Alan Wake's American Nightmare

Alan Wake's American Nightmare is an extremely impressive experiment, created with the aim of releasing an essentially fully-fledged retail game through Xbox LIVE Arcade. American Nightmare absolutely succeeds in this regard, with action-packed gameplay, a cool theme, and an exciting Arcade Action mode. However, as a follow-up to the awesome original game, the story comes up short and the whole experience lacks suspense and thrills.

For the price Alan Wake's American Nightmare is a pretty solid game overall. If this seems like this is your type of game or if you just want to check out the world of Alan Wake this is a good way to do it. Go download it if you need to kill sometime during a weekend.

A lack of cohesion and clear thought from Remedy ensures American Nightmare feels like a missed opportunity

Ultimately, many of the core Alan Wake design problems return in American Nightmare - leading to a bizarre mishmash of cool ideas that are undermined by extremely repetitive gameplay experiences. However, Alan Wake's American Nightmare does provide another engaging trip through the mind of the titular writer. Fans who enjoy the combat mechanics and main storyline will likely be satisfied by this downloadable release - which offers plenty of intriguing story ideas plus more monsters, better weaponry, and a likable, albeit forgettable, arcade offering. That said, hopefully Remedy manages to impr...

American Nightmare doesn’t hang around, but it doesn’t need to either. Judge this book by its cover; just make sure the cover you’re thinking of is an Americana doused, enjoyably knowing schlock-fest, with a surprising philosophic tinge.