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
Stores: Steam, GOG
Price: Paid
Rated: Mostly Positive on Steam (75% of 10,973 reviews); Metacritic 73 (PC); GOG 3.6 of 5 (124 reviews)
Length: about 3.5 hours
Players: 1
Made by: Remedy Entertainment
Released: 2012

No. 30 of the spider horror games · No. 13 of the gas station horror games · No. 13 of the desert horror games

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, blood, strong language, gun combat, giant spiders.

Alan Wake's American Nightmare is a standalone third-person horror shooter from Remedy Entertainment and a spin-off of Alan Wake. Alan chases his murderous double, Mr. Scratch, through the night around Night Springs, Arizona, burning the darkness off possessed Taken with his flashlight before he shoots them. It is shorter, lighter and more action-driven than the first game, with an arcade mode on the side.

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 on 22 February 2012, published by Microsoft Studios, and on PC on 22 May 2012 in North America, with Europe following in June. The story is framed as an episode of Night Springs, a Twilight Zone-style TV show from the first game. Alan is on the trail of Mr. Scratch, an evil double who looks exactly like him and wants to take his life from him, and the chase brings him to the desert outside Night Springs, Arizona.

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 a wider arsenal, from a nail gun and a crossbow to combat shotguns and a machine gun, and the manuscript pages you collect open weapon cases once you have found enough of them. Typewritten pages let you change a scene, such as bringing down an oil derrick, to move the story on. A motel, an oil field, an observatory and a drive-in theater are among the places you fight through, all at night.

What frightens is the dark and what comes out of it. The Taken, people possessed by a dark force, surge out of the fog with saws, sledgehammers and guns, hulking brutes charge with circular saws, and giant spiders cross the desert roads. Beside the story there is Fight till Dawn, an arcade mode where you hold out against harder and harder waves of enemies until sunrise for a score on the leaderboards. New arcade maps open as you beat them, and the weapons you get there depend on the pages you found in the story.

Compared with Alan Wake Remastered it is shorter and more of a shooter than a slow-burning thriller, with a pulpy, B-movie tone; IGN praised the action and production but found little suspense. 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 for an evening or two: HowLongToBeat puts the story at about three and a half hours.

How to play Alan Wake's American Nightmare

Start Story Mode from the main menu, or Arcade Mode for score runs that last until dawn.
Hold the flashlight on an enemy to burn away its shield of darkness, then shoot it.
Keep your distance from groups of Taken, dodge their swings 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 a scene, then set it up to move the story on.

Screenshots

Alan aims his flashlight on a foggy desert road at dusk as giant spiders crawl toward him past a railroad crossing sign

Alan dives aside with a pistol on a foggy road by a pickup truck as a hulking Taken swings a circular saw in his flashlight beam

Alan aims a shotgun and flashlight at a Taken burning bright yellow outside an observatory dome at night, as a clawed enemy crouches nearby

Alan Wake with a flashlight and revolver stands in the fog before a lit gas station at night

Alan holds a flashlight and pistol in a dim, wrecked diner with red booths, a neon light and blood on the checkered floor

Arcade Mode: Alan aims a nail gun down a foggy Western street at a sledgehammer-carrying Taken, with timer and score on screen

Arcade Mode: Alan aims his pistol and flashlight at a huge bloodied brute charging with a circular saw in a foggy yard

Tips

Search each area for manuscript pages before moving on; the better weapons in the story depend on how many you have found.
Burn the darkness off an enemy fully before you fire, or your shots are wasted.
Pages found in Story Mode also decide which weapons you can use in Arcade Mode, so a thorough story run makes the arcade maps easier.
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.

How long is Alan Wake's American Nightmare?

HowLongToBeat, as shown on its GOG page, puts the main story at about 3.5 hours and everything at about 8.5 hours, with Arcade Mode on top for score runs.

Is Alan Wake's American Nightmare scary?

It has dark, foggy roads, possessed enemies with saws and sledgehammers 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. It is rated ESRB Teen for violence, blood, suggestive themes and language, and PEGI 18 for violence.

What platforms is it on?

PC on Steam and GOG, and Xbox: the Xbox 360 version is sold on the Xbox store and plays on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.

What is Arcade Mode?

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