Xbox Blog

Alan Wake: American nightmare
Genre: horror
Developer: remedy
Publisher: Microsoft
Release date: 22/02/12

I am a fan of Alan Wake, but as someone who is a fan of Stephen King, his book The Dark Half, The Twilight Zone, Norse mythology, and wrote the horror stories, I am nearly perfect demographic for this game. The original game was not the most innovative game ever, but I’ve always loved the atmosphere and was really curious to see where they were going with the story.

Almost two years later, we have given the chance to see continuous history, with Alan Wake: American nightmare, an Xbox Live Arcade title. It is one of the few times that I have never seen a title at retail later followed a downloadable title, next to section 8, which is a direction interesting to take the series. The developer, repair, attempted to remove any doubt that the game could miss just because it is a downloadable title in the content, but the question remains if the game would be an another monstrous thriller, or if it would be also disappointing as a book by Dean Koontz.

The answer? If Alan Wake was as the first book of a series of horror, then Alan Wake: American nightmare feels more like a spin off novel. It manages to capture much of what made the original game great at adding a few interesting features; However, there are some issues that prevent it to be a great game himself.

Let’s start with one of the things that I liked the most on the original: history. The first game introduced Alan Wake, an author of horror novels who is taken in a. It is produced by staying in a cabin on a lake which is infected by a dark presence that can transform a fiction actually written. If you want to learn more, you will have to play the game, but make up the where we are now, it’s been two years since the first game. Alan has taken to the trap in a dark alternative reality and a breakthrough in the city of night Springs. It should be noted that the city is based on the name of a television show as The Twilight Zone, and the first writing that Alan Wake written episodes of the show.

During the game, Alan will be victim of the dark forces (literally) who have been playing with his life to discover the process itself using the written word to change the world around him, and try to beat his doppelganger evil Mr. Scratch. The whole is presented as if it’s an episode of Night Springs, complete with the narrator of the series fiction, adding comments to each scene.

American nightmare is defined as a stand-alone product, and even in the press release, we have received, it was noted that previous experience with the series was not necessary to take advantage of the game. This is essentially true. The game does a good job establishing the history of what happened so far in the first interaction of the game, and while it does so a little awkwardly, the dialogue appears to intentionally as the kind of cheese. Some stilted dubbing of the secondary characters cheesy dialogue really, work the framework and the tone of the game, such as sci-fi/horror of pulp entertainment.

While the experience is not a requirement, it really helps. There are many little bit with Bobby and the old gods of Asgard or another small dialog which is part of the history of the game, as what Alan’s wife was made. Of this story is added in thanks to the very practical manuscript pages, but you’ll notice much more if you played the original game.

Of course, the fans of the original may wonder why the game jumps out of Alan back together his spirit and writing the return, at the port of flannel and hunt Mr. Scratch. If this game is to bridge the original title for a future series, then he should not feel like there is a gap in the original version of this title.

As mentioned, one of the things happening in the game is Alan learns to use his writing to change and change the world around him. This sounds like an amazing to have in-game feature, but it is not playing as well. It involves usually get a page of the manuscript and then change to reflect the manuscript. It ends at the more in a quest to seek, instead of something like a horror of Scribblenauts version. Still, these lead to set parts which will play Interestingly. As a narrative, it’s cool. However, it does little to really engage the player.

Another problem with this plot device is the fact that it turns the game Alan Wake day marmot. Change you the world to reach something, go to a different location, make, go to a different location, do it again, then again at the original location. Developers find it attractive to make this commitment by changing the objectives and meeting the enemy, so that it does not feel like you are retreading the same ground all over again. Personally, I do not well, because history is not all this that long and the game retains movement forward at a rapid pace. Areas of the game are also nonlinear, and when you repeat a zone, you’re generally explore another section of this site. I really enjoyed the videos showing off the coast of manic personality of Mr. Scratch, which will play in the form of messages on television screens for Alan instead episodes of night in the spring, so I invested in seeing how it would transform all. Some people may not enjoy recycled environments, but they have not received my pleasure of the game.

