Alan Wake’s American Nightmare Review (Xbox Series X)

I swear if you even TOUCH Barry (*mutters under breath* or Alice) Mr. Scratch!

I was able to play Alan Wake’s American Nightmare right after I played the two DLCs, and well I cut it really close as I played and finished it the day it was leaving Game Pass. American Nightmare takes place two years after the events of Alan Wake and it appears to be taking place within an episode of Night Falls which plays in a hotel room that Barry is in while he’s sleeping. Just like in the main game, there is a narrator throughout, but instead of Alan it’s the narrator of Night Falls.

Sadly, Alan is still trapped in The Dark Place, but he has been trying to find any way to get out or to leave a crack in the door. Alan has been honing in his ability to alter reality through his writing and currently, he brought himself into one of the Night Fall episodes he wrote himself to face a particular enemy. At the end of the main campaign of Alan Wake, you’re introduced to Mr. Scratch, who you can say is Alan’s creepy evil twin, but that’s it. It isn’t until American Nightmare that Mr. Scratch makes a return as the main antagonist. Alan not only seeks to hopefully find a way out of The Dark Place, but to also stop Mr. Scratch has he often torments you through the tv, showing that he is already on a killing spree and he plans to eventually go after Barry and Alice.

I’m not sure whether or not this would be classified as a spoiler, but this does include being put into a time loop. I know, groan worthy, but I do think American Nightmare handles it well enough. You’ll basically be going through the same three areas, but each area are pretty big and each loop will have you do less and less as those that you meet ends up remembering what happened in a previous loop. Talking about characters, there are three new characters here (not counting Mr. Scratch): Emma, Serena, and Dr. Rachel. You meet Emma first, who is a mechanic, into mysticism, and is pretty skeptical of the Dark Presence but she did have a run in with Mr. Scratch. Dr. Rachel works in an observatory checking out the strange astronomical event, which caused Mr. Scratch to mess with her equipment as he doesn’t want you to get the signal it’s transmitting. And finally Serena who…well…has darkness in her head and tries to seduce Alan as she thinks he’s Mr. Scratch. Personally, I didn’t come to like them all that much other than Dr. Rachel. Emma is fine and I don’t think Serena was in it enough as you really have only three instances where you need to talk to her, with two times being when she’s under the influence of the darkness.

Alan Wake is a total badass in American Nightmare, and it makes sense as it has been 2 years and he’s been fighting the Dark Presence all this time. Not only can Alan sprint for longer (thank goodness), but he reloads his guns in an instant and his flashlight recharges in just a couple seconds. Plus he got rid of the stupid tweed jacket with leather patches over a hoodie look for an unbutton plaid shirt over a white shirt look. Way better in my opinion. The Taken also got a makeover as their shadows are more distinct, more shadowy, and I loved how you can see bullets bounce off their shadow shields.

Oh and did I mention the dodge? In Alan Wake, the dodge did not feel good to use or responsive, but in American Nightmare it feels way better. It feels like it’s more responsive and more reliable, not making it seem it was a coin toss, but that the reason why I got hit is because I pressed the button too late.

While there are the normal Taken that you encountered in the main game and bigger versions of the Taken, there are a couple new enemies here. There are Splitters which can split themselves into two weaker, but more agile, Splitters when exposed to light. Birdmen which have a human body to attack, but can transform into a flock of ravens to avoid hits and get behind you quicker. And lastly spiders which will jump at you until you kill them with light. Thanks Alan.

Oh, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t new weapons. There are more one-handed guns that can replace your pistol and more two-handed guns to have fun with. Personally, I went with the submachine gun so I can lay it into Taken without taking my finger off the trigger and, when I found it, the crossbow. The crossbow in particular is so OP, it pierces through shadow shields and it often is a one shot kill for all but one or two Taken enemy types. Granted, it only can be reloaded with one arrow and aiming it is a bit difficult.

Though, I did miss some aspects of the first game. Like the flashlight hurting the shadow shields even when it’s not focused, being able to hold more than five flares, and flashbangs and the flare guns doing more damage (I swear they do less damage here as they don’t even kill the weakest of enemies with their shield already burned away).

Get your creepy face out of my face

Of course, there are collectibles here. The main ones are manuscript pages which Alan reads out loud. These put more context into what’s happening, but I didn’t really like how they were presented. It’s cool yes, but considering the black border covers parts of the words on the edge, you can’t really read them yourself that well. These are also used to open weapon cases to get weapons, which considering some go up to 40 pages early on, are used to help encourage you to replay (possibly when you grab the pages you missed). There are radio shows you can listen to, which give you wants happening in the lives of your friends and those that you met, and the tv will show Mr. Scratch’s exploits that he gets into and a way for him to talk to Alan post recording. I particular loved the radio shows and Mr. Scratch’s recordings, Barry is one of my favorite Alan Wake characters and he is prominent in the radio shows and it was interesting to see what Mr. Scratch was getting up to. Plus, we need to get chills from somewhere in American Nightmare and Mr. Scratch’s recordings are a good source.

While the story content is only 3-5 hours long, there is an arcade mode you can get into. Here, you’ll have to survive until dawn, aka 10 minutes, with two versions (Normal and Nightmare) of five locations. Personally, I didn’t care much for the arcade mode, but those who do will get more out of American Nightmare as you try to survive 10 minutes in every stage.

Verdict

There seems to be mixed opinion on whether or not Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is worth playing and whether or not it’s canon. I think I’m on the team of that this is canon. Overall, I enjoyed playing American Nightmare as not only did it bring in a story involving Mr. Scratch, but also improved the combat and especially Alan’s dodge. If you liked Alan Wake and want more of it, I do recommend getting Alan Wake’s American Nightmare if you can. I was skeptical of it too, and mainly played it because it was on Game Pass at the time, but I’m glad I did play it.