Alan wake’s american nightmare: Alan Wake’s American Nightmare on Steam

Revisiting Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, 10 Years Later

By
Khee Hoon Chan

Why it’s a good game, but not a great one.

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare sits on a lonely pedestal within the connected universe of Remedy Entertainment’s games, which include Alan Wake, Control and Quantum Break. It was well-received, but somehow not as revered as the original Alan Wake; it was heavily action and combat-driven, toning down its psychological thriller roots; and was considered more of a standalone title, rather than a sequel to Alan Wake. When Remedy remastered Alan Wake, American Nightmare wasn’t included. At times, it’s almost as if American Nightmare was an Alan Wake title Remedy did not want to acknowledge.If true, it would be a pity; American Nightmare is a fun, pulpy take on Alan Wake’s largely brilliant, if morose and self-indulgent ambience—a breath of fresh air in an industry that is wont to release similar versions of the original title and market them as sequels. In essence, American Nightmare is a Twilight Zone episode come to life. You play as Alan Wake, who’s sizing off against his doppelganger, Mr Scratch, while attempting to break free of a vicious time loop that surprisingly doesn’t feel too repetitive. Rather than traversing the dense forests of the original, American Nightmare takes place in the Arizona desert, ripe with sights that are quintessentially Americana: abandoned diners, dingy motels, and empty drive-in theatres. Even its name is a subversion of the idea of the “american dream”.Related: The Alan Wake Remastered DLC Is Too Tedious To ExperienceWake, in this iteration of the game, is also much less of an insufferable, self-absorbed hero than he was in the original. His flashlight, used for shattering the supernatural armour that protects his shadowy enemies, is a significant upgrade from the first game thanks to a much faster recharge rate. Ammunition is plentiful, and Wake has a greater variety of firearms to fight back against the encroaching darkness at his disposal. Wake himself, too, is more accustomed to fights, and is more agile in this game, which makes combat sequences feel much tighter and punchier. Then there’s the tale itself. Like the original, it’s still penned and tweaked by Wake himself, and is admittedly less thorough than the first, but also much less burdened by expectations to surpass the original. At its core, American Nightmare is more blasé about explaining the intricacies behind Wake’s seemingly supernatural ability to reshape reality, because that isn’t the point of the game anyway. You’re just here to shoot axe-wielding and chainsaw-toting baddies while latching on to the rhythmic flow of combat—just dodging and shooting and running while these zombie-like foes chase after you, fuelled by an insatiable thirst for blood. This cadence is exemplified by the game’s Arcade Mode, a feature that would be disastrous had Wake retained his less-than-dexterous combat skills from the first game. In this mode, you’ll need to fend off hordes of enemies and stay alive until the sun rises. These fights still feel every bit as heart-palpitating as they did a decade ago, simply because of the game’s central and effective gimmick: shining a light to pierce through the armour, and then blasting your foes with a flurry of bullets. So why is American Nightmare so overlooked in the pantheon of Remedy games? It could be that it lacks the slick sheen of prestige gaming that the other titles in the Remedy universe have, or a theatrical narrative that may see the game being taken more seriously. Or perhaps its focus on combat renders it a little too crass, like a b-movie that embraces its more lurid side: the shooting and looting. American Nightmare isn’t perfect, but it’s at least thoroughly entertaining, while introducing one of the series’ most memorable villains: the sociopathic Mr Scratch, who has since made an reappearance in Remedy’s Control. American Nightmare may feel like a lesser cousin of the original Alan Wake, but we should afford it the recognition it deserves: a self-assured shooter that knows when to amplify its strengths and downplay its shortcomings. Next: In Praise of the Steam Controller

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare (Video Game 2012)

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  • Video Game
  • 20122012
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IMDb RATING

7.1/10

1.1K

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The third and final DLC for Alan Wake (2010). Whilst in Arizona, Alan Wake finds himself again confronting his evil twin, Mr. Scratch, who spreads darkness where ever he goes.The third and final DLC for Alan Wake (2010). Whilst in Arizona, Alan Wake finds himself again confronting his evil twin, Mr. Scratch, who spreads darkness where ever he goes.The third and final DLC for Alan Wake (2010). Whilst in Arizona, Alan Wake finds himself again confronting his evil twin, Mr. Scratch, who spreads darkness where ever he goes.

