Never have I cussed so much at a video game.

[Senseless]

I dont get it. Ive tried so hard to get the arcade achievements. Ive kept count so far, and I just failed on my 160th attempt to get Survivor.

The entire arcade mode is situational. It seems that skill is not a factor at all in getting the achievements. I studied the maps, used good strategies that I found online, and still all it takes is one simple enemy to spawn behind you and instantly attack you. I mastered dodging to get my multiplier up, but once you dodge theres a debuff period that you must wait before you can dodge again, making dodging the massive mobs impossible. I run out of ammo way to fast, and there are not nearly enough flares. I dont get me started on the grenaders. They never spawn in sight, and always hide behind a large structure, and since nightmare mode is one endless spawn fest instead of waves, theres no planning to instantly seek them out. Also flashbangs and flareguns are useless in nightmare.

Please tell me theres an easier way.

[XBM Yosho]

Originally Posted by Senseless

I dont get it. Ive tried so hard to get the arcade achievements. Ive kept count so far, and I just failed on my 160th attempt to get Survivor.

The entire arcade mode is situational. It seems that skill is not a factor at all in getting the achievements. I studied the maps, used good strategies that I found online, and still all it takes is one simple enemy to spawn behind you and instantly attack you. I mastered dodging to get my multiplier up, but once you dodge theres a debuff period that you must wait before you can dodge again, making dodging the massive mobs impossible. I run out of ammo way to fast, and there are not nearly enough flares. I dont get me started on the grenaders. They never spawn in sight, and always hide behind a large structure, and since nightmare mode is one endless spawn fest instead of waves, theres no planning to instantly seek them out. Also flashbangs and flareguns are useless in nightmare.

Please tell me theres an easier way.

The simplist thing that people need to learn, (same goes for the previous title of Alan Wake) is how many shots it takes to down an enemy and take your time.

In my experience of playing and seen people playing, They freak out at enemies and blast them away. Just like in the previous title, Ammo is not abundant but better then before; Never the less you need to conserve and take your time.

An example would be this, I know that the Grenadiers take 2 shots with the revolver, NOT MAGNUM to down regardless of distance. I know that the large guys with the black leather vests take 3 shots with the revolver regardless of distance.

I always go with a gun I am comfortable with, Which is the revolver with 6 shots and 44 reserve, and an "OH SHIT" weapon which is the combat shotgun.

A lot of people dislike the combat shotgun but I will tell you why it is good on SO many levels.

1: The combat shotgun is the single best weapon for clearing enemies who are surrounding you, Even if you haven't broken the darkness around them, You should know when you shoot an enemy the stagger back. So with an automatic 12 shot capacity, It clears so you have room to move.

2: It is almost impossible to waste ammo with this gun unlike the assault rifle which sprays. This is a utility gun so if you get mobbed by large enemies, 2-5 shots take them down which means you still have 7 left over to clear a path.

3: FAST reload, Yes assault rifles also use a clip, But something like the hunting rifle IMO is a damper on your game if playing on nightmare since it is a single shot and single reload weapon.


Back to the subject of clearing the waves, I have found that circling the outer rings of maps works best, Not only that but also purposly get close to an enemy to turn him, If you can "back peddle" which a line of enemies behind you you can easily lay a flash bang and clear with either the revolver or combat shotgun as your running right through them. Then repeat.

As for flashbangs and flares being useless in Nightmare, That is 100% not correct. The flare and flaregun will buy you time to pick up or restock ammo, And the flashbang will allow you to stagger enemies and clear them while on the ground.

[Senseless]

Ah finally managed to get it. Took me 11 hours to get

[strawberry]

lol you should try playing gears of war online, and then come back and tell me if Alan wake still pisses you off the most.

[Ravenhood]

XBM Yosho gave most of the tips the rest of us could provide, but there's a few things I'd like to point out as well.

When playing a Nightmare Arcade level, even though there are no set waves of enemies, there never seems to be an amount too high to handle. When starting, say, the Cemetary on Nightmare, there are always two regular Taken with knives that spawn in front of you on either side, with a varying number of Taken with longer weapons spawning behind you. From there, if you take the same general route each time to find certain weapons or items, but change it up just enough to see where certain enemies may come from, you'll get a good idea of where some of the Taken will be before they're even there.

I never saw more than about 10 or so Taken at any given time on Nightmare (unless you count the smaller Splitters), so take your time to get to know one of the levels, find the items you need and the weapons you're most comfortable with, and either protect one area you're okay to defend, or constantly run and stay a good distance ahead of the Taken, taking potshots at the closest or most dangerous ones.

I know you've already got the achievement now, but it's still good practice if you want high scores on the other levels. Also don't forget that if you're a bit behind on points but nearing the end of your time, just keep your multiplier up and let the sunrise take them all out at once. When I got the achievement, I hit 71000 about 20 seconds before the timer ran out, and just ran and dodged until the end, when the sunrise boosted my score up to 83000.

[FeatherbottomMR]

hang in there kid.....

[Clocktowers]

It's so ridiculously frustrating when you're on the last few seconds of a Nightmare mode level with an 8x multiplier and then one quick little bastard sneak attacks you after you've just finished dodging a whole mob of taken. I think I'm about to rip my head off.

[ImmortalArbiter]

I actually pulled this off on my first attempt on Cemetary on Nightmare. I wasn't even actually trying for it - I was working towards unlocking all of the Nightmare levels. Right after I got it though, I got mobbed and died very quickly.

I believe I used the Revolver and Combat shotgun, and just ran loops around the map. It was pretty intense!

[Agusta1]

CoD4, No Fighting in the War Room on Veteran.

That easily Outweighs this game in terms of frustration.

Or, Levels 57-59 Tower of Lost Souls in SCIV

[cptmorgemaker]

COD 4 on Vet was cake dude. And no this arcade mode is crap same with the game and I love the Alan Wake game but this is a disgrace to the game same thing over and over and over 3 times wow that took alot of work to create and think of all you had to do is think of about a 15 minute storyline .