Alan Wake Remastered Easter Eggs on PlayStation 5 (PS5)

Last Updated: June 29, 2023

Here are our Easter Eggs for Alan Wake Remastered on PlayStation 5. The most trustworthy items get the most 'thumbs up' from our users and appear nearer the top!

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Easter Eggs and Hidden References

Easter Eggs

Alan Wake Remastered features a mishmash of ideas borrowed from cult movies and television shows like Lost and The Twilight Zone and even the literary works of Stephen King.

Premature Meeting with the Kidnapper

When you first arrive at Bright Falls via boat, it ushers you towards the friendly face of Pat Maine, who is the local radio DJ. But, if you turn around and head to the opposite end of the vessel instead, you will get to meet another character earlier than you are supposed to.

You might recognize this furtive individual as the kidnapper that later demands Alan's manuscript as a ransom for his wife.

We can find him peering over the railings of the boat, muttering to himself about his criminal scheme. It will not make a difference to the narrative if you approach him at this point (as there is no option to interact with the antagonist) but it is an enjoyable bit of foreshadowing.

Max Payne's Golden Berettas

Episode 2 of Alan Wake opens with a flashback set in the titular writer's New York apartment. Here, we learn Alan is known for authoring a series of hard-boiled detective novels, which he has grown disinterested in.

Hoping to put an end to the franchise that has consumed so much of his life, Alan has penned a grand finale in which his grizzled antihero, named Alex Casey, finally dies. It is rather similar to how Paul Sheldon kills off his golden goose character in Misery.

A Familiar Voice Over

Speaking of which, it is difficult to ignore the various parallels between Max Payne and Alex Casey.

Remedy had created their neo-noir icon with Payne, and he was popular at the time of Alan Wake's release. Many hoped that the developers would carry on his gritty tale forever but, like Wake himself, the team was itching to move on to something different.

Several details make the connection between Casey and Payne more explicit. Both are New Yorkers trying to avenge their dead families, their stories each take place in the dead of winter, and they share a tendency to narrate their lives in Raymond Chandler-esque dialogue.

If you read the manuscript pages for The Sudden Stop (in Alan's apartment) it feels like they could have ripped it straight from a Max Payne game. They even brought in the same voice actor (the recognizable James McCaffrey) to recite Casey's lines.

Alan and Max Payne Frequent the Same Drug Store

We can find another reference to the Max Payne series when Alan tries to cure his hangover in Episode 6. When he opens the bathroom medicine cabinet and grabs some painkillers, you notice that the bottle is identical to the one used by Payne to replenish his health. Not to mention, the accompanying sound effect of the pills rattling around in the bottle makes a welcome comeback as well.

Whether you think this is a case of the developers recycling assets or an affectionate nod to their lineage, it's a fun detail.

Sam Lake Makes "The Face"

Sticking with Alan's apartment for one last entry, there is a sequence towards the end of the game that incorporates a brief cameo from the head writer (and Remedy Entertainment's creative director) Sam Lake.

He appears in a live-action segment on TV, where he is featured as a guest on a late-night talk show. Mostly, he is an inconspicuous presence (with the focus instead being on Alan promoting his latest book), right up until the host asks him to "Make the Face." This request provokes a great deal of excitement from the audience and, eager to please, Lake contorts his features into an unusual grimace.

If this party trick confuses you, it is a reference to how Lake was the original face model for Max Payne. Because of technical limitations at the time, the character was locked into a permanent squint throughout the game became a bit of an in-joke amongst the fanbase. This moment is an acknowledgment of that fact.

Skeletal Ambush

The dark presence in Alan Wake can manipulate inanimate objects and then unleash them on oblivious bystanders. Mostly, these possessed items are mundane, taking the form of things like cars, building site materials, and scrap metal.

Yet if you explore the outskirts of the Anderson farm in Chapter 4, you will find some more creative examples of poltergeist activity. When you approach the makeshift graveyard in the area, a trio of skeletons will spring from the ground and attack you. It's not a reference to anything in particular, and you are not even rewarded for finding it, but the jump scare is memorable given that it comes out of the left field.