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

1.1K

YOUR RATING

    • Mikko Rautalahti
    • Sam Lake
  • Stars
    • Matthew Porretta(voice)
    • Brett Madden(voice)
    • Fred Berman(voice)
    • Mikko Rautalahti
    • Sam Lake
  • Stars
    • Matthew Porretta(voice)
    • Brett Madden(voice)
    • Fred Berman(voice)
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 4User reviews
    • 3Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 2 nominations

    Videos6

    Trailer 1:01

    Watch Alan Wake’s American Nightmare (Trailer 1)

    Trailer 0:54

    Watch Alan Wake’s American Nightmare

    Trailer 3:42

    Watch Alan Wake’s American Nightmare (Developer Diary)

    Trailer 2:56

    Watch Alan Wake’s American Nightmare (Developer Diary 2)

    Trailer 3:11

    Watch Alan Wake’s American Nightmare (Developer Diary 3)

    Trailer 1:35

    Watch Alan Wake’s American Nightmare (Trailer 2)

    Photos

    Top cast

    Matthew Porretta

    • Alan Wake
    • (voice)
    • …

    Brett Madden

    • Alice Wake
    • (voice)

    Fred Berman

    • Barry Wheeler
    • (voice)

    Lloyd Floyd

    • Tor
    • (voice)
    • …

    Cliff Carpenter

    • Odin
    • (voice)

    Yadwa

    • Dr. Meadows
    • (voice)

    Christina Evangelista

    • Emma Sloan
    • (voice)

    Adesina Sanchez

    • Serena Valdivia
    • (voice)
    • (as Desi Sanchez)

    Jake Daehler

    • Shopping Channel Salesman
    • (voice)

    Nik Carter

    • Shopping Channel Host
    • (voice)

    Larry Kenney

    • Eddie Rodman
    • (voice)

    Ilkka Villi

    • Alan Wake…
      • Mikko Rautalahti
      • Sam Lake
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    • Quotes

      Mr. Scratch: Oh, come on buddy, why don’t you.

      [the light from the movie starts to shine brightly]

      Mr. Scratch: What? What is this?

      [the movie’s light causes Mr. Scratch to start dissolving]

      Mr. Scratch: No! No! You can’t do this! All I did was take the things you always wanted and never had the balls to go for! It’s my turn now! It’s my life! It’s my life!

      [Mr. Scratch screams and is destroyed]

    User reviews4

    Review

    Featured review

    7/

    10

    Not losing any sleep over this one

    With Alan(Porretta, still an obsessed, troubled writer, albeit here it isn’t really explored) where we left him(not giving it away, for anyone who don’t know the ending), he is now chasing his evil double, Mr. Scratch, who leaves behind video recordings(live-action, as most cutscenes in this) that show his exploits, brutally torturing and murdering people in his path. What exactly are his motives and the limitations to his powers? These questions and more, will not be answered here – in Night Springs, AZ(no, seriously… yes, it’s framed as an episode of the Twilight Zone-esque show, compete with Rod Serling-ish narrator).

    Anyway, our protagonist is trapped in a time-loop, which would be an excellent way to do a straight adventure title, where you have a time limit before you go back to the start of that scenario, and you have to gather clues, figure out what to accomplish and how, and only when you do it just right do you get to progress to the next one, with compelling characters and a gradually unfolding plot that explains what’s going on. Unfortunately, nothing like that is here. It’s 3 hours long, with few settings, since, well, it has nothing to say that isn’t there purely to make a single-player campaign. It’s another recent release that has to include that to justify its own existence.

    The focus here is on the gunplay, the amount of which has been increased, in spite of there already being a bit much in the original(and that one, we loved for its engrossing story and carefully built atmosphere, neither present here), which this is an in-universe spin-off to – not sequel, that one is supposedly and hopefully still coming. It also wasn’t a third-person shooting experience that you’d really drop everything to go get. With a handful of new weapons that don’t really fit the otherwise unaltered gameplay(SMG, nailgun, etc.), and uninspired enemies, it’s meant to be rejuvenated. Why are Taken, blue-collar workers using the tools of their trade(firemen with axes, etc.) possessed by a dark, Venom-like substance, still your foes? The tone has shifted without bringing the engine along.

