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, referred to as The Lake Home. On this brief DLC, launched simply in time for Halloween, gamers step into the footwear 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 sort of firmly faraway from the primary recreation itself.

That is each a boon and a curse, relying on what you have been on the lookout for. However as a bridge to the continuation of Treatment’s grand linked universe narrative — which additionally contains the supernatural thriller Management — it’s supreme. 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, docs Jules and Diana Marmont and their groups, are wanting into the consequences of Cauldron Lake. In Treatment’s lore, there’s a connection between the facility of making “artwork” and the facility of otherworldly forces to misuse such items.

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 example — and probably create — the long run, a lot as Alan’s writing did. (God forbid these two ever make a comic book ebook collectively.) I received’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 all of the sudden reduce 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 to that story. In fact, 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 a lot of the areas in Alan Wake 2. Nonetheless, there’s extra of a concentrate on the brutalist and office-space aesthetics from Management, with out the surface 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, reasonably 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 is just not refined in its disdain for the corporatization of creativity, the reconfiguration of artwork right into a harvest subject of bland capitalistic fervor. There’s no love misplaced and far hate gained within the Lake Home’s story, outlining the interplay between inventive freedom and company management: a golden hand wrapped round creativeness’s throat.

To say an excessive amount of about this already brief recreation would spoil it, so I received’t go into element in regards to the intelligent set items that will really feel proper at house 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 reveal any prowess combating 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’s additionally just one new enemy kind: the aforementioned long-limbed portray creatures who can solely be destroyed with a brand new weapon Kiran discovers late within the story. 

I might’ve appreciated some new capacity 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, with the ability to shortly management her worry, and figuring out cope with recurring “objects” 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 brief span of time, it made for not solely a satisfying send-off of certainly one of my favourite latest video games but in addition a bridge again into the world of Management.

All indicators appear to point Treatment might be taking the grand plot of this linked universe to an virtually apocalyptic degree. We are able to in all probability anticipate to see loads of returning characters, together with Kiran herself, as Treatment steers us via its creepy bizarre lake of tales.

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