Playing Control before Alan Wake 2

[Virgo]

How far off am I? I'm about to search for my brother Dylan and I'm mainly playing control for ANY alan wake references.

[StopItStepBro]

In the base game, you'll get some vague references and tie-ins which show up in Alan Wake II but where you really get some straight up ties and references is in the DLC.

[kaylo7]

And that DLC opens up right after meeting brother Dylan I think. Once you talk to him, then talk to Emily Pope, I think you need to walk towards the main elevator in the Executive sector. Then you'll get the prompt to start the Bright Falls stuff. Though in the upper levels of the Panopticon, there is also a secret area where you'll get a brief Alan Wake voiceover scene.

Beyond that, I think you'll get only some limited references in a few of the collectible documents.

[Paraskeet]

Originally posted by Virgo:

I'm mainly playing control for ANY alan wake references.

yikes

[Mu'Ammar of Carthus]

If that helps, I just found out there were cheats in the settings.
Like invincibility and one hit kills.

As someone who bounced off this game pretty hard in 3 seperate attemps because I really didn't care for the combat, that sounds really useful.

Sounds like even they know the combat's pretty bad.

[Elseworlds]

Those options were put in the game for accessibility reasons, not to make up for some perceived flaw in the game's combat.

[Jernas]

Originally posted by Elseworlds:

Those options were put in the game for accessibility reasons, not to make up for some perceived flaw in the game's combat.

The combat is pretty flawed though. It's either way too easy when fighting normal grunts, or too hard when fighting bosses, so most casual players did eventually click that god mode box.

[LMPT]

Originally posted by Jernas:

most casual players did eventually click that god mode box.

Do you have solid info on that?
I'm not saying that you're necessarily wrong, but I doubt "most casual players" (i.e most players) turned on god mode.

[Wyrtt]

Originally posted by Elseworlds:

Those options were put in the game for accessibility reasons, not to make up for some perceived flaw in the game's combat.

Combat in this game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awful. I had to stop playing because of it.

[LoveTruffle]

There's a lot of minor references to Alan Wake that are easy to miss, some of them because they're only relevant to Alan Wake 2. (Remember over 10 years have passed since Alan Wake, some things have changed.)

[casey080 (Nightfangs)]

Playing Control first seems a little bit better... but to be honest, you can also play Control later and have nearly the same experience. They are different enough "genres" concerning gameplay, and some people only like one and hate the other, too.

[Wild Dog]

If you are trying to get up to date to Alan Wake 2.

Then play Alan Wake 1, American nightmare, Control then Alan Wake 2.

Playing Control will help you understand few locations in Alan Wake 2, few npc and understand better what some nps are talking about.