Update: I'd like to note here that August of 2023, Sam Lake noted in an Entertainment Weekly interview that Quantum Break was officially NOT a part of the larger Connected Universe. Just in case you wondered after watching the video, it has been confirmed by the man himself. This is most likely due to IP issues and Microsoft owning the property.
The funniest thing about Alan Wake is what happened with Energizer batteries. Energizer paid to have the batteries in the have be their brand but got angry because the short life of the in game batteries made them look bad so they withdrew the deal when the dlc came out. This backfired on them because the genetic no name batteries in the dlc were just as good as the Energizer ones so it made them look bad all over again.
2:50:25 Very small thing, but figured I'd bring it up. SCP is Secure, Contain, Protect, not Control. If they controlled stuff, they might actually be dangerous.
Agreed, one of the best games ive played in a long time and yeah that maze is one of the best parts of it. Game wasnt long enough, and sadly the Alan Wake DLC was mostly just annoying. Havent actually played Alan Wake itself, am not complaining about that game.
Max Payne 2 is my favourite Remedy game, I think it's one of the most tragic and perfectly written stories in gaming; but I also do very much appreciate Control. I'd argue Control is a bit more uneven as I found some of the side missions and open area stuff to be a little questionably designed, probably just due to it being their first time making a larger, more open game world. But with that said, Control has some of the highest high points of any game in recent memory. The Ashtray Maze with the pumping soundtrack is one of the most memorable set pieces in any game of all time IMO! Also just the combat in general once you're near the end of the game with a near maxed out character is just pure bliss. The environmental destruction is also super underrated in Control, not nearly enough action games lean into letting you annihilate your immediate environment! Story wise Control is filled with really cool atmosphere and ideas, but really failed to get me emotionally involved like the Max Payne games. If I could level 1 complaint about recent Remedy titles (Alan Wake, Quantum Break, Control) it would be that they seem to get very bogged down by plot details, abstractions and big ideas, without taking the time do develop emotionally powerful character arcs. That's something Max Payne 1 & 2 did extremely well and why those stories hit so much harder IMO. I think if you could combine the emotional heart and soul of something like Max Payne 2 with the surrealism and mystery of Control you'd have the perfect Remedy game. Either way though, they're still one of my favourite developers in the industry. Even if their games have some flaws, they're always ambitious as hell and very interesting from both an artistic/story perspective and a technology pushing perspective.
Control is what got me into the remedy-virse. I bought Control because it just looked cool but fell in love with it, then I played both Dlcs which had Alan Wake, I've never been a horror game player but dude it was such a great game that I wanted to play quantum break but couldnt
I never played Alan Wake and the entire description of the game sounded like one of my weird vivid dreams i sometimes have, which is probably exactly what Remedy was going for
Love how remedy keeps using the same voice actors and music artists over different games (Vinnie gognitti and Barry, Alan Wake and Dr Darling, Beth Wilder and Jesse Faden and James McCaffrey for example and poets of the falls recurrence in max Payne 2, Alan Wake and control). Remedy's games just oozes that sense of familiarity , it's like the games are bound to each other by the soul.
Extremely underrated video. Watching all the way through while in and out of sleep with insomnia. I love these long deep dives into games with great world building lore
Control is the only game I've ever platnium'd. I usually don't bother hunting trophies because it's a major time investment, but I just love the game so much I couldn't help it. Absolutely stoked for the sequel. 🔻
I'm glad he brought up that he didn't cover a lot of the content in Control. There was a LOT of story that was in the game. But unlike the other two IPs, they played the story differently. Opting to give you the feel of knowing what the character knows. If you wanted to know why things were happening and the world around you, You had to seek out that information on your own. So much was there, from the affects of these AWEs on the wider world, potential new IPs, the link to their being other versions of the Board as hinted at in that motel, the janitors connection to the house, and the connection of the house to the board, the world, and even the other dimensions beyond. I've played Control several times, and it is by far a loremasters dream. Even a chunk of the redactions in the files you collect can be uncovered through some sleuthing and comparing of other, seemingly unrelated, documents. It even begins to hint at what causes these AWEs to happen and how they develop based on their history and the items traumas. Including investigations into Cauldron Lake, that my son here mentioned. I'll agree that the surface level story is more basic than the other games. But it doesn't mean there's not a whole lot more going on that you can't figure out. You just need to be far more inquisitive and open-minded to very subtle clues hidden throughout the old house
I absolutely loved reading about the different AWEs and I loved the videos of the dr and the info about the two assistants and their little love triangle I think?? My favorite awe was probably the refrigerator the guy wasn’t supposed to stop staring at and then… well… he did stop. The duck was the most annoying. It’s funny bc I think SCP Foundation is overly filled with silly “monsters” but the awes in control were quite well done. The idea about an fbi-like entity cataloguing these awes is just so interesting.
That's why you must experience all the side quests and optional stuff in control to get the full story. Even Alan Wake stuff is hidden in there way before the dlc.
The other night, as I stood at the bus stop, some traffic lights spilled into the leftover rain on the pavement, causing a rainbow like gleam across the street. "Doesn't that look Lynchian?" I heard a man ask his friend at the bus stop. "Why the f- does everything have to be 'Lynchian'?" I heard the friend reply, as I stood by the bus stop the other night. "That's just some oil on the road, Dave". This. This entire story right here is, ironically enough, the most 'Lynchian' thing I've ever heard.
In Quantum Break, Monarch seems to be a double entendre, taken from Doctor Who. Monarch = Butterfly effect. Monarch = King, ruler. Monarch = Time Lord. Also, the black hole running the time machine hails to the Eye of Harmony in Doctor Who, a black hole that allows their time travel technology to function. The Panopticon in Control is also known from Doctor Who, from the same episode where we learn about the Eye of Harmony.
