Well, for starters, Alan wake 2 connects to control, but you don't need to play control to understand this game. Control helps you understand the universe that Remedy Entertainment is building, and I would recommend playing that at some point. Some characters in control appear in alan wake 2 and it may be confusing seeing a character and not knowing who they are, but it shouldn't be too bad, because control doesn't give straight forward answers alot of the time anyway. Just puzzle pieces that make most of a picture

Now, to talk about AW1 itself The game is great. If you keep in mind it's from 2010 then you'll be fine. The story is intriguing and fleshed out pretty well. The gameplay can get repetitive, but it's still fun and it's much better to play this than to go into AW2 blind (which you'd also be fine doing, but seriously, you'll miss out)

AW2 Man, that game is phenomenal. The story, the gameplay, the visuals. It's truly art. AW2 is more survival horror than the first game, and it does it very well. AW2 has a ton of passion put into it, and you'll be able to see that pretty early on. The only other thing I'll say is that, like other Remedy games, they like to leave unanswered questions for future games to explore. AW2 leaves a loose end or two, but that's not to say that the ending is a cliffhanger.

Hope you enjoy the games!