    This was made for the Arcade mode, where you have to survive for ten minutes in one of five arenas(cemetery, ghost town, etc.), in one of the two difficulty settings(and you have to do well on early ones in order to unlock later ones) of this, against increasingly dangerous opposition. There are international leaderboards for this. And that’s about it. This is meant to attract more people to the franchise, but how? By showing off an OK aspect, one that is outdone by many others? This should have been a free DLC for those who already had the first one – it’s what you’d have called an expansion pack some years back. They didn’t even fix the few actual issues, like when you try to pick something up from a group of items, and it doesn’t cycle past(or just pick up what it can – they’re nearly always in piles!) the closest one, even if that one is at your full capacity.

    You still have a flashlight to remove the «dark halo» before you can take someone out with bullets, and you have to balance those two(use it at an «unnecessary» time, it’ll essentially stun) with the time-it-just-right dodge mechanic in order to do well at this. Lampposts serve as checkpoint saves and the way to heal. This is too stand-alone for it to be worth it, with a thin, poorly done(although in spite of what some have said, it does make sense) plot that doesn’t affect anything. The people you come across in it have nothing to do, and could have been replaced with the now-manual-like, this-time-devoid-of-subtlety manuscript pages that grant access to boxes that each have a high-level weapon.

    This is not well-paced. It starts with you fighting(rather than letting you absorb where you are and what’s going on), after an exposition dump that doesn’t recap previous events(this doesn’t give away anything that has already happened… it also spends almost no time of its 3 hour length explaining something that was built up and explored over the 9 and a half hour 1st), no, it sets up what’s going on! Show, don’t tell! There is no suspense, dialog is seldom as clever as it wants to be, and the whole thing lacks the production values of first. It feels lazy, rushed.

    In a lot of ways, this is similar to the two chapters that came as DLC. Surreal, you having to get through unpredictable areas and having encounters with others that are «off». However, that was much more creative, had a lot of fun with the concept and actually added thematically(if not with progression in the overall story). While I wouldn’t spend money on it if it didn’t come with purchasing that full game, something I wholeheartedly encourage you to do, it easily beats this.

    The mini-map/GPS shows icons for the new ammo refill spots(…ugh), and other things you might need to find. You can carry one sidearm(pistol or the like), one two-handed(shotgun, hunting rifle, etc.), flashbangs, flares and a gun for the latter. If close enough, those can be highly useful in the fight. You can only carry 3-5 extra clips for any of them, so you do have to stay on your toes, look around for more. Well, mostly in the «survival» part, in the single-player, you have to work hard to come close to running out. Heck, this threw three different secondary arms at me before I had anything to use even one of them on! Barry(Berman, enthusiastic, big-city type) returns, often on the radio, now managing The Old Gods of Asgard(!). That’s not the only nod/reference, either.

    There is some disturbing, violent and suggestively sexual content in this. I recommend this to those who want everything with Mr. Wake’s name on it, and no one else. Anything this offers, you can get better elsewhere. 7/10

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      • February 22, 2012 (United States)
      • United States
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      • English
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      • Remedy Entertainment
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    Alan Wake: American Nightmare — Gambling

    When you first meet American Nightmare, the most surprising thing is that the serial, episodic format of the original Alan Wake is forgotten, but no one even thinks to explain the background of what is happening. There is not even a corporate summary of the previous series. An unprepared player will not quite understand what the hell is going on in the American wilderness. It’s kind of like a continuation of the story about Alan, but, on the other hand, «American Nightmare» can pass for a fantasy based on motives. Recall that the original Alan Wake seemed like a clever pastiche of a horror novel (or film) and literally quoted King, Hitchcock and other classics of the genre. This approach allowed the strange ending to be interpreted in different ways and allowed not to answer questions at all, allowing the players to fantasize for themselves what happened to Alan and his wife after the end of the game.

    American Nightmare, surprisingly, does not use the accumulated material and instead of a story about Alan the writer, who was not very good at writing the endings of his novels, he offers an abstract story about Alan, a lover of checkered shirts, who shoots well with automatic weapons. This, of course, is more Rodriguez than Lynch or King. A bold step from an intelligent thriller to B-movies.

    • As before, the flashlight is your main weapon. However, there is no shortage of batteries.

    This time Alan is in an episode of the TV series Night Springs, for which he wrote the script. The most exciting themes of the show (quantum immortality, parallel realities and mirror doubles) left some imprint on the writer’s mind. He is left alone with his dark essence, a little nutty Mr. Scratch. The evil twin constantly appears on televisions scattered around Arizona and frightens the main character in every possible way.