Son, I really appreciate all the time you put into this video. It is comprehensive and entertaining all the way through. I would like to add a cool detail to your analysis. American Nightmare's song, Balance Slays the Demon, ties into Control with some hidden lyrics. "It will happen again, in another town. A town....called Ordinary." Jesse had her AWE experience in Ordinary which I think is very cool. Otherwise, well done Son.
I watched all of these parts as they came out and commented on them all too. Just wanted to post to boost the algorithm and just remind you how much we all enjoy your work. Even though you hit the ground running in terms of the quality of your work, you are still improving your craft. Fantastic.
All you need to do is like and select all notification and leave a comment it doesn't incorporate more..like views. Because they suck. If a person watches this 6 times or. comments 40 it should count, it did back in the day makes sense even if people just played it over and over...still watched. It's as fucked as of voting system we ultimately have 0 say in anyways.
For anyone interested in the Alan Wake Files, it actually comes with the Steam purchase of the original game as a PDF as well as the other digital extras included with the collector's edition.
I really enjoy how you feel Alan's block In every aspect of this experience. How his struggle with it isn't just the manifestation of the enemies, but the town itself, the people in it, how Alan deals with these forces of evil, and their motivations. My take is that Alan is not a very good writer, not really, just going through the motions and playing to tropes with minor subversions in a mirror to say, JJ Abrhams for about 80 percent of the game. But at some point in the adventure he has a rebirth and the dam of creativity bursts. The entire experience becomes far more compelling, far more complex, far more interesting, and far more subversive. It retroactively also makes everything better because his creative block is an intrigal part to the story itself (as well as the creative process). Whilst I played it the first time I didn't get this, but as I've slowly digested this story over the years I've grown more and more fond of it. I can't wait to see what happens in a few hours, and how remedy continues their story.
*Control is actually in my Top 10 All Time list, it did ALOT of things right but one single thing wrong...and that's the predictable enemy spawn locations. Enemies should show up Anywhere, not just in scripted locations.*
I see a new video upload I click it to watch immediately. Not to mention i played both Control and Quantum Break so this is one heck of a retrospective ride.
"thats just some oil on the road, dave" is such a powerful response to someone trying to extrapolate meaning from nothing. i catch myself doing the same thing as dave, so im not knocking the guy. but its always nice to have a friend like that who can keep the world around you in perspective.
I have just gotten to the quantum break part of this video after deciding to watch it(it appeared on my feed after I decided to replay the Remedy games, go figure lol) and I'm not sure it's mentioned here but I would love to hear thoughts on it. There is actually a blog that started posting Feb 22nd, 2012(the same day American Nightmare was released) that I don't hear people talk about very often. It's called "This House of Dreams" and involves a person buying a home to renovate where they end up finding a box full of pictures of "a man in a wetsuit" and poems by Thomas Zane. Later there are even mentions of a dream with a creepy FBI agent whose badge reads AWE instead, the box disappearing and reappearing with a version of the clicker in it, and while exploring says "Nothing out of the ordinary in the town of Ordinary." It's fascinating to me to read so many threads connecting Wake to Control YEARS before the game came out. Even before Quantum when we first started to see AWE appear and things. Needless to say, I'm more than excited for the upcoming release.
Max payne 3 is one of my favourite games of all time and I have played through it so many times just for fun. Now I play through it to honor the great James McCaffery. Rest in Peace, you will forever be missed and will forever be the one and only Max Payne 🙏🏻❤
idek how you put out so many videos that are so crazy detailed and you cover everything. i just now saw youre under 100k subscribers when i just came across you by luck on the algorithm. maybe you're a niche creator with the intellectual and super detailed way you look at these.. not even just games but entire franchises. im happy i and we all found you, son.
Just a heads-up, your chapters are still Deus Ex related 😘 But man, keep up the good work! You're my favorite new channel I've discovered recently. Loved the Silent Hill retrospective. Kept me very entertained on my long flight from Canada to Australia. Cheers man!
The harnesses in Quantum Break may have been taken from the 2010 Warehouse 13 episode, Time Will Tell, with H. G. Wells showing her Imperceptor Vest, allowing her to move so fast that time seems to stop or slow around her. This also fits in with the next game, Control, and it's Warehouse 13 atmosphere.
Oh mate, I _loved_ that show. It was sorely underrated, and I love that it has QB's lead's brother in it, heh. H.G. is prolly my favourite sci-fi character out of any show, she was a truly flawed character who had a core of goodness inside her. I would _love_ a _Warehouse 13_ game, but it'll sadly never happen. Could you imagine ziplining around that thing with Saul Rubinek going "WOAH WOAH WOAH, BACKTRACK A SEC! There's something wrong here" then looking for the missing artifact as the trigger for the missions, which I guess could be literally done in any order? The set-up alone has so much potential.
Jessie taking control in... Control... seems to be an homage to Max Payne 3, from the moment he shaved his head as the first, small, step in taking purposeful control of his life, and the world around him.
I have a lot of thoughts regarding the AWE DLC. I actually really enjoyed the story of Control, and the links to Alan Wake that were existing in the game prior to the DLC were tantalizing. Since you played it a little later; the Containment Center always had the Alan Wake references, even prior to the DLC. Seemed more of a wink/nod, I think the Object of Power is "the" typewriter. However, I didn't really like that Jesse became a character that Alan had written. Knowing more about the Remedy library/shared universe helps to ease that a bit frustration a bit, but it still felt kinda cheap. Alan just created this superhero woman to save him from the lake. I think him sending Max Payne to the FBC was him testing the boundaries of his ability to influence or interact with the world. He was able to write an authority figure like a detective, but could he write a new director that would have access to all of the secrets and power needed to break him free? This also makes me care a bit less about saving Dylan. Instead of a character, he ends up as an objective to be conquered. If he doesn't show up alongside Jesse in Alan Wake/whatever is next, I bet he just gets written out and we never see him again; unimportant to Alan Wake's escape. Final thought about Control as a whole. I didn't realize until the AWE DLC that all of the audio logs with Trench had *SIGNIFICANTLY* more information than they played in the snippets during the game. I was a little mad when I got all the way to the end only to realize I missed a chunk of the story while it was relevant.
