Alan Wake 2 is amazing, but with the interconnected Remedyverse being what it is it also sort of wants you to “do your homework” - the experience is definitely enriched by having played Max Payne and Control before (with the AWE DLC of the latter being a direct bridge to AW2). The Quantum Break overlap is much more minor as they don’t own the rights to its IP. It’s fun for those who played it, but not necessary and not important.
MyNameIsAtticus@lemmy.world 4 days ago
I played a brief while after picking it up on Epic, but dropped it because it ate through my battery and I didn’t have time to figure out performance on launch. I did spoil myself on the connection of Control too Alan Wake (I’d rather sacrifice Control’s plot for the sake of my Alan Wake II experience), so I’m aware of a lot of the stuff, or can at least draw my own conclusions and fill in gaps.
Max Payne though I can’t say I know much about except I know the character Sam Lake plays in AWII is heavily inspired by Max Payne, that Max Payne takes pain killers to heal, and something about wife and kids I think?
Coelacanth@feddit.nu 4 days ago
Alex Casey (the detective from Alan Wake’s books) is essentially Max Payne - they had to change the name when making Alan Wake 1 because Rockstar had bought the IP.
There are callbacks in AW2 in both narration, atmosphere and character design that I really enjoyed, but you won’t miss out on anything story-relevant if you haven’t played it. Watching a couple of minutes of cutscenes from Max Payne 1 on YouTube is probably enough to get most of the references.