Game Review: Alan Wake's American Nightmare

The game I'm reviewing today is called Alan Wake's American Nightmare. This game isn't a sequel exactly to the first game, but serves as more of a spin off game from the main series. Think of it as being an alternate Alan Wake within the same universe. This game was developed by Remedy Entertainment who also made the first game, and was published by Microsoft Studios. It was released as a DLC on Xbox 360's live market back in February of 2012, then a few months later as well for the PC. 

This game has a very, very different tone than the first. You can honestly tell the tonal shift just from looking at the covers of the game, in a way. With the first Alan Wake game the cover gives a feel of isolation, you can barely see Alan through the ever encompassing shadows and lush tree environment around him. With American Nightmare, Alan is standing on top of some red rocks in Arizona in an open desert area. 

He's holding a nailgun in hand and with the way he's dressed, he looks like he's coming straight from a Home Depot ad. If the first game was about a dark mystery with plenty of tension, atmosphere and mood, than this game is only about killing everything in sight and not giving a damn about the mystery at hand. It's a much different pace and tone from the first game, but it's definitely a fun one with plenty of great moments. 

For anyone interested in this game, I should mention that you don't need to play the first game to be able to play and understand this one. I mentioned before that it is a spin off series, it stands on it's own two legs and doesn't require the support of knowledge from the first game. Alan will give some bits of exposition to the player through the meetings of other characters in the world. You'll at least get an idea of some things that have happened within previous dealings of the series while he explains things to the NPC's you run into. 

The plan he has however is not such a simple thing to convey with a few short lines of dialogue. Your enemy in this game is the physical form of Alan's dark impulses known only as Mr. Scratch. The game takes place inside of the TV series called Night Springs, which is basically this universes equivalent to The Twilight Zone in a way. If it sounds familiar to anyone who played the first game, it's because you would often run into TV's playing episodes of the show which you could watch. 

The reason we're inside the show and why it was shown in the first game is because it was Alan's first writing job. To defeat the dark force and escape this, you'll have to bend reality to the way you want it which involves shooting and blowing some stuff up. Unfortunately, this also involves listening to the song Club Foot a number of times which may start to eat away at your sanity if you're anything like me. 

As with the last game the hordes of enemies you'll be fighting off are the Taken. As like the last game, you'll have to burn away the darkness from enemies before they're able to be harmed. The weapon arsenal we have in this game is also similar to the last game, with flare gun rounds to burn away the giant groups of enemies as well as flashbang grenades, and of course our handy dandy flashlight for most encounters of the singular kind. Once again there is plenty of supplies laying around so you never feel like your ammo is going to run empty and have to panic over that. The combat is paced the same way as the first game and you'll have to get through enemies by flashing, shooting, retreating just the same. 

Another similarity from the first game in this one is the hunt for manuscript pages. The setting for these is quite different though, as they're not from a book which you've written and have no recollection of. They're set in place to still fill in the story like the original, but also to help you find weapon caches of new firearms which you can employ on your battle against the Taken. The more you collect the more firearms you can unlock depending on how many pages they require. The guns range from an SMG, to an assault rifle, to a combat shotgun and more. 

One more thing that's very similar from the previous game but plays a bigger role in this one is the interactive TV's we find. Instead of seeing episodes of Night Springs we start finding videos of our nemesis Mr. Scratch. These videos depict messages to Alan, and for the most part are pretty creepy and elicit some hair raising moments. As I previously mentioned, Mr. Scratch is Alan's dark impulses come to life. He's the exact opposite of what Alan represents. A cold, evil serial killer who wants to take away and destroy everything which Alan has in life, including his sanity. He works as a very interesting, charming antagonist and I think is a great parallel to what Alan could be if he lost his mind and gave in to the darkness. 

I do have to say that unfortunately Alan is nowhere as interesting as his dark counterpart in this game. He was much more intriguing in the first game and had a lot more depth to his character and story. We saw a complex man who was slightly damaged and trying to deal with serious issues, being driven forward into the role of a hero due to his love and guilt towards his wife and role in causing what has happened to her. 

In this game though, he's very open to the idea of being a hero and is more than happy shouldering the responsibility of the situation and trying to save the world. However, the relationship he has with Mr. Scratch is an interesting one that does drive some nuances of character development for him. I think part of the reason why we don't get rich character development, interesting side characters and a longer plot with this game is due to how short it is compared to the original. We're looking at around 4 hours of gameplay to complete the storyline, maybe 4 and a half if you're looking for all the extras. 

I mentioned having to hear the song Club Foot a lot in this game as well earlier. That is because the game is stuck in a loop repeatedly. You'll be playing through the same locations and finding the same characters not once, but three times in a row. Each run through your tasks will change as you figure out what must be done to get an adequate solution to each situation. While I like this concept in a way, it takes away from a lot of the surprise you'd find otherwise since you're doing the same things again and again until you find how to make it work. 

Another option for anyone who's finished the game or isn't interested much in the story for some reason, is the Arcade mode of the game. This is a mode similar to what Gears of War or COD zombies offered where you'll just be fighting off hordes of Taken for points which you can stack up for as long as you can stay alive. The variety of maps for this is pretty nice, and offers a break to playing through the mind of a writer grappling with the consequences of his creation running rampant. 

Overall, this game is not a spiritual successor to it's previous title. It takes a very different pace and tone compared to the original game, but provides just enough in common with the original game to stay entertaining and balance out the story with the action. I do think it could have used some interesting side characters like the first game had, as well as a longer story which gave Alan some more time to grow and flourish as a character, but it is no doubt an entertaining time and will give you a few hours of fun for a low price. I'd definitely recommend this game for fans of the first game or anyone who wants something cool to play. 

Hope you've enjoyed my review! Thanks for checking it out!