Alan Wake II, like Control and the first Alan Wake before it, is going to get two DLC expansions. The DLCs will be called Night Springs and The Lake House.
There is some speculation that, much as Control's second DLC, called AWE, tied into Alan Wake's story and teased the eventual release of Alan Wake II, the Lake House could easily hint at Control 2 (by the way, I've been using Roman numerals for Alan Wake and Arabic numerals for Control, but I'm not sure if Remedy maintains such a strict style).
Night Springs is the Twilight Zone-like show that exists in the world of Alan Wake, which Alan wrote for briefly at the start of his writing career before becoming better known for his Alex Casey novels. What little we've seen of Night Springs was found on televisions throughout the first game. The show's title screen is nearly identical to the iconic Twilight Zone title, and like that inspiration appears to be an anthology show with unconnected stories each episode that tell some bizarre tale (naturally these have a bit of a connection to Alan's story, such as one in which a man is framed for crimes by his doppelganger, much as Alan will one day be blamed for Mr. Scratch's actions).
While The Twilight Zone is the obvious inspiration for Night Springs, it's naturally a far more recent show if Alan was able to write for it (though we've also seen posters for Tom the Poet that claim this 1970 movie is based on the novel by Alan Wake, who wouldn't be born for a few years). The clips from Night Springs we see also appear to be more modern, but I think we can't take that at pure face value because I imagine the production budget was way lower than it would be for episodes made for a game today - I suspect that they probably shot this stuff on a camcorder at the Remedy offices or at developers' homes).
In Alan Wake II, we know that the show has been revived and that Logan and Saga's husband David are planning on watching the newest episode while Saga is on the case in Bright Falls. In Control, we find out that the FBC has secured the rights to the show and is backing this revival of it as a means to introduce paranatural concepts to the public in a subtle way (similar to their radio show, America Overnight - which is itself likely inspired by real radio show Coast to Coast AM, which was a radio talk show that often discussed conspiracy theories and the paranormal).
However, in addition to the FBC, it appears that Warlin Door is also involved - not only appearing in the Final Draft version of the TV promo for it as a Rod Serling-esque host, but also mentioning it in his final confrontation with Alan in the chapter "Masks."
The official Alan Wake II FAQ on its official website describes the expansion thusly:
"Visions and dreams. Fiction is written and coming true. Fiction collapses and remains just words on a page. These are those stories... in Night Springs."
And then, less flowery, it explains that we'll play as several familiar characters from the world of Alan Wake, in a series of self-contained episodes of the fictional tv-show.
In other words, it seems that this will be a pretty strong break from the main game. The way it's described, I doubt that we'll even be accessing it from the main game, and likely instead getting to it from the main menu (which is good since I think my auto-save is probably in the bleary dawn version of the Dark Place New York that you get right before the end of the game, and from which I don't think you can really go anywhere else).
I'm curious to see which characters we might play as. A strong contender could be Tim Breaker, who feels like he's got to have more going on (unless they're just holding onto him as a potential kinda-sorta connection to Quantum Break). I've seen speculation that the DLCs will each focus more on one or the other of the Dark Place and Bright Falls, with this one being more likely to focus on the Dark Place. That being said, there are just fewer characters in the Dark Place, and fewer still that I could really imagine playing as - basically just Alan and Tim, at least until far later in the game when Saga and Alex (the real one - though I maintain the possibility that the Alex Casey that Alan meets in the Dark Place is actually the real Casey with the fictional personality Alan wrote grafted onto him) are there.
But if we're not limited to the people we've seen in the Dark Place (I guess Tor and Odin could count as well?) there are lots of others who could be involved. Indeed, Barry Wheeler could even show up (a presence that was sorely missed in this sequel - though I think his connection to the Blessed Organization means that even if he's never seen in Alan Wake II, I'm sure we'll see him in the broader RCU at some point). Ed and Tammy Booker also feel like strong candidates, especially given how they feel like they're going to be bigger characters in the game than they wind up being - though the manuscript page found in their room to me suggests that they're more likely to be involved in the other DLC.
Still, we'll be getting a number of shorter vignettes with potentially a bunch of playable characters. I almost wonder if neither Alan nor Saga will be playable in these chapters.
Moving on:
Expansion 2 is called The Lake House.
The Lake House, I believe, is the building where Emile Hartman had his sham mental clinic that he was using to try to manipulate artists. It has now been taken over by the FBC as the central facility to monitor and study the Threshold in Cauldron Lake. We know that the place went dark some time around the events of Alan Wake II, and we hear from Agent Estevez that her team's attempt to check in with the Lake House did not go well - it's fully fallen to the Taken.
Much as AWE introduced the Dark Presence to the world of the FBC and the Oldest House (and turned Hartman into the nastiest monster I've personally seen in any Remedy game) there's a lot of speculation that this DLC could turn around and return the favor - clearly the FBC is a significant presence in Alan Wake II, but this looks to focus significantly on it.
The FAQ confirms that the Lake House is a research facility run by "an independent government organization."
Interestingly, the next line in the FAQ is that you'll be exploring the Lake House on two separate adventures as "the realities of the Pacific Northwest and the Dark Place collide again." The fact that this will involve two adventures to me suggests that this might be the DLC where we get an Alan segment and a Saga one. I believe this one is also not due to arrive until about a year after the game's initial launch (which was in late October of last year). I wonder, then, if this will be accessed from within the main game or if it will be from a menu. Given the "point of no return" in the primary game toward the end, I suspect it'll be accessible via a menu. But that raises some questions: we don't really know what actually happens to Alan and Saga following the events of the game (specifically the Final Draft). Indeed, I'm not even entirely sure if they're in the Dark Place or just physically on the third floor of the Valhalla Nursing Home. If it's the latter, it might be easy enough to simply say that the story continues from that point. That might still be easier accessed via a menu.
What I wonder, as well, is what it will mean to have two adventures set there - will one be in a more "real world," mundane version of the building while another is in some bizarre Dark Place version of it?
We don't have a ton to go on - there are some datamined files that are likely part of the Lake House, but we don't really have the context for these.
Anyway, Night Springs is supposed to come out in the spring (appropriately enough) which is not too far away. I imagine we might get a trailer relatively soon. And then, boy is my gaming dance card full!
No comments:
Post a Comment