Alan Wake 2 has successfully beaten out a cavalcade of strong competitors to take out the top prize GamesHub has the power to award – our Official GamesHub Game of the Year 2023 accolade. Following wins for Cult of the Lamb (2022) and Unpacking (2021), Alan Wake 2 becomes the first non-Australian game to win our hearts, with the GamesHub team and its collaborators voting semi-unanimously to crown our new champion.
It’s so rare that a video game feels like a genuine surprise in these modern times. A reality of the market is that the most creative and most ingenious flowers are clipped before they can flourish, with economic conditions typically forcing a homogeneity for popular, mainstream games. Yet with great trust and publishing support, Remedy Entertainment has blown these standards off their rivets, shouting into the void: yes, you can make a wildly creative, absurdly obtuse narrative masterpiece, even in tough times.
Yes, you can insert a full-blown musical, and a 20-minute-long accompanying film in Finnish that players must sit, watch, and absorb to understand the overarching plot of your game, into the action. Yes, you can leave it open-ended, tie it back into your wider game universe, and also wield the power of New Game+ to extend your narrative and force players to emulate the maddening loop your embattled protagonist is stuck within.
Yes, games can be good. They can be very, very good. In fact, they can be Alan Wake 2 – the third ever GamesHub Game of the Year winner.
Read: The Best Video Games of 2023
Congratulations to Remedy Entertainment: Sam Lake (Alex Casey, Creative Director, Writer), Kyle Rowley (Creative Director), Tyler Burton Smith (Writer), Clay Murphy (Writer), Ilkka Villi / Matthew Porretta (Alan Wake), Melanie Liburd (Saga Anderson), David Harewood (Warlin Door), Shawn Ashmore (Tim Breaker), James McCaffrey (Alex Casey), and everyone else who made this incredible, breathtaking game.
Personal Endorsements
GamesHub’s Game of the Year picks are selected collectively by tenured staff and regular contributors. Each participant puts together a ranked personal list of their favourite games released in 2023, and titles are given a score according to their rank, with 10 being the highest, and 1 being the lowest. The scores are collated, and the games are ranked by their collective score, with staff members then deliberating over individual placements, and adjusting where necessary, before locking in the final list.
Here’s what GamesHub had to say about Alan Wake 2 in the Game of the Year voting process:
“Alan Wake 2 positively blew me away in 2023, after more than a decade of waiting for it. Frankly, Remedy Entertainment outdid itself with this sequel. It’s creepy, and gorgeous, and extremely obtuse, in a way that’ll have you salivating for answers, generating conspiracy theories, and going deeper into its strange, winding lore. Remedy is a company known for its storytelling, and Alan Wake 2 represents the best of what the studio is capable of.”
“It’s a multi-threaded monster. A literature-minded horror adventure with sprawling plot threads that dangle and tