Today's game is Alan Wake 2's Lake House DLC. I finished it up today, and holy shit it was good. I'd say it was as good as the main game for me. It took the core of the game and did some neat things with it that really upped all the aspects in different ways i feel.
For example, these guys. I fucking loved and hated dealing with them. Typically i don't like invincible enemies, but these guys being thrown into the game where i feel like you're expected to kill most of the enemies was amazing. I was almost a little disappointed when i got the black rock gun.
Another aspect i like is that we're seeing the aftermath of Alan's work. We only really see Alan effect the story first hand at the end. Until then we're just following his trail and playing Catch up. In a way it's fitting for the story of Estevez.
Speaking of Estevez. I want more of her. The DLC took her from a "pretty cool character" too "I need more". I wouldn't mind her getting her own game. It's certainly something i could see Remedy doing too.
Another aspect of this i liked was all the themes going on, i brushed a lot on them last time so i'll mainly cover one here, but i like how it's kind of a warning against trying to control and define art. Art is this free and almost mysterious force we can't really define. Try as we might with experiments or definitions, art just can't work like that. To attempt to control that on a level would only lead to catastrophic events.
Another aspect i liked was the whole "The Marmonts were monsters begin with" idea. Really cool and human angle i liked. I especially liked the boss fight too. Mainly the cutscene before though. I don't think we've ever seen Taken on Taken violence. In a way it's almost scarier because it doesn't feel natural to the rules the story has setup. In a way that itself is fitting too the unnatural story the Marmonts created through their tampering with forces they shouldn't have.
Once i finished the DLC that's when i decided to do the screenshots. I thought it would be best with all ideas fresh in my head, plus after telling Rudolph Lane goodbye i needed a moment. In a way it really highlights how the story is the "monster". No one escapes, not even the characters from the first game. And in a way, it's not the dark presence doing it this time, it's the story itself doing it.