    The change of scenery and style means more firefights with enemies. The otherworldly squalor with a pitchfork has not gone away, we are still confronted by rednecks shrouded in darkness. The previously developed patterns of behavior are also great for the new game: it is better to bypass agricultural equipment a mile away, and when you see dark silhouettes, you must definitely shine a lantern on them — and only after the darkness has dissipated, open fire on vulnerable monsters. New varieties of monsters have appeared — some of them split into several smaller reptiles in the world, while others like to briefly turn into a flock of crows. The main difference from the original game is that you no longer need to run away from enemies. As a rule, Alan has a hunting rifle, a submachine gun and a couple of flashbang grenades with him — darkness, beware! For those who like to shoot monsters, American Nightmare even has an additional arcade mode in which Wake tries to survive until dawn among anxious peasants. The score multiplier is increased by dodging hits, and additional weapons are unlocked by collecting manuscript pages in single player.

    • One of the new enemies, a huge bull with a cutter, almost no different from the old thugs with chainsaws.

    By the way, the manuscript itself no longer leads the hero by the hand, as in the original. If earlier everything written in it inevitably came true, now Wake himself has to fulfill the conditions described on scraps of paper in order to move forward. If Alan does everything as written, something happens that moves the plot forward. Events are often delusional nowhere. For example, who would have thought that without the disc of the British rock band Kasabian, a satellite would not be able to fall from the sky and destroy an oil rig? The player is at a loss, and Alan himself cannot really understand the logic of the events taking place.

    American Nightmare looks much nicer than the extra episodes in the original Alan Wake, but the emphasis on shooting is a little confusing — after all, the game mechanics are sharpened to avoid enemies, and not to kill them on an industrial scale. But Remedy’s experiments are extremely interesting to watch. The stylization of Rodriguez’s films is interesting, but what interests the studio the most is what the studio will do next.

    P.S. But if you want to play the «real» Alan Wake, then you have a direct path to Steam, where the PC port of the game was released not so long ago. By the collector’s version, by the way, both released DLCs are immediately attached.

    Reigracy:

    Class plot:

    Originality:

    easily master:

    gameplay:

    7

    Graphics:

    8

    Sound and music:

    Interface and Management:

    8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

    Did you wait?

    Dynamic spin-off to Alan Wake with a new stylization, delusional (in a good way) plot and an emphasis on action.

    Mania Rating: 7.5

    Good

    Alan Wake’s American Nightmare. The failure that was needed? — Games on DTF

    Alan Wake, a game that has amassed a huge fan base that is looking forward to the second part, and who agree on one thing, do not count Alan Wake’s American Nightmare as a full-fledged sequel! Why did it happen? What’s wrong with American Nightmare? Maybe Remedy simply did not understand what the success of the first part was, and therefore we should not expect a good continuation?

    4281
    views

    Well, not really. And now I’ll tell you why the second Alan Wake game came out the way it came out, and why even in this state it was necessary!

    Hello, this is the 4th part of the history of the Alan Wake universe. Previous parts can be found here: 1 2 3.

    Video version

    Immediately after the Remedies finished the first game about the writer, they made a prototype of the second part and went with it to Microsoft, who at that time owned the publishing rights.

    In this prototype, Wake, somewhere in the Arizona desert, is rushing to a motel nearby, as his wife is staying there, who is in danger in the form of Mr. Scratch, a creature from a dark abode that was created from all those bad things that people have ever talking about Alan. The writer himself, on the other hand, already skillfully handles the energy of the Dark Abode and rewrites reality for his own benefit without any problems. But everything is complicated by the fact that now not only his story turned into a reality. All other works also begin to come true, and layering on each other.

    And this created prototype was not supposed to get into the game itself, but was created only in order to show in which direction Alan Wake 2 will develop. But due to the small sales of the first part of the game at the start, the Mikes refused to allocate funding for the creation of Alan Wake’s triple A sequel. Instead, they suggested that Remedy create a completely new game with some of the developments from this prototype. And this proposal grew into Quantum Break.

    But the unfinished story of the writer has sunk into the soul of the developers as much as the fans. The Finns themselves wanted to continue this story, which they have repeatedly stated.

    However, after the Mikes’ refusal, it became clear that there might not be a second Alan Wake. Then it was decided to moderate their ardor and create a cheap sequel. The developers took developments from the prototype, which did not require a large injection of time and money, and in less than 2 years riveted the American Nightmare.

