CREATION
- The game was a result of Remedy experimenting with different varieties of gameplay.
- The game is significantly bigger than any previous episode in the original game or the DLC.
CULTURAL REFERENCES AND INSPIRATIONS
- Inspired by From Dusk 'Til Dawn, urban legends, B movie classics and The Twilight Zone.
- Kasabian's "Club Foot" makes an appearance in the game.
- There's new licensed music tracks which will appear throughout the episode.
STORYLINE AND LOCATIONS
- New players can play the game, they don't need to know the back-story from Alan Wake and the two DLC packs. However if you played the previous games, American Nightmare will expand on what we already know.
- American Nightmare acts as a bridge between Alan Wake 1 and 2, but isn't a sequel.
- The player will need to revisit locations the storyline.
- Several locations have been revealed. Wake will visit a gas station, a motel, a mountain-top observatory, an old drive-in theatre in the desert.
- Night isn't the setting this time around, the game features dusk and dawn lighting.
- Wake travels to Night Springs in Arizona, but it's unclear whether the location is real or just fiction.
- The game starts in Bird Leg Cabin - where The Writer DLC left off.
- There's a quick tutorial at the start which frees Wake from the cabin. In the tutorial, players will be reminded how to use the torch and gun to their advantage against the enemies.
- After leaving the cabin, Wake's first destination is a nearby motel with light.
- After getting to the motel, the player is introduced to Emma, a mechanic, who is working in a garage close to the motel (as seen in the trailer). Emma hands Wake a manuscript page and a nailgun.
- American Nightmare is a standalone experience but the storyline carries on from previous games in a series of manuscript pages.
- The pages foretell upcoming events but they can also be used to alter the events in your favor.
- The plot is narrated by the Night Springs voice over rather than Alan.
- Remedy has created an open world for the arcade game, but like previous titles, they are focusing on the storyline also.
- Early in Wake's career, he wrote several episodes of Night Springs.
- In the game, Mr Scratch is trying to hunt down Alice, but Alan is trying to stop him. The events take place 2 years after the events of the original game. Wake's fans created several legends about what has happened. The legends goes that Wake travelled into the woods, but emerged as Mr Scratch, now a serial killer made real by the Dark Presence.
- Mr Scratch taunts Wake through a televisions, where he does "horrifying deeds".
- New manuscript pages, TVs and radios give the player backstory into the game.
- Poets of the Fall are back as the Old Gods of Asgard. In the game, the OGoA are on a reunion tour with Barry Wheeler as their agent.
- The mountain-top observatory will reveal a secret message in the stars.
- There's new weapons, new environments, new enemies and new a new colour palette.
- American Nightmare will be similar to episode four and five from the first game, starting from the Old Gods of Asgard Stage fight.
- The pace in the game has increased compared to the original titles.
- American Nightmare is two thirds action and one third story.
COMBAT AND HINT SYSTEM
- Expanded combat, more weapons and enemies.
- It's focused more on action compared to Alan Wake.
- The HUD radar makes locating items easier.
- Voluntarily acquring the Kasabian CD, the player will meet their first new enemy, the Splitter. The new enemy is taller and stronger but a beam of light will split the enemy into four.
- Another new enemy is the Grenadiers which can throw grenades that explode with darkness.
- Mr Scratch will appear to the player mainly in series of TV broadcasts in the game showing live action actor, Ilkka Villi.
- The main cutscenes are preformed by the game's actors.
- The Splitter is a new enemy which divides into two Taken if the flashlight beam hits them.
- The Birdman is another new enemy which can turn into a flock of birds when the player tries to shoot at him using the flashlight beam or gun. He will appear as a flock of birds but will take human form just before attacking.
- A new weapon is a crossbow which can perce the darkness that protects them without burning away the darkness. This is probably the most effective tool against the Splitter.
- Other new weapons include an Uzi, military grade rifle, and a nailgun.
FIGHT TILL DAWN
- The Fight Till Dawn made is single player only.
- The game will also feature a leaderboard presumably on the "Fight 'Til Dawn" mode.
- The combo number goes up to a maximum of nine in the survival mode.
- There is also a "Fight 'Til Dawn" mode, in which players must fight the Taken until daylight. Alan will be armed with ammo, a flash-light, flares and flashbangs. The mode will also take the protagonist through several unique maps including a graveyard (where nothing can possibly go wrong), a trailer park to a goldrush ghost town.
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