Night Springs Kinda Sucks… (Alan Wake 2 DLC)

After months of waiting for the next installment in the Alan Wake saga.
#nightsprings Alanwake2 #digitalhauntology #dlc
Night Springs is finally out.
But after playing it- it seems more like wasted potential than anything.
And in fact, it kinda sucks. Check out the video to see why.

[@WVRLORD]

I don’t know how they missed the opportunity to give us a Alex Casey section and instead gave us the waitress.

[@digitalhauntology]

Right? Would have been an awesome moment. But given James McCaffrey’s untimely death. That might have been considered but then changed. RIP

[@greengrugach1984]

You have 'The Suicide of Rachel Foster and 'Quantum Break' in your top list, mate i thought you were pretty ********* cool already but that alone, you are the man mate, cannot recommend 'This Room we Maid' 'Everspace 2' 'Chorus' 'Disco Elysium' 'System Shock' 'The Invincible' highly enough, i will be buying a few off your list asap, TSoRF is incredible, have to wear headphones for it, incredible hidden gem, you ever play 'Get Even' ? Another hidden gem, GreenGruagach on both big two, it would be an honour but not nessesary either no offence will be taken, used to game a lot on downtime on tour in The Stan, Irish born and reared, ex BAF three combat tours amongst many other combat drops in many other places I cannot mention here for obvious reasons, I've seen things that would make a Remedy game, there are a lot of things the 'powers that be' don't want the masses knowing, in Kandahar we engaged.....something after tracking a Chechen unit, we found some of them, we think it was them, thing was big, fast, durable and if it was of this earth not many know about it (or them?), apparently a US lrrp unit engaged it near the same coordinates, it may have been a toxin or gas pocket but how do 8 blokes all see the same thing, stranger still that area was out of bounds as well by top brass, thing was defending intelligently, it had a shield of some sort by only primitive projectiles, shield was high tech, we emptied three mags a piece near enough and found a lot of bullets that looked like they hit a titanium alloy, 7 other men can confirm this, i know how it sounds as well, like a lie, i do not nor will i ever lie though, my word has to count or i am no proper bloke, honour is at my very core, anyways, thought you'd appreciate that bit of weird, it also stunk, strangest smell I've ever smelled, burnt off smell, not natural or chemical, something else, we rarely talk about it, Ecky reckons they used us as an experiment as we had 'shots' just a few weeks prior to our op, maybe he's right.

[@digitalhauntology]

Yeah those “ranking every video game” videos I make- I put every game that I’ve covered on this channel, and then I put them in a ranking. The goal is to figure out what I think the best game of all time is. Right now I have Control as #1 And Suicide of Rachel Foster as dead last (the game itself is fine, but the story is insanely offensive for several reasons- at least to me) I plan on getting around to Disco Elysium in the near future, and I’ll look into the others you mentioned here. Cheers mate. Feel free to recommend anything. I plan on working on this channel for a while. As for the stuff you saw on your tour, that sounds insane. I’m always interested in hidden and conspiracy cover ups. Stay safe out there

[@WASTEOIDx]

Hyped for this vid man, gonna get into Alan wake after shadow of the erdtree is complete. Be well man.

[@digitalhauntology]

I appreciate it. Hope you enjoy Alan Wake when you get around to it

[@hypertensionfilms5439]

It always hurts to hear Jim McCaffrey, but I'm so glad his legacy lives on. Excellent review, as always 🤘🏻

[@digitalhauntology]

@@hypertensionfilms5439 Yeah it’s never gonna feel real. I have no idea what they are going to do about the Max Payne remakes. It will never be the same. Thanks for watching, my friend.

[@leroyjenkins2393]

Fair criticisms, though I think you may have set your sights a bit too high for what this dlc was going to be. It’s important to note that American Nightmare was actually its own separate game and not exactly dlc like night springs was though it did use pretty much the same engine as the first game. The first Alan wake did have two dlcs though which most people forget about called the signal and the writer that expanded the story while also being more or less “asset dumps.” I personally found the night springs episodes to be way more fun and creative than either of those. And while sure, these new episodes were all pretty short and recycled assets, I found them to be incredibly creative and with their own unique styles. For instance, I personally enjoyed the waitress chapter quite a bit. Not only for the funny writing and tone, but I liked that it gave us the chance to really appreciate the detail that remedy put into the combat and damage physics which kind of get lost through all of the lighting, smoke, and overlays of the main game. And as fun and challenging as the usual Alan wake combat is, I found it a nice change of pace to just have it stripped down to its basics for once. Basically, what I’m saying is that since DLC is usually played from the main game, to save file space and to ultimately remain feasible to do, it is not usually that far removed from the main game in terms of mechanics and assets and so I doubt there was ever much of a chance of incorporating the control and quantum break mechanics into the game and the likelihood of the character models and assets being drastically different from the base game was not likely going to happen. I think for these dlcs it’s best to just expect more fun remedy stories in the Alan Wake universe and not get too hyped on getting entirely new games.

