Xbox 360 Game Short Review "Alan Wake's American Nightmare" – GAME Watch

Alan Wake's American Nightmare is an action-adventure that will be available on Xbox LIVE Arcade starting February 22nd. A completely new story develops based on the world view of Remedy Entertainment's action game "Alan Wake". The sequel to "Alan Wake" has not been clearly announced and can be considered a kind of Gaiden episode. The adventures of writer Alan Wake unfold in a world that is neither a dream nor a reality. In addition, "Alan Wake" was dubbed in Japanese, but this work has English audio and Japanese subtitles.

Compared to "Alan Wake", this work has a much stronger action content, and you can fully enjoy the element of "using light to fight enemies" unique to "Alan Wake". Unlike regular download content, you can enjoy it without "Alan Wake", and it even has an "arcade mode" where you just keep on surviving until the time limit.

And above all, the greatest feature of this work is that it is closely linked to the story of "Alan Wake". "Alan Wake's American Nightmare" is positioned as a story written by Alan in the horror TV drama "Night Springs". That's why there are "connections" everywhere. A must-play for Alan Wake fans.

■ Arizona Night Springs. Set in a new land, Alan pursues an evil alter ego

Before "Alan Wake's American Nightmare", I would like to explain a little about "Alan Wake". "Alan Wake" is an action-adventure game released for Xbox 360 in May 2010. Writer Alan Wake, who has fallen into a slump, visits the rural town of Bright Falls in the northeastern United States at the suggestion of his wife Alice. is trapped in darkness.

Alan lost consciousness for nearly a week while trying to find his wife. And the power of darkness causes various paranormal phenomena and attacks him. Alain starts action to get his wife back. The clue is his novel "The Departure" that he wrote without memory. Alan's quest develops into a terrifying situation involving all of Bright Falls.

"Alan Wake's American Nightmare" begins as Alan's story from the horror TV drama "Nightsprings." The timeline of the story is unknown, but it starts with Alan's manager and best friend, Barry, sleeping in a hotel. The title of "Night Springs" is displayed on the TV while it is on, and in the darkness, Alan holds a light and a gun, and the telop of "Screenplay Alan Wake". And the TV screen becomes the game screen as it is, and the main part of the game begins.

In this work, Alan fights against his eerie alter ego named "Mr. Scratch". Alan is trapped in "darkness" and he continues to fight to return to reality. It is said that Mr. Scratch is going back and forth between reality and the world of darkness, trying to take the place of Alan himself. Alan lives in a town called "Night Springs" in Arizona.

A town named after a TV program is in the real world or in a TV drama, the boundary is ambiguous. In this world, just like Bright Falls, there are places where the boundary between reality and the world of darkness is ambiguous, and this is also said to be the case with Night Springs. In that mysterious world, Alan follows Mr. Scratch.

"Alan Wake's American Nightmare" has further strengthened the action part from "Alan Wake", and it will be developed to advance the story while constantly fighting enemies. Alan's weapons are a flashlight and a gun, just like in the previous game. Enemies are wrapped in a misty "darkness" around their bodies, and cannot be defeated without ripping off this darkness. First, use the L trigger to shoot flashlights to strip away the darkness, then use the R trigger to shoot and defeat them.

Most of the enemies have melee attacks. If you press the L button when attacked by an enemy, the time will slow down for a moment, making it easier to avoid. Dodge enemies that come at you, shower them with lights, and shoot them down. This bargaining is unique and quite fun once you get used to it. In "Alan Wake", there were more scenes of running away than fighting due to the game's emphasis on story, but in this work, weapons such as assault rifles and submachine guns are enriched, and the combat elements are strengthened.

Because of the many battles, ammunition is easier and more abundant than in the previous work, and it is easier to obtain flares that emit light for a certain period of time and flash grenades that are powerful weapons, making it more effective than the previous work. reassuring. However, the enemy is also formidable. Various types of enemies will appear one after another, such as throwing exploding "dark grenades", or changing from a flock of crows to human form in an instant and attacking with quick attacks.

The enemies in "Alan Wake" always make cunning moves around your blind spot. Also, if the light is left on for a long time, the light's battery will run out. It's almost impossible to handle them when they're pushed by numbers. It is necessary to learn the "rhythm" unique to this work, how to skillfully apply light in a short time, strip off the darkness, and hit the bullet. The battles in this game have some strong peculiarities, but they are quite exhilarating if you can fight well. In "Alan Wake's American Nightmare," you can enjoy that battle to the fullest.

