History VideoGame / AlanWakeII

** Ahti from ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'' appears throughout the game to help both Alan in the Dark Place, and Saga in Bright Falls.

** En route to Cauldron Lake, the Anderson Brothers [[CarFu crash their van]] into several of the Taken. Ramming Taken with vehicles is a gameplay mechanic from the first game.

** The promotional standee of Alan holding "the Sudden Stop" which Barry lugged around throughout Chapter 4 of the first game shows up, safely among Rose's StalkerShrine to Alan at the Valhalla Nursing Home. [[spoiler:A nearly identical standee, featuring Alan's new appearance in the same pose, shows up in Scratch's world, holding a copy of ''Return'']].

** In an email from Barry in Parliament Tower, he jokes about [[spoiler:joining a cult while staying at the Blessed Wellness Retreat]]. This place is likely related to [[spoiler:the Blessed Organization, a high-priority paracriminal organization referenced in a document in ''Control'' that is known for distributing Altered items to unsuspecting people for inscrutable reasons]].

** Barry Wheeler, Alan's agent and best friend from the first game, is completely absent here. A plaque in the Valhalla Nursing Home corroborates with ''Control'' in the fact that he set it up for the Old Gods of Asgard and emails in Parliament Tower indicate he's kept in touch with Alice, but he's not acknowledged beyond that.

* CreatorCameo: Sam Lake appears both AsHimself during the second and third Mr. Door talk show segments, and as the model for FBI Agent Alex Casey.

* StylisticSuck: On top of the BadBadActing in the Ahma Beer commercials, the brothers are also obviously poorly greenscreened onto backgrounds with clashing graphical fidelity and a green haze at the edges. During the Coffee World commercial, you can clearly a string tied to Ilmo's hat, shining in the light, just before it yanks his hat off to make it look like it's blowing away from the sheer speed of the (fake and clearly cardboard prop) Espresso Express. During a series of official Remedy dev livestreams recorded during Spring 2024, it was said that the live-action cinematics team were concerned about the cardboard props getting damaged during shooting before they realized that simply duct-taping them back together would add to the amateur look of the commercials.

** Beyond that, [[spoiler:there's no specific indication that Saga and Casey actually got out of the Dark Place, they are still in Alan's writing room when the credits start. Also, Tor and Odin followed Saga into the Dark Place to try to help her, but they are not seen before the ending. ALSO, there is the matter of Mr. Door; aside from the heavy implication that he is Saga's father, Saga profiles Mr. Door near the end, but notes that anything she comes up with right now is irrelevant and she'll have to come back to him later.]]
** If one meets the right conditions, [[spoiler: they can find the normally unflappable Ahti [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness tense and afraid]] of... [[VaguenessIsComing something else coming.]]]]

* StylisticSuck: On top of the BadBadActing in the Ahma Beer commercials, the brothers are also obviously poorly greenscreened onto backgrounds with clashing graphical fidelity and a green haze at the edges.

* BlandNameProduct: Ahma beer is a reference to the real-life Finnish beer Karhu. Both beers are named after an animal in Finnish, and reference that animal in their branding- Karhu uses a bear, and Ahma uses a wolverine. Also seen is "Compton"-brand spray paint, which has a similar oval-shaped red logo with colored dots in a circle to the real-life American spray paint brand Krylon, and a knockoff version of a United States Postal Service Ground shipping label.

** The Overlaps are exactly what they sound like: places where reality overlaps with the Dark Place. All of them are {{Unnaturally Looping Location}}s that Saga has to break through in order to fight a very powerful Taken.

** During Alan's brief playable section in Return 4, there is a darkness barrier blocking progression that can only be destroyed with either three flashlight boosts or some other darkness-burning implement, such as a propane tank, flashbang, or flare. Alan only has a flashlight with one battery, and if the player runs out of flashlight boosts before they're able to destroy this barrier, the flashlight will automatically recharge itself, like how the flashlight worked in the first game, preventing a softlock.

* NoEnding: Downplayed, in that [[spoiler:this was an InvokedTrope on Alan's side]]. The game ends with [[spoiler:none of its main plotlines being definitively resolved. It's unknown if Alan was able to successfully rewrite "Return" to have a GoldenEnding for Saga and Alex and whether he was able to escape the Dark Place or not -- [[HeroicSacrifice entirely by design]], as Alan realized the only ending that asserted enough control that allowed him to escape would take Saga's own agency from her and leave her trapped in the Dark Place and likely with her daughter dead; he very intentionally chose the ending that leaves him, and thus the player, out of her life]]. The New Game Plus mode (entitled "[[MeaningfulName The Final Draft]]") [[spoiler: removes all ambiguity, being far closer to the GoldenEnding that Alan proposed in content and tone.]]
* NoGearLevel: Alan is playable in Return 4 and starts him off with no access to any supplies he might have collected prior. The only supplies he picks up for the entire (thankfully short) level are two batteries and four shotgun shells, against enemies that will continually spawn if the end isn't reached in time, forcing the player to just flee most of the enemies.

** Chapter 4 of "Initiation" (the musical level) takes place on a darkened tv studio set. So to help the player find their way through the live action actors on the large screens will often point to the next staircase or scene transition.

* NothingIsScarier: The basement of Valhalla Nursing Home is dark, claustrophobic, flooded and has a dead body. The route through it is winding and creates lots of blind corners. It's the perfect spot for an ambush. It contains no enemies, just water and suspicious sounds.

* BadBadActing: Ilmo and Jaakko cover both sides of this in their commercials. Ilmo is overly-eager and hammy, while Jaakko is incredibly monotone and makes no attempt at emotion. Jaakko at least admits he's only there for the free beer. [[spoiler: This is somewhat changed for the final commercial, due to Ilmo being alone -- he tries to remain over eager and hammy, but without Jaakko to bounce off of due to his death at the hands of Scratch, there are points where he clearly is missing his brother.]]

* BlandNameProduct: Ahma beer is a reference to the real-life Finnish beer Karhu. Both beers are named after an animal in Finnish, and reference that animal in their branding- Karhu uses a bear, and Ahma uses a wolverine. Also seen is "Compton"-brand spray paint, which has a similar oval-shaped red logo with colored dots in a circle, and even a knockoff version of a USPS Ground shipping label.

* BlandNameProduct: Ahma beer is a reference to the real-life Finnish beer Karhu. Both beers are named after an animal in Finnish, and reference that animal in their branding- Karhu uses a bear, and Ahma uses a wolverine.

* InterfaceSpoiler: A somewhat common bug can cause a collectible icon for [[spoiler:Alice's photos]] to appear on the talk show studio map as early as the very first time Alan visits [[spoiler:the basement]] during the first chapter of his plotline, spoiling the involvement of an important character whose state isn't even known at that point. After that first time, the player doesn't even get to pick up that item until nearly the end of Alan's story.

** The NewGamePlus mode changes the ending, [[spoiler: confirming that Logan and Alan Wake survive the events of the game. In remedy's previous effort ''Max Payne 2'', beating the game a second time on an unlocked difficulty level revealed an alternate ending where his doomed love interest Mona Sax survives. Unfortunately, that was made non-canon when the series shifted to Rockstar.]]