    Remedy immediately emphasized that this is not a full-fledged continuation, but only a bridge to the second part. And this bridge was made in the form of a separate Night Springs series, a mystical series from the first part of the game, which was inspired by the cult series The Twilight Zone.

    American Nightmare begins with the writer’s best friend and manager, Barry, sleeping in a motel room. Moreover, the model of the Remedy motel was taken from its prototype.

    So, after Wake’s disappearance, Barry, as promised, became the manager of the Old Gods of Asgard. Thanks to him, the Anderson Old Men returned to the big stage after more than 30 years of break. The aged rockers started writing songs and touring again.

    But Barry didn’t forget about his missing friend! Knowing that the Anderson brothers can also rewrite the universe, he personally helps them in creating a song called «Balance Kills the Demon», the lyrics of which should help Alan.

    This song, like many others, was written for Remedy by Poets of the Fall. And in it, the developers left a mess. Towards the end of the track, there is a fragment that plays backwards. It says «It will happen again, in another city called Ordinarium».

    If anything, the Ordinarium is the city where the main character of the game Control was born and spent part of her childhood. And there, too, mystical events took place, which I talked about in the analysis of Control.

    But back to the American Nightmare. After writing a new song, the Old Gods of Asgard go on tour under Barry’s watchful eye. At some point, they stay at a hotel somewhere in Arizona, and after a grueling day at work, Barry passes out in his room in front of the TV on without even undressing. And then the Night Springs series begins on TV, the plot of which is written by Wake himself, and he is in the title role.

    According to the plot, our writer, still in the Dark Residence, is pursuing his evil counterpart Mister Scratch with weapons at the ready, as he plans to open the way to our world for other terrible creatures from the Dark Residence. And this clearly will not benefit humanity, including Alan’s relatives. Therefore, the writer pursues Scratch in order to prevent him from completing his plan.

    And when Wake almost reaches his goal, he sends a wave of darkness at him, which throws the writer into our world . .. well, not quite into ours, to be exact.

    After staying in another dimension for two whole years, Wake tried many times to return to our world. But he didn’t get anything. But during this time, he understood much better how the Dark Abode works in general, and how the energy of this world changes ours. She doesn’t just rewrite anything at the behest of some gifted artist. It creates its own alternative and briefly replaces the real part of our world with it. And if this new part turns out to be of high quality and believable, then over time it will forever replace the part that was before.

    And realizing this, Wake came up with a plan to return home. While still a young writer, he wrote scripts for the TV series Night Springs. And one of the series he wrote was about how the «warrior of light» fought with his evil counterpart «the harbinger of darkness.» Wake took this story as a basis and began to create. In his new book, he created a part of the Arizona desert, which is located near a small town called Night Springs (yes, apparently he did not think about the name for a long time). This area he filled with various places and people who will play an important role in his story. And using the powers of the Dark Abode, he placed the territory he invented in our world. But he couldn’t just move there. Therefore, in the new book, he again made himself the main character and used the services of his evil double, who, according to the plot, was obliged to move him to our world. This is what we see at the very beginning.

    And after Wake wakes up in the place he created, all that remains for him is to make it take root in our world, replacing what was there before. After all, if the piece of desert he invented remains in our world, everyone who is there will remain, including Alan himself.

    And in order for this to happen, the writer needs to take care of the little things so that everything is exactly the same as in his book. But it won’t be that easy!

    First of all, after returning to our world, the writer’s memory went haywire, and he forgot everything he wrote in his last work. ..again. But even before going on a journey, Wake assumed that this would be the case, so with the help of a wave of darkness that covered him, he scattered the pages of his new manuscript in his path so that they would tell his creator what to do next. Well, and secondly, Wake does not have time to be glad that he returned to our world, as Mr. Scratch opens a portal to the Dark Abode and sends his obsessed minions to the writer. Because of what, Wake has to quickly retire.

    Alan flees the monsters chasing him in the light of a nearby motel. And there, in a local garage, he meets Emma, ​​an auto mechanic, who initially mistakes him for Scratch.

    It turns out that the evil doppelgänger recently moved into this motel under the name of the writer.

    Then Alan, guessing that he had to leave clues for himself to defeat this monster, asks the girl if she found any strange pages nearby. And here they are, she actually has a page written by Weck. She gives it to the writer and he learns how to close the portal opened by Scratch.

