“Alan Wake 2: A Masterclass in Multiverse Storytelling Beyond Hollywood”

The multiverse is ubiquitous, ranging from the unstoppable Marvel franchise to Academy Award-winning productions such as Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) — and even countless fan theories surrounding My Little Pony. Every facet of entertainment has begun experimenting with universe-hopping narratives, and indeed, this encompasses video games. 

In just this year, more than half a dozen games have crafted their own multiverses — such as exchanging NPC allies with fellow Dragon’s Dogma 2 players through different realities. There has been a significant increase in these types of ventures, and there’s a compelling reason for this, as per Alan Wake 2 creative producer Sam Lake. 

“The multiverse is a concept that permits you, in a nuanced manner, to delve into what it means to be human. Because, in our minds, I believe we exist in a multiverse,” Lake states, “More and more, we find ourselves in numerous places simultaneously, and reality is splintered through social media and various interpretations of the truth being thrown at us. On a conceptual level, we are all part of a multiverse.” 

While the notion of parallel universes and timelines has surged in cinema and television lately, video games have subtly been engaging with the idea for decades, pushing the limits of what interactive narratives can accomplish in the process. As video games expand in scale and intricacy, the potential for multiversal storytelling rests with them.

In Another Universe

With each advancing year, it seems society has an abundance of entertainment to absorb than ever before and more social media platforms to consume your time. To Lake, this fragmented perspective on living is a main contributor to the multiverse phenomenon, yet video games have been flirting with this concept longer than most forms of media. This sentiment is reiterated by Janina Gavankar, the actress portraying Kiera Estivez in Alan Wake 2 — a government operative featured in the recently released Lake House expansion.

“We possess more information in our pockets than our minds can actually process. Thus, [multiverses] compel us to contemplate the world beyond ourselves,” Gavankar remarks. “The past few years have excelled in effectively utilizing multiverses in storytelling, like the Spider-Verse. It has entered the collective consciousness, and everyone comprehends it. They provided widespread education.”

Gavankar, recognized for her roles in Hollywood such as Luna Garza in HBO’s True Blood, acknowledges that however people may feel about Marvel, it has effectively popularized the multiverse notion — and that’s a concept from which everyone can now gain. Nevertheless, the widespread adoption of the idea has come with its own set of challenges. A common critique is that such narratives might seem uninspired, and plot inconsistencies can be easily dismissed by shifting to another universe or character. 

“I only deem it lazy if you are genuinely lazy. That indicates you are simply mishandling the tool. It’s not just a hammer,” Gavankar comments. “Anyone who experiences anxiety or repetitive thoughts can instantly resonate with the notion of a multiverse. You’re perpetually contemplating how other outcomes could have transpired.”

Yet while films present a more fixed depiction of the theme, the interactivity and responsiveness of video games serve as the unique component that enables a more effective exploration of a multiverse compared to any other entertainment medium. What is displayed in a television series or movie is a curated narrative, delivered passively for viewers to absorb — but in video games, the player determines how and when that storyline unfolds; they are in charge. Developers in gaming must consider this, thus creating a multitude of opportunities in the process.

To

Lake, it all revolves around the fundamentals of narrative — who embodies the perspective character, and how are we engaged in their expedition? Even with the surrealism that multiverse narratives can produce, there still needs to be a tether to reality, even in a video game.

“If we consider film or television, we’re witnessing a meticulously organized experience. You can orchestrate very potent and evocative tales, however, with games, the situation is different as you have the freedom to explore and proceed at your own speed,” Lake states. “This necessitates a greater amount of content, but it also presents a chance. In Alan Wake 2, everything interlinks, and even when the content is optional, it acts like a distorted reflection of the main plot, resonating and imparting fresh significance to the overarching narrative. Games are distinctive in that the player is pursuing a mystery and examining it, interpreting it, and formulating theories on it.

Threading The Needle

For many years, Lake has collaborated with his studio, Remedy Entertainment, to painstakingly build an intertwined universe. Referred to as the “Remedy Connected Universe,” these elements do not manifest merely as trivial Easter Eggs, but subtly evolve into significant narratives that unite all of Remedy’s games into a complex web, fostering one of the most intensely curious fan bases online. At any moment, you can jump onto the Remedy subreddit and discover hundreds of speculations about how Alan Wake 2 relates to the next Control title, or how the Max Payne remakes might unfold in an alternate reality.