The Nordic Walking Poster

The standard enemies in Alan Wake, known as "The Taken," are ordinary people who have been corrupted by the dark presence in Bright Falls. While they are not in control of their violent actions, some of them do retain faint traces of their original personalities.

One such example of this is Carl Stucky, the owner of all the premium cabins near Cauldron Lake. During your fight against this boss, he will regurgitate various advertising slogans that he presumably once used to tempt people into vacationing at Bright Falls.

Towards the end of Episode 1, when you get to the gas station, it will inundate you with promotional materials that are the source for much of Stucky's dialogue. For instance, a Nordic Walking poster advertises the "incontestably proven health benefits" of taking a hike out in the national park.

The implication is that Stucky has spent so much of his life surrounded by this marketing copy he internalized it, to the point where it was all that was left of him in the end. It's a very creepy detail that could be easily overlooked if you are not paying attention to your environs.

Agent Nightingale's Motel Room

Robert Nightingale is a character who comes across as incredibly one-dimensional in Alan Wake if you do properly not explore his backstory. Without reading all the relevant documents and manuscript pages, you are likely to think that this rogue FBI agent is just an excessively confrontational antagonist who lacks any real motivation.

Yet there is a reason for his unchecked hostility that only the most observant of players will be able to discover. It turns out that the dark presence in Bright Falls has plagued Nightingale with disturbing visions of Alan, linking him to the supernatural happenings in the town, which causes him to resent and even fear the writer. They have not possessed him in the traditional sense of the word, but he is not fully himself either.

If in the final episode of the game, you are understandably preoccupied with saving the world, then you can miss an opportunity to stop by the Majestic Motel and visit Nightingale's room. Here, you will see evidence of just how tortured the trigger-happy lawman became in his final days, with bottles of liquor strewn across the floor and photos from his obsessive investigation into Alan covering the bed. It is a sad picture that renders the once-intimidating character utterly wretched and pathetic.

An Assortment of David Lynch References

While there are too many pop culture homages to count in Alan Wake (The Shining, Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds and the short stories of HP Lovecraft are all name-checked), David Lynch’s references are frequent.

For example, there is a major crossover between the communities of Bright Falls and the iconic setting of Twin Peaks. The Oh Deer Diner has a near-identical layout to the Double R Diner, both towns have quirky elderly women who are obsessed with hoarding certain items, and everybody seems to be inexplicably fixated on hot beverages. On that note, the "Damn Good Cup of Coffee" achievement (for finding every collectible thermos) is a direct reference to Dale Cooper's catchphrase from Twin Peaks.

Meanwhile, Alan Wake's eclectic soundtrack prominently features the Roy Orbison song "In Dreams," which was also used to memorable effect in Lynch's Blue Velvet.

Night Springs Pops Up Everywhere
Night Springs is a fictional television show within the universe of Alan Wake. A nostalgic parody of The Twilight Zone, you can watch reruns of this black and white series by scouring for TVs hidden around the environment. Each episode depicts a paranormal situation with a bizarre twist ending, one that loosely ties into the events that are transpiring in Bright Falls.

Besides the TV broadcasts, the Night Springs brand pops up throughout the game in little easter eggs. At Dr. Hartman's clinic, you can see that a frustrated video game designer is working on an adaptation of the show (one that looks eerily similar to Alan Wake itself) and the Anderson brothers appear to be playing some kind of licensed board game version as well.

Given that it is later posited that Bright Falls might have been the original inspiration for Night Springs (on account of its strange history of unexplained phenomena), it's not surprising to discover that its residents are fascinated by the series.

Alan Wake Remastered Max Payne Easter Egg
By: Jonathan Nestler Comment

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Is  their  really  any  cheats  for  Alan  Wake  Remastered  for  Xbox  One,
As  well  cheats  for  007  Golden  Eye?
Mrlace01, 1 year ago Reply
We also have a page for this game on....