Alan Wake: American Nightmare Review
Author: Jeff McAllister

After playing Alan Wake a year and a half ago, I had mixed feelings about the game. I enjoyed the story, but hated the fact that you needed the DLC afterwards to explain just what was going on in the convoluted and enigmatic story. I loved the visuals; the flares and flashlight in the night time atmosphere, but hated the combat and the blatant advertisement that permeated the game from beginning to end. Alan Wake: American Nightmare takes the aspects of the original that were done poorly; like the combat against the shadowy figures of The Taken, and revamped it, making it more fluid and more enjoyable; gotten rid of all the advertising, and is even more visually appealing this time around.

Everything Alan Wake did wrong, American Nightmare does right, and while familiar, is a different experience. American Nightmare takes place after the events of the second DLC that was available for the full title, entitled “The Writer”, however, if you played the full game and didn’t give into the extortion of paying an additional price on top of the full game to get the whole story, you may not know exactly what is going on – just like I didn’t.

read more »