    To do this, he only needs to throw a passing satellite onto an oil rig in which Scratch opened his portal.

    Wake changes a few little things near this tower to match what is written on the page received from Emma, ​​and thanks to this, reality is rewritten and adjusted to the plot of this very page. The plot according to which a satellite, shot down by a meteorite, falls on an oil rig under a steep muzonchik.

    By the way, perhaps this satellite can be seen in the very first video in the game.

    But anyway, after clearing the tower, Wake returns to Emma, ​​destroys the possessed who are trying to get to the girl, and in gratitude learns from her that Scratch had a fight with someone in a local diner.

    Alan immediately goes to this diner and finds signs of a struggle there, and with them the keys to the motel.

    Wake takes them for himself and goes back to check the motel numbers when suddenly Emma’s heart-rending scream echoes around the area. The writer hurries to help her, but it’s too late, there is no one else to help.

    Then the unfortunate savior, coming to terms with this loss, explores the motel rooms and in one of them discovers the corpse of a man who turns out to be an employee of an observatory located nearby.

    Alan decides what exactly he needs to go to the observatory, because it was not in vain that Scratch killed this man. He takes the keys to work from the deceased and sets off.

    And when he gets to this observatory, Alan meets Dr. Rachel Meadows there, the second girl who at first mistakes Wake for Scratch.

    The writer asks her why his double came here and finds out that an unprecedented astronomical phenomenon is taking place now. The stars in the sky seem to change their position, which of course cannot be. And because of this, the observatory receives some strange signal. That’s what Scratch came for.

    How did he know about him? Well, in short, he checked into a motel and threw a party there. But apparently the party didn’t go well for him, so he first started recording videos for Wake, then he beat up some guy, then hooked up with a fan who mistook him for Alan, killed this fan, then hooked up with Emma (who, as it turns out, loves to blow) and with her he went to a local diner, where he met an observatory worker. Somehow, Scratch knew that this man was of interest to Wake, so he attacked him, beat him and dragged him to his room. There he tortured the poor fellow, and thus learned about the astronomical phenomenon, and about the signal received by the observatory. And after he found out all this, he strangled the hard worker, and he went to the observatory to get this signal and prevent Wake from getting to him.

    Upon arriving at the observatory, Scratch pretended to be cute, and Dr. Meadows voluntarily shared a printout of the signal with him. But as soon as the guest received what he came for, he immediately stopped pretending to be white and fluffy. He showed the doctor his psychopathic nature, after which he broke the image matrix at the telescope so that no one else could get this signal. And having done his dirty work, he, pleased with himself, dumped into the sunset.

    Unfortunately for him, Dr. Meadows had a spare matrix in his car. And when Wake appears, she is happy to share this good news with him. Then Alan quickly takes this spare part and repairs the telescope.

    But the damned shaitan machine immediately breaks down again. It turns out the possessed disabled the cooling system. Then jack-of-all-trades Alan Wake cuts off the backup cooling and finally receives the coveted signal, which turns out to be part of the plot written by him. But unfortunately the received signal was not complete.

    Wake is certainly upset, but he does not lose hope, because there is still a chance that even this part will be enough to transform what he wrote into reality. Moreover, thanks to this piece of plot received, the writer now knows that next he needs to be in an open-air cinema, nearby. Where does he immediately go?

    And when he gets to the place, he discovers. .. what kind of girl is already there who thinks he is Scratch? True, this time the stranger is not herself. Scratch touched her mind and filled it with darkness, just like the Dark Entity had done before.

    Wake tries to find out from this girl where his evil twin is, but he can’t get an answer from the deranged one. Then the writer decides to first clear it of darkness, and only after that to talk. But the prankster Scratch was able to annoy him here too. He cut off electricity at a substation nearby, which left the movie theater without electricity. But Wake is no longer used to fixing something, so he restores electricity as soon as possible, and after that he immediately returns to the stranger and clears her of darkness with light.

    And when she comes to, the girl tells her savior that her name is Serena and she is his wife’s friend. It turns out that after a 2-year absence of her husband, Alice came to the conclusion that Alan had died after all. And to say goodbye to him finally, she made a film from old personal videos. It is this film that will have to be shown in this cinema the next day as part of the film festival. And Serena is the curator of this very festival.

    And besides, a new acquaintance tells Wake that Scratch was going to the projector room to make it so that the sun will never rise.

