that can be finished between three and five hours of play, we spent about four and a half hours also completing some secondary missions. All this highlights the strong narrative component that prevails in this expansion, in fact The Foundation focused more on the playful side granting Jesse different powers and different explorable areas while in AWE the playful side is suppressed to favor the joint narrative between Control and Alan Wake.
The investigative sector will be the scene of the adventures of the director of the Federal Bureau of Control and within it we will find three main sites dedicated to the study of some Events of the Altered World. In each of them there will be a boss fight with Hartman where we will have to try to stay in the light (as Alan Wake also suggests) and reactivate several generators in order to expose Hartman and force him to flee in the next area. A choice of gameplay that differs from the classic direct fights seen in Control and that certainly tries to get closer to the thoughtful and careful clashes between light and shadow of Alan Wake.
Light and shadow will in fact be the key elements to continue in the investigative sector in which Hiss is not the only threat, in fact the darkness is present in several clusters that will block the way and force you to complete some environmental puzzles that also recall some mechanics present in Alan Wake.
To help us in the clashes is added a new form of the service weapon: Adhesion. This shape will allow us to shoot up to a maximum of three sticky grenades and make them explode at will with the press of a button. This addition proved to be particularly useful during AWE as the damage inflicted on enemies is particularly large, allowing you in a short time to eliminate even well-armored enemies.
Although the main themes of this DLC are related to Alan Wake with light and shadow that are the masters, Hiss also plays an equally important role as he managed to infiltrate this apparently sealed sector for security reasons as well. Enemies in AWE are of a higher level than those you'll even encounter at the end of the main campaign representing the highest level of challenge seen in Control.
The whole expansion flows at a good pace that in some situations will even lead us to be terrified of staying in the dark, placing hope only in the beams of light emitted by the torches scattered around the investigative sector and although Jesse will not hold these torches in his hand (you in fact call them back to you with the power of launch), annihilate the concentrations of darkness that block a simple door with the light it was a feeling not had since the last time we were in the role of Alan Wake in Alan Wake: American Nightmare.
The remedy connected universe
Sam Lake has carefully prepared the first official piece of the Remedy Connected Universe. What Remedy is doing is making those easter eggs no longer such, but making them an integral part of a single narrative universe and with AWE the result was perfect. Seeing Jesse Faden and Alan Wake interact was the first big step towards the future of Remedy productions connected to each other similar to what happens in Marvel movies. We can't and don't want to spoil anything about the AWE ending, but Remedy's intentions for the future of Alan Wake and Control are clear. It becomes transparent what Sam Lake slowly introduced into Control as a simple easter egg and then became a key element of the narrative of the Remedy Connected Universe. At the moment it has been confirmed that Sam Lake is working on the next title that will be part of the Remedy Connect Universe, we do not know if it will be the sequel to Control or the long-awaited Alan Wake 2, in any case, the Finnish company is managed to trigger a spark of genius with a connected and coherent narrative process that will lead us in the future to discover much more about this universe.
AWE is a love letter to all Alan Wake fans. For those who have been waiting for the fate of Alan Wake for 10 years you will find bread for your teeth, for those who want to find out more about what happened in Bright Falls in 2010 you will find answers to your questions. An increased difficulty, several side missions and the introduction of a form for the service weapon make this second expansion of Control further confirmation of how malleable and customizable the Federal Bureau of Control is to tell any story related to events outside the common. Although AWE does not enjoy a long duration and does not in any way add narrative elements to the Control storyline, it clearly inserts what in the future may be the continuation of a narrative vein that Remedy has hidden from the public for a long time and which now takes the name of Remedy Connected Universe.
