Alan Wake's American Nightmare

Don't await too much of a story but a good piece of action with this spin off from the mystery drama Alan Wake. A nice and new way to find new players for a franchise.

As a standalone "episode" of Alan Wake, American Nightmare is something PC gamers should be checking out, particularly if the craziness of it appeals to you. For $15 there's really no excuse; and if it ever goes on sale, the trigger on this purchase should be pulled without hesitation.

Heavy on action and light on survival horror: despite its shortcomings, American Nightmare is a must have for Alan Wake fans.

American Nightmare is a good comeback for our favourite writer. It's a bit too small and its structure could use some more variety. But, given the price of admittance and the sheer quality of its elements, it's well worth playing.

It doesn't hurt that the gun play is extremely well realised, with each weapon feeling distinctive, and even, dare it be said, approaching realism.

Quotation forthcoming.

By rights, Alan Wake's American Nightmare should be utterly underwhelming. The core game is changed not at all from its parent's lukewarm style, the story is thin and hackneyed, hell it even has live-action cutscenes. But somehow, the gameplay is challenging enough to keep you clicking that left mouse button and listening to that weird, not quite Rod Serling voice telling you to survive until morning just one more time.

But just as its predecessor, it remains a game sentenced to struggle on the line between interaction and presentation, a space where compromises must be made by at least one of the sides, with the game proper still taking the larger hit. Because when it comes to its interaction degree, Alan Wake really doesn't have much more than a flashlight, a gun and, occasionally, a flashbang.

We all had hopes American Nightmare would be more of a "full-featured" title. Though it's more like a stand-alone DLC. Nevertheless, fans of the original game should not avoid it. [July 2012]

Even though the game has lost its thrilling moments and the story feels like filler in the grand scheme – making me not care much about Alan this time – Alan Wake's American Nightmare is still a good and entertaining shooter. The story will last around four hours and the Arcade Mode will keep you coming back if you enjoy that type of gameplay.

Wake's journey gets less creepy and more shooty in the fun but flawed American Nightmare.

The biggest problem is that despite the increased focus on action, combat remains unchanged--a couple of new monsters, but few new tricks. [Sept 2012, p.71]

Not bad as an exercise in softcore shooting, but why wasn't this Alan Wake spin-off more, you know, Alan Wake? [July 2012, p.59]