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(Slight spoilers, not like it matters much lol)
I played Alan Wake many years ago for the first time after growing up watching my brother and dad play it and I fell in love. Over the years, I've played it a few times, my most recently playthrough being on nightmare mode. Before the sequel was announced, I'd been disappointed by the ending of the first game and wished their was more to the story. I was excited for the remaster (even though I haven't and wont play it cause I think it looks worse lol) because it meant Remedy was still thinking about the game. Obviously, that didn't meant there'd be a sequel and I wasn't even expecting one. I'd known about American Nightmare but it's obviously from the cover art and title alone that it's more of a spiritual successor. After Alan Wake 2 was announced I figured it wouldn't hurt to play this game despite the negative reviews I saw. I doubt much of the 'lore' from this game will make it to the sequel, but I figured it'd be fun to play as Alan some more. And Scratch will probably show at the very least by name.
So, the game. It's fine. It's no Alan Wake of course, but it's my favorite game so almost nothing compares in my eyes. Use that to judge me and this review as needed. The actual pacing and story of the game is a little annoying and the nerfed combat doesn't help, but it wasn't as bad as the negative reviews had led me to believe. Yes, it's a time loop, yes, it's a little annoying, but it's not bad. Not by my standards anyways. They get easier and much as you go through it the extra 2 times, and there's only 3 locations to do this at anyways, it's a short game (roughly 4-5 hours depending on how much you're willing to wander around a little to look for pages) so it's not super tedious. The TV segments with Scratch were a little boring, mostly because they were so long, but I was the one who chose to sit through them so I have no one to blame but myself. Skip them if you don't care about absorbing every piece of media this game is willing to give you.
The combat was disappointing, I'll admit, but it got better at the end. The biggest problem is that it's too easy. I know this isn't meant to be a long game or anything special, but with the time loop and it being too short to have much of a story, the combat needed to take on a lot more of the game that it did. It just didn't feel very satisfying at first. You're handed ammo at every moment, more than you could ever use, and it takes at most a few seconds with the flashlight and one MAYBE two hits with any of the guns to kill the taken. Except obviously for the big guys who take a bit more. It got a little more difficult as you go to the second and final time loop with there being more enemies and and stronger ones. I only played on normal mode though so if you don't want to be disappointed by the combat just play on straight nightmare mode instead of normal like I did, those are the only two options so I say just take your chance with it. I loved the big 'hillbilly' enemy with the rotary saw, and the splitting one was cool but I feel like it could've been executed a little better to be more of a threat. The bird guy was interesting, but not my favorite. But I guess I've never been a fan of those damn birds....
The story was okay, I liked all ladies you meet (yes, just ladies. It made me realize as I was playing that you never see any female taken) They weren't super deep characters or incredibly interesting but again 4 hour experience. I was just happy to hear Barry's voice again. And the music in this game is just as great as in the first game. Alan Wake never misses with it's soundtrack, if you don't plan on playing this but liked the music in the first game look up the songs in this one, they won't disappoint.
Overall, if you love Alan Wake and want to play him again and don't feel like waiting for the sequel then I'd say give American Nightmare a go. If not, you're better off waiting for the next game or just replaying the OG, which is what I'll be doing.
3.5/5 stars. Love you Alan, glad to see you with your wife once again.