Alan Wake 2 The Lake House DLC review - A series of rushed brushstrokes

After much anticipation, Alan Wake 2 The Lake House DLC is finally here. This is the second post-launch content released by developer Remedy Entertainment, after the first Night Springs DLC. This tale is set in a brand-new area and has new plot beats compared to before, making it a must-play for fans of the base game.

But is The Lake House truly a masterstroke of horrors or does it leave much to be desired? Find out in our full review of Alan Wake 2's newest DLC expansion.

Alan Wake 2 The Lake House is a claustrophobic carnival of horrors

Welcome to the Lake House (Image via Remedy Entertainment)

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First, it should be noted that all post-launch DLCs are only available as part of Alan Wake 2 Deluxe Edition. Those who own the base game must upgrade to Deluxe to play The Lake House, as it cannot be purchased separately. With that out of the way, let's discuss the finer details.

Alan Wake 2 The Lake House is set during the events of the early part of the base game campaign, as FBC Agent Kiran Estevez is summoned to the titular Lake House located near Cauldron Lake. This paranatural hotspot has been a series mainstay since the original Alan Wake game.

The facility has gone dark, so Estevez and her team must descend into its depths and find out what happened. After stepping into the cold confines of the research lab, you will notice that there is no sign of life anywhere. This ranges from the eerie automated typewriter room clicking away at nothingness to the offices affected by spatial distortions.

The Marmont couple are at the center of all this mess (Image via Remedy Entertainment)

Furthermore, by digging through the various documents and dossiers, it becomes clear that the facility was overseen by two scientists, who are a couple, Jules Marmont and Diana Marmont. The duo was involved in research of mimicking Alan Wake's writing to influence reality, leading to infighting amongst themselves.

The end result causes a malicious painting to take over all five sublevels of the place. Darkness is unleashed upon everyone within, turning them into Taken - the possessed shadowy entities seen across the series.

This is in addition to the never-before-seen horrifying entities introduced in Alan Wake 2 The Lake House. Finding herself at the mouth of the lion's den, Estevez must put on her big girl boots and fix this anomaly.

Things worsen as Estevez heads deeper into the chaos (Image via Remedy Entertainment)

As someone who is part of the Federal Bureau of Control (the central organization in 2019's Control), she is all too familiar with the nature of the supernatural occurrences around her. This is in stark contrast to the base game's FBI Agent, Saga Anderson, who gets roped into a mess she did not expect, or even the hero Alan Wake who is trapped in the Dark Place all this time.

However, Estevez does not possess the other-worldly, shape-shifting weapon that Control's protagonist and FBC Director Jesse Fayden did, so she must resort to tried and trusted methods to deal with threats.

Without any spoilers, the basic premise of the couple's greed for ambition unleashing an unimaginable horror is an interesting one, made all the more entertaining with clear jabs at AI "art" across the campaign.

Most importantly though, an encounter with a familiar face paving the way for Control 2 will be reason enough for fans to check out Alan Wake 2 The Lake House.

Strike a pose and shine a light

The core gameplay, playstyle, and controls are identical to the base Alan Wake 2 title, which is expected of a straightforward story expansion. The map is fairly small compared to the base game, as Alan Wake 2 The Lake House takes place entirely indoors in a facility with five sublevels.

Map of the facility in Alan Wake 2 The Lake House (Image via Remedy Entertainment)

The main mode of movement between sublevels in Alan Wake 2 The Lake House is an elevator, which will require you to track down keycards, as you progress to deeper levels.

This is interjected by occasional bouts of light puzzle-solving involving computer codes, and relocating power generators. Messages and logs littered around the facility explain the situation before the nightmare engulfed the facility. All in all, a classic survival horror setup.

While Estevez starts with a pistol, she will eventually find several other weapons which, alongside ammo and other resources like consumables, will be tucked away in the inventory. She will also have a flashlight, the main tool to ward off the protective shadows engulfing the Taken that she encounters across the campaign - and yes, it must be boosted and reloaded to be used like the original experience.

While Alan Wake's threats have never been spooky, this one certainly is (Image via Remedy Entertainment)

While this light-and-gun combo works well against the speedy, projectile-chucking Taken and the heavy brute ones, it is useless against the new "painting" creatures.

It won't be long before players realize something is terribly wrong when they encounter erratic splashes of paint adorning the walls and floors of some of the sublevels. These are nests for the freakish, screeching Slenderman-like painting entities who emerge from their acrylic abodes to hunt down Estevez.

As they cannot be hurt via traditional means, she must evade them to progress until she gets the all-new Black Rock Launcher, a grenade launcher that helps decimate these long-appendaged ghouls. Expectedly, ammo for the said weapon is scarce, so players must be conservative about resource management. However, this is also where the issues in Alan Wake 2 The Lake House arise.

A blemish on a canvas

The facility is teeming with hostile threats (Image via Remedy Entertainment)

Scarce resources are a staple of the survival horror genre, and Alan Wake 2 The Lake House does a decent job of upholding its mantra for the first half of the story. I often found myself narrowly scraping by encounters with the Taken, with the game spawning at least 3-4 at once.

This challenge gets tougher when the painting creatures show up, meaning escape is the only way out unless combat is unavoidable.

Unfortunately, the resource economy in Alan Wake 2 The Lake House seems lopsided, with ammo being plentiful compared to how few healing supplies there are. As such, it will not be uncommon for many players to face the final boss without any supplies, given how many enemy encounters are featured in the labyrinthine segment before it.

The solution must be deduced using hints from documents and notes dotted around (Image via Remedy Entertainment)

Then there are the puzzles. While the base Alan Wake 2 title featured some neat new mechanics in the form of the light switching using the Angel Lamp, none of that is present here. Instead, the game throws some repeated puzzles at the player, like computer codes based on calendar dates or relocating power blocks to switch power flow.

Lastly, Alan Wake 2 The Lake House is a very short experience, clocking in at a couple of hours at most - perhaps a little more if players want to track down every note and find every missable. As such, the experience doesn't leave a lasting impression, as there's barely any time to soak it all in.

Graphics, performance, and sound

The visuals in Alan Wake 2 The Lake House are as solid as the base game (Image via Remedy Entertainment)

As detailed in our Alan Wake 2 review, Remedy's latest project is one of the best-looking games ever made, and the same holds true for the DLC - including performance. The art design is closer to Control, however, with its use of crimson red and ever-shifting brutalist architecture that springs all sorts of emotions, ranging from awe to dread.

In terms of sound, too, it checks all the boxes that Alan Wake 2 did. However, it still does a great job at building tension - whether it be Estevez slinking through quaint hallways listening to the shuddering and rasping of the Taken in the corridors or running away from eerie horrors emerging from the paint-slathered walls.

On a minor note, I did experience a bug in Alan Wake 2 The Lake House where the player marker was invisible on the map. Hopefully, this gets fixed soon alongside the resource economy.

In conclusion

Alan Wake 2 The Lake House is satisfactory (Image via Remedy Entertainment)

While Alan Wake 2 The Lake House does not reach the heights of the original experience, fans will be satisfied with what it has to offer, despite its fleeting flaws. This new chapter in Alan Wake's saga doesn't just help expand the Remedyverse further but also widens the scope of understanding the plot of the base game.

The new horrors Agent Estevez faces are creepy, even though the experience is tarnished due to shallow puzzles and short playtime. That said, fans and genre newcomers who find the difficulty spikes too tedious due to low healing items may want to check out the neat "cheats" introduced in the free Alan Wake 2 Anniversary Update.