Alan Wake's American Nightmare makes use of the same combat mechanics found in the original
Alan Wake: Alan has a flashlight, which must be focused on enemies before firing weapons at them.
American Nightmare is more battle-focused, containing more ammunition and a wider variety of weapons, including a machine gun, a nail gun, a crossbow, and flashbangs,
among others. Some weapons are unlocked via cases found throughout the
maps, which each require a certain number of acquired manuscript pages
to open. Collectible pages were also featured in the original
Alan Wake, though they had only served to provide an additional story element.
The game also features an arcade mode, where Alan is set against
increasingly difficult waves of enemies. New arcade maps are unlocked as
they are successfully beaten, while available weapons are determined by
the number of pages that have been recovered in story mode.