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'Alan Wake Night Springs DLC' Review



Alan Wake II is so far my favourite game I have played this year. I had an absolute blast playing this game and I previously wrote an article about how it helped me through depression. So when I saw the trailer for 'Night Springs DLC' at Summer Game Fest and saw it was dropping THAT DAY I ran to my PS5 and started the download.

'Alan Wake II: Night Springs' is paid DLC and follows three separate short stories that are not necessarily cannon. It is similar to Marvel's 'What If...' in that it focuses on short stories that allow us to see other characters, without worrying about the continuity of the main story. 'Night Springs' is presented as a pastiche on 'The Twilight Zone' and borrows look and narration style of the classic horror series. This is what I love about Alan Wake, it is weird and goofy and unapologetic in it's wacky creativity. 'Night Springs' is broken up into three stories following three different characters: Number One Fan (Rose Marigold), North Star (Control's Jesse Faden) and Time Breaker (Sheriff Breaker). I will go through each one and give my thoughts before wrapping up with my overall thoughts and score out of ten.



Number One Fan

This mini story lasted about 45 minutes, but it was 45 minutes of me laughing maniacally whilst blasting people with a shotgun. I stand by Alan Wake II as one of the funniest games I have ever played and has some of the best comedy writers in the gaming industry. In 'Number One Fan' you play as Rose Marigold who is the waitress in the 'Oh Deer Diner' and a crazy Alan Wake fanatic! The whole thing is basically her fantasy in which she is blasting her way through hordes of people with a shotgun in an attempt to save her one true love (Alan) from his evil twin brother. It is basically a run and gun. You are equipped with a shotgun that has plenty of ammo and your job is just to go mental with it. Everything Rose says in this is complete gold and had me laughing all the way through. It almost feels cathartic. You spend so much of Alan Wake II searching for ammo in the classic survival horror style, so being given the opportunity to blast as much as you like with a shotgun in 'Number One Fan' feels amazing.

North Star

This mini story also lasted me around 45 minutes and was probably the story that clicked with me the least, however it was still a great deal of fun. 'North Star' follows a alternate reality version of Jesse Faden from one of Remedy's previous games Control. I have played through Control and honestly it did not do it for me like it did for other players, so seeing the character return might've been less exciting for me than for the die hard fans. This section is also set in 'Coffee World' which was the section of Alan Wake II I found the most frustrating, as it is so dark and easy to get lost. 'North Star' Requires you to solve puzzles and fight the Taken with your torch and your gun in classic Alan Wake style. The puzzles were pretty straight forward and the enemies were very easy to fight. My issue with every one of these DLC stories is that they are too easy and this section definitely felt the easiest. I would like to praise developers 'Remedy' for connecting their universe and for doing it in such a self aware and fun way and if anything I wish they would've gone even more weird and creative with this section of the DLC.

Time Breaker

This mini story took me about 90 minutes to play through and definitely felt like the meatiest part of the DLC. It is also probably the hardest one to explain in just one paragraph, but I will try because I don't want to say too much and ruin the story. Basically it follows actor Shawn Ashmore playing multiple different versions of himself across a multiverse. The villain of the story is Mr Door who we see in the talk show from the Alan Wake II game. It is the part of the DLC I felt most invested in and there was a section near the end that was filled with surprises that I will not ruin for you, because I did not see it coming and loved it! The main gameplay of Time Breaker feels the most like Alan Wake II and I enjoyed the puzzles and the combat. Honestly I would've really enjoyed seeing more of this story and I was so interested in the different realities you visit. It had a Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness vibe to it that fit so well into the already weird and wonderful world of Alan Wake.

My overall opinion is that I was so excited to see more content in the Alan Wake II world and really enjoyed jumping back in. The voice acting, dialogue and wacky storylines are what I loved about Alan Wake II and the DLC does not disappoint on that front. My main criticisms is that it was a little easy, which is why it felt so short. Also 'North Star' for me personally was a little less engaging than the other two chapters. However the Twilight Zone parody aspect of the DLC is such a good idea and once again Alan Wake II provides us with some musical bangers! The Night Springs song has been stuck in my head on a loop since I first heard it and I honestly am not even mad about that! This DLC is 7/10 for me and I am excited to see 'The Lakehouse' DLC in October.

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