Unleashing the Dark: A Hauntingly Familiar Return to Alan Wake 2 at The Lake House
The Dark Side of Creativity: "The Lake House" DLC Review
It’s been a year since Finnish studio Remedy Entertainment opened the doors to a mysterious location in the 2023 third-person horror hit "Alan Wake 2", known as "The Lake House". This short DLC, released just in time for Halloween, drops players into the shoes of Kiran Estevez, the long-suffering agent of the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC), who teams up with "Alan Wake 2" protagonists Alan Wake and Saga Anderson.
A Bridge to the Unknown
This DLC is both a boon and a curse, depending on what you were looking for. But as a bridge to the continuation of Remedy’s grand connected universe narrative, which also includes the supernatural thriller "Control", it’s ideal. Instead of waving goodbye to Alan and Saga, Remedy is extending a hand to take us on its next weird journey.
The Lake House: A Dark and Foreboding Setting
Kiran is investigating a research station, where FBC researchers, doctors Jules and Diana Marmont, and their teams are studying the effects of Cauldron Lake. In Remedy’s lore, there’s a connection between the power of creating "art" and the power of otherworldly forces to misuse such gifts.
The Painter’s Creation
The Marmonts are experimenting on a painter, Rudolf Lane, who some might remember from the main game. Lane’s creativity has a tendency to illustrate – and possibly create – the future, much like Alan’s writing did. (God forbid those two ever make a comic book together.) I won’t spoil what the Marmonts did, except to say they were monsters long before any otherworldly forces entered the frame. However, the Lake House is suddenly cut off and unresponsive to FBC HQ, resulting in Kiran investigating with a small team.
Remedy’s Vision for the Connected Universe
Remedy has been playing with a connected universe since "Control", and The Lake House is a firm bridge backward and forward to that story. Of course, being an "Alan Wake" DLC, players can expect the solid third-person survival horror of the main game.
A Focus on Brutalist Aesthetics
The Lake House setting is as unnerving as most of the spaces in "Alan Wake 2". However, there’s a focus on the brutalist and office-space aesthetics from "Control", without the outside or natural environments that dominated about half of the main game. In the eerily quiet office spaces, there are visual wonders like looping hallways and rooms of infinite typewriters, which have been programmed to "write" like Alan Wake.
A Commentary on the Misuse of Art
The last quirk appears to be a clear jab by Remedy’s writers at AI slop, with a page of Alan’s real writing saying, "The art was not art. Just content for the experiment." Indeed, the whole thesis of The Lake House is the misuse of art for the acquisition of some end product, rather than relishing in the beauty art can create. This is all the more obvious when you figure out who the villain is and who has created the new terrifying humanoid paint beasts that slither out of the walls. Remedy is not subtle in its disdain for the corporatization of creativity, the reconfiguration of art into a harvest field of bland capitalistic fervor.
A Welcome Return to "Control"
To say too much about this already short game would spoil it, so I won’t go into detail about the clever set pieces that would feel right at home in "Control". Let’s just say, light switches and motels make a welcome return, as does a familiar and powerful character.
The Final Verdict
The Lake House DLC takes about two hours to complete, but in that short span of time, it made for not only a satisfying send-off of one of my favorite recent games but also a bridge back into the world of "Control". All signs seem to indicate Remedy will be taking the grand plot of this connected universe to an almost apocalyptic level. We can probably expect to see plenty of returning characters, including Kiran herself, as Remedy steers us through its creepy weird lake of stories.
The Lake House expansion for Alan Wake 2 is available now.
