Alan Wake 2 – Night Springs & The Lake House | Games of the Year 2024

It’s been over a year since I fell down the Remedy rabbit hole, and I’m happy to report there’s no end in sight.

Since the launch of Alan Wake 2 in October 2023, I’ve played nearly every game in Remedy’s catalogue, in some cases more than once (I’m lovingly looking at you, Control and Max Payne 2). All those wonderful games left almost no space for anything else this year.

That’s not to say I haven’t experienced any new releases in 2024. Little Kitty, Big City stole my heart, Thank Goodness You’re Here had me in stitches, and Star Wars Outlaws gave me a much-needed dose of nostalgia. Baldur’s Gate 3 is also a fresh experience that I’ve managed to put in over 120 hours in 20 days.

“The absurdity is off the charts, from Alan communicating as a mounted bass ornament to a motorcycle turning into a werewolf (yes, really)”

Alas, Remedy just had to continue releasing content for Alan Wake 2, which came in the form of two expansions: Night Springs and The Lake House.

Night Springs arrived on June 8, consisting of three episodes centered around characters from Remedy’s connected universe. Night Springs itself is a homage to The Twilight Zone, and appears as an actual TV show throughout 2010’s Alan Wake.

This was expanded in 2012 with Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, which is framed as a Night Springs episode written by Alan as a means to escape The Dark Place – an alternate nightmare dimension he’s been trapped in for 13 years.

The Night Springs expansion follows the same premise, with Alan using characters from Remedy games as a means to escape.

One is based on the overarching plot of 2019’s Control, following its protagonist Jesse Faden – the director of a secret government agency called the Federal Bureau of Control. In Night Springs, she is simply known as The Sibling and is looking for her brother at a theme park that appears in Alan Wake 2.

The other is a head-spinning trip through parallel universes, where players take on the role of actual actor Shawn Ashmore. He portrays Sheriff Tim Breaker in Alan Wake 2 as well as protagonist Jack Joyce in 2016’s Quantum Break. But in this episode, he plays an unnamed hero in a game called Time Breaker developed by Poison Pill Entertainment (likely because Microsoft still owns the Quantum Break IP).

But what captivated me immediately was the first episode of Night Springs, Number One Fan.

This instalment is centered around Rose Marigold, a waitress from the game’s fictional diner. In Alan Wake, she was an endearing but stereotypical fangirl. Thankfully, her character was fleshed out in Alan Wake 2, and even more so in Number One Fan.

Rose is tasked with saving her beloved writer Alan from the clutches of his jealous twin brother, Scratch (in the main games, Scratch is a manifestation of a supernatural entity called the Dark Presence, which takes on Alan’s appearance).

Number One Fan hinges on Rose’s dedication to Alan, but not in a derogatory way. The episode doesn’t make fun of how dedicated she is to the writer she loves; it embraces it.

Since falling for Alan Wake, I’ve become known as “the Alan Wake writer” – it doesn’t take long to see why if you follow me on social media. But as a neurodivergent person who hyperfixates on things, I’ve often been made fun of for loving a game or TV show “too much.”

But the Remedy community has accepted me with open arms, and I’m often referred to as Rose by my close friends… although, that was very much my own doing after I followed in her footsteps and managed to procure a life-size cutout of Alan.

Rose being the center of attention and the overall hero of Number One Fan made me feel seen. It’s a token of appreciation to Alan Wake fans, which game director Kyle Rowley emphasised when I spoke to Remedy’s dev team about the expansion earlier this year.

After pouring over 100 hours into replaying Alan Wake 2, I really wanted to see Remedy’s kookiness take centre stage – and it does so exponentially here. The absurdity is off the charts, from Alan communicating to Rose as a mounted bass ornament and a deer to a motorcycle turning into a werewolf (yes, really).

On top of that, Jessica Preddy’s fantastic portrayal of Rose and the unbeatable duo that is Matthew Porretta and Ilkka Villi (as both Alan and Scratch) cemented the first expansion as my game of the year right off the bat.

And then came The Lake House.

Released on October 22, the game’s second DLC amplified the survival horror all the way up to 11, but in a truly Remedy way.

Set up as a Control crossover event, you play as Kiran Estevez – an agent from the Federal Bureau of Control. She’s been tasked with investigating the situation unfolding in the game’s fictional town of Bright Falls. Estevez appears mid-way through Alan Wake 2, during which she refers to an incident that occurs during this expansion.

This incident takes place at The Lake House: a research facility set up to monitor paranatural occurrences at Cauldron Lake near Bright Falls. Cauldron Lake just so happens to be a portal to The Dark Place.

Estevez arrives at an abandoned Lake House, only to discover that horrific supernatural entities have been unleashed through an unlikely source: abstract paintings. It’s down to her to find out why, and more importantly, how to stop them.

Playing as Estevez reminded me of how I connected to Jesse in Control. Not only was I experiencing the world as a strong female protagonist, but both characters are brilliantly sarcastic and unphased by the weirdness transpiring around them.

“[Estevez] uses a grounding technique of taking six deep breaths when overwhelmed, which was refreshing to see as with anxiety”

Although, that’s what it seems like with Estevez. Once you start diving deeper into the horrors unfolding within The Lake House, her seemingly calm demeanor starts to falter. She uses a grounding technique of taking six deep breaths when things get overwhelming, which was refreshing to see as someone who suffers with anxiety. It gave me a new coping mechanism that I’ve gone on to use a few times since.

There’s also a new song for the DLC centered around this theme, written by singer-songwriter Poe. She contributed the song ‘This Road’ for the main game, which appears in segments after you finish chapters in Alan’s section. That song became an important mantra for me, as has this one. ‘6 Deep Breaths’ reminds me to stop, take a step back, breathe, and face your fears.

With that in mind, I often found myself reacting to situations in the same way as Estevez does, much like I did with Jesse in Control. There were countless times where I would say the exact same thing Estevez would say in reaction to what was being uncovered.

For example, there’s an entire floor of the facility housing rows upon rows of typewriters, eerily clacking and pinging away on their own. A system has been created to automate Alan’s writing style to mimic his ability to make fiction become reality. As soon as it dawned on me what the researchers were trying to do, I audibly groaned and said to myself this is such a stupid idea – as did Estevez.

It’s also a really interesting commentary on the future of AI, something I was not expecting to appear in this survival horror experience. Alan’s writing is unique to him via his tone, use of metaphors, and the way he sets a scene. The prose these typewriters are pumping out can’t match that at all, which is further proven by the experiment being unable to replicate Alan’s power since he’s not there to fuel it.

As a massive fan of Remedy’s games, I found how The Lake House combined Control and Alan Wake to be joyous. From the questionable experiments to the weird and wonderful moments mixed with pure horror, this expansion was the perfect endnote to Alan Wake 2.

Of course, it left me wanting more – not only from Alan Wake but also Control 2, as a sneaky teaser was hidden towards the end. Hopefully, it’s not going to be that long a wait to see what Remedy has in store for its ever-expanding connected universe, and I can’t wait to experience it.