The Signal was a continuation of the main game and showed Alan fighting himself in his story and not knowing why. Following the signal from Zane Alan must stop himself from killing himself in his story and to wake up to reality. The Writer continues this with Alan trying to reach the lighthouse and get back into the cabin to stop himself. The story is very strong and answers some questions that you may have had at the end of the main game. The end boss fight also feels like a huge finale and feels like it comes to a nice close without a big open cliffhanger.\\


The episode isn’t as combat heavy as The Signal, but has a lot more unique platforming and adventuring sections than The Signal plus it’s not nearly as hard. There are more words you can burn up to create things in the environment to kill the Dark beings and these tend to be more useful and unique. There are no driving sections in this one, unfortunately, but it makes up for it with more varied game play.


The Writer really mixes up all the elements in the Alan Wake universe very well and gives us one final shake-up of all the things we’re familiar with. This is what makes The Writer stronger than the last episode plus the conclusion of the story really helps as well. If you just so happen to have waited almost a year to get this you’ll notice some minor things like the slightly aged graphics, but other than that this DLC is strong and solid. I still wish the DLC would introduce new weapons or something in here, but at least it doesn’t recycle the same areas from the main game. The price is a bit steep even for something better than The Signal, but fans of the game need to get this to conclude the story.

I wasn't even going to write anything about this, but it genuinely surprised me for good. I consider that in these two bonus chapters there's something more interesting and worth it than what there is in the base game (and its standalone expansion American Nightmare). These two chapters, but specially this second one, tap on some of Alan Wake's untapped potential, or at least they express it better than the main game. And it is talking about the dark, dark hole Alan is (psychologically and mentally) in.

This time the menace isn't a creepy old lady with supernatural powers but Alan himself and his fractured psyche. This is about the internal conflict Alan is going through to make him face his insecurities and fears to then conclude saying that the problems won't simply go away or that someone will save you (despite being helped by Zane, everyone else is a ghostly imitation, usually hostile), but it is the job of oneself to get its life back on track.

Unfortunately, these two bonus chapters are that, bonus chapters, so they suffer from the same problems of repetition and monotony of which the main game also suffered, insisting with constant enemies and shootouts as well as having the same boring gameplay loop, but what these chapters tell is something that compensate enough the tedium and make it worth it to go through, even if it doesn't take more than 3 hours to beat both them.

While less combat heavy I STILL enjoy having the words to utilize AoE kills on my enemies, though I think it's played with less than the previous installment.

But while this part doesn't have as much fighting (because we are all TOTALLY playing this game for the combat. Obviously.) we're given a lot of really surreal and beautiful imagery. From the floating boat, to the turning windmill of memories, to the VERY nice light house section that doesn't make you feel powerful but more so hopeful, it all stuck very well.

And while the final fight of this installment is emotionally more meaningful, I feel the design of The Signal's final boss was more impactful, despite being more of a slog to fight.

Also wish they had kept the books instead of birds for this story--they matched better with the surreal tone better but I'm sure if I studied the symbolism more there would be a good reason for the swap.

Strangely enough, this is my favorite piece of Alan Wake content. Finally, after leaving us to wander through extremely repetitive forests throughout the majority of the base game, the devs at Remedy actually decided to introduce some genuinely weird and unsettling environmental details. For a game that’s at least partially concerned with dream logic, it’s pretty stunning to me that this theme didn’t really manifest in the setting until the last DLC, but it’s a welcome shift nonetheless. The combat is also a significant improvement over the first DLC - it maintains the inventive scenarios and mechanical variety while making it a lot less unrelenting and tedious. I also appreciated the narrative thrust, which is basically Alan Wake coming to terms with the fact that he is a terrible person.

Now comes the part where I have to mention that this ends with one of the most idiotic and unnecessary boss fights in recent memory. Still, it’s a move in the right direction.

Für mich der beste Teil des ganzes Spiels. Hier nimmt die Narrative (also der "Epilog") endlich Fahrt auf. Es gibt auch mehr Wörter aus der Schreibmaschine, mit denen man den linearen Weg "schreibt"- eine schöne Ergänzung zum ersten DLC.
Auch Gameplaytechnisch gibt es hier deutlich mehr Abwechslung durch jump and run Passagen. Das Problem ist nur, dass die Steuerung nicht wirklich darauf ausgelegt ist und man sich deshalb ziemlich unbeholfen fühlt. Einige Male bin ich heruntergefallen, weil man die Abstände des Sprungs nur schlecht einschätzen konnte. Nachdem ich einige Abschnitte für die Trophäen erneut gespielt hatte, klappte es dann auch ganz gut.
Auch hier sind die Trophäen wieder straight forward: Durchspielen, Collectibles einsammeln, Secrets entdecken und einen playthrough ohne Neuladen eines Checkpoints (also auch Tode) schaffen. Glücklicherweise hab ich nach dem normalen Durchlauf den no death run direkt beim ersten Versuch geschafft.
Ehrlich gesagt bietet das DLC genau das, was ich mir vom Hauptspiel versprochen habe. Die Länge ist ca. 45min.


Ich freue mich jetzt erstmal auf Teil 2- American Nightmare, welcher eine Brücke zwischen den beiden Teilen schaffen soll. Schaue ich mir wahrscheinlich als playthrough auf youtube an.

Feels kinda weird giving the main game as well as both DLCs the same score, but I really think the quality is super strong all the way throughout. This DLC probably has the strongest characterization for Alan yet while also teasing the players with questions yet to be answered. Gameplay continues The Signal's trend of utilizing familiar mechanics in some new ways and while it can be a bit frustrating with how quickly Alan goes down, I do think that overall adds to the tense atmosphere that makes up a huge part of my enjoyment of the game.

these DLC chapters are so fucking strange lmao.

it eases up on the combat which i appreciated. however, in place of it they decided to try some almost puzzle platforming which again does not feel well thought out with the game's moveset/controls.

i'll take it over The Signal but i'm probs not coming back to either one again.

Wife’s Reaction:
“What? Huh? What?”

Shine a Bright Write Light:
The second showing for Alan Wake’s downloadable content ended up being much stronger than the first. There are novel set pieces and fun encounters that continued to build on what the first DLC had brought forth. That said, I’m not quite sure if either of these DLC packs were worth it from a story angle. Maybe I’d feel differently if a sequel wasn’t almost here.