Last year, we reported that horror game Alan Wake 2 would be getting a couple of expansions. We already got one in the form of Night Springs, and Edwin suggested that the other would likely be a crossover with Remedy's other big game, Control, and would feature the secret government agency Federal Bureau of Control. Judging by the trailer shown at yesterday's PlayStation Showcase, he was right.
The Lake House DLC is due out in October and features a facility run by a shadowy organization tasked with preventing powerful “altered items” from getting out of control. But it looks like someone has unleashed a chaotic oil painting from its cage.
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The developers say the DLC is set in a “spooky new location on the shores of Cauldron Lake” and runs parallel to the main story. You'll guide FBC agent Kiran Estevez through the Lake House research station, where “reckless experiments are causing reality to collide with the Dark Place.” Agent Estevez appeared as a character in Alan Wake 2 – an enthusiast who unceremoniously takes over the investigation of the player character Saga. Her name also appears briefly in some documents in Control.
The trailer shows a hallway full of dead bodies and a distorted image screaming in an anguished voice: “Murderer! Pain! Misery! Hate!” Okay, calm down, Mr. Image. What is this, Layers of Fear? Come to your senses.
Alan Wake 2, Katharine (RPS in Peace) called it “a stylistic tour de force, and one of the most unique and confident horror games in recent years.” But she also said that “the climax of the Saga and Alan's story drops the ball a little in its final moments. It's resolute enough not to be completely disappointing, but it also hangs in the air enough to feel slightly unsatisfying.”
Maybe this second slap of creepy DLC will tie up some loose bowels. But if I know my weird storytelling rules, it will stubbornly refuse to do anything more organised.
Remedy recently teamed up with Annapurna to finance Control 2 and produce TV and film adaptations set in the cross-pollinating world of comic horror. It’s possible that this publishing deal has been negatively impacted by recent troubles at Annapurna Interactive, where the entire staff has resigned in what increasingly resembles a management power struggle. Annapurna itself says otherwise, but it certainly can’t be helped.