I gotta say I kinda love the fact that the Control dlc AWE could stand for Altered World Event like AWE normally does in Control but could also be Alan Wake Expansion.
I like how Remedy is basically running off of the Lovecraftian style of story-telling. From Alan Wake to Control, there are multi-dimensional beings that have to be stopped.
@logansummers1551 they didn't COPY anyone. It's called inspiration, and everyone has them. Cosmic Horror isn't a new idea, Lovecraft just helped create it. A hundred years ago, by the way.
@@logansummers1551 I’ve read pretty much everything in the OG love craft mythos, Lovecraft was not even the only person to create his universe, he had a entire group of friends who were writers that all expanded on his foundation and concepts, like he didn’t make the king in yellow or some other big parts of the mythos, he created the foundation and without him there would be no mythos but to say it was only him is just not correct, that being said nothing in this franchise connects directly to hp lovecraft the closet thing is when max pain is fighting a guy in a club called . . . Valhalla I think where that guy uses the name of an elder god and that’s such a round about reference you might as well go hunt fallout 4 for new Vegas references. If you want to claim anyone ripped off lovecraft then go look at mtg and their “eldrazi” or “lovecraft country”
i left youtube playing with a queue and your video just popped in there while i was sleeping i guess lol, ill def look at this when i have time cuz playing control confused the hell out of me. congrats on almost 100k!!
Doubting your writing followed by "the shadow cuts deep, somewhere below the abdomen but not quite below the waist. some days you wake up with a flashlight and other days you don't." is incredibly ironic. love your style man
So, first time watcher, let me just say; holy shit! I really loved what Alan Wake did with its story and mechanics when I first played it on the 360 years ago, I next played and quite enjoyed Quantum Break despite how others felt about it, the visuals were stunning and I enjoyed the story it told and how it told that story. It wasn't until I (very late to the party, mind) played through Control in 2022....H O L Y F U C K. That game was a revelation for what Remedy was capable of. And now I am stupid excited for Alan Wake 2, Control 2, Vanguard whatever else they have up their sleeve. I absolutely adore how well put together this retrospective/analysis video is, how you go through each game piece by piece, throwing in intelligent nods to culture, history and art. Bravo!
Quantum Break is a decent game, but I'm glad it can't legally be a canonical part of the shared universe, the vibes just don't match Alan Wake and Control and it just kinda generally feels like the least Remedy of all Remedy Games. Doesn't even have any music from Poets of the Fall
@@coolsenjoyer It's undoubtedly more sci-fi than anything else they've done, but I can still see it being part of the more natural world of Remedy's universe, the world in which Alan Wake predominately takes place in.
Really great games all of them but I do think they add too many enemies in some portions of the games. Its like they think the player would get bored from walking around empty forests or hallways so they just throw a bunch of enemies at you which gets annoying
Yeah I can agree with this. Sometimes I am just enjoying running around the spewky forrest. Let me be. The train yard was a particular annoyance I recall.
Yt thinks I love this video so much it will automatically play it after videos about once a day. Curious how many times I've watched this in my sleep. To be fair it's a great video. I just think it's odd YT is pushing it to me over and over again.
I love the junctions. You know Paul has tried an infinite number of options in an infinite number of combinations. Thats why you get these choices. He's in a loop and keeps going back again and again to try something different. Im sure at the 3rd junction he probably just executed Jack and that caused everyone to die. Maybe he's tried actually just working with Jack. I think the thing this game is trying to tell us is that everything is predetermined. Also Jesse is a vibe. Just a girl with a gatt flying around zapping demons. 😂
Both Wilder = Beth Wilder More Serene = Paul Serene There's tons of those little nods and references throughout the Remedyverse, I just thought this was a paritcularly fun one that I figured you'd touch on. There are other obvious things like how "a town called Ordinary" was referenced all the way back in Alan Wake's American Nightmare etc.
I feel like Alex Casey is Max Payne. With the limited amount of info I have especially after the Alan Wake 2 gameplay trailer it makes sense. In universe it could just be the Max faked his death and changed his name to his friend Alex who was killed in Max Payne 1 to honor his memory but out of universe it's of course because Rockstar owns the ip. It really does seem the only difference between them is a name and that's it. I love Remedy man
Another excellent video! Another connection we might be able to level between Control and Alan Wake, you mentioned before the track that allow Jesse to cross the ashtray maze is by Poets of the Fall's Remedy universe Old Gods of Asgard name. What do we know about the Odin and Tohr, the old men in Alan Wake, former band members of the OGA? They cracked the door for the dark presence, which they explained in their dialogue with Alan at the Lodge. Also they distilled moonshine from unfiltered water collected from the lake and it gave them "powers." Listening to the song "Control" the lyrics are prophesy of the events that steers Jesse's life and lead her to the FBC. But consider, where the powers of the band like those of Alan? Did they unwittingly sing into creation the very tragedy that would befall Ordinary? As well did the very track which holds their power and allows Jesse to fulfill her destiny, is this all part of the Alan's manuscript? After all, it's not a Lake, it's an ocean.
I bought Alan Wake recently and unfortunately I couldn't get into it. Loved the atmosphere and story setup but the gameplay really holds it back for me. I'm looking forward to the sequel though and hopefully that'll be the one to pull me in.
