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Alan Wake's American Nightmare is a side story in the Alan Wake universe. You play as the champion of light, Alan Wake, whose caught in a time warp made by his evil psychotic twin Mr. Scratch. If you haven't played the original you'd have no idea what's going on, why certain mechanics work the way they do, and who are the people that Alan Wake talk about. This is strictly for fans of the original.

What this game does best is the fluid combat in addition to making it hella interesting. The first game had about five different weapons with about two different variation enemy types. This game has tons of more weapons to use as well as introducing plenty of new darkness enemies. I can use nailguns, SMGs, sawed-off shotguns, there's just a lot of weapon combinations to experience and helps prevent the game from getting dull. Which leads to me to my biggest flaw with the game.

American Nightmare takes place in a time warp, which means you're going to SPOILER ALERT get warped back in time. In detail, you're going through the exact same areas as before which can get boring. The game has only three different environments: a deserted strip with a motel and diner, an observatory, and a drive-in movie theatre. You'll be visiting these levels three times throughout the course of the game. By the third time you'll want to just rush right through to the end, I stopped caring about what changes were happening and instead just ran and flared my way to the credits. That's not how the game is meant to be played but I'm damn sure that's what the player is going to feel like.

What makes it worth it aside from the awesome live-action cutscenes has got to be the collectibles. You'll collect manuscripts from the story you're playing out in the game, watch videos of your psychotic evil twin torturing other people, and listen to radio shows filling in on what some of the characters from the previous game is doing now. All of these add to the game and make it worth trudging through the repeated areas.

The story itself is very well-paced with interesting dialogue from all characters and witty monologues from both Alan Wake and Mr. Scratch. Scratch is an amusing antagonist whose actions are anything but family-friendly. This crazy evil twin shows off his darkness powers, demoralizing speeches, and twisted fun in a unique way that just grabs hold of you. He's a likeable antagonist that you wouldn't mind going against, which is something that's pretty rare nowadays. The presentation is also wonderful, with each level beginning and ending like an episode of “The Twilight Zone”, except in this case it's called “Night Springs”. Complete with the announcer, analogies, and brilliant story telling. The story isn't as strong as the original but for what it is, a side story, it fits perfectly.

Being that this is a port from the XBLA title there's nothing that's surpassingly different in terms of graphics from it's Xbox 360 counterpart. However, it supports all different resolutions as well as being able to display at a nice crisp 1080p without any slowdown or drop in frame rates. With V-Sync enabled it plays silky smooth. One issue I do have is Alan's lack of attention to his surroundings. The only time he is focused is during conversations with NPCs but when listening to a radio or watching a video on a TV he just idles instead of making some witty comment about it or something. If there was a focus button it would clear the issue as well as still give the option for the player to go on with the game.

I love the music, especially when you hear the band “Poets of the Fall” and their alter ego “Old Gods of Asgard”. Tensions are constantly being raised and the supplemental soundtrack really adds to the mood. Especially “The Happy Song” which describes Mr. Scratch to a tea.

Alan Wake's American Nightmare is a fun romp if you do not tire of the setting. There is lots of switch ups on gameplay to keep you entertained and the collectibles are worth taking the time to collect. Although it's a side story it's still excellently paced with the two acts after the first taking considerably less time each way through. If you haven't play the original I recommend you play through that first but if you already have and just dying for some more Alan Wake then this is definitely worth your time.