Graphically, the game in many ways looks even better than the first game. Environments are larger, lighting is always pleasant, and there are more enemy types and different weapons. There are things that seem not as good, as some random textures of low resolution (such as the engine block of a car that is), and once I had the framerate drop to single figures. It is only for a moment, even if, therefore he would have nothing to do with the game. Alan seems good and animation of small things, such as the way in which his shirt moves, or how to move plants, all look great. Lighting seems incredible, which it should, considering that it is a game which is all about the light against the darkness. There are a ton of small details all around that really add to the atmosphere of the game. Which is true for the audio part of the game as well. The work of the voice suffers when it is not the antagonist or the protagonist, but it looks like cheese dialogue Sci – Fi, so it works. The music is really good, if it is the background music to set a scene or add the voltage of the action, or a song by the old gods of Asgard.

The set of controls identically to Alan Wake, but some changes have been made to how everything works. For example, the speed of recovery of flashlight is now much higher, and you will almost never need to change batteries. Batteries and bullets are a rarity, and there are places with ammunition that often recur. There are different types of enemies, which react in different ways. New enemies will be divided into multiple smaller versions of themselves. There are spiders, and some will throw grenades from the darkness. There is a giant guy with a type of saw. This made all the feeling in combat as a much more interesting experience than you try to juggle a number increasing enemies have different ways to be sent. The only complaint I have is that the move of dodge is always the same button that you push to run, and it feels awkward. In fact, it is even worse than in the first game, because the rest of the combat has been tightened so much.

Strangely, even if the fight was worked and shows great improvement, the game all single player feels easy to beat. To restore health and bullets are abundant, the enemies do not take much damage when break you the darkness out of them and so on. There is no additional difficulty level, which is a shame because many people enjoyed the difficulty levels more high of the original.

Although it is not the additional difficulty levels, there is a whole new game mode called Fight Till Dawn. It is a completely focused mode on the fight against the catch, as Resident Evil mercenaries mode. The game has a running countdown clock, and while it is counting down, waves of enemies will spawn. Technically, you could simply not take anything, dodge and wait until the timer is running, except there is a score to beat and a multiplier is running all the time, the point is not only survive, but to try and get the highest score. The best way to get the highest score is to attack the enemies and Dodge, as if you get the success, what the multiplier disappears. There are arms and ammunition to feed, and the spots of light to regain health, therefore it the never really too concerned about a fugue of ways to blast to catch.

I was not sure what I was going to think of this mode, because I am in foutais really combat in the original game. I mean, it’s beautiful, it was just kind of bland. I loved Alan Wake for the atmosphere and history, so a mode which revolves around the fight was not a pleasant idea. I like it well; improvements in combat are really here, a tense experience. I want even the diaphragm felt not so awkward, but you you get used to it after a while. There are many cards for this mode also, and between that and the quest for a better score, it improves the gameplay of the title a bit.

Alan Wake: The American nightmare is a large sample of what the original persuasive game, while showing that the studio continues to refine the product for the titles in the series. The game is not as long as the title of full length, coming to approximately four hours for the story mode, but he is able to do most of the time, and the Fight Till Dawn mode is certainly even more time sink in the. All combat, in the atmosphere, little things like making it to collect manuscripts as a goal for the game (you can unlock more heavy weapons) showed improvements and makes me happy for a possible sequel. While it cannot fully height of the promise to be as wide as a full retail title could be, for $15 it is also a quarter of the cost of the retail product while providing great content. I think that out this game is as an arcade game is an excellent idea. It is enough that new game may be interested to learn more, while fans of the series get a little more history and stroke of look at what the future of the series can contain.

Scores
History: great
Graphics: amazing
Sound: incredible
Review: great
Gameplay: high
Report: pleasant
Originality: mediocre
Dependency: Very good
Appeal factor: very good
Various: great
FINAL SCORE: Very good game

Short Attention summary: repair made improvements about all areas of the core game with Alan Wake: American nightmare: combat is much better, the atmosphere is incredible and the new mode Fight Till Dawn is a great addition to all. The reuse of the fields of meaning that in the story, but is still the central part of the story feel a little stale before things pick once again in the third act. Regardless, the American nightmare is a very good game that costs as much as the other fresh packs of card games.