Little thing most people probably missed. The island from Alan Wake is clearly marked Bird's Leg Island in the re-release. This is important because Barbara Jagger's name would be pronounced differently by the local Finnish population. The clue as to what I'm getting at is on the movie posters for Tom's movie. She is the Baba Yaga. Living on a hut on a bird's leg.
Love these videos when u put them together I can just chill as I play games and listen to them all without changing the video my favorite is the silent Hill video
Ah, fuck, I'd forgotten that Lance Riddick had died. I was always hoping they'd give his character some pay-off from the end of _Quantum Break._ :/ The Ashtray Maze in _Control_ might just be the best 10 minutes of gameplay I've _ever_ played, that game is _fantastic._ I can't wait for the follow-up.
The name Quantum Break is a sort of double entendre. Time is broken, yes, but, also, each of the Junctions is a quantum break... a weak point in the solidity of time in which time is fluid, and you can choose to go left, or go right, both choices happening, and the time line of one choice breaking off from the timeline of the other, so now the solid line of time breaks into two lines from that choice, both real, but seperate from that point forward. The butterfly effect.
The video including Quantum Break is a bit misleading. Only Alan Wake and Control are IPs owned by Remedy so they're the only ones that they can have be set in the same universe. QB and Max Payne are just connected to them in spirit, so to speak
Portal and Half Life I believe were hinting at sharing a connected universe but yeah most examples I can think of where games shared a universe but weren't necessarily the same series don't go that far beyond hinting at it with small details and maybe potentially having cameos for characters between series.
Man I just watched the whole thing today. This is one of the best pieces I've seen on TH-cam. Subscribing immediately. I really enjoyed the breakdown of each game, the way the thoughts are organized, how everything is explained in detail. 10/10
i love that when you talk about Quantum Break showing you how many people agreed with your choice, the game phrases it like, "so basically JESUS agreed with you".
The first Alan wake also basically had a tv live action show. A few like 40 minute episodes that I think acted as a prequel (if I remember right) based around some side characters (not Alan) and just further set stuff up.
I just couldn't get into Alan Wake. I kept being reminded of Secret window and I just couldn't get into it. Tho all I got past was the logging camp and I stopped. Control was AMAZING and I just loved the little shorts that you would stumble on to from the scientists explaining items for power to the weird ass Threshold Kids. I have never EDIT: -seen- experinced world building in such a way and it just grabbed my heart. Never played Quantum Break
I guess to each their own. I finished quantum break and alan wake, but for the life of me I just couldn't finisish Control. I've came back to it a couple of times and I just could not bring myslef to play it till the end,. I always lose interest halfway
Update: I'd like to note here that August of 2023, Sam Lake noted in an Entertainment Weekly interview that Quantum Break was officially NOT a part of the larger Connected Universe. Just in case you wondered after watching the video, it has been confirmed by the man himself. This is most likely due to IP issues and Microsoft owning the property.
bomp womp
They said max pain is part of the universe aswell
you should have waited so you could add in alan wake 2 lol
Alan Wake 2 basically connects Max Payne (owned by Rockstar) dulogy, simply they use other names. 100% QB is connected as well.
Quantum Break may not be "connected" by name because of IP rights, but it is absolutely connected in a multiverse capacity.
I love falling asleep to random, unnecessarily long, in-depth video essays on games that I haven't thought about in years
Ya this guy and salt factory !
100% I always do this. I listen to skill up and mortismal gaming also!
The funniest thing about Alan Wake is what happened with Energizer batteries.
Energizer paid to have the batteries in the have be their brand but got angry because the short life of the in game batteries made them look bad so they withdrew the deal when the dlc came out.
This backfired on them because the genetic no name batteries in the dlc were just as good as the Energizer ones so it made them look bad all over again.
Lmao
This is goated ahahaa
Proof that marketing will throw money at anything without understanding what they are sponsoring.
@@farguc 46:56
@@farguc😢🎉🎉 50:30
it has to be the 20th time I woke up to this video playing in the background
I love falling asleep to these videos calm soothing voice
Today was my first time waking up to this video
Wow same here👍 bad sleep cycle gang😅✊️
Same here 😂😂
TH-cam constantly plays vids ive seen before
2:50:25
Very small thing, but figured I'd bring it up. SCP is Secure, Contain, Protect, not Control. If they controlled stuff, they might actually be dangerous.
Not to mention that some items could not be controlled. It was lethal to literally anyone that tried, and must be contained.
Not to mention if it was control then scps wouldn't be a problem or threat at all lol
Control is a work of art and it’s a masterpiece. Maybe Remedy’s Magnum Opus. The ashtray maze alone is one of the best ideas in gaming history.
Idk son, alan wake is my all time favorite, maybe second place game.
@@LetHerWar also a great game.
Agreed, one of the best games ive played in a long time and yeah that maze is one of the best parts of it. Game wasnt long enough, and sadly the Alan Wake DLC was mostly just annoying. Havent actually played Alan Wake itself, am not complaining about that game.
Max Payne 2 is my favourite Remedy game, I think it's one of the most tragic and perfectly written stories in gaming; but I also do very much appreciate Control. I'd argue Control is a bit more uneven as I found some of the side missions and open area stuff to be a little questionably designed, probably just due to it being their first time making a larger, more open game world. But with that said, Control has some of the highest high points of any game in recent memory. The Ashtray Maze with the pumping soundtrack is one of the most memorable set pieces in any game of all time IMO! Also just the combat in general once you're near the end of the game with a near maxed out character is just pure bliss. The environmental destruction is also super underrated in Control, not nearly enough action games lean into letting you annihilate your immediate environment! Story wise Control is filled with really cool atmosphere and ideas, but really failed to get me emotionally involved like the Max Payne games. If I could level 1 complaint about recent Remedy titles (Alan Wake, Quantum Break, Control) it would be that they seem to get very bogged down by plot details, abstractions and big ideas, without taking the time do develop emotionally powerful character arcs. That's something Max Payne 1 & 2 did extremely well and why those stories hit so much harder IMO. I think if you could combine the emotional heart and soul of something like Max Payne 2 with the surrealism and mystery of Control you'd have the perfect Remedy game. Either way though, they're still one of my favourite developers in the industry. Even if their games have some flaws, they're always ambitious as hell and very interesting from both an artistic/story perspective and a technology pushing perspective.
