Alan Wake 2’s next DLC is dropping next week, and it looks horrifying

By Carli Velocci Published October 17, 2024

Alan Wake 2‘s second planned expansion is on the way, set to make the game more terrifying than ever. The Lake House DLC is dropping on October 22, bringing a new playable character and a new, but expected, setting if you played the base game.

Developer Remedy Entertainment showed off the first gameplay for The Lake House at the start of the October 2024 Xbox Partner Preview, and revealed a lot of details. First up, the DLC takes place in, well, the Lake House. This is a Federal Bureau of Control (FBC) research station set up on Cauldron Lake, the mysterious, ocean-like center of the Alan Wake series. We knew from Alan Wake 2 that something happened at the Lake House off-screen, leading to Agent Estevez teaming up with Saga Anderson and Alex Casey in the later half of the game. Lead writer Clay Murphy said in an Xbox Wire blog that by the time Saga and Estevez meet up in the game, “the story of this expansion has already occurred.”

Players will be inhabiting the role of Agent Estevez in the expansion, with gameplay similar to Alan Wake 2. She doesn’t have supernatural powers, but she has a “new FBC-specific weapon” for players to try out.

While the base game didn’t have a set tone, The Lake House leans harder into the horror aspects, with a tone similar to the sections in the Valhalla Nursing Home, according to the developers. Instead of the typical enemies, players will have to go up against a new threat, called the Painted, who appear coming out of painted murals on the walls.

The gameplay trailer also gives us glimpses into how the game connects to Control, another Remedy Connected Universe title. We’ve already seen a ton of connections between Alan Wake 2 and Control in both games, but with an FBC outpost as the central location, it’s unsurprising we would be getting even more Control. There’s a teaser at the end of the trailer that shows what looks like Dylan Faden, one of the antagonists in Control, in his cage. Or at least, it looks like him.

“It did look a lot like Dylan,” communications manager Miika Huttunen told Xbox. “It might be worth really exploring the nooks and crannies of the Lake House…” Huttunen added. “Let’s just say that we’re as excited as anyone in seeing how the story of the Faden siblings unfold in the future.”

You can check out The Lake House if you have Alan Wake 2 Deluxe Edition for $80. You’ll get access to the base game, along with the previous Night Springs expansion, which presents surreal and sometimes hysterical “what if” scenarios starring other Remedy characters.