Highlights

  • Alan Wake 2 has achieved major success after a 13-year gap, impressing players with its survival-horror gameplay, next-gen visuals, and mind-bending story. It has even been nominated for Game of the Year.
  • The side characters, Tor and Odin Anderson (aka Old Gods of Asgard), play a bigger role in Alan Wake 2 and their history and connections are expanded upon. They provide vital assistance to Alan and Saga in combating the supernatural forces.
  • The Andersons, especially Tor and Odin, have strong connections to the events of Alan Wake. They have a family lineage that grants them paranormal abilities and are crucial to the plot. They might play a significant role in future installments of the game.

This article contains major spoilers for Alan Wake 2Remedy Entertainment's Alan Wake 2 has achieved major success after a 13-year-long gap between the 2010 original cult classic. Switching to the survival-horror genre along with the introduction of a new protagonist, Agent Saga Anderson, next-gen visuals, and the continuation of its mind-bending story, Alan Wake 2 impressed on many fronts. Indeed, despite its late release window, Alan Wake 2 has recently been nominated for Game of The Year in The Game Awards 2023.

Alan Wake 2 also expands the history and connections of its side characters. Throughout the tangled tale, two in particular are given a bigger role - Tor and Odin Anderson, the brothers otherwise known as the heavy metal band, Old Gods of Asgard. The ending of Alan Wake 2 leaves open a number of dangling plot threads. One of them involves the older rockers and sets up the part they might play in the next chapter of the story.

The Old Gods of Asgard are portrayed by the band Poets of the Fall in Alan Wake 2 's live-action portions , and have collaborated with Remedy on previous projects.

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Tor and Odin Anderson in Alan Wake and Alan Wake 2

In the first title, Alan bumps into the Andersons in a humorous scene at the Bright Falls Oh Deer Diner. Later, he meets them at Dr. Hartman's psychiatric center. While their antics seem to be the result of advanced age, it's revealed that in their younger days, they survived an encounter with the Dark Presence, the supernatural force threatening to overtake reality. Though the experience mentally scarred them, their faculties remain largely intact, and they are astutely aware of the true nature of the menace. The Andersons provide Alan with vital assistance and important information on how to combat it, proving themselves stalwart guardians against its horror.

In Alan Wake 2, the Andersons have even stronger connections to events. When Saga meets them, they divulge that she is related to them; Tor is Saga's grandfather, making Odin her great uncle. They explain that their family lineage and prior contact with the Dark Place is what grants them their paranormal Mind Place abilities. Shortly thereafter, Saga must use this bond to rescue her newly found relatives after they are captured again by the Dark Presence. Once all the Andersons are reunited, they meet up with Saga's allies, Agents Casey and Estevez, to enact the next step of their plan.

The Old Gods of Asgard Reunion Tour

Since art affects reality in the vicinity of the Dark Place, The Old Gods of Asgard perform one more grand anthem on the shores of Cauldron Lake, acting as a summoning ritual intended to pull Alan from its depths. The elderly rockers put on a banger of a show, and it works perhaps too well, as the Dark Presence itself materializes and a tense fight ensues. During the battle, Saga is thrown into the lake. In the last moments they are seen, Tor and Odin wade into the waters after her. It's assumed they will return the favor by rescuing her, as she is shown to be trapped with Alan in the Dark Place at the conclusion.

Though Alan Wake 3 is far out at this point, as Remedy is working on Control 2 next, the events of the current game set up the brothers to feature heavily in the future. While the protagonists of Alan Wake 2's upcoming DLC probably won't be Tor and Odin, The Old Gods of Asgard still have their own story to conclude, which is intimately related to resolving the overall plotline. It is highly likely they will appear again, possibly even as the next playable duo in further content.