The Remedy is right to say that Alan Wake's American Nightmare is not the sequel to the first game of the franchise. After all, much more than a new scenario, the game offers a style of play fairly different from the original experience. Fans should not be afraid of changes, because American Nightmare offers a plot of quality in the midst of action sequences and an exquisite ambiance.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3224278731

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3224279755

While I prefer the original, this is a nice shorter semi-sequel.

Messing with the new weapons was fun and while I see a lot of annoyance with the time looping, each loop is shorter than the previous so it's not like you have to do literally everything again.

Arcade mode was also neat, but I hated how sometimes the enemies would spawn right on top of you/right near you. Felt incredibly unfair (especially since getting hit resets the multiplier) when they'd spawn right on you and immediately attack.

This was a fun but flawed experience for me. Combat seems to have been refined a bit from the base game, and it now feels faster paced. The UI was changed a little as well, and there are a few new enemy types introduced to spice things up. I personally prefer the combat in the base game, and I liked how enemies were creepier and more intimidating there, but they still work just fine here. My main problem is how the game simply has you repeat the same three levels three different times. The 2nd and 3rd times have some objectives conveniently removed to make them shorter but it doesn't make them any more enjoyable. Both myself as the player and Alan Wake the character knew what was coming next, so playing the same thing three times in a row was more tedious than fun. I'd say this might be worth one playthrough if you buy this on a sale or as a combo with the base game. There's an arcade mode here too which could incentivize some people to play this but it wasn't for me. I intend to replay the base game in the future but I'll likely skip this one; I think one time was enough for me.