Control is what got me into the remedy-virse. I bought Control because it just looked cool but fell in love with it, then I played both Dlcs which had Alan Wake, I've never been a horror game player but dude it was such a great game that I wanted to play quantum break but couldnt
I’m always waking up to these videos
Me too 😹
Same!
This and lex Friedman interviews or joe rogans podcast
same lol
@@Atzu0110😅❤❤9❤😊❤❤😊❤😊😮🎉❤😊
I like how he explained all these games and I still got out of each chapter completly lost and confused about the games events
I believe a solution to your issue would be Arson.
I never played Alan Wake and the entire description of the game sounded like one of my weird vivid dreams i sometimes have, which is probably exactly what Remedy was going for
@animecat3556 xDD
Love how remedy keeps using the same voice actors and music artists over different games (Vinnie gognitti and Barry, Alan Wake and Dr Darling, Beth Wilder and Jesse Faden and James McCaffrey for example and poets of the falls recurrence in max Payne 2, Alan Wake and control). Remedy's games just oozes that sense of familiarity , it's like the games are bound to each other by the soul.
I’m excited to listen to this while I’m at work son, make me proud
Hope you enjoy the video!
Your listening to this at work to!!?
Me too
Me three!
Me four
Extremely underrated video. Watching all the way through while in and out of sleep with insomnia. I love these long deep dives into games with great world building lore
P
I’m excited for Alan wake 2 which is coming out
Control is the only game I've ever platnium'd. I usually don't bother hunting trophies because it's a major time investment, but I just love the game so much I couldn't help it. Absolutely stoked for the sequel. 🔻
Shout to that I’m on my way making to platinum as well lol
I love it so much I did it twice for the ps4 version and ps5 lol
I'm glad he brought up that he didn't cover a lot of the content in Control. There was a LOT of story that was in the game. But unlike the other two IPs, they played the story differently. Opting to give you the feel of knowing what the character knows. If you wanted to know why things were happening and the world around you, You had to seek out that information on your own.
So much was there, from the affects of these AWEs on the wider world, potential new IPs, the link to their being other versions of the Board as hinted at in that motel, the janitors connection to the house, and the connection of the house to the board, the world, and even the other dimensions beyond. I've played Control several times, and it is by far a loremasters dream. Even a chunk of the redactions in the files you collect can be uncovered through some sleuthing and comparing of other, seemingly unrelated, documents. It even begins to hint at what causes these AWEs to happen and how they develop based on their history and the items traumas. Including investigations into Cauldron Lake, that my son here mentioned.
I'll agree that the surface level story is more basic than the other games. But it doesn't mean there's not a whole lot more going on that you can't figure out. You just need to be far more inquisitive and open-minded to very subtle clues hidden throughout the old house
I absolutely loved reading about the different AWEs and I loved the videos of the dr and the info about the two assistants and their little love triangle I think?? My favorite awe was probably the refrigerator the guy wasn’t supposed to stop staring at and then… well… he did stop. The duck was the most annoying. It’s funny bc I think SCP Foundation is overly filled with silly “monsters” but the awes in control were quite well done. The idea about an fbi-like entity cataloguing these awes is just so interesting.
That's why you must experience all the side quests and optional stuff in control to get the full story. Even Alan Wake stuff is hidden in there way before the dlc.
The other night, as I stood at the bus stop, some traffic lights spilled into the leftover rain on the pavement, causing a rainbow like gleam across the street. "Doesn't that look Lynchian?" I heard a man ask his friend at the bus stop. "Why the f- does everything have to be 'Lynchian'?" I heard the friend reply, as I stood by the bus stop the other night. "That's just some oil on the road, Dave".
This.
This entire story right here is, ironically enough, the most 'Lynchian' thing I've ever heard.
In Quantum Break, Monarch seems to be a double entendre, taken from Doctor Who.
Monarch = Butterfly effect.
Monarch = King, ruler.
Monarch = Time Lord.
Also, the black hole running the time machine hails to the Eye of Harmony in Doctor Who, a black hole that allows their time travel technology to function.
The Panopticon in Control is also known from Doctor Who, from the same episode where we learn about the Eye of Harmony.
Son, I really appreciate all the time you put into this video. It is comprehensive and entertaining all the way through. I would like to add a cool detail to your analysis. American Nightmare's song, Balance Slays the Demon, ties into Control with some hidden lyrics. "It will happen again, in another town. A town....called Ordinary." Jesse had her AWE experience in Ordinary which I think is very cool.
Otherwise, well done Son.
I watched all of these parts as they came out and commented on them all too. Just wanted to post to boost the algorithm and just remind you how much we all enjoy your work. Even though you hit the ground running in terms of the quality of your work, you are still improving your craft. Fantastic.
All you need to do is like and select all notification and leave a comment it doesn't incorporate more..like views. Because they suck. If a person watches this 6 times or. comments 40 it should count, it did back in the day makes sense even if people just played it over and over...still watched. It's as fucked as of voting system we ultimately have 0 say in anyways.
For anyone interested in the Alan Wake Files, it actually comes with the Steam purchase of the original game as a PDF as well as the other digital extras included with the collector's edition.
