In their latest dev diary for their upcoming psychological shooter, Control, Remedy have decided to bring back a little something from their past that Alan Wake fans should find interesting.
In the video, Remedy creative director Sam Lake, together with narrative systems designer Eevi Korhonen chat it up about the main characters in Control: Jesse Faden, the new director of the Federal Bureau of Control (aka FBC, , a secretive government agency dedicated to investigating, containing, and controlling supernatural phenomena) and her predecessor, Zachariah Trench.
Trench is voiced by James McCaffrey, whom longtime Remedy fans will recognize as the voice of Max Payne. McCaffrey plays Trench as the typical hard-nosed “man of action”, and according to Lake, is not exactly the kind of person for the role of director for a government organization. “[He’s] had to make compromises, has had to make questionable choices along the way, and he’s growing tired—and clearly failing, in the sense that when we start the game, something has gone horribly, horribly wrong.”
Faden (voiced by Courtney Hope), on the other hand, seems far more suited to the role. According to Hope, Faden is “not ruthless in disregard to humanity”, which like The Thing‘s MacReady to Childs, is a little more level-headed. “She’s not just like the badass that’s like, ‘Screw you, I’m gonna kill you’—it’s like, ‘I really don’t want to do this but I know if I don’t, then the rest of humanity, it’s gonna be—it’s like a contagion, and it just spreads’.”
Of course, the big news for Alan Wake fans is at the end of the video, where Matthew Porretta, the actor who previously portrayed Alan Wake, will have a role in Control as FBC head of research Dr. Casper Darling. Porretta was mum on the details about his character, but did say that the character will play a “key role” in the game.
Control is due out in 2019.