Alan Wake 2: Night Springs DLC Review – Surreal

Alan Wake 2 was easily one of the best games of 2023 (it was, in fact, our Game of the Year), which is incredibly high praise, given how many excellent games we got last year, so the idea of DLC for the long-awaited survival horror sequel was an inherently exciting one, and Night Springs – the first of the game’s two paid expansions – has the kind of elevator pitch that’s bound to turn heads, especially for fans of developer Remedy Entertainment’s body of work. In typical Remedy fashion, it’s a self-referential, bizarre, mind-bending experience that tells multiple incredibly written and genuinely funny metanarratives. It’s short and fairly straightforward, so it’s obviously not on the level of the excellent base game itself, but for fans of Alan Wake 2 or Remedy at large, it’s an easy recommendation.

Night Springs’ central conceit will be familiar to those who played Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, with the DLC being split into three playable episodes of the eponymous Night Springs, an in-universe Twin Peaks-esque anthology horror show that Alan Wake used to write for early on in his career. Each episode has you playing as a different character, and each is a quirky, offbeat, “what if?” scenario that brings it own tone and aesthetic.

"Night Springs is short and fairly straightforward, so it’s obviously not on the level of the excellent base game itself, but for fans of Alan Wake 2 or Remedy at large, it’s an easy recommendation."

You start off in the first episode as Rose Marigold, the Oh Deer Diner waitress who has been Alan Wake’s no. 1 uber-obsessed fan for as long as anyone can remember. In her Night Springs episode, Rose is tasked with rescuing Alan from his jealous and evil twin brother and the army of “Haters” that he’s summoned to take the writer out of the picture once and for all. What stands out about this episode is how genuinely funny it can be, thanks in large part to the fact that it acts as a window into Rose’s obsessed (and frankly disturbed) mind.

In episode 2, meanwhile, we play as Jesse Faden, the protagonist of fellow Remedy masterpiece Control, who, in this fictional reality, is looking for her brother in Coffee World, the coffee-themed amusement park from Alan Wake 2’s base game, while the government agency that she works for tries to stop her by sending shadowy monsters after her. Those shadow monsters, incidentally, were made using coffee-related ritualistic experiments. Jesse’s episode is a fun way to see the Remedy Connected Universe in full effect – perhaps a teaser of things we may see at some point in the future – but playing as Jesse and not being able to use her abilities or her Service Weapon definitely felt a little restrictive.

Then you have the third episode, which is easily the DLC’s highlight. Titled Time Breaker, this episode has you playing as a unique, multiverse version of Shawn Ashmore, the actor himself, who is on set, filming for a game directed by a hilariously goofy (yet still very much in-character) version of Sam Lake. Ashmore, of course, played Tim Breaker in Alan Wake 2, not to mention protagonist Jack Joyce in Quantum Break, which means there’s no shortage of easter eggs and references to spot here. Not only does this episode tie the expansion to the base game in legitimately interesting ways, it’s also an intriguing look at things that Remedy may possibly have in store for its connected universe’s future. I’ll tell you this much- I’d love to play a game revolving around the timeline-hopping Sheriff Tim Breaker.

Each episode also brings a slightly different tone from a gameplay perspective. Rose’s episode is the most action-driven one. Armed with an automatic shotgun, a rifle, and a desire to shed blood on her journey to rescue her beloved, Rose rips and tears through enemies with reckless abandon. There’s little to no horror mechanics here, ammo is plentiful (to the point where you have bullets in the hundreds), and enemies come at you in large numbers. It’s definitely a different feel than the base game, but the action still feels satisfying.

"Night Springs does enough with its genuinely funny writing, zany and self-referential tone, and action-driven gameplay to be worth the price of admission."

Jesse’s episode is closer to the base game- specifically, it feels closer to Saga’s sections, though that’s obviously thanks in large part to the fact that it’s set primarily in and around Coffee World. The episode is also less action-driven than Rose’s chapter, so even though you do have large quantities of bullets, you also have to contend with the base game’s flashlight mechanics and move through the amusement park in non-linear fashion, all while being surrounded by oppressive darkness. It feels like a solid cross between the base game’s uncomfortable atmosphere and the DLC’s own much zanier vibe. As for the Shawn Ashmore episode- the less said there, the better, since it’s the kind of chapter that’s best left unspoiled, but like Jesse’s episode, it’s also less action-focused than the Rose chapter, while also throwing plenty of the base game’s trademark trippy visual imagery your way.

Night Springs is definitely not an essential expansion by any means. Narratively, it encompasses three “what if?” scenarios that don’t move the story of Alan Wake or the Remedy Connected Universe forward in any major ways- but for fans of the base game and of Remedy’s work, it’s still well worth looking into. Each episode in the expansion is roughly 45 minutes to an hour long, which means you’re going to get about 2-3 hours of new content at most, most of which is set in locations that are either reused from the base game, or have been slightly remixed or altered at most- but though it’s not particularly meaty or even all that integral to the game’s larger plot, it does enough with its genuinely funny writing, zany and self-referential tone, and action-driven gameplay to be worth the price of admission.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.