Alan Wake's American Nightmare (Review)

Up until this latest Alan Wake title I have been pretty pleased with down loadable titles whether it be on Xbox Live or Playstation Network. We have seen some great releases of past hits and classics like NFL Blitz or Daytona USA to name a few. I would also like to mention the original titles Fat Princess and Stacking which kept me happily busy, but still something seemed missing. All the while I just could not shake the feeling that these down loadable titles games were great and all but missed the knockout punch that comes with a killer retail release. This all changed for me within the first 15 minutes of Alan Wake's American Nightmare.

I was a massive fan of the first Alan Wake title and played it through enjoying almost every moment. Remedy had a lot of responsibility because the fans like myself loved the story style and gameplay which seemed to mesh so well. This game is not a direct sequel to the 2010 smash hit but more side story that is explored following the conclusion of the first game. Alan again is the main character still plagued by the nightmare of his own creation. He is trapped in an episode of Night Springs, which is the in game version of a favorite we all know as Twilight Zone. Alan had written this episode long before he became the accomplished writer we saw in the past.

This time around you play as Alan, who is playing The Champion of Light, as the game refers to you throughout. Your arch enemy Mr. Scratch, who is a clean cut murderous version of you, has trapped you in this Nightmare like cycle which you must escape. Escape will come in the form of finding manuscript pages and rewriting the episode to eliminate the Taken and hopefully Mr. Scratch before it is too late.

This should seem pretty familiar to any AW players saddling up for another ride. The campy quirkiness of the first game is here again and will see a little abrupt, maybe even forced, but remember this is a short title and Remedy did not have the same amount of time in game to build as the first game did so well.

Personally I loved the Pacific Northwest location of the first. There is something so much more scary about pine trees and a forest compared to the desert locations of American Nightmare. This did not take away from the game but gave it a sense of being separate from the original as you really had three areas to visit: The motel, a drive in movie theater and an observatory. All carry a similar level of detail as the last game did.

A lot of people were worried that Remedy was going to make the game more action oriented than the last and with good reason, the story was a main focus along with how it unfolded. Wake now has tighter controls when moving and overall his actions look a lot smoother. Wake's duck move has returned and combined with the tighter over all controls, battling a horde of the Taken can be a real treat. We also see the addition of new weapons and enemies. This gave the battles more variety because now we have added brute like enemies, fast moving spiders and even enemies that split in two when shot. Pick your weapon type and go to town. Personally I loved the sawed off shotgun and it sounded great.

At times you are doing a lot of retrieve this item treks, which of course will be littered with different enemies, rinse and repeat. It seems we also stuck to the core of using the flashlight to break down an enemy and then finishing them off with bullets. I had no issue with this in the first title and it is even better now with the revised controls.

If the story mode was not enough for you we also have the Fight Til Dawn mode, which is a horde style mode, where you must remain alive for 10 minutes while battling waves of enemies. You have a total of 5 maps from a grave yard to an oil field that once a single one is defeated the next will unlock. Each level is laid out with weapons and pick ups scattered for use until the sun rises. In order to score high and hopefully make the leader boards you will need to string together kills and score the multipliers.

The concept here is interesting because you have the choice of killing as many enemies as you can to score high and impress the XBLA world, or just skirt the enemies for 10 minutes until the sun comes up and you can move on to the next level. This mode became real heart racing as you frantically scrounge weapons, all while dodging enemies attacks and stringing together kills. This mode will lead to some serious smack talking among those on your friends list, I know it has on mine.

If you loved the first game this one is a no brainer at 15 bucks. The inclusion of the Fight Til Dawn mode is just a bonus really and also shows how you can do something fun without it seeming like a tacked on no interest mode. This game is easily one of the first to give me the same feeling as a retail release or in this case the original AW did. Yes, the story was not the main focus here but with great combat and smooth controls I can hardly complain about anything in this title.

Pros
Improved controls
Fight Til Dawn mode
Same great Alan Wake feel

Cons
Story was co pilot to the action
Campy, quirkiness seemed forced in story

4/5

Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D (Nintendo 3DS)

Since the 2010 announcement at The Nintendo Conference in Japan I have been very skeptical of The Mercenaries 3D or M3D. So far I have not felt the grab to get a 3DS for a number of reasons like: horrible initial sales, seemed gimmicky, claims of causing headaches etc. I know there are some Mario and Zelda titles out there but I hate paying full retail price for a rehashing with some features tacked on. But when it comes to Resident Evil I am one hell of a sucker and will buy almost any game or movie with RE on it. I even purchased that stinker RE survivor which was a Playstation shooter released mid 2000. Through them all I have had high hopes and some fulfilled while other crashed but my hope was M3D would be different. I mean come on, it marries aspects of Resident Evil 4 and 5 which I loved. Let's take a peek into this one and see if it sinks or swims.

M3D is a third person shooter combing the mercenaries mini games from Resident Evil 4 and 5. So there really is no story here. The basic objective is to take down as many enemies as possible within a given time limit. This for me is not a positive already, because Resident Evil or RE has always carried a rich interesting story albeit sometimes confusing as hell.

The visuals are very good considering the fact you are on a such a small screen. Personally I preferred to play this title without the 3D on so I could play at an angle versus straight on. The 3D also seemed to disorient me to the point where I had to take a break or I would end up with a headache. I did not have this issue with any other games I tried. The character animations seemed to function as required whether you were being stalked or popping off shots. There is a nice selection of characters from different R.E. titles to choose from with alternate costumes and what not. I did appreciate the ability to upgrade my characters skills as I progressed through the game.

There was also a decent amount of slow down when multiple enemies appeared on screen or something was being blown up. I expected this going in because I had seen this in the past on other Nintendo hand held devices. All of your action is displayed on the upper screen while maps, inventory, etc are on the lower touch screen. I was really hoping for some action on both screens but once again was not shocked to see the usual layout for the screens. The levels are very vanilla and often kinda boring when compared to some of the locales this title borrows from.

The controls stayed in line with what we have come to expect from the series. Personally I felt a lot of frustration in trying to get my character to move his ass without getting it bit off in most of the levels. I am also trying to adjust to using the nub on the system as the last DS I owned did not have this control option. There are also some different control options/schemes in the start menu.

One of my major draws to this game was the online play via WI-FI which promised some intense CO OP action along with new modes and different characters from the R.E. universe. That all sounds pretty kick ass huh? Oh, well too bad I could not find one damn person playing the game to even demo the online piece. I have attempted to find sessions at different times of the day with no luck. With no one playing it online chances are I would have been less than impressed anyway. The other major draw was the demo included for Resident Evil Revelations. You play as Jill Valentine in the demo investigating a ship that seems empty but something has taken it over. The demo was mostly walking around and almost no action. I will not give it away for those who are still looking to play it. What has two thumbs and feels pretty screwed over by the demo? This guy! I just expected more from this because of how rich the R.E. history really is.

Overall this is a decent attempt at ringing a few more bucks out of the rabid fan base that keeps this series hyped. I prefer to call this title a mode as it is really not a game on it's own feet but more a mode borrowed from previous games in the series. If you are a fan of R.E. like I am and own a 3DS chances are you have already played this or will be soon. If this game was sold for less than 20 dollars I would be a lot more inclined to recommend it, but at 40 dollars I have to yell rip off. 

Pros:

Visuals 

R.E. characters/levels of past

Skills/upgrade system

Cons:

Wi-Fi play or lack there of

Slowdown on screen

Realizing you spent 40 bucks for a demo (Should have been a tacked on mode for R.E. Revelations)

Originally posted by contributor Christopher Young