    She shares with Wake the code to enter this projector room, and he, ready to fight with his sworn enemy, goes there. But when the writer gets inside, Scratch is not found there. But Alan understands that this is the very place where he must rewrite reality. He uses the part of the signal that he got and adjusts the environment to the plot he wrote. But, unfortunately, only part of the signal is not enough. The world created by Alan dissolves and disappears.

    The Writer finds himself in the Dark Abode again, but he is not there for long. Immediately, Mr. Scratch joins him, and again sends a wave of darkness at him, which moves Wake in space and time, and returns him back to the moment where he enters our world.

    And this turns out to be Scratch’s insidious plan to send the writer back all the time until he either dies or gives up.

    But fortunately for Wake, there is a huge miscalculation in this regard. Alan now knows what he needs to do. Therefore, he immediately goes to the newly living Emma and it turns out that, for some unknown reason, she also remembers what happened last time, albeit vaguely. She even collected the items Wake needed.

    And thanks to this, he quickly pulls off the trick with the falling satellite again, immediately returns to Emma, ​​takes the keys to the motel from her and, having agreed with her that in no case will she leave the illuminated garage, so as not to die again , goes for the keys to the observatory.

    But before the writer reaches the motel room he needs, the light in the garage goes out and the girl is killed again. And Wake, who could not save her in any way, can only continue to follow the story.

    He again arrives at the observatory, and knowing what will happen next, on the way he grabs the matrix that he will need in the future. And when he gets to the main building, he learns that Dr. Meadows also remembers what happened last time. Therefore, they quickly cooperate and again receive a signal, having previously made sure that this time the cooling does not fail. But having received the second part of the signal, it turns out that this is not all.

    However, there is nothing to do, and therefore Wake, again hoping for good luck, goes to the cinema, where the pobyrik turns on the electricity and falls into the projector room. He is trying to rewrite the world for the second time, but the information from 2 pieces of the signal is also not enough.

    The world falls apart again, Scratch returns Alan back in time again, and the writer once again needs to repeat everything from the very fucking beginning… What happened on the third loop, I will not tell, since there are minimal differences.

    The only two major changes in the third loop that need to be told are that Emma was still saved, and the third piece of the received signal was the last one.

    And Alan learns from it that one of the main details that he needs to realize is to play his wife’s film on the big screen of the cinema. So when Wake gets to the projector room for the third time, he finally does everything right, and thanks to this, the world he wrote does not collapse, as it did before.

    The rays of the film launched by Alan fall on Mr. Scratch and he dissolves into them.

    Wake himself is transferred to the film Alice, and there he is reunited with his wife.

    It seems that the story written by Wake still took root in our world, which means that the writer has finally returned home. But then the voiceover asks if it was all real? The credits roll, and after them we are again shown the motel room from the first video, where Barry wakes up and says the only word «Alan».

    And before the release of Control, it was not clear how to relate to this ending at all. Did Wake manage to rewrite the universe and get out of the dark abode, or is the whole American Nightmare just a dog’s dream . .. oh, that is Barry’s dream, of course!?

    In Control, we learn that Alan did not manage to return home. And the American Nightmare was just another failed escape attempt.

    And it was presented in the form of a series of TV series and Barry’s dream at the same time, because dreams and radio signals can sometimes travel between our world and the Dark Residence. It was Alan who sent the life-saving signal to his best friend, just as Zane did in the first Alan Wake when he contacted Cynthia Weaver.

    So why didn’t the American Nightmare hit the fans? Well, because it was weaker than the first game in almost every aspect: story, dialogue, atmosphere, level design, game design. Everything was one level worse. It can be seen with the naked eye that it was done in haste and that it does not have that study that was in the first Alan Wake. The developers positioned the second game as an action game, which was one of the weakest points of the first game! But the combat mechanics were almost not reworked. Yes, several new types of opponents and a whole ton of weapons were added to the game, but this did not help the gameplay much. This is especially felt in the arcade mode, which is boring to play super-fast.

    So why did the Remedies even make this game? Well, other than to quickly cut down the dough on the fans? Maybe it would be better without her?

    As I said at the very beginning, after the release of the first Alan Wake, the developers themselves were not sure whether there would ever be a full-fledged Alan Wake 2. After all, then everything depended on Microsoft.

