Alan Wake's American Nightmare Review

Alan Wake's American Nightmare (PC)
Developed and Published By: Remedy Entertainment
Date of Release: May 22, 2012
Price: $14.99

Previously on Alan Wake...
When we last saw our hero he had just defeated the dark presence at the bottom of the lake and was searching for a way out of his own personal horror novel, trying to get back to the real world to take on his evil doppelganger Mr Scratch. Now it seems that he is trapped within an episode of his own TV series, frantically trying to write his way out as he once again faces off against hordes of the taken. Will he prevail? Can he overcome the darkness in his own mind? It will soon become all too clear that a writer's own imagination can be his worst enemy... in Night Springs.




Right off the bat fans of the original Alan Wake will notice that American Nightmare does nothing to reinvent the wheel, and for good reason. The original Alan Wake was a major success, with a tried and true gameplay formula. American Nightmare merely fine tunes the experience, and is better for it. If they had tried to reinvent the experience as many spinoff titles do, it would well have been a complete disaster. Instead what we have is a finely crafted machine that sets out to tell a story, and tells it damn well.




For those who haven't played the original Alan Wake, I'll provide a brief rundown of how the game works. Alan Wake games are traditional third person shooters with a twist: your enemies are fueled by the darkness. If you want to do any damage at all you have to focus your flashlight on them until they weaken, and then finish them off with a gunshot (though it's unknown whether it's the bullet or the muzzle flash itself that it lethal to them). Along the way you'll have to contend with plenty of possessed objects as well, so prepare to have tractors and cable spools fly at you by the dozen!




Of course all the amazing gameplay in the world wouldn't mean squat without an awesome story to tie it together, and that's where this series really shines. The stunning narrative is backed up by a cast of talented voice actors, who also step in to do live FMV as well. Accentuating the superb performance is an awesomely wrought cinematic score, as well as another fine appearance by the band Poets of The Fall masquerading as The Old Gods of Asgard. When you add up all the elements of Alan Wake's American Nightmare, you get an amazing experience that manages to stand on it's own. Which is more than you can say for most spinoffs. In my humble opinion, American Nightmare is worth every cent of it's price, so if you're a fan of the original, or if you just want an interesting change from the usual gaming glut, give it a try! It's available on Steam, and also DRM-free at GOG.com!