Control DLC – Shock and AWE (Classified)

Shhh, don’t tell anyone. I overheard the janitor say there was a secret section of the Bureau. He was singing something about “post-game paid DLC” but who knows what the heck that means, probably just singing to the plants again. I waited for him to leave and found a keycard to the “Investigation Sector” on his table. It was just glowing under a lamp, almost like he wanted me to find it. We all know how Ahti can be, always making a game out of everything. Gotta love him though. Without hesitation I dove headfirst into this new area from the Sector Elevator. This is my report of The Dark Spot from AWE. The following information is classified and can not leave the Federal Bureau of Control under any circumstances. Major spoilers ahead. Consider yourself warned.

Something big had gone down here. It was completely quiet, but there were papers scattered everywhere and signs of a mass evacuation. I scanned all the legible papers I could find. To my astonishment, most of this stuff related to Bright Falls and the character Alan Wake. The guy from the videogame?! This was one of my favourite games and the idea that it’s related to an Altered World Event was fascinating beyond belief. Was Bright Falls actually real? Are altered realities real? Is THIS one real? Which one is more real? Did someone just play too much of the game and try to bring it to life?

Suddenly the hiss filled the air and my head spun. Alan Wake himself appeared and started talking to me in my head. His prose was reduced to babble and barely comprehensible, did the hiss get him too? He seemed troubled, just like he was in the game, then disappeared as abruptly as he appeared. I kept moving in the hopes of finding more info. This “Investigations” area took up an entire floor of the Bureau and a large part of it was dedicated to the events of Bright Falls. They were studying not just the writer Alan Wake, but the poet Thomas Zane and the Anderson “Old Gods” musicians. From what I can piece together, they were studying a theory that creative artists might have the ability to influence reality by creating brand new worlds.

The darkness. It was a draining, oppressive force, much like the concrete walls of the Bureau. Alan wrote about it in his adventures and used a flashlight to fight it. Darkness is something that hides your sense of being, erases creativity, and threatens life itself. What was I going to do if I encountered it?

Of course. I don’t need my own light, I can pick up anything. I’m taking this light with me. I don’t have to deal with these “videogame” constraints that Alan Wake did. As I walked around vanquishing blobs of darkness, it hit me that I had become Alan Wake, except with even more powers! Even the game mechanic itself had been brought to life here.

Okay, now it’s getting a little too dark. My floodlight went out as I walked through one too many doorways. Alan… is that you?

I don’t think that’s even human. I froze on the spot as it grunted with hostility and flexed its lanky limbs. I wasn’t sure if it could see me or not. Just be quiet Jesse…. wait for it to leave. I tried to walk away but it reacted immediately. Oh no! I sprinted towards a light source across the room just so I could see what the heck this thing was. As I pointed the light, it screamed with agony. I had to turn all the lights on in the room to get rid of it, in videogames I think they call this a “boss fight”. This was scary and exciting at the same time.

As the lights came back on it scrambled away, but now I had so many more questions. Who was that? How is Alan Wake here? Did he write us into existence, or did we create him? Is this the sequel? There’s dialogue and events flashing back and forth in my mind, but it doesn’t all make sense, at least not yet. As I ruffled through more documents about Bright Falls I found that Alan’s wife has been interviewed by the Bureau, it seems like she left him after all his insane episodes. That seems to be the fate of writers who live in darkness.

Alan talks about being stuck and having to “write his way out” of it. If writing has the power to create an Altered World Event (AWE) then can we write our own future, literally? There is some self-fulfilling prophecy there, things are easier to do if we think we’ve already done it. Writing something can make us envision it being possible. This whole situation leads to the assumption that the world as we know it only exists in our minds…

… no, screw this. I need a break from this madness.

Unbelievable. As if this place wasn’t messy enough, this cardboard bin CLEARLY has objects that aren’t cardboard. You can’t fight the darkness if your rubbish isn’t even organised properly. If you’ll excuse me, I have work to do. Consider this report submitted. If you want to know what’s behind the darkness, you’ll have to go there yourself.