If you think Remedy Games is weird and wonderful, wait till you get a load of its episodic Alan Wake 2 DLC, Night Springs. After blowing us away with its horror sequel – one of the very few 10/10 games of 2023 for us – we’ve been dying for some more Remedy goodness. Now that it’s here though, is Night Springs as sharp and meta as the main game? In so many ways, it is, but expectation will likely be the biggest killer of this content offering.
Night Springs is spread across three episodes, all of which span about 40 minutes in length. It’s a brutally short expansion that’s only really an issue because they’re so damn good. With each episode centred around specific characters from the main game (and the wider Remedy Connected Universe), they all have distinctive flavours, each being a fun exploration of the weird wide world of Alan Wake.
Whether it’s a whimsical rescue mission as Alan’s number one fan, Rose Marigold, or a genre-hopping multiversal escapade as the actual actor Shawn Ashmor (who plays Tim Breaker in the base game), there’s a little something for everyone here — but it all serves to highlight that Remedy is at the peak of its game right now.
You can tell the Finnish developer is having fun with this DLC. Explained within the spiralling lore as one of the many realities Alan writes to try to escape the Dark Place, these aren’t integral next steps in the franchise’s narrative, but opportunities to experiment with the format. Instead of bullet counting, it’ll give you a full auto shotgun as whimsical music tinkles away in the background. Instead of just switching up your surroundings in the Dark Place, it will literally switch game genres, where one moment you’re inching across an oppressive and highly detailed forest, and the next you’re blasting your way through a 16-bit side-scroller.
Gameplay-wise, these are relatively simple, usually taking on foes from the game, or solving the odd puzzle. There’s nothing quite as encapsulating as the main game, but we’d say this DLC is more about the vibe than the content.
Certainly, you can feel that through its script, which can actually be incredibly funny. Sometimes it’ll throw gags at you like the happy-go-lucky Rose having a fully stocked arsenal of weapons in the Oh Deer Diner. Others will see Sam Lake showing up once more, this time as a version of himself directing a FMV video game. There’s an endless sense of creativity on display, where even in such a short amount of time, Remedy’s identity permeates through every facet of the DLC. We had a smile on our face across all three episodes, as Remedy adds layer upon layer to its ever-expanding meta commentary.
But of course, all of these episodes are short lived and we’d be lying if we said we weren’t eager for a little bit more. While episodes one and three both feel contained and just about as long as they need to be, the second episode, featuring Jesse from Control, needs a little something more to really hammer it home. What’s more, if you’re hoping to see more of the Alan Wake world, then you should know that Night Springs reuses areas from the base game, albeit with some multiversal twists to them.
Conclusion
All in all, Night Springs is a short excuse to revel in the oddities of Alan Wake 2 and Remedy. Whether it’s comedic, horror-tinged, or genre-hopping, the developer is just having loads of fun with this DLC. We’d love it to be a little longer, or perhaps even include another episode or two, but what’s here is a reminder that Remedy is one of the most original and unique developers in the game right now.