[@digitalhauntology]

First, thanks for taking the time to write your reply. I make these videos in hopes for conversations like this, so this is rad. I totally agree with you that holding this to the standard of American Nightmare might be unfair. Like you said, that was a standalone entry. And to go even further it was essentially retooling assets that had been made for the "Alan Wake 2 prototype" when Remedy was trying to get the sequel approved after the first game was completed. And it makes sense to compare this to the Signal and the Writer for sure- but that was Remedy over 10 years ago. Sure those were asset dumps, and they definitely padded out each of those chapters with bad platforming and put too much of an emphasis on combat there- but I did feel like those chapters still found a way to push the overall narrative forward even if it was fairly limited. For me, I'm mostly viewing this through the lens of the AWE DLC. There the connected universe was pushed really hard, there were some rad side missions, exploration was great there, and then there were all sorts of upgrades you could find that could change up the way that you played the game. And even though it was a fairly small addition, they did manage to bring Alan Wake's "fight with light" mechanics into Control. Here in Night Springs though, other than the Time Breaker chapter, I didn't really get the feeling that Remedy had either the time or resources to figure out how to bring the games they were connecting to this entry fully into the experience- at least mechanically. Even as little nods like we saw in AWE. And then, with the emphasis on action and the scaling back of the survival horror elements- I don't know, I just felt like this experience was kind of worse than what was established in the main game. I do agree with you that there was some pretty funny writing here. I do think the scenarios were relatively clever, and I could totally understand how these could hit for other players. I think for me, everything felt just a little too truncated for it to find its mark. But all that said, still love Remedy. Can't wait for The Lake House and Control 2 is my most anticipated game in years. Long live Remedy, thanks for sharing you thoughts, and thank you for watching!

[@GrimReader]

It’s an anthology piece but not enough. The biggest issue of them is length, they don’t give nearly enough time to breathe or have a narrative that anything other than funny or at least novel. The best is episode one seeing as it has a real sense of humour to it being a bit lame and indulgent most let down by two purely because it has the best atmosphere but too brief.

[@digitalhauntology]

You are 100 percent right about them not having room to breathe. It almost feels like these chapters are over by the time they really get momentum. Thank you for watching!

[@greengrugach1984]

I adore Remedy games and this DLC just didn't do it for me, it wasn't bad it was just not great either, maybe i expected too much.

[@digitalhauntology]

I’m in the same boat. I think it’s really stemming from the fact that Remedy typically hits with every release- but this felt fairly limited this time around. Love Remedy, hopefully the Lake House delivers! Thank you for watching.

[@greengrugach1984]

@@digitalhauntology 'limited' yeh brother, that pretty much sums this up, their track record is stellar though, and fans like you and I will get a great Lake House DLC, maybe even get to play as Alice and using the camera.......that sounds weird when I look at it, I mean in the as a mechanic of the game not in the babestation way.....honest 😂

[@digitalhauntology]

😆 I hope it ends up tying into Control 2 somehow. The hype is real.

[@greengrugach1984]

@@digitalhauntology would be amazing if they could get the rights for Quantum Break, which imo is severely underrated and paved the way for Controls combat in a way, be great Max Payne as well.

[@digitalhauntology]

@@greengrugach1984 I don’t Rockstar would sell the rights, but possibly. Quantum Break rules- and I really doubt Microsoft will do anything with it. I think there is a way better chance for that one transferring over to Remedy. They sold Alan Wake back to them. Fingers crossed.

[@TheEsapirnes]

Some how some people doesn't realize that Night Springs isn't in the same universe as Control and Alan Wake are. Night Springs happens in "tv series" and are "what if... scenarios", so episodes never supposed to be same stuff as Alan Wake 2 had. Lake House DLC is most likely intro for Control 2 or something, just like Control's AWE DLC was for Alan Wake 2.

[@flannaz3769]

Remedy don't own the rights to quantum break at all - so they cannot use any of the characters from that game - They would need to ask Microsoft for those rights.

[@digitalhauntology]

Yeah, you’re right. I made sure to mention that when I was covering the “Time Breaker” episode. Thanks for watching!

[@Kinos141]

Night Springs have always been off-genre compared to main game. It's nothing new to them.

[@digitalhauntology]

💯 I guess my complaint is less about being off genre and more about lacking any real connection to what came before. American Nightmare was able to do both. And I get this is smaller than that, but even AWE was able to tie the multiverse stuff together while also messing with mechanics that were somewhat in line with Alan Wake. This one just didn’t quite hit for me this time around. Still love Remedy.

[@AlmaBuru]

Remedy have not made a single good game since max payne 1

[@Thomastm33]

L take. Alan Wake is great and so is Control.

[@digitalhauntology]

I don’t know if I agree. I love pretty much everything they’ve made. But I can’t deny that their style has changed quite a bit since Max Payne. So I could see why someone would prefer that game to everything else.

[@greengrugach1984]

​@@digitalhauntologynow that is a classy reply, you didn't agree with op but you replied with humility, liked, subbed and respect from Ireland 🇮🇪🤝🇺🇸

[@digitalhauntology]

At the end of the day I’m just an idiot on the internet. As long as people are chill in the way they communicate- I try to keep it cool as well. I appreciate the kind words. Also, my great grandparents came to America from Ireland, so I’m happy to know these videos are reaching the motherland. 🇮🇪