Adzeth: I found the original Alan Wake to be awesome, but American Nightmare felt like a silly, not-scary nightmare that didn't make any sense in the few hours I played before stopping out of "this is dumb, I have better things to do". I'm guessing the way the game is silly was intentional (even the name suggests it's a dream), but I didn't like it.
Anyway, I'd say that if the beginning of American Nightmare has a story, then a department store shopping list does as well.
Nightmare is like it would be some DLC but a good one.