Alan Wake's American Nightmare

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Alan Wake hunts his evil double through a night in the Arizona desert.

Platforms: PC, Xbox
Price: Paid
Rated: Mostly Positive on Steam (75% of 10,909 reviews); Metacritic 73 (PC)
Players: 1
Made by: Remedy Entertainment
Released: 2012

Get it on Steam GOG Xbox (Xbox 360 version)Official site

What frightens Writer Alan Wake hunts his murderous double, Mr. Scratch, through a desert town at night, where people possessed by darkness come at him in hordes and can only be hurt once his flashlight burns the shadow off them; giant spiders crawl across the dark roads.
Content: violence, gun combat.

Alan Wake's American Nightmare is a standalone third-person horror shooter from Remedy Entertainment, a spin-off of Alan Wake. Alan chases his murderous doppelganger, Mr. Scratch, through the town of Night Springs, Arizona, fighting hordes of the Taken with a flashlight and guns. It is lighter and more action-driven than the first game.

About Alan Wake's American Nightmare

Alan Wake's American Nightmare is a standalone spin-off of Remedy Entertainment's Alan Wake. It came out on Xbox 360 in February 2012 and on PC in May 2012. The story is framed as an episode of Night Springs, a Twilight Zone-style TV show from the first game. Alan has written his way out of the Dark Place and ends up near Night Springs, Arizona, on the trail of Mr. Scratch, an evil double who looks exactly like him and wants to take away everything he loves.

It plays like the first game: you aim your flashlight at an enemy until the darkness wrapped around it burns away, then shoot. Here the fights are bigger and more frequent. There is more ammunition and more weapons, from a nail gun and a crossbow to combat shotguns and a machine gun, and manuscript pages you collect open weapon cases. A motel, an oil field and an observatory are among the places you fight through, each at night.

What frightens is the dark itself and what comes out of it: the Taken, people possessed by a dark force, surge out of the shadows with axes, saws and guns, and giant spiders cross the desert roads. Beside the story there is an arcade mode, Fight till Dawn, where you hold out against waves of enemies until sunrise for a score on the leaderboards.

Compared with Alan Wake Remastered it is shorter in scope and more of a shooter than a slow-burning thriller, with a pulpy, B-movie tone. Alan Wake 2 went the other way, into survival horror. It suits players who liked the flashlight combat of the first game and want more of it, or anyone after a third-person action horror game that does not ask for much time.

How to play Alan Wake's American Nightmare

Start Story Mode from the main menu, or Arcade Mode for score runs against the clock.
Hold the flashlight on an enemy to burn away its shield of darkness, then shoot it.
Keep your distance from groups of Taken and deal with them one at a time.
Collect manuscript pages as you explore; enough of them open weapon cases with stronger guns.
Follow the typewritten pages that tell you how to change the scene and move the story on.

Screenshots

Alan Wake dodges a Taken swinging a large saw blade while his flashlight beam cuts through fog beside an oil derrick

Alan shines his flashlight at giant spiders crawling across a dark desert road by a railway crossing

Alan aims a pistol at shadowy Taken burning in a burst of light outside an observatory dome at night

Alan Wake holding a flashlight in front of a neon-lit gas station at night

Tips

Search each area for manuscript pages before moving on; the better weapons depend on how many you have found.
Burn the darkness off an enemy fully before you fire, or your shots are wasted.
In Arcade Mode, watch the timer and your score multiplier at the top of the screen; you are holding out until dawn.

Questions

Do I need to play Alan Wake first?

No. It is a standalone game, and its store page calls it a jumping-on point for new players, though knowing the first game helps with the story.

Is Alan Wake's American Nightmare scary?

It has dark roads, possessed enemies that come out of the shadows and giant spiders, but it is more of an action game than the first Alan Wake, with plenty of guns and ammunition.

What platforms is it on?

PC on Steam and GOG, and Xbox, where the Xbox 360 version is sold on the Xbox store.

What is Arcade Mode?

Fight till Dawn: you survive waves of enemies on a map until sunrise and compete for a score on the leaderboards.