Summary
Spoilers ahead for theAlan Wakefranchise.
Alan Wake 2hit the survival horror gaming scene last October and continued the titular author’s adventures stuck in the shifting nightmare space of the Dark Place dimension, where his writings affect reality itself.Alan Wake 2’s largely positive reception, including winning Best Narrative and Best Game Direction at The Game Awards 2023, put it in the spotlight of a much wider audience compared to the 2010 original’s more cult classic status. The sequel was hailed as an excellent achievement and garnered a lot of attention as well as anticipation for what might come next for Remedy and Alan.
Now that itsRemedy Connected Universeis in full swing, the studio’s trademark flair and penchant for layering its titles' narratives with interconnections to its other properties as well as real-world references is on full display. With 2024 set to see two major DLCs forAlan Wake 2, the first beingNight Springs, the degrees of meta elements woven into it will exceed anything from the base game.
Night Springscurrently has a Spring release window.Alan Wake 2’s second DLC,The Lake House, will be “coming later,” possibly in the Fall if previous release patterns are kept to.
Alan Wake 2’s Night Springs DLC Sets the Stage for Meta References Galore
Night Springs in Alan Wake
Night Springsin theestablished history ofAlan Wakeis an in-universeTwilight Zone-like TV anthology series, which the writer got his start penning scripts for before going on to be the successful author of hisAlex Caseyseries of crime thrillers.Night Springsappears throughout the originalAlan Wakeas short live-action episodes that can be found and played on hidden TVs, each reflecting themes and ideas from the game’s story as well.
Alan Wake’sAmerican Nightmare,a 2012 spin-off, was structured entirely aroundNight Springs, with Alan trapped in a repeating series of plot events that required him to get specific story details correct multiple times before he could escape the loop.Alan Wake 2contained comparatively lessNight Springsmaterial, but it still cropped up during the course as a reminder of its existence and place in the world.
Alan Wake 2’s Night Springs DLC Could Pry Further into the Remedyverse
Remedy has been incorporating meta elements and recursive references throughout their work going back to the studio’s earliest efforts, and arguably nowhere more so than inAlan Wake, which by its very setup lends itself to the use of these in surprising and clever (although admittedly sometimes convoluted) ways.Alan Wake 2’s Final Draft mode and updated endingintroduced big changes from the base conclusion.
Characters fromControlappeared in it, and if Alan is indeed now a “master of many worlds,” then it would make more sense than ever for him to be able to warp through various versions of reality, particularly within the framework ofNight Springsstories, possibly encountering figures fromControlor even other games.
Alan Wake 2’s Night Springs will likelycontinue growing the “Remedyverse”, and if the recent past is any indication, Remedy will only be accelerating its use of meta references and inclusions going forward. The characters of Sheriff Tim Breaker and Mr. Door specifically fromAW2have both been seen to have strong and mysterious connections toNight Springs, and it is thus quite reasonable to expect them to be featured heavily along with any other meta surprises and influences Remedy has planned to reveal to players in the DLC.
Alan Wake 2
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?