■ A looping world. Defeat the darkness with the memory of the previous time and the strengthened armament

"Alan Wake's American Nightmare" is not only action-oriented, but also has a story and direction similar to "Alan Wake". In Nightsprings, Mr. Scratch appears and seems to do whatever he wants. What he wants to do is "murder". Alan chases him, but Mr. Scratch shows him what he's up to on TV.

The movie part of this work is a combination of live action and CG, giving it a unique flavor. Mr. Scratch shoots himself with a camera and kills people in a cruel way, such as strangling the tied man while talking to Alan. It's frustrating that I can't do anything because it's the image on the TV. Also, the “picture” in which the main character in the game is watching live-action television has a uniquely strange flavor.

"Alan Wake" fans are paying attention to "radio". The sound that flows on the radio is closely linked to "Alan Wake", and the connection between the previous work and this work can be filled by listening to the radio sound. In "Alan Wake", two DLCs, "Novelist" and "Signal", have been released, but the development as a story is deliberately suppressed, and "What about Alan and Alice after the ending, and the world?" The player's dissatisfaction of "I've become" remained unresolved. In this work, the "world after the ending of 'Alan Wake'" is finally told.

What makes this work even more interesting is the “loop”. In the story mode of "Alan Wake's American Nightmare", there are only three stages: "Rest Facility", "Observatory" and "Drive Theater". Because of this, at first I thought it was just a DLC game, but Alan is trapped in a never-ending world of night and forced to keep doing the same thing in three places. Alain fights in search of a way to escape from this repetitive world. Based on the memory of the previous time, I act like I'm ahead of myself and struggle to change my destiny. In each place, there are women who will cooperate with Alan, and by joining forces with them, Alan will confront the darkness.

However, Darkness also spawns more powerful enemies with each loop. The “manuscript” is useful here. In this work, the manuscript is dropped in the field like "Alan Wake". By collecting these, you can take out powerful weapons from weapon boxes with fields. The number of manuscripts to unlock is set in the weapon box. At first, there are many boxes that cannot be opened due to the lack of manuscripts, but by looping, new manuscripts will appear, and you will collect them and upgrade your armament.

"Alan Wake's American Nightmare" is a little confusing at first. It's hard to empathize with him even if he's suddenly called "the evil alter ego Mr. Scratch", and he doesn't even know where he stands. The characters also appear suddenly, and there are places where I feel that the explanation is insufficient. However, by collecting the manuscripts while looping, the story is properly assembled as if a puzzle was completed. This method was also used in “Alan Wake”. You will be able to discover yourself getting more and more absorbed in the story.

Also, I would like to introduce the arcade mode. In this mode, Alan repels enemies that attack for a certain period of time. Until dawn, Alan picks up weapons and items around him and repels the enemies. You can compete with your friends and people around the world for that score. If you dodge the enemy's attack with a fine line or defeat the enemy in a row, the evaluation will rise and the score multiplier will increase. In this mode, you compete to see how many points you can earn by defeating enemies without taking damage.

I've been playing "Alan Wake", and I was able to regain my previous instincts in the story mode of this work, so I was able to fight quite well. was difficult. With a long time limit of 10 minutes, enemies attack in groups in the second half. On the other hand, the number of weapons on hand is rather small, and a momentary carelessness can be fatal. I couldn't clear it in a few attempts, and I felt that I had to do a lot of work. Moreover, the next stage cannot be challenged unless this graveyard is cleared. I felt that the arcade mode is a battle-specific content that masters the rules of this work.

I am a big fan of "Alan Wake" and have a deep affection for it. It has not been announced that this work will be a clear sequel to "Alan Wake", and future developments such as "Alan Wake" series development have not been announced at this time. It's a matter of waiting for a future announcement, but even so, I'm glad that this work has elements that take over the story of "Alan Wake". If you are a "Alan Wake" fan, it is a must-check work. Of course, people who have not played the previous work can also enjoy it. The unique combat system is especially challenging for core shooters. I would definitely like to see a good player's arcade mode strategy. It is a work that I would like to recommend to various players.