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| Alan Wake's American Nightmare; XBLA | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Saturday Apr 14 2012, 01:34 PM (690 Views) | |
| Lonely Wolf | Saturday Apr 14 2012, 01:34 PM Post #1 |
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Am glad Necris is back
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![]() Seven years in the making, Alan Wake was released in 2010; a psychological thriller action game by Remedy Entertainment. Less than two years later Alan is back with Alan Wake's American Nightmare on Xbox Live Arcade. While Alan Wake was an engaging story driven narrative having you jumping at shadows, American Nightmare will have you charging into darkness with an Uzi before your feet have barely hit the ground. American Nightmare is not a sequel but a spin off from the series. A stand alone story that gives Alan a break from his previous troubles, and a chance for Remedy to let us experience something new. Alan awakes to find himself in an episode of Night Springs, a Twilight Zone-like show which he wrote for, before becoming a famous author. Here he must piece together his missing memories while battling his evil doppelganger, Mr Scratch. Story The story of American Nightmare follows a different pace to Alan Wake. Gone is the suspenseful mystery to solve. Gone is the dark twisting forests. Instead we find ourselves in Arizona, and in a pleasing change of pace we are thrown straight into the action. The story is progressed through spooky narration by the host from Night Springs, and through Alan's dialogue with the small handful of people not trying to kill him. Most of these encounters revolve around fetch quests, talk, get something, talk, get something else. This however only gives us the bones of the narrative. Manuscript pages are back, giving us clues of what’s to come, a glimpse into the minds of other characters, and an introduction to new enemies. Snippets of radio shows keep us up to date with the more important characters from Alan Wake, letting Alan and us know what is happening with those missing from American Nightmare. The most powerful method of storytelling is through the recorded messages left by Alan’s nemesis, Mr Scratch. They let us see just how dark Alan's darker half really is. A glimpse into the mind of a psychotic killer. The narrative overall does little to progress Alan’s story forward but does a wonderful job of expanding the characters backgrounds and motivations. It starts off slow and confusing, and ends much in the same way as Alan Wake, giving the player lots to think about and discuss. Combat American Nightmare is a lot more combat heavy than Alan Wake. Encounters are larger and much more frequent. Those that have played the original might be forgiven to let out a groan upon hearing this, however, combat has been vastly improved. Although it revolves around the same mechanic as Alan Wake, shine away the enemies protective darkness and finish them off with your weapon, Alan's arsenal has significantly increased. Uzi’s, assault rifles, automatic and sawn-off-shotguns are only some of the new toys in his toolbox, and each weapon behaves differently. A favorite being the crossbow, a slow single shot weapon that allows most enemies to be destroyed by one shot, even if still protected by darkness. New enemy's have be added it to the mix as well. Splitters are powerful enemies that split into smaller faster versions of themselves when hit with your torch. Grenadiers hang back attacking from a distance. Giants lumber forward soaking up huge amounts of damage and Vampire-like enemies disperse into crows in order to position themselves behind you or to escape from danger. The biggest problem with the combat, and the game itself, is its difficulty level. Combat seems stuck on easy. Rarely will you feel under pressure or in any danger. Any deaths you accrue are more likely from lack of concentration than being challenged. Players will be upset to see that there was no option for a “Nightmare Mode” for further play-throughs, something hopefully the fans will be pestering Remedy to patch. Resource management is gone as well. Ammo is piled up at every encounter, allowing you to be as trigger happy as you please. Arcade Action What is being dubbed as Alan Wakes “Horde Mode” is more a running test of survival, wherein the ten minutes before the sun rises you must achieve your highest score through chaining together kills and skillful avoids. What starts out slow gets frantic very quickly, and quickly is how you are going to have to kill if you want to have a chance to get a respectable score on the leader boards. There are five maps, each with two difficultly levels, all of which are different locales than the campaign. Manuscript pages you've found in the Story Mode allow you to access better weapons in Arcade Action through locked weapon crates. Getting higher scores is addictive, giving you that "one more game" mentality. Final Thought It's easy to forget this is an arcade game. The quality is so high it would be all to easy to judge it as a full retail release. Sure there’s the occasional shortcut or oversight but nothing that takes away from the engaging narrative. Arcade Action will keep you entertained for hours, days, and weeks as you move up the leader boards. Every time you think your about to beat your best score, a sneaky enemy or a darkness grenade will reset your multiplier back to zero. You might yell in frustration but you will be clicking “A” to retry as soon as the round ends. It is something this reviewer cant put down. Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is an engaging, well written 5-hour campaign with a sizable “Horde Mode” attached. At 1200msp, you are getting a lot of quality entertainment. A must-buy for fans of the original and not the worst way for those new to the Alan Wake series to start. 9/10 |
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| Thumbs of doom | Sunday Apr 22 2012, 12:00 PM Post #2 |
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The Modernator
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Awesome review bro! I'm thinking of buying this now, but i know how biased you are towards Alan Wake! |
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| King Hiss | Sunday Apr 22 2012, 12:12 PM Post #3 |
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Administrator
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Alan Wake deserves all the bias it gets. |
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| Thumbs of doom | Sunday Apr 22 2012, 06:08 PM Post #4 |
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The Modernator
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I really need to go back and finnish Alan Wake. It was quite awesome the parts of it i played. Hell, i only just started to give Mass Effect (1) a decent crack. |
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