Alan Wake 2 The Lake House - Main Art

Alan Wake 2 The Lake House DLC Review – Enter the Remedy-Verse

The release of Alan Wake 2 remains an anomaly in the modern gaming industry. It’s a sequel to a single-player horror game released in 2010 and contains no microtransactions, battle passes, or excessive monetisation mechanisms. 

It’s a tight, focused experience on a mission to please old fans and bring new ones to Remedy Entertainment and its universe of interconnected games. Alan Wake 2 Night Springs DLC was the first expansion to arrive earlier this year, with The Lake House being the second and final piece of the game’s DLC. 

Unlike Night Springs, this expansion focuses on expanding the main game’s story with new elements, tying the narrative much closer to Control and the future of that franchise. Does it offer enough to justify players’ investment considering the Deluxe Edition price tag?

(For an overview of the original’s story and gameplay, see our Alan Wake 2 review)

TL;DR

With The Lake House DLC, Alan Wake 2 is now complete. It offers more insight into the events and history of Bright Falls while teasing an intriguing future for Remedy’s connected universe. We only wish it wasn’t so short, clocking in at 2-3 hours.

Story – Diving Into Cauldron Lake

The story of The Lake House is focused on Agent Estevez of the Federal Bureau of Control, or FBC. She is sent to Bright Falls during the events of Alan Wake 2 to investigate the anomaly of the Cauldron Lake becoming active again. Ever since the writer, Alan Wake, disappeared at Cauldron Lake in 2010, the FBC has been monitoring it for paranormal activity. 

Agent Estevez discovers that the FBC’s monitoring station, The Lake House, has gone dark and nobody responds to calls or messages. She assembles her team of special agents and heads to The Lake House to investigate. And as anyone who played Alan Wake or Control before knows, things go south pretty quickly.

A Very Bite-Sized Adventure

The Lake House is a short DLC, with around 3 hours of gameplay even if you take your time to explore everything. While short, the expansion is paced extremely well, with zero downtime or filler, meaning that every minute is fun, engaging, and meaningful. However, we can’t help but feel that The Lake House could have had more in terms of content. 

There’s very little replayability here apart from hunting for achievements. On the other hand, its story is very revealing regarding the Remedy universe, with plenty of Easter Eggs, references, and revelations hidden throughout. These, however, might pass over casual players’ heads while playing since they rely on you being familiar with the lore of several other games and for you to read dozens of notes and documents scattered throughout Alan Wake 2 The Lake House DLC.

Gameplay – More of the Same and That’s Okay

In terms of gameplay, The Lake House features a single new enemy type and a new weapon, a grenade launcher designed by the FBC. This makes it a more exotic weapon than most of what you’ve used in the main Alan Wake 2 campaign. Apart from that, the DLC heavily relies on computer terminal puzzles and password-solving for progression. 

It’s more or less the same gameplay loop you’ve already experienced but in the setting and environments of Control. Since Alan Wake 2 has a much darker and oppressive atmosphere, closer to Silent Hill 2 than to the sci-fi action of Control, these places feel very different this time around.

Being Just Another Human in the Control’s World

What really makes The Lake House shine is the fact that Agent Estevez is a very different person to Jessie Faden, the FBC’s Director. She doesn’t have paranormal powers or special abilities—she’s just a special agent with a gun. This allows Alan Wake 2 to showcase the world of Control through the lens of someone out of their depth. 

We can finally understand why the FBC has been overtaken by the Hiss in Control. It’s because ordinary people found themselves in unordinary circumstances and couldn’t handle it very well. Playing as Agent Estevez makes you feel like you’re somewhere no ordinary human should be. This adds to the DLC’s tension and makes the story even more immersive.

Unbalanced Difficulty

Unfortunately, the second Alan Wake 2 expansion is not the most polished game we’ve played. Enemies will often ambush you from nowhere, leaving you with no room to react. The new enemy type added to the game is the worst offender. Enemies in general are much more powerful and take more damage to take down compared to the main game.

This means you can easily soft-lock yourself from progressing if your health is low and there are no healing items or save rooms nearby. It’s a major balancing issue that the main game or the Night Springs DLC didn’t have. We hope that Remedy fixes some of the technical shortcomings present in The Lake House soon. For such a short and tight experience, impressions matter.

The Value of Both Expansions

With both Alan Wake 2 expansions out, we can also address the value of the Deluxe Edition as a whole. The Night Springs and The Lake House DLCs both come to around 6 hours of gameplay without rushing through the story. Buying the Deluxe Edition at a discount is your best bet here since the content on offer doesn’t justify the full price. 

If you’re a hardcore Remedy fan like yours truly, you might see the value of supporting the developers and paying the full price for the expansions. However, casual players won’t have the same experience, especially because the expansions rely heavily on your knowledge and familiarity with other Remedy titles.

Conclusion – Should you Play Alan Wake 2 The Lake House DLC?

The Lake House represents the end of Alan Wake 2’s story, for now. Remedy Entertainment is already hard at work on Control 2 and its spin-off, FBC: Firebreak, which will introduce 3-player co-op gameplay to the franchise. The studio is also working on a full remake of Max Payne 1 and 2, merging them into a single game. Why are we mentioning this? 

Remedy is a studio doing something very few are brave enough for. They’re creating an interconnected universe where various characters, worlds, and stories are converging toward a single goal. What that goal is we’re not entirely sure yet. It’s a mystery box element that Sam Lake, the creative visionary behind Remedy’s video game universe, is keeping close to his chest.

Only time will tell how The Lake House plays into the big picture at Remedy, especially with its heavy ties to Control. This is why this expansion is an easy recommendation for Remedy’s fans but the casual players might be left wanting more. Grabbing both expansions on sale might be the best decision here, especially since it gives Remedy some time to iron out bugs and difficulty balancing.

Alan Wake 2 The Lake House DLC is now available on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via the Epic Games Store. The full game, along with DLC and a copy of Alan Wake Remastered is now also available physically on consoles.

Rastislav Filip

Posts published: 68

Professional copywriter, full-time nerd, and a loving husband. Loves playing JRPGs and story-driven games, binging TV shows, and reading sci-fi/fantasy books. Probably writes content in his sleep.