The Lake Home is a welcome return to Alan Wake 2

After a 12 months, Finnish studio Treatment Leisure has opened the gates to a mysterious location in the 2023 third-person horror hit Alan Wake 2, generally known as The Lake Home. On this quick DLC, launched simply in time for Halloween, gamers step into the sneakers of Kiran Estevez, the long-suffering agent of the mysterious Federal Bureau of Management we meet in the primary recreation, who allies with Alan Wake 2’s protagonists, Alan Wake and Saga Anderson. Set earlier than the occasions of Alan Wake 2, The Lake Home sees Kiran recounting a horrifying occasion on the titular location to Saga, but the plot is nearly firmly faraway from the primary recreation itself.

That is each a boon and a curse, relying on what you have been in search of. However as a bridge to the continuation of Treatment’s grand linked universe narrative — which additionally consists of the supernatural thriller Management — it’s superb. As a substitute of waving goodbye to Alan and Saga, Treatment is extending a hand to take us on its subsequent bizarre journey.

Kiran is investigating a analysis station, the place FBC researchers, medical doctors Jules and Diana Marmont and their groups, are trying into the consequences of Cauldron Lake. In Treatment’s lore, there’s a connection between the ability of making “artwork” and the ability of otherworldly forces to misuse such presents.

The Marmonts are experimenting on a painter, Rudolf Lane, who some would possibly bear in mind from the primary recreation. Lane’s creativity tends as an instance — and probably create — the long run, a lot as Alan’s writing did. (God forbid these two ever make a comic book e-book collectively.) I gained’t spoil what the Marmonts did, save to say they have been monsters lengthy earlier than any otherworldly forces got here into the body. Regardless, the Lake Home is immediately lower off and unresponsive to FBC HQ, leading to Kiran investigating with a small staff. 

Treatment has been taking part in with a linked universe since Management, and the Lake Home is a agency bridge from side to side to that story. After all, being an Alan Wake DLC, gamers can anticipate the strong third-person survival horror of the primary recreation. 

The Lake Home, as a setting, is as unnerving as many of the areas in Alan Wake 2. Nevertheless, there’s extra of a concentrate on the brutalist and office-space aesthetics from Management, with out the skin or pure environments that dominated about half of the primary recreation. Within the eerily quiet workplace areas, there are visible wonders like looping hallways and rooms of infinite typewriters, which have been programmed to “write” like Alan Wake. 

That final quirk seems to be a transparent jab by Treatment’s writers at AI slop, with a web page of Alan’s actual writing saying, “The artwork was not artwork. Simply content material for the experiment.” Certainly, the entire thesis of The Lake Home is the misuse of artwork for the acquisition of some finish product, relatively than relishing within the magnificence artwork can create. That is all of the extra apparent when you determine who the villain is and who has created the brand new terrifying humanoid paint beasts that slither out of the partitions. Treatment shouldn’t be delicate in its disdain for the corporatization of creativity, the reconfiguration of artwork right into a harvest discipline of bland capitalistic fervor. There’s no love misplaced and far hate gained within the Lake Home’s story, outlining the interplay between creative freedom and company management: a golden hand wrapped round creativeness’s throat.

To say an excessive amount of about this already quick recreation would spoil it, so I gained’t go into element concerning the intelligent set items that might really feel proper at dwelling in Management. Let’s simply say, mild switches and motels make a welcome return, as does a well-recognized and highly effective character. 

Kiran, sadly, doesn’t mechanically exhibit any prowess preventing otherworldly beings, regardless of her years as an FBC agent. She performs no totally different to Saga or Alan Wake, as soon as once more utilizing a flashlight to whittle down enemies’ shadowy armor earlier than unloading a satisfying variety of bullets into their our bodies. There may be additionally just one new enemy sort: the aforementioned long-limbed portray creatures who can solely be destroyed with a brand new weapon Kiran discovers late within the story. 

I’d’ve appreciated some new potential or mechanic that demonstrates her years of expertise in coping with the bizarre. As a substitute, that is relegated to her interactions with the odd object / entity, having the ability to rapidly management her worry, and figuring out how one can cope with recurring “gadgets” Management veterans like myself know all too nicely. 

A lot of the enjoyment of the Lake Home is discovering what occurred and experiencing the few flooring for your self. The DLC takes about two hours to finish. However in that quick span of time, it made for not solely a satisfying send-off of one in every of my favourite latest video games but additionally a bridge again into the world of Management.

All indicators appear to point Treatment will probably be taking the grand plot of this linked universe to an nearly apocalyptic stage. We will in all probability anticipate to see loads of returning characters, together with Kiran herself, as Treatment steers us by its creepy bizarre lake of tales.

The Lake Home growth for Alan Wake 2 is out there now.