There were a ton of good looking games this year, but none come close to the beauty of Alan Wake 2. The team at Remedy Entertainment has perfected its art style and specifically its skills when it comes to graphical fidelity. Whether you’re walking through the Oh Deer Diner speaking with witnesses, traipsing through the gloomy tunnels of a subway, or pushing through the dense foliage of Bright Falls, every aspect of Alan Wake 2 is a sight to behold.

From a wider perspective, every environment in Alan Wake 2 is breathtaking in its design and depiction of the real world. The first time you walk through the dark and gloomy, low-light forest you’ll be greeted with a dampness that permeates the image, evoking a real sense of being by a rain-drenched lake. And then a flashlight will pierce through the darkness, scattering light and reflecting off of surfaces, and you’ll wonder whether another transmedia scene has started.

That’s another trick up Alan Wake 2’s sleeve when it comes to its impeccable level of detail. While the assets and textures are without fault, what elevates it further is Remedy Entertainment’s use of transmedia storytelling. The live action scenes and gameplay transition back and forth in such an unassuming way that it can surprise and delight the player to realize they’re not watching a performance but are actually in control.

On a narrower perspective, all of the small details of Alan Wake 2 come together to create a visual feast. The first time you set foot in Bright Falls, the rain slicked streets of the town reflect the mist hanging in the air over the forest. Even the diner, with its myriad of customers, is packed full of small details, like the menus on the tables, the cakes in the display cabinet, even the neon signage on the windows.

Then there are the various haunting visual effects. Alan has the ability to edit a scene in this fiction-meets-reality narrative and this all happens in real-time, a feat that is as impressive as Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart’s dimension hopping. All of this is before you even consider the shadowy Taken creatures that react to the protagonist’s flashlight, screaming and sparking, as the shadowy flesh is blasted away.

Suffice it to say, Alan Wake 2 is hands down the most graphically impressive game this year and a deserving win for the Shacknews Best Graphics of 2023 award. Congratulations to the team at Remedy Entertainment for yet again delivering a breathtaking title across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC.

Be sure to read over the rest of the Shacknews Awards in our Year of the Games: 2023 feature.