This is a guest post by Mark – Go follow him on Twitter. Alan Wake: American Nightmare is available on Xbox Live and Steam.
Stock up on batteries and ammunition for your weapons, make sure you have fresh batteries in your flashlight and that your pistol is fully loaded. The night is long, and the darkness is everywhere. Will you be the Champion of Light? Or will you give in to the darkness?
Alan Wake’s American Nightmare takes place after the events of the retail game Alan Wake, our champion of light, our hero. Finds himself in Arizona, armed with his own words as the weapon to defeat his evil twin, Mr *bzzzt* (Mr.Scratch) who spreads darkness where ever he goes. Alan, being more experienced at dealing with the weird and horrific creatures know as ‘The Taken’ from his previous encounters with them, is now determined to change the tide and restore reality to what it should be. Armed with his flashlight and whatever type of firearm he can get his hands on, he will do his best to survive and hold back the darkness, and make sure that the sun rises again.
The story is well written for being an arcade title, the controls are smooth and very responsive and play very well, the graphics are almost to good to be an arcade title. It’s not a bad thing it is just very surprising to see an arcade title being just like a retail game. Now the story is shorter than an actual retail game, shorter than the first Alan Wake game. But it will give you a good 4-6 hours of playtime, and after that there is the Arcade Mode. Similar to a ‘Horde Mode’ your objective is simply to survive until dawn. With a wide arrange of weapons, everything from a Nail Gun ‘Ka-Chunk-Chating-Chatung’ to fully automatic Combat Shotguns. Certainly increasing the replay value, sadly there is no multiplayer or co-op. Not even split screen. But in all honesty, I feel as this ‘horde-mode’ type is best played alone, it fits the Alan Wake environment well and it also makes things a whole lot more interesting!
Released on the Xbox Live Marketplace as an Arcade Title, it really sets the bar high and compete with most games out there, Arcade and Retail games alike. On story, graphics and how smoothly the game runs, and for just 1200 Microsoft Points, it’s a deal you do not want to miss out on! I am amazed with how good the lightning effects are, as well as the shadows and the darkness. It is really well done and a lot of work has been put into creating this game. The animations are excellent and the narrative and story are well written and just superb preformed. It is a 3rd person game, but the camera angle and moment works really well. There are more types of enemies to fight and more weapons to use, and the graphics that has been bumped up a notch, how can you go wrong?
So put some fresh batteries in your flashlight and head over to the Marketplace and buy Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, You don’t want to miss out on this title! I have to give this game a 10/10, simply for the how great this game is, and it’s just an arcade title! It looks, plays, and feels just like a retail release!
Alan Wake: American Nightmare Review,
