After 13 years, we finally have a sequel to the original Alan Wake and I really enjoyed the adventure of the duo Alan and Saga. It was stylish, well-crafted and, of course, wonderfully crazy at times. With Night Springs we get the first of the two planned expansions and a completely different concept is offered to us by Remedy with three different episodes with just as many different protagonists. But of course nothing should be predictable or normal as we once again enter this wonderful and capricious world.
As a critic, there’s something simplistic and clumsy about making comparisons to drugs and the classic “what were they doing when they did that?” innuendo when things are as crazy as they are in the main game and this expansion. Instead (even though it’s mentioned), it’s better to say that these three episodes are, you guessed it, pretty weird for the most part.
From the main menu, you can access all three episodes and play them in any order you like. The first is titled “Number One Fan” and in it you play Rose, who, as anyone who knows the story of Alan Wake knows, is the waitress at the cozy Oh Deer Diner in Bright Falls. But above all, she loves the author Alan Wake. He receives a mysterious message from his idol that he needs to be rescued, so he grabs two guns and, encouraged by the whole town, prepares to do so.
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Fan number one then becomes a pure action fest, mixing humorous dialogue with Rose shooting her way through hordes of enemies pointing out what a terrible writer Wake is. It’s bloody and lighthearted, and there’s plenty of ammo. It all looks a little simpler, a little less visually spectacular, and significantly less cinematic than the main game. It’s a tongue-in-cheek action fest. But most of all, it’s pretty fun, despite some tight controls and a montage that doesn’t get boring because the episode is so short, it works.
You could say that simplicity permeates these three episodes. It’s like playing in the middle of a game, without much context, giving you a few hours of simple entertainment. A bit like the musical part of the main game was its own expansion. It’s fun and works as a standalone thing, but it also lacks the impact of being part of a larger context, and so it becomes elements that the rest doesn’t have to rely on.
In the second episode, called “North Star”, we leave Rose and face a new character that we know from the game “Remedy’s Control”. Here Jesse arrives at the Coffe World amusement park, one of the best locations in the game, and here the inclination towards horror and puzzles is more pronounced than in the first episode. The flashlight returns and Rose has completely avoided it, now Jesse must first point it at the eerie shadows to make them vulnerable.
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The second episode strikes me as the least inspired of the three, although the setting is good. Again, I feel like some context is missing. Of course, I realize that’s a key point. There are supposed to be three different kinds of parts, with as much insanity as the developers can muster. It’s also easy to argue that this is ultimately an expansion. But a big part of what makes Alan Wake so good is precisely the different elements working together to provide variety and ensemble. That’s missing here, and besides, all parties mostly rely on just a lot of action. Basically, you have unlimited ammo, and the horror parts have been replaced to become something akin to an arcade shooter. There’s not much mystery or excitement in exploring the environments, but paths are revealed towards the end.
The third episode is called Time Breaker, and here we play the actor who is better known as Sheriff Baker from the main game. Who is also played by the same actor who is the protagonist of Quantum Break. This plays with that fact, in a sort of multiversal saga that is arguably the fluffiest of the three. Not everything this episode does resonates with me, but at least it shows a creative side and a bit of “we do what we want” on the part of the developers in relation to this expansion as a whole.
I like the little introductory videos where Mr. Door briefly introduces the episodes, and there are at least a few bits here that resemble the scenes that were the best of Alan Wake 2. But I probably wish there were more of this product in particular. It didn’t need to be much, but when each episode is more of a standalone action sequence, a lot of the atmosphere that is this game series’ strongest card is lost. Sure, it’s set in the world itself, the dialogue often contains funny little references, and there’s a dash of self-aware humor. But regardless of whether it’s “just” an expansion, I would have liked a little more context and the kind of scenes I enjoyed in Alan Wake 2. That’s missing here, and Alan Wake 2 wasn’t great, mostly for its battles, but for other reasons.
That said, it’s still a fairly entertaining three-parter in many ways. Rose’s hectic action party, Jesse’s visit to Coffee World, and Sheriff Baker’s twisted journey, to say the least. They all have their charm, and there are plenty of things that still work. You have a clearly confirmed reason to return to the world of Alan Wake, and while it’s not exactly what I wanted, and overall lacks a lot of what I thought made Alan Wake 2 special, it still works well as a supplement.