Alan Wake didn't really click with me entirely because for something framed like a tv show it seemed to pull itself into being a really drawn out and bloated game. American Nightmare cuts out the filler moments like driving, and extended moody exploration for a more direct and to the point game. Which ends up working way more as a tv-like game, and Night Springs is the perfect vehicle to use. Dialogue and story here is much lighter in tone but still as odd and mysterious especially with Mr. Scratch who is played to perfection honestly a really great inverse of Alan Wake's morals brought to life in an at times creepy, and most times funny way. The performance had great hints of American Psycho (2000) in the glipses you get into the typical box TV we know from Alan Wake. The biggest improvement is the gunplay, and it is a night and day difference. Every gun feels good to shoot and use, Alan's movement feels snappier, and the flashlight's battery is almost a non-issue to manage. New enemy types are good too with exception of the small Spider's. Importantly it removed crows as an enemy type which were awkward and weird to fight before but now transform into humanoid taken. Narratively it's alright this is a simplistic "time-loop" or "story-loop" since characters remember events (which is used to speed up the game's plot.) But every character here is fun to talk to for the most part I would say for much of the dialogue though it wants you to stand around, which applies to the radios/TVs too. This could easily be improved with a handheld radio/walkie-talkie so Alan could talk to his fellow loopers while cleaning up manuscript pages. Cleaning up Alan's pages I did to completion something I never felt interested in doing in Alan Wake. It's a small 3-5 hour additional experience with mileage that can extend with the bonus or optional Arcade mode which makes use of the good gunplay. While not doing anything special in particular it enriched the world of Alan Wake with Mr. Scratch as an expanded and interesting Antagonist as well as recontextualising Alan's relationship with Alice in a better light.