Now that I'm finally watching Twin Peaks, Alan Wake makes a lot more sense to me

Laura Palmer. It’s a name I’ve been aware of for years now, one that comes from the cult classic series Twin Peaks. Her face, too, is one I’ve frequently seen due to the iconic photograph seen frequently throughout the show being repeatedly shared online. But despite the fact that I’ve consumed many works inspired by Twin Peaks, I’ve never watched the show myself. With Alan Wake 2 on the way, I thought it was about time I watched it, and you know what? Remedy Entertainment’s original Alan Wake makes more sense to me than ever before.

This isn’t the first time I’ve experienced something that was the subject of influence rather than the influential piece itself. Earthbound and Undertale are a great example of this, the latter easily being one of my favourite games, though the former being a title I didn’t play until a number of years after I experienced Toby Fox’s indie RPG. It was an interesting experience, because it made some of the reasons as to why Undertale is the way that it is clearer, but also showed how unique of a work it is compared to the game it drew so much from.

I find myself experiencing such a thing again with David Lynch and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks, a show that is so clearly an inspiration to Remedy’s games as a whole, but probably most of all with Alan Wake. A quiet town as a setting that up until recently didn’t have too much going on? Surreal, supernatural happenings occurring that don’t really explain themselves in all that much detail? An overwhelming love of a good cup of coffee? All of these things are aspects of both Twin Peaks and Alan Wake, though in their own particular ways.

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