There’s a moment in Alan Wake’s American Nightmare where the eponymous protagonist attempts to explain the whole situation — the presence of The Taken, his doppelganger Mr. Scratch, and a crazy new plot element introduced in this downloadable installment — to a scientist. Said scientist subsequently dismisses Alan as completely nuts, even in the face of the insanity surrounding them. It’s a comical moment both in that it’s an amusing bit of dialogue and that it also somewhat reflects just how bizarre and convoluted the premise of Alan Wake is in the first place.
Much like last year’s inFamous: Festival of Blood, American Nightmare occupies the “stand-alone downloadable expansion thing” category. Like Festival, its premise hinges on the main character’s sidekick. Festival had Zeke tell a tall tale about Cole turning into a vampire in order to get a woman to come home with him, whereas Nightmare starts with Alan’s former agent Barry Wheeler falling asleep in a motel while the camera zooms in on the episode of Night Springs (the Twilight Zone analog in Alan’s universe) playing in the background. Nightmare puts Alan inside that episode of Night Springs, and it sees him investigating the Arizona town and helping three damsels-in-distress, all while pursuing Mr. Scratch.