    And the American Nightmare gave room for interpretation. On the one hand, if there is no more continuation, then we can assume that Alan still got out. Weak ending, but at least somehow completely finished story. On the other hand, if a full-fledged sequel does get the green light, then it will be possible to say that the events of American Nightmare … well, kind of … fuck them. What we ended up getting.

    Alan is still in the Dark House, Mr. Scratch seems to be in perfect order and visits Alice from time to time to scare the poor thing.

    And Barry ended the band’s career after a few gigs with the Old Gods of Asgard because the Andersons were too old for all that rock shit. Barry began to fear for the health of the elderly and therefore, with the money earned by the group, he built the Valhalla Nursing Home for them. So it’s possible that the next Remedy games may no longer have cool brothers. Although, as it turns out, Thor has a daughter, which means that the chances that the Andersons will still appear on our screens increase dramatically!

    Alright, American Nightmare is over, and now I’m going to tell you how Remedy did an ARG (alternate reality game) based on Alan Wake.

    On the day of the release of American Nightmare, a blog called «this house of dreams» appeared on the net, which can be translated as «this house of dreams», or as «this house of dreams».

    This was a twist on a real diary in which a girl named Samantha shared her joy about acquiring a new house and renovating it. Initially, the developers did not burn and did not show that this blog has anything to do with Alan Wake or Remedy.

    By the way, as it turns out later, Samantha bought the living space in the same city Ordinarium.

    And sorting out the things she got along with the house, she finds an old shoe box.

    In it, she finds some rubbish, a couple of strangely soiled photos and many sheets of poetry.

    So the girl gets one of Thomas Zane’s shoeboxes. Let me remind you that when he wrote himself out of reality, all things associated with him disappeared, with the exception of those that were stored in shoe boxes.

    And shortly after this strange discovery, Samantha has a dream where a certain FBI man who is allegedly captured by darkness demands this box from her, but she cannot find it.

    And after the girl wakes up from this nightmare, she really can’t find her. The box simply mysteriously disappears somewhere.

    But the story does not end with the strange loss. Soon Samantha has another nightmare. In it, a man who is described as similar to Alan Wake, distraught with fear, demands that she turn on the light during the day, although it is already on.

    And after waking up from this strange dream, the girl goes to drink some water and suddenly notices a certain dark figure outside her window.

    Frightened, Samantha turns on the lights everywhere in the house and calls for help in the face of a friend. But when he appears, it turns out that there is no one near the house.

    Then Samantha begins to think that she has dreamed of this figure. But then, after almost a week, the light suddenly cuts out in her house and dark figures begin to break into the girl’s dwelling. Seriously frightened of this, Samantha locks herself in a closet and calls the police. Meanwhile, uninvited guests climb into the house and try to get into the closet to the girl. To prevent this, Samantha holds the door with all her might. But the dark figures turn out to be much stronger than the lonely girl! They yank open the door, causing Samantha to fall out. She falls and hits her head, then passes out. Soon the cops arrive at the house and find … nothing. No burglars, not even signs of burglary, only the owner of the dwelling lying alone on the floor near the closet.

    She is immediately taken to the hospital and diagnosed with a mild concussion. A week later, Samantha, having overcome her fear, returns home and to her great surprise, in the closet in which she was hiding, she discovers the same shoebox that had previously disappeared. And the box is refilled. It has new pages of poetry, an antique light switch, and the title page of a book called The Return.

    Soon some people call Samantha and «nicely» advise not to talk about all this, as it can be dangerous. But it turns out that this girl just can not be intimidated. Therefore, she fearlessly talks about it all in her blog.

    Soon Samantha has a dream in which Zane himself appears to her. He tells the girl that when he sank to the bottom of Lake Cauldron together with Barbara, whose body was captured by the Dark Essence, he created a new world for himself and his beloved with the help of his poems in the Dark Abode. And his soul, along with the soul of Barbara, went to this new wonderful universe. And their bodies remained in our mortal world. Barbara’s body remained under the control of the Dark Essence, and her opposite and sworn enemy, the Light Essence, settled in the body of Zane.

    And this is Samantha’s last blog entry. Nothing more is known about her further fate.

    And with that I end my account of the history of the Alan Wake universe. What became known in the game Control, I have already told in a post about the AWE add-on. Yes, there is also Quantum Break, which has many connections with this universe, but due to the fact that the rights to this game are not with Remedy, but with Microsoft, the fastest Quantum Break will not officially enter the Remedy universe.

    On By alexxlab