Alan Wake 2: Night Springs Review

Last year, Alan Wake 2 dominated and won the hearts of critics and gamers, receiving over 200 awards, including Best Horror Game, Best Game Direction, and Editor’s Choice at The NextPlay Game Awards 2023. The game forged a clear path of its own down the survival-horror genre of games, providing a truly captivating story and immersive experience. 

The first of two expansions for the game has just been released, and it’s called Night Springs. Night Springs is a TV show seen in the Alan Wake universe that has palpable similarities to The Twilight Zone. The expansion contains three self-contained stories featuring characters from the Remedy Connected Universe, such as Rose Marigold, Tim Breaker, and Control’s Jesse Faden. These are all iconic characters that fans of the franchise will immediately connect with, which is mandatory, considering each episode is roughly an hour long. Episodes are accessed through the main menu and do not require any progression into the Alan Wake 2 main story to play.

The first episode is titled “Number One Fan”, with playable protagonist Rose Marigold, waitress of Oh Deer Diner, and obsessive fan of Alan Wake (me too, Rose, me too). Rose’s episode focuses on her saving her idol, the Writer, who is being held captive by the Writer’s evil twin. As I said, these episodes are short, so I can’t dive too deep into the plot details. While this was the funniest episode of the three, I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the other two. The combat was simplified to a rifle and shotgun and really just featured a few waves of enemies before a final boss fight. Exploring this character more was definitely intriguing, and her obsession with Alan Wake provided key nuances that made the overall experience an enjoyable one.

“North Star” is the second episode and features Jesse Faden as the main protagonist, who is trying to find her missing brother being held captive at Coffee World. This episode felt more like Alan Wake 2 than the previous episode, full of puzzles, riddles, and encounters with Taken. This “version” of Jesse does not have her supernatural abilities, but her sentient ally, Polaris, remains present. Jesse’s combat is parallel to Wake’s, not offering any new mechanics, but it was still a joy playing as her once again. I almost wish that the whole expansion featured her as the sole protagonist, but I will take what I can get.

The third and final episode of Night Springs is titled “Time Breaker” and features Shawn Ashmore as himself, and the everso loveable, Sam Lake, creative director at Remedy Entertainment. Shawn Ashmore is no stranger to Remedy’s games, having portrayed Jack Joyce in 2016’s Quantum Break. Is this Remedy trying to link Quantum Break to the Remedy Connected Universe? Who knows.

This episode follows Shawn as he navigates the multiverse to track down the Master of the Many Worlds, who is murdering the many different versions of him across parallel universes. This episode takes place across the multiverse and uses that opportunity to explore different art styles and genres of games. 

Across the three episodes, resources are found at every corner, reducing the game’s survival aspect. However, with the episodes being so short, I did appreciate not having to spend time scrounging for ammo and medicinal items. Remedy has included many locations found in Alan Wake 2 but has included new locations throughout the sequences to explore. It has been long enough since my playthrough of the main game that I didn’t feel like, “Oh, I’m here again.” You don’t spend long at the repeated areas, and if you do, it has been changed enough not to feel repetitive.

While this expansion is not essential to the Alan Wake 2 experience, if you loved it as much as I did, I highly recommend you check out the Night Springs expansion. Remedy has crafted a beautiful world in the Alan Wake universe, so exploring it more with some key characters was the perfect direction to take this first expansion, I just wish it was an hour or two longer.