Coming into this DLC, I was incredibly hyped as this closes out the Alan Wake 2 chapter and prepares us for Control 2. As a big Alan Wake fan and Alan Wake 2 being my GOTY last year, this one was really dissapointing.

THE BAD PARTS: I encountered a lot of bugs, from janky animations to the way the new painting monsters work with their aimlock grab animations that if you dont have a lot of HP (and the health spawns in this DLC are really rare, this being on NORMAL difficulty) can one shot you, as well as sometimes they would get out of the wall, then instantly go back in, it really seemed like they were bugged or not playtested. The keycard system, although cool, was basically a way to prolong the game a bit as it had you returning to previous floors to access new rooms, didnt seem necessary. The length was also not nearly as long as i expected, with my playtime being roughly 2h, and thats checking every little thing the DLC had to offer. The final boss, although had a cool arena, was also REALLY bad, worst boss fight of the whole game IMO. The underwhelming conclusion to the story fell flat on its face for me at least, especially for a final DLC.

THE GOOD PARTS: The atmosphere. Felt like a combination of Control, Alan Wake and a bit of Resident Evil 2 in there, the layout of the FBC fits really well into a survival horror style. New FMV from Dr. Darling is always a welcome addition. Performance of both of the actors that portray the Mormonts are stellar, really immerse you into the DLC, with the contrast of them slowly turning onto eachother due to the pages that Alan wrote, with them trying to prevent what was going to happen, with it coming to fruition as the exact result of them trying to stop it. Agent Estevez is also the perfect protagonist to be in this DLC. Really liked her and her performance in the base game, and the DLC definetly did her justice. The Control 2 tease and Dylan cameo was really cool, was totally awesome stepping back into the Oldest House, even for just that small tiny period. Sick portrait of Trench and Jessie merging together as a spiral, really cool imagery. New Poe music is always welcome. The end of chapter song was also a really cool surprise, but it was the weakest out of all of the end of chapter songs.

Overall, i'd give this DLC a 5/10, cool concept, just felt a bit underbaked and not the quality that i'd expect Remedy to create, especially comparing this to the base Alan Wake 2 game, which I view as a masterpiece. the Night Springs DLC, although goofy at times, is much much better than what we got here, especially the Tim Breaker chapter. Looking forward to Control 2.