Alan Wake 2’s “We Sing” is the best 15-minutes in 2023 video games

Say that Alan Wake 2, To say that I was hooked from the start would be a gross understatement. Remedy Entertainment’s survival horror masterpiece gripped, was surreal and creepy the moment they gave me the control of an unclothed man, who crawled from a supernatural water and then found himself in the forest, being hunted down by a mad cult. One sequence in the middle of the game convinced me I was playing something special.

[Ed. Note: Spoilers follow for Alan’s storyline in the “We Sing” part of the “Initiation” chapter.]

It was about 4 hours of my time that I spent with Saga Anderson. It’s a confluence vibe that I really like. True Detective’s first season, Twin Peaks, Resident Evil 4The. and other procedural laws MindhunterOr even Mare of Easttown. What’s more, Saga is as compelling character as I’ve seen all year, with a knack for snappy dialogue and a borderline superhuman intuition. She’s cool as hell, and I didn’t want to leave the creepy Pacific Northwest towns of Bright Falls or the neighboring Watery.

At a certain stage, I became aware that the basic problem was: Whole second video game I wasn’t playing. And upon returning to Alan’s “reality” in the Dark Place, a nightmarish facsimile of New York City, I was surprised to find myself back in the green room for Door to Mr. Mr., the talk show where Alan’s story began. Looping scenarios that change each time you travel through them is a common theme in all of Remedy’s games, so I wasn’t You will be shocked at the amount of people who are shocked., per se — that is, until I got sucked into the green room’s TV and entered a full-on interactive rock opera.

Yes! Yes! “We Sing,” a part that occurs a little more than midway through Alan’s “Initiation” chapter, tasks you with traveling (and fighting) through a labyrinthine sequence of corridors lined with giant screens on which the host Mr. Door (David Harewood). Poets of the Fall – the Finnish band known here as The Old Gods of Asgard – Alan, goddam Sam Lake and a bunch of other dancers perform a live dance to the tune of a Finnish metal song. Linger too long in one section (I wouldn’t blame you — I’m pretty sure the sequence triggered an acid-trip flashback for me) and Lake and the musicians will gleefully point you to the next room.

Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games image via Polygon

Here’s the It is a good idea to useThe song’s quality is beyond belief. Harewood is a good singer. Lake can Move with ease. Olli Tukiainen, a guitarist from Finland, performs a guitar solo which feels as if it lasts two minutes and melts the Flying V while playing. The following are some of the ways to get in touch with us. Your new flare gun will melt your enemies. “Show me the champion of the Light,” the Poets shout, “I’ll show you the herald of the Darkness.” Fuck you, I thought to myself, as I was dodging the blunt end of a Taken’s hammer. Video games rule.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised: Control’s Ashtray Maze, that game’s most referenced sequence, was also a kaleidoscopic foray through brilliant level design, set to a Poets song, no less. Really, “We Sing” is part and parcel with Remedy’s ongoing excellent craft.

Alan Wake 2, is replete with moments I won’t soon forget. It’s a Lynchian ode to horror of all kinds, with compelling Metroidvania aspects and puzzles that far outpace those of Resident Evil 4. It’s also taking massive swings with its Mind Place mechanic, and the very fact that you can swap between Saga and Alan at almost any point in the game. But “We Sing” astounded me in ways that no other video game has in 2023. If I give it enough time (once I can tear myself away) from the game I think I will be playing for many more years.