The third and final DLC for <a href=">Alan Wake (2010). Whilst in Arizona, Alan Wake finds himself again confronting his evil twin, Mr. Scratch, who spreads darkness where ever he goes. Visiting a friend out of town, I played it over a couple of days. I Have to admit though I used a trainer of his. Hey, this is a VERY hard game. The whole flashlight thing focusing on fast running bad guys with axes, etc, then WAITING for seemingly eternity focusing on ONE GUY (three to five seconds) for their "dark evil" force-field to allow your varied weapons to take them down. Umm, did I fail to mention that your all too critical flashlight only boosts a high-beam for about 8 seconds when you have about 6-10 nasties ranging from: rotary saw equipped, fast and slow zombie-like lumberjacks 8 feet tall; highway patrolmen with bats; huge, fat bikers with sledgehammers, farmers with sighs; tall, skinny, tattooed, meth looking dudes who multiply when you hit them; firemen with sharp axes; chubby mechanics who throw something nasty that kills; invisible poltergeists who throw big, heavy things; hordes of spiders and birds that turn into very fast, spooky guys. All of the above at the same time, and you have a flashlight that lasts for 8-10 seconds, and your ammo is very limited, plus you can only carry one primary weapon, one sidearm, and some flash grenades and flares as well as a flare gun that is like a nuke, but VERY hard to come by for ammo.<br/><br/>I could have never gotten past the first few levels without the trainer cheats.<br/><br/>Toughest shooter game I have ever played. There is also some seriously creepy stuff and startles in the dark a few times, so intense, that it could induce an involuntary "shart" ("dude, I sharted during my date" sort of context in a panic kind of way). Lol. Pretty cool, potentially stinky at times, but, _damn, it was tough for me without some trainer cheats. Don't even get me started on the arena battles. I'm dead in two minutes just looking for weapons and ammo, lost in the dark as ten guys who run fast with axes chop me up into zombie, livestock feed. Cool game with lots of psychological storyline twists, deja-vu, filmesque noir, and narration in a "Twilight Zone" dedicated and celebrated flair. I would recommend it for survival-horror genre fans who are very skilled gamers only (Twilight Zone, Rod Sterling and X-Files Fans will love the ambiance and graphics). I've never known and played the prequel to this, I just might might buy them both and play from the beginning as I did with Max Payne (same writer and similarities). The entire flashlight thing (light as a main weapon) being the central part of the combat made this game very unique and the toughest game I have ever played in story mode. I give it a 7. An 8 for graphics and spooky bad dudes with nasty implements.<br/><br/>Bill Murray as a weatherman on the TVs should have had a cameo in this, just for grins and giggles. You will know why when you play it through for the first time. The original 'Alan Wake' game was one of the most unique single-player experiences I ever had. The story was compelling, the characters were original, and the gameplay was quite inventive. If you're looking for these things in 'American Nightmare', I say: look elsewhere, or simply replay 'Alan Wake'. In this sequel, you follow Alan through a series of dreamlike sequences, and fans of the Jake Gyllenhaal films 'Donnie Darko' and 'Enemy' will be familiar with the ground covered in this game. Unsurprisingly, repeating and attempting to rewrite reality isn't quite as fun in video game form, and so 'American Nightmare' very quickly degenerates into several hours of mindless repetition. The handful of characters accompanying Alan Wake in this game are incredibly uninteresting, and so the dialogue scenes really aren't worth sitting through. The developers seem to attempt livening the game up with a number of additions in the weapon and enemy departments, but these, again, aren't anything special. I'd only recommend this to: (a) people who've replayed 'Alan Wake' dozens of times, and are lifelong devotees of the character, and (b) people who spot this game massively reduced (i.e. £1 or less).
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365 weeks ago