I really enjoy how you feel Alan's block In every aspect of this experience. How his struggle with it isn't just the manifestation of the enemies, but the town itself, the people in it, how Alan deals with these forces of evil, and their motivations. My take is that Alan is not a very good writer, not really, just going through the motions and playing to tropes with minor subversions in a mirror to say, JJ Abrhams for about 80 percent of the game. But at some point in the adventure he has a rebirth and the dam of creativity bursts. The entire experience becomes far more compelling, far more complex, far more interesting, and far more subversive. It retroactively also makes everything better because his creative block is an intrigal part to the story itself (as well as the creative process). Whilst I played it the first time I didn't get this, but as I've slowly digested this story over the years I've grown more and more fond of it. I can't wait to see what happens in a few hours, and how remedy continues their story.
*Control is actually in my Top 10 All Time list, it did ALOT of things right but one single thing wrong...and that's the predictable enemy spawn locations. Enemies should show up Anywhere, not just in scripted locations.*
this and the mini map navigation... but overall it's such a solid game, amazing work of art
@@roldaoaguiar763took me forever to figure that map out ahahah.
I see a new video upload I click it to watch immediately. Not to mention i played both Control and Quantum Break so this is one heck of a retrospective ride.
Hope you enjoy the video!
You forgot to say you're proud of your son! I demand another edit
Bro you are so underrated! Love long format content like this! I love Remedy verse and am thrilled that this is out there!
I met you on a random street in London last year! You were so polite and nice. Thanks for being such a good creator and person:)
Always great content son im proud of you and your hard work
Thanks Dad
Wholesome dad moment 100
Omg my heart, this is so wholesome ❤
47: 47:20
"thats just some oil on the road, dave" is such a powerful response to someone trying to extrapolate meaning from nothing. i catch myself doing the same thing as dave, so im not knocking the guy. but its always nice to have a friend like that who can keep the world around you in perspective.
Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and Contrake
Alan Wake 2ake
You've made me proud son. RIP Lance Reddick
RIP Lance Reddick. He might have played the same character in every show but damn was he good at it 😂 🙌🏻
Was about to comment this when he got shouted out!
Son you just keep coming out with these banger and thats why your my favorite.
Thanks Dad, hope you enjoy
I have just gotten to the quantum break part of this video after deciding to watch it(it appeared on my feed after I decided to replay the Remedy games, go figure lol) and I'm not sure it's mentioned here but I would love to hear thoughts on it. There is actually a blog that started posting Feb 22nd, 2012(the same day American Nightmare was released) that I don't hear people talk about very often. It's called "This House of Dreams" and involves a person buying a home to renovate where they end up finding a box full of pictures of "a man in a wetsuit" and poems by Thomas Zane. Later there are even mentions of a dream with a creepy FBI agent whose badge reads AWE instead, the box disappearing and reappearing with a version of the clicker in it, and while exploring says "Nothing out of the ordinary in the town of Ordinary." It's fascinating to me to read so many threads connecting Wake to Control YEARS before the game came out. Even before Quantum when we first started to see AWE appear and things. Needless to say, I'm more than excited for the upcoming release.
Max payne 3 is one of my favourite games of all time and I have played through it so many times just for fun. Now I play through it to honor the great James McCaffery. Rest in Peace, you will forever be missed and will forever be the one and only Max Payne 🙏🏻❤
Love listening to these during my graveyard shifts! Keep up the great work son.
idek how you put out so many videos that are so crazy detailed and you cover everything. i just now saw youre under 100k subscribers when i just came across you by luck on the algorithm. maybe you're a niche creator with the intellectual and super detailed way you look at these.. not even just games but entire franchises.
im happy i and we all found you, son.
Just a heads-up, your chapters are still Deus Ex related 😘
But man, keep up the good work! You're my favorite new channel I've discovered recently. Loved the Silent Hill retrospective. Kept me very entertained on my long flight from Canada to Australia. Cheers man!
Damn, thanks for looking out.
Awesome work as always, gonna binge this at work.
Hope you enjoy it!
The harnesses in Quantum Break may have been taken from the 2010 Warehouse 13 episode, Time Will Tell, with H. G. Wells showing her Imperceptor Vest, allowing her to move so fast that time seems to stop or slow around her.
This also fits in with the next game, Control, and it's Warehouse 13 atmosphere.
Oh mate, I _loved_ that show. It was sorely underrated, and I love that it has QB's lead's brother in it, heh. H.G. is prolly my favourite sci-fi character out of any show, she was a truly flawed character who had a core of goodness inside her. I would _love_ a _Warehouse 13_ game, but it'll sadly never happen. Could you imagine ziplining around that thing with Saul Rubinek going "WOAH WOAH WOAH, BACKTRACK A SEC! There's something wrong here" then looking for the missing artifact as the trigger for the missions, which I guess could be literally done in any order? The set-up alone has so much potential.
This was phenomenal. Thank you for all the info and analysis. This made my day a lot better. Keep up the good work, Son!❤
Jessie taking control in... Control... seems to be an homage to Max Payne 3, from the moment he shaved his head as the first, small, step in taking purposeful control of his life, and the world around him.
I have a lot of thoughts regarding the AWE DLC. I actually really enjoyed the story of Control, and the links to Alan Wake that were existing in the game prior to the DLC were tantalizing. Since you played it a little later; the Containment Center always had the Alan Wake references, even prior to the DLC. Seemed more of a wink/nod, I think the Object of Power is "the" typewriter.
However, I didn't really like that Jesse became a character that Alan had written. Knowing more about the Remedy library/shared universe helps to ease that a bit frustration a bit, but it still felt kinda cheap. Alan just created this superhero woman to save him from the lake. I think him sending Max Payne to the FBC was him testing the boundaries of his ability to influence or interact with the world. He was able to write an authority figure like a detective, but could he write a new director that would have access to all of the secrets and power needed to break him free?
This also makes me care a bit less about saving Dylan. Instead of a character, he ends up as an objective to be conquered. If he doesn't show up alongside Jesse in Alan Wake/whatever is next, I bet he just gets written out and we never see him again; unimportant to Alan Wake's escape.