Lake’s creations have incited a deep intrigue amongst numerous gamers, much of which stems from how the creator was influenced in his youth — devouring Michael Moorcock’s multiversal science fantasy Eternal Champion series, alongside countless Marvel Comics. Unsurprisingly, the Marvel Cinematic Universe stands as the most triumphant instance of the multiverse, and it is what has driven it to become a trend in popular storytelling.

However, the Marvel Cinematic Universe feels disjointed so far, lacking a genuine coherent narrative focus or strategy that binds its various realities together. Yet intriguingly, that’s part of the power of this storytelling format, as per Jonathan Strauder, the lead writer of Life is Strange: Double Exposure — another multiverse-centric game released this year.

This feeling of ownership is heightened with a video game, owing to the depth of interaction players are encouraged to engage in — a game can often cultivate profound emotional connections, through a sense of ownership of the experience, and how gamers immerse themselves for countless hours within the personas they adore.

“I’ve wanted us to reach the point we’re at with the Remedy Universe for a considerable time. I firmly believed that if we were able to accomplish this, we needed to ensure that each game, regardless of whether it’s a sequel or part of the universe, stands independently,” Lake clarifies. “Any of these games can serve as an entryway into the universe. That’s a crucial aspect of the strategy — as seen in Alan Wake 2 where we introduced a new protagonist, Saga Anderson, a newcomer who guides you into the world, allowing us to explore the deeper, darker facets of the universe after that.”

This concept is vital to what has rendered Remedy titles so exceptional over the years — each installment introduces strikingly new concepts and mechanics, preserving the creative vitality that Remedy is renowned for, while culminating in something more significant. Although the team at Remedy has constructed “lore bibles” to compile everything, Lake joyfully mentions he sometimes browses forums or wikis to refresh his memory about specific occurrences or dates, ensuring he hasn’t overlooked anything. This signifies that engaging players can serve a dual role, offering both entertainment and fostering a vibrant community space for discussions that creators can tap into.

An Alternate Future

In many respects, that type of engagement between creator and audience symbolizes video games as a whole, and for multiverses to prosper in popular culture, games must continue to pave the path. Cinema and television possess fundamentally different approaches to addressing the idea, but genuine progress in alternate-reality storytelling has been occurring in video games for many years, and this trend ought to persist.

This year has already witnessed significant advancements in this aspect. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth serves as a partial remake that employs the 1997 original as a foundation for an intricate new narrative spanning multiple realities. Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma 2 turns its multiverse into a gameplay feature, allowing you to recruit other players’ characters, known as Pawns, through dimensional portals. The game even introduced a mechanic where Pawns could contract an illness called Dragonsplague, enabling those infected to transmit it to the NPCs within your realm, potentially igniting a contagion that could annihilate every character in your game.

MultiVersus applies a fresh layer to alternate realities with Super Smash Bros. style, uniting characters from across Warner Bros.’ expansive collection in a fighting game, featuring figures from Arya Stark to Superman. In addition, Marvel Rivals brings interdimensional antics to multiplayer shooters, leveraging the concepts initially introduced in comics and films to establish multiplayer battles where a lovable shark named Jeff can clash with the Hulk. Throughout the gaming landscape, developers are striving to address the complexities of the multiverse, and there’s valid reasoning behind it. For Strauder and the crew working on Double Exposure, it was a conscious decision to push Life is Strange toward exploring the concept of a multiverse — and the extensive possibilities it could offer.

“From my perspective, it is evident that we can rely on audiences to handle more intricate narratives. Players appreciate serialized tales because we can expand upon existing material to forge something more profound,” Strauder expresses. “If we can leverage pseudo-scientific yet credible reasoning to challenge expectations in an engaging manner, we should trust the audience to embark on that journey with us.”

This notion of placing trust in players is what will genuinely permit video games to ambitiously experiment, and Strauder has previously discussed how the work of Remedy in this arena has directly influenced the team behind Double Exposure. This type of iteration on established concepts and works is precisely what positions video games to thrive within the multiverse theme. Lake has been delving into these themes for many years, yet he believes there remains ample opportunity for video games to evolve further.

“There are unexplored possibilities and pathways to delve deeper. You have your more comic book oriented multiverse, akin to what we produced with Time Breaker in the Night Springs DLC episode, and then you have the notion of Alan residing in the Dark Place — which possesses multiverse characteristics. I believe there is significant territory in between to explore,” Lake states. “There are numerous narratives structured in an interactive manner where players’ decisions could influence the emergence of new universes along the way. In that context, each decision could lead to an alternate reality. I would feel disheartened if we wouldn’t encounter more innovative interpretations of that idea in the forthcoming years.”