Alan Wake's American Nightmare

Alan Wake's American Nightmare definitely feels like a side story or filler chapter in the larger franchise. It's short, fairly simplistic, and the gameplay loop gets repetitive rather quickly. And yet, as someone who loves the Alan Wake universe, I found it absolutely worth experiencing. What makes it interesting is less the story itself and more what it adds to Alan as a character—especially his relationship with Mr. Scratch. There is something fascinatingly psychological about Alan externalizing his darker impulses into this other version of himself: the narcissism, violence, fame, sexuality, and everything else that doesn't fit the image he wants to have of himself. American Nightmare plays with this duality in a particularly entertaining way. Alan is trying to get back to Alice and acts like the devoted husband, while simultaneously finding himself in a pulp-fiction fantasy populated by attractive women who seem remarkably interested in him. Considering that this entire reality is shaped through his writing, there is something almost hilariously revealing about it. It also makes his idealization of Alice more interesting in retrospect. Alan constantly presents her as his light, his salvation, the person he must return to, while Scratch gets to embody everything dark and unacceptable. The more I play this series, the more I wonder whether Alan's real struggle is not simply against his "dark side," but with his tendency to turn everyone—including Alice, Scratch, and himself—into characters in the mythology of Alan Wake. American Nightmare doesn't explore all of this particularly deeply, but it contributes another intriguing piece to that larger picture, especially when viewed alongside the first game and Alan Wake 2. Beyond that, I really enjoyed the atmosphere, sound design, voice acting, and the obvious care that went into the presentation despite the game's smaller scope. It has that unmistakable Remedy style throughout. And, of course, it has Poets of the Fall. What's not to like?