4/5 ★ – DeluxeSamuel's review of Alan Wake's American Nightmare.

Alan Wake: American Nightmare is a great continuation of Alan Wake and a solid game in it's own right. Alan Wake: American Nightmare is a short game. That's not a bad thing by any means. It's been priced appropriately and has enough content for that value that it doesn't feel like it skimped out. It also has enough additions that it doesn't simply feel like cut content either. It just means I have little I can really say about it. The story is pretty good. Continuing on from Alan Wake and it's respective DLC's, Alan Wake still finds himself battling the Dark Presence in this game. Whilst the game doesn't do much to really change the circumstances that the first game ends on, it has some elements that are really cool here. Though there are some nice moments in the story. I enjoyed the ending and I particularly liked the music in the credits, which not only have I added to my own music library, but I believe fits Alan's story perfectly. One of the most important additions to the game's story is the antagonist; Mr. Scratch. Mr. Scratch is a really interesting addition to the universe. He's partly a face for the Dark Presence from the first game, as he is partly a representative of the darker sides of Alan Wake. He oozes an evil smugness played perfectly by the combined efforts of Alan Wake's original actors Ilka Villi and Matthew Porretta, who both look (and sound respectively) like they're having a blast. Mr Scratch steals the moment every time he's on screen and having an antagonist who has no empathetic good nature is (personally) such a nice change of pace. Without going into spoilers here, there are elements of the story that people will find repetitive. You'll go through the same area multiple times but considering the length of these sections and changes between them, I personally don't have a problem them but let it be known anyway. I did like the new additions to the enemy variations. There was a few new enemy types and whilst none of them were particularly game-changing they were innovative enough to make things feel new and fresh here. Particularly a new spider themed enemy... yes, technically spoilers but arachnophobes beware I guess. Combat wise there's also a few changes. Light doesn't work on enemies if you're just looking at them here. You have to actually aim the torch. Not a huge deal necessarily but it did force me to play a little different as I would just have the beam fall on them so I didn't burn through the batteries as fast. Also there's a fair few new weapons here. I found a combat shotgun later on in the game and honestly I was just putting them down like I was John Wick... you'd forget there was supposed to be a horror element to these games. These tie into the manuscripts. Manuscripts have another purpose here now where if you collect a certain amount of them then you'll be able to unlock new weapon boxes which definitely means there's another encouragement to collecting them which I liked. That being said, it occured to me that there was supposed to be a nailgun somewhere in the game (as seen on the 'boxart'). It's kind of weirdly hidden away and so if you're expecting to play through the game with it then you'll need to keep your eyes peeled. The only thing I didn't really gel with in this standalone is the second mode; the 'Arcade Mode'. It's kind of like a challenge map/horde mode. It's not bad by any means but without any sort of co-op or anything there's not much real incentive for me to play it outside of the achievements (which seem to be awkward to get). It just sorta seems tacked on to pad out the value but honestly, I feel like I'm only gonna play it out of obligation. Anyway. If you're looking for more Alan Wake then this perfect. I particularly value this game for it's story mode but if you like the combat specifically then you may also have fun here.