Final thought about Control as a whole. I didn't realize until the AWE DLC that all of the audio logs with Trench had *SIGNIFICANTLY* more information than they played in the snippets during the game. I was a little mad when I got all the way to the end only to realize I missed a chunk of the story while it was relevant.
I gotta say I kinda love the fact that the Control dlc AWE could stand for Altered World Event like AWE normally does in Control but could also be Alan Wake Expansion.
4 hours of remedy retrospective from my favourite son? Can't wait 😊
I like how Remedy is basically running off of the Lovecraftian style of story-telling. From Alan Wake to Control, there are multi-dimensional beings that have to be stopped.
So, basically they copy someone and you think that's great?
@logansummers1551 they didn't COPY anyone.
It's called inspiration, and everyone has them. Cosmic Horror isn't a new idea, Lovecraft just helped create it.
A hundred years ago, by the way.
@@logansummers1551 wow you're so boring and uninteresting
@@logansummers1551 I’ve read pretty much everything in the OG love craft mythos, Lovecraft was not even the only person to create his universe, he had a entire group of friends who were writers that all expanded on his foundation and concepts, like he didn’t make the king in yellow or some other big parts of the mythos, he created the foundation and without him there would be no mythos but to say it was only him is just not correct, that being said nothing in this franchise connects directly to hp lovecraft the closet thing is when max pain is fighting a guy in a club called . . . Valhalla I think where that guy uses the name of an elder god and that’s such a round about reference you might as well go hunt fallout 4 for new Vegas references.
If you want to claim anyone ripped off lovecraft then go look at mtg and their “eldrazi” or “lovecraft country”
I was watching 1hr of mjv animations and i fell asleep and i watched this video for 2hrs 53 mins while i was asleep all night 😭😭😭
Love your videos, son. Gives me something to listen to at work!
Hope you enjoy it!
CONTAIN!
Secure. Contain. Protect.
I done watched ts like 4 times while sleeping yet yt doesnt wanna REMOVE IT OR SAY I WATCHED IT
i left youtube playing with a queue and your video just popped in there while i was sleeping i guess lol, ill def look at this when i have time cuz playing control confused the hell out of me. congrats on almost 100k!!
Absolutely love your content, perfect for my long nights at work. Barely found your channel and I'm already running out of videos to watch.
Love the remedy universe, so hyped to watch this!
Hope you enjoy it!
Doubting your writing followed by "the shadow cuts deep, somewhere below the abdomen but not quite below the waist. some days you wake up with a flashlight and other days you don't." is incredibly ironic. love your style man
Control is one of the best looking games that I’ve played
Son, I have been watching you from day 1. You have impeccable taste in games. I raised you well.
So, first time watcher, let me just say; holy shit!
I really loved what Alan Wake did with its story and mechanics when I first played it on the 360 years ago, I next played and quite enjoyed Quantum Break despite how others felt about it, the visuals were stunning and I enjoyed the story it told and how it told that story.
It wasn't until I (very late to the party, mind) played through Control in 2022....H O L Y F U C K. That game was a revelation for what Remedy was capable of. And now I am stupid excited for Alan Wake 2, Control 2, Vanguard whatever else they have up their sleeve.
I absolutely adore how well put together this retrospective/analysis video is, how you go through each game piece by piece, throwing in intelligent nods to culture, history and art. Bravo!
Quantum Break is a decent game, but I'm glad it can't legally be a canonical part of the shared universe, the vibes just don't match Alan Wake and Control and it just kinda generally feels like the least Remedy of all Remedy Games. Doesn't even have any music from Poets of the Fall
@@coolsenjoyer It's undoubtedly more sci-fi than anything else they've done, but I can still see it being part of the more natural world of Remedy's universe, the world in which Alan Wake predominately takes place in.
Really great games all of them but I do think they add too many enemies in some portions of the games. Its like they think the player would get bored from walking around empty forests or hallways so they just throw a bunch of enemies at you which gets annoying
Yeah I can agree with this. Sometimes I am just enjoying running around the spewky forrest. Let me be. The train yard was a particular annoyance I recall.
I just want you to know i fell asleep to this video, when i woke up my phone was dead and no longer wants to turn on lol
Oh hey, a collection of videos I can watch all at once. Good work, son.
I love this universe because it feels like a darker version of Dirk Gentlys. Good job Son
Yt thinks I love this video so much it will automatically play it after videos about once a day. Curious how many times I've watched this in my sleep.
To be fair it's a great video. I just think it's odd YT is pushing it to me over and over again.
seeing as how alan wake (character) is a stand in for the studio it makes sense that he would have written max payne, or alex casey
your videos are so amazing man, cheers to the tons subs you will be gaining in the future! keep it up man big things coming for you.
"Show me the champion of light ill show you the hearld of darkness"
I love the junctions. You know Paul has tried an infinite number of options in an infinite number of combinations. Thats why you get these choices. He's in a loop and keeps going back again and again to try something different. Im sure at the 3rd junction he probably just executed Jack and that caused everyone to die. Maybe he's tried actually just working with Jack.
I think the thing this game is trying to tell us is that everything is predetermined.
Also Jesse is a vibe. Just a girl with a gatt flying around zapping demons. 😂
Both Wilder = Beth Wilder
More Serene = Paul Serene
There's tons of those little nods and references throughout the Remedyverse, I just thought this was a paritcularly fun one that I figured you'd touch on. There are other obvious things like how "a town called Ordinary" was referenced all the way back in Alan Wake's American Nightmare etc.
