Influenced by the Twilight Zone television show, Night Springs is the name of fictional TV series that players can watch episodes of in their travels across Bright Falls. Throughout the game, players can track down six episodes to collect the Couch Potato reward. With the Steam release of Alan Wake, and the pending launch of Alan Wake's American Nightmare, Remedy made three extra episodes available.
Overview:
In search of a new place to live, Linda asks Mark to help her leave Night Springs. As they drive on the road leading away from the town, they stop to help an injured man.
Recording:
Transcript:
NARRATOR: Most of us have felt its shadow over us. A shiver down your back. A glimpse from the corner of the eye. You can't find it on purpose, but take a wrong turn, board the wrong bus, wonder where you are when you wake up, and you will find yourself in the small town of... Night Springs. Tonight's episode... The Doomed Samaritan.
NARRATOR: Sometimes, even the simplest things prove impossible. Consider, you get in a car and leave a life behind. Easy? Not tonight.
(A man in a hat and hoodie is crawling across the road. Further down the lane, a car is approaching.)
LINDA: Thanks for the ride, Mark. I'm so glad to be leaving this place. You have no idea.
MARK: What? Night Springs? C'mon Linda, relax, it's not that bad.
(The car pulls up to the man crawling in front of them.)
MARK: Hey, what's that up ahead?
LINDA: Oh, God! There's someone in the road. I think there's been an accident.
(Linda gets out of the car to check on the man.)
LINDA: Are you alright?
(The man looks up, he is identical to Mark.)
INJURED MAN: Oh no, Linda! Oh, no! It was me on the road. I- wait, tell him to watch out for the truck. Watch out for the truck!
LINDA: My- my God! Mark?!
(Linda turns around in time to see the truck pass them, hitting Mark who had just left the car. Linda screams. Moments later, Mark is crawling across the road.)
INJURED MAN: Please, God, no! Linda! Liiinda!
(The road is clear again. Mark, injured by the truck, begins to crawl across the road to safety.)
LINDA (Background): Thanks for the ride, Mark. I'm so glad to be leaving this place. You have no idea.
MARK 2 (Background): What? Night Springs? C'mon Linda, relax, it's not that bad.
(A car pulls up in the background)
MARK 2 (Background): Hey, what's that up ahead?
LINDA (Background): Oh, God! There's someone in the road. I think there's been an accident.
(Linda gets out of the car, approaches Mark, and leans in.)
MARK: Oh no, Linda! Oh, no! It was me on the road. I- wait, tell him to watch out for the truck. Watch out for the truck!
LINDA: My- my God! Mark?!
(Linda turns around in time to see the truck pass them, hitting Mark 2 who had just left the car.)
NARRATOR: And there you have it. I viscious cycle, brutally puncuated by the blast of an air horn, and screaming metal. Many roads are dangerous, but none more so than the one that leads away from... Night Springs.
Notes from The Doomed Samaritan?
- Themes. Similar to the game, The Doomed Samaritan explores themes of fate.
- Quantum Break. Remedy would later explore closed time loops in Quantum Break. With many interpretations of time travel, the studio pursued the theory that changes are impossible and intervention to prevent an event will always lead to that same outcome.
Night Springs in American Nightmare:
In Alan Wake's American Nightmare, Alan expands on what Night Springs is and it's meaning to him in a series of manuscript pages:
- Alan Wake, The Writer. "My name is Alan Wake, and I’m a writer. I didn’t become one overnight. Like most writers, I struggled with it -- a short story here, an article there. Then I got lucky and spent a year as a staff writer on the Night Springs TV show. It wasn’t the great American novel of my fantasies, but it taught me discipline and craft, and the difference between wanting to be a writer and actually writing."
- Night Springs, the Cult TV Show. "Night Springs doesn’t exist. It’s a fictional town from the TV show I used to work on. It was Anyplace, USA, a place we used as a backdrop for whatever strange story we had that week. One of the stories I wrote for the show involved a man, “the champion of light,” fighting his evil double, “the herald of darkness”. It was something I’d written back in the real world -- something I had a link to, a framework I could build on. I adapted it into a new story. This story."
