Alan Wake 2's The Lake House expansion has been officially revealed by way of a recent teaser trailer, giving audiences a glimpse into this next chapter in the cerebral, horrifying world of Remedy's interconnected gaming universe. The Lake House will follow the well-received Night Springs DLC, which provided players with a series of "what if?" Stories featuring various Remedy characters and locations, though The Lake House seems to be taking a markedly different approach with its storytelling.
The Lake House will take place alongside the events of the main Alan Wake 2 story, following Kiran Estevez as she investigates a catastrophic event in the Cauldron Lake area. If and how the expansion will factor into the primary Alan Wake plot is unclear, but it doesn't appear to take place in a hypothetical or alternate timeline like the Night Springs stories. As such, The Lake House is expected to have major implications for the future of both the Alan Wake and Control franchises, bringing them together in a similar manner as Control's AWE DLC.
Alan Wake 2: The Lake House DLC - Everything Remedy Has Confirmed
Players Will Control FBC Agent Kiran Estevez
Introduced as one of the many links between Alan Wake 2 and Control in the base game, Kiran Estevez will be returning in The Lake House, this time as a playable protagonist. This is suggested by her voiceover dialog in the State of Play teaser trailer, and confirmed in the description of the DLC.
With Estevez taking center stage, it's likely that the expansion will shine a light on what exactly brought the FBC to Bright Falls in the first place, and what calamitous events coincided with the return of the Dark Presence. Since this expansion will almost certainly be taking place within the same timeline as the base game, it could set up the next chapter of the Alan Wake saga and Remedy's broader narrative universe, while adding context to the events of the main Alan Wake 2 narrative by showing its events from a different perspective. Putting players in the shoes of Estevez will also mean filling in some of the many blanks in Alan Wake 2's plot.
The Lake House Will Feature a New Setting
As its name suggests, The Lake House will be set in an FBC research center just off the shore of Cauldron Lake, which was the venue for a number of dangerous experiments that allowed for The Dark Place to connect with base reality. The sparse information revealed about this new setting suggests that the level design and atmosphere of The Lake House could have a bit in common with Control, as the FBC's high-tech resources and absurd bureaucracy are likely to be at least referenced in the expansion, considering its premise.
The Lake House Will Be a Return to Alan Wake 2's Horror Tone
Remedy's games have always toed the line between silly and unsettling, with the developer's singular penchant for uncanny narratives being on full display even back in the early days of Max Payne. But the Night Springs DLC definitely leaned further into ridiculousness than terror, using hypothetical narrative scenarios and meta storytelling for comedic and lighthearted purposes more than high-concept, horror-focused ones. This is clearly not the case with The Lake House—something that can be intuited by looking at the teaser trailer, but that has also been confirmed by Remedy itself.
Like with any Remedy project, it's best not to conjure too firm of a picture of The Lake House ahead of its release this October. The Finnish studio is at its best when it's serving up unexpected and bizarre stories, and with confirmed elements like a new protagonist and setting, The Lake House looks like it could provide exactly that.
Alan Wake 2
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 89 /100 Critics Rec: 93%
- Released
- October 27, 2023
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language
- Developer(s)
- Remedy Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
- Epic Games
- Engine
- Northlight Engine
- Franchise
- Alan Wake
WHERE TO PLAY
A string of ritualistic murders threatens Bright Falls, a small-town community surrounded by Pacific Northwest wilderness. Saga Anderson, an accomplished FBI agent with a reputation for solving impossible cases arrives to investigate the murders. Anderson’s case spirals into a nightmare when she discovers pages of a horror story that starts to come true around her.
Alan Wake, a lost writer trapped in a nightmare beyond our world, writes a dark story in an attempt to shape the reality around him and escape his prison. With a dark horror hunting him, Wake is trying to retain his sanity and beat the devil at his own game.
Anderson and Wake are two heroes on two desperate journeys in two separate realities, connected at heart in ways neither of them can understand: reflecting each other, echoing each other, and affecting the worlds around them.
Fueled by the horror story, supernatural darkness invades Bright Falls, corrupting the locals and threatening the loved ones of both Anderson and Wake. Light is their weapon—and their safe haven — against the darkness they face. Trapped in a sinister horror story where there are only victims and monsters, can they break out to be the heroes they need to be?
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror
- How Long To Beat
- 17 Hours
- PS Plus Availability
- N/A
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
