3.5/5 ★ – Krypt2k's review of Alan Wake's American Nightmare.

Alan Wake's American Nightmare is a fairly short expansion that takes place 2 years after the main title. The story takes you into an alternate reality where we are introduced to 'Mr. Scratch' who is Alan Wake's evil doppelganger, that plans on destroying Alan's mind and everything that he holds close to him. There are some improvements to the overall gameplay like the visuals/ graphics. It looks great. Graphics have been enhanced and look sharper and there is a bit more colour in the environment that adds more soul to the game, yet still being able to maintain that supernatural feel and atmosphere to it. They've also improved on the combat. Running and dodging feels a lot more crisp, and also the shooting. Speaking of shooting, they've added some more firepower in the mix. A carbine rifle, SMG, a nail gun and a crossbow, as well as the usual guns we've previously seen like a flare gun, pistol, shotguns etc. They've also added loot boxes and to open those, you must exchange a certain number of manuscripts that you stumble across throughout playing, almost acting like a currency which gives you incentive to go out and look for them. It's good because manuscripts give you more context to the story and now can be used to open lootboxes so it's definitely worth taking your time and exploring. There are some new enemy types to deal with such as 'The Splitters' that duplicate after being exposed to light, and spiders that burrow from the underground that can be quickly killed with light. This keeps the game fresh whilst also sticking to it's core formula. Not a bad standalone title, but there could be more.