Whatever potential the original Alan Wake game had American Nightmare squanders entirely to create an obtuse sandbox shooter that is little more than a DLC with bells on and largely unrelated to the original game.

The original seriously toned story, cinematic narrative, and dark atmosphere is pushed to one side to focus on a dream-like reality which takes a hard turn into cartoonish nonsense. It's almost a parody of the first game as the 'taken' enemies are now an endless horde of zombie substitutes and the mysterious Mr Scratch has become a moustache twirling villain trying to destroy the world.

This spin off feels like filler more than anything. The story was the first game's strongest point and combat its weakest so doing away with the story to focus on combat feels like an over correction - not that the gunplay is meaningfully built on at all as this has a more arcade-style feel to it. Nothing you do seems to matter, the events are largely just dreamy nonsense, and the little story that remains is just as vapid as the gameplay. It's playable but doesn't offer anything special.

I have no idea what the intention of this was or who it was meant for, especially since it only exists to frustrate anyone who enjoyed the first game and wanted a proper conclusion to the story. I can only imagine Remedy needed a cheap and easy follow up to secure some extra cash flow? At least it's easily ignored.