For Remedy, it’s never been about plot arc. The tragically broken lives of Max Payne, Alan Wake and Jesse Faden (Control) make for compelling narratives in their respective games, but it’s not the plotting of these stories themselves that discerns Remedy from the pack. And after Alan Wake 2’s extended reveal at Summer Games Fest 2023, I don’t think it’ll be the events of its story that we remember it for. Instead, as always with Remedy, we’ll remember the offbeat, esoteric and masterful methods through which it’s told.
Let’s take Max Payne as an example. Its plotting works really well to motor along a revenge story and motivates you to keep shooting your way through tenements full of Joe Pesci-alikes. NYPD cop turned DEA agent Max Payne sees his wife and kid killed by armed drug addicts looking for their fix of the fictional drug Valkyr, infiltrates the crime syndicate supplying the drug, is then framed for murder and left without any friends on either side of the law. Left with nothing to lose, he hunts down underbosses, brokers deals with rival crims, and eventually tracks down the mob boss who ruined his life, learning along the way that Valkyr was actually part of a military testing program.
