Alan Wake’s American Nightmare Gets First Concrete Details

The first actual details about the upcoming Alan Wake’s American Nightmare downloadable installment in Remedy Entertainment’s third person shooter series have just appeared, and it looks like it’s going to be a much more action-oriented experience.

The original Alan Wake delivered a novel gameplay mechanic of fighting shadow monsters with light, but its thriller influences and pacing issues made it a bit hard to get into.

With Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, the team at Remedy is trying to deliver a more dynamic experience, at least according to the cover feature of Xbox World Magazine, via CVG, that cites as influences for the new title pulp action movies made by directors like directors like Quentin Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez, including From Dusk Till Dawn.

The downloadable game will have a hub-like structure and an open world, making it bigger than any of the DLC episodes that were released for the original game.

In terms of story, American Nightmare takes place two years after the first title, with Alan Wake becoming somewhat of an urban legend after saving Alice, so his fans have begun imagining him as a sort of Candyman-like monster, who disappeared in the woods of Bright Falls and returns as Mr. Scratch if you call out his name one too many times.

As you can imagine, that soon happens, and Mr. Scratch appears with the goal of killing Alice once and for all, leaving a trail of bodies and videos of his nefarious actions for Alan to find.

There will be plenty of details about characters from the first game littered throughout the world of American Nightmare, delivered through manuscript pages, TV ads or radio spots.

Alan will be able to wield new weapons, like a crossbow that can break shadow barriers, as well as military-grade weaponry like Uzzis, rifles or a novel nailgun, which are more than needed as enemies will be more varied and have distinct patterns to their attacks.

Expect more details about Alan Wake’s American Nightmare in the near future, as we get closer to its early 2012 release date.