20 Best Video Games Of 2023 - RANKED

2. Alan Wake 2

Sam Lake has replaced Hideo Kojima as the gamer's auteur. Let that be said, and heard.

Because with Alan Wake 2, we have an altogether more experimental and proficient Remedy; a team of experts retroactively using Control's signature Men in Black-meets-David-Lynch springboard to reach even greater heights.

In this entirely authored sequel, that doesn't curtail to a single whiff of forced publisher oversight, we have a murder mystery-turned-supernatural extrapolation of what it means to put yourself into your work. When is a level of fame enough to turn away from, how much of yourself "should" you invest in original stories, and can you get out alive at the end, if those creations start coming to life?

Alan Wake 2 is a stunningly beautiful game, packed with sheer creativity from front to back. It has everything from custom songs and TV adverts you can check out in-game, to live-action cutscenes and a medium-defining dance sequence fans have been screaming for the world to see since launch.

Now they've reacquired the Alan Wake license, Remedy are clearly embarking on the most ambitious crossover saga they've ever created. Alan Wake 2 alone features Alan Wake 1's Poets of the Fall/Old Gods of Asgard band in a key role, Max Payne's James McCaffrey, Control's Federal Bureau of Control and even a couple of people from Quantum Break, who I'll not spoil.

This is a studio flexing their considerable muscles with over 20 years worth of veteran experience, and it is a glorious thing to behold.