When brightness falls, The Night Springs to Life
I feel like Alex Casey is Max Payne. With the limited amount of info I have especially after the Alan Wake 2 gameplay trailer it makes sense. In universe it could just be the Max faked his death and changed his name to his friend Alex who was killed in Max Payne 1 to honor his memory but out of universe it's of course because Rockstar owns the ip. It really does seem the only difference between them is a name and that's it. I love Remedy man
You wake up to these videos, I fall asleep to them, we are not the same.
I love the way Son retells stories. I watch all his videos on games I like nowadays.
2:50:25 SCP stands for Secure-Contain-Protect, not control
The astral worlding in Control has many synchronicities.
Another excellent video! Another connection we might be able to level between Control and Alan Wake, you mentioned before the track that allow Jesse to cross the ashtray maze is by Poets of the Fall's Remedy universe Old Gods of Asgard name. What do we know about the Odin and Tohr, the old men in Alan Wake, former band members of the OGA? They cracked the door for the dark presence, which they explained in their dialogue with Alan at the Lodge. Also they distilled moonshine from unfiltered water collected from the lake and it gave them "powers." Listening to the song "Control" the lyrics are prophesy of the events that steers Jesse's life and lead her to the FBC. But consider, where the powers of the band like those of Alan? Did they unwittingly sing into creation the very tragedy that would befall Ordinary? As well did the very track which holds their power and allows Jesse to fulfill her destiny, is this all part of the Alan's manuscript? After all, it's not a Lake, it's an ocean.
Proud of this one son you’ve done lots to remedy my pain
I bought Alan Wake recently and unfortunately I couldn't get into it. Loved the atmosphere and story setup but the gameplay really holds it back for me. I'm looking forward to the sequel though and hopefully that'll be the one to pull me in.
Give it a try again sometime I felt the same in a way and ended up going through all of it and I enjoyed it. Might as well since you bought it
Yea I tried to but its just not clicking.
Little thing most people probably missed. The island from Alan Wake is clearly marked Bird's Leg Island in the re-release. This is important because Barbara Jagger's name would be pronounced differently by the local Finnish population. The clue as to what I'm getting at is on the movie posters for Tom's movie. She is the Baba Yaga. Living on a hut on a bird's leg.
Love these videos when u put them together I can just chill as I play games and listen to them all without changing the video my favorite is the silent Hill video
imagine just writing for SCP for fun then hearing that Control does everything better.
Ah, fuck, I'd forgotten that Lance Riddick had died. I was always hoping they'd give his character some pay-off from the end of _Quantum Break._ :/ The Ashtray Maze in _Control_ might just be the best 10 minutes of gameplay I've _ever_ played, that game is _fantastic._ I can't wait for the follow-up.
Super literate man, super educated. Professional level documentary series here!
Are ya winning son
The name Quantum Break is a sort of double entendre. Time is broken, yes, but, also, each of the Junctions is a quantum break... a weak point in the solidity of time in which time is fluid, and you can choose to go left, or go right, both choices happening, and the time line of one choice breaking off from the timeline of the other, so now the solid line of time breaks into two lines from that choice, both real, but seperate from that point forward. The butterfly effect.
i had no idea remedy games were all connected.
Same
@@HELLO_KORO indeed
The video including Quantum Break is a bit misleading. Only Alan Wake and Control are IPs owned by Remedy so they're the only ones that they can have be set in the same universe. QB and Max Payne are just connected to them in spirit, so to speak
@@coolsenjoyer gotcha
Portal and Half Life I believe were hinting at sharing a connected universe but yeah most examples I can think of where games shared a universe but weren't necessarily the same series don't go that far beyond hinting at it with small details and maybe potentially having cameos for characters between series.
Fun fact: Shawn Ashmore & Brooke Nevin from Quantum Break, first acted together in the Canadian-filmed tv show from the 00's; 'Animorphs'.
Man I just watched the whole thing today. This is one of the best pieces I've seen on TH-cam. Subscribing immediately.
I really enjoyed the breakdown of each game, the way the thoughts are organized, how everything is explained in detail. 10/10
your breakdowns are so GOOD !!! . love listening to your channel :) . i still have yet to Try alan wake even though its in my steam Library xD
Video was great thank you earned a sub and dont beat yourself up youve done a great job snd brought joy to a lot of people hope you are well
i love that when you talk about Quantum Break showing you how many people agreed with your choice, the game phrases it like, "so basically JESUS agreed with you".
Alan Wake is just living in a horror version of the Oingo Boingo Brothers book
Sorry to be that guy but SCP Stands for Secure, CONTAIN not Control, Protect.
I'm looking forward to your Alan Wake 2 review almost as much as the actual game
Thanks son! Would love to see this revisited in light of AW2.
This helps me sleep at night thank you so much
Control deserves way more sales!
No, it doesn't. All Remedy games suck.
Sacré boulot! Merci de cette synthèse
I hope I will be able to listen to my (future) kids passion projects as much as I listen to you
After years your finally getting Alan Wake 2
The first Alan wake also basically had a tv live action show. A few like 40 minute episodes that I think acted as a prequel (if I remember right) based around some side characters (not Alan) and just further set stuff up.
The train side mission that the foundation gives u is one of the best side missions in gaming in my opinion
I just couldn't get into Alan Wake. I kept being reminded of Secret window and I just couldn't get into it. Tho all I got past was the logging camp and I stopped. Control was AMAZING and I just loved the little shorts that you would stumble on to from the scientists explaining items for power to the weird ass Threshold Kids. I have never EDIT: -seen- experinced world building in such a way and it just grabbed my heart. Never played Quantum Break
I guess to each their own. I finished quantum break and alan wake, but for the life of me I just couldn't finisish Control. I've came back to it a couple of times and I just could not bring myslef to play it till the end,. I always lose interest halfway
Son, good job. I'm proud of you, keep it up 😊
After seeing this 4 hours retrospective, am I able to play Alan Wake 2 without any fear of not understanding something?
I think so! Herold of darkness also recaps the first game