Alan Wake's American Nightmare takes place in a small, Arizona town called Night Springs. The town isn't a real town, yet it isn't fictitious either. It simply exists somewhere between fiction and reality, and serves as a prison for Alan. After succumbing to the ending events of the first Alan Wake game, Alan is sent to said prison by his evil doppelganger, Mr. Scratch, who replaces him in the real world. Mr. Scratch feeds off of chaos and seeks only to destroy Alan's life as the evil being masquerades as the imprisoned writer, killing and terrorizing as he pleases. To top it all off, Mr. Scratch promises to save Alan's wife, Alice, for last.
Luckily, Alan finds that, while Mr. Scratch has the majority of control within Night Springs, he can actually influence the world through his own writing. By making small manipulations of Night Springs' physical locales so that they more closely match Alan's writing, the writer can set into motion a melding of the two worlds. Alan intends to use this ability to create a weapon which will destroy Mr. Scratch, and hopefully return him to the real world. He just has to fight his way through the hordes of darkness-subjugated "Taken" first.
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| Why do evil twins always dress so much better? |
Does the story sound strange and confusing? That's because it is, and it's actually meant to be. In fact, the entire game is set up as though it may just be an episode of a cult TV show that shares the name "Night Springs", which is clearly a tip of the hat to The Twilight Zone. Veterans of the first Alan Wake adventure will be familiar with the disorienting feeling of not ever knowing what's real and what's fiction. Heck, I've played both games and I still couldn't tell you what actually happened for sure in either.
This muddled and hard to follow plot might seriously turn off some gamers, and I wouldn't blame them at all. Personally I've found that the story requires some major suspense of disbelief, and even then it may not fully enjoyable for all.
What I did enjoy was the gameplay. Just like in Alan Wake, American Nightmare features the flashlight and gun combo. The game's enemies, the "Taken" are shrouded with a shield of darkness which makes them impervious to bullets. Alan can shine his flashlight on enemies to wear away the shield, making them susceptible to lead poisoning. There are around 6 different guns with varying power that can be found throughout the levels, as well as various items such as flares which come in handy against the darkness.
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| Nailed it! |
This time around there is much more variety in the types of Taken that Alan faces, such as the flock of dark birds which materialize into human form and attempt to take our writer by surprise. There are also many, many more ammo and health pickups throughout the game, which isn't exactly a good thing to me. Always being locked and loaded completely took away the tension that the first game did so well, making this feel more like an Action Game/Shooter than a Survival Horror.
American Nightmare does, however, do just as good of a job setting up a creepy atmosphere as Alan Wake did. Surprisingly the graphics are on par with the full release first game, which is impressive for a Xbox Live Arcade title. Sound effects and voice acting do a great job making the town of Night Springs seem desolate, and its inhabitants seem desperate.
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| Nothing bad ever happens in abandoned shacks on foggy nights, right? |
The story mode in American Nightmare is pretty short. I actually took the time to find all of the collectable manuscripts strewn throughout the game and to watch/listen to the various TV and radio programs that are in each level and I still finished the game in around 5 hours. I can only imagine that if you went straight for the main missions and did nothing else that the game would be around 3 or less hours long.
To stretch out the gametime, Remedy introduces a new game mode in American Nightmare, the Fight Till Dawn arcade mode. The name of the game in this mode is survival. Alan must survive wave after wave of enemies of increasing difficulty for 10 minutes. There are two difficulties and eight maps to experience this mode across. The waves of Taken are pretty fun to take on, though I found the fact that new maps are only unlocked by performing extremely well on others to be a bit frustrating.
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| Woah, woah, woah, where's the fire buddy? |
Alan Wake's American Nightmare is definitely not what I was hoping for after finishing Alan Wake. I had so many questions that I wanted answers for, and American Nightmare does little to answer them. I really miss the tension and unease that was present in the first game, blasting Taken all night long is fun and all, but it's not what makes Alan Wake an unforgettable experience. American Nightmare is a fun enough game on its own, but you're going to have to just think of it as more of an Alan Wake spin-off than a sequel.
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