Forget about the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the world of gaming, it's all about the Remedy Connected Universe (RCU), within which the developer's Alan Wake and Control games co-exist alongside heavy references to the rest of their portfolio. Long rumored, it was cemented within Control's AWE DLC, in which the first Alan Wake game's Dr. Hartman reappeared, laying the groundwork for Alan Wake 2 itself. Now, Alan Wake 2: The Lake House returns the favor, inviting players into one of the Federal Bureau of Control's facilities – in disarray thanks to a mysterious paranormal event – on the shore of Alan Wake 2's Cauldron Lake.
"There was obviously a lot of discussion between the two teams about how we can utilize the kind of core themes of those individual franchises in each other's games," says game director Kyle Rowley, as we ask about the experience of collaborating for Control's AWE DLC during a roundtable discussion. "They leaned quite a lot on the idea of light versus darkness. Obviously, they brought one of the characters back from [the first] Alan Wake to kind of cross the bridge there. It was very much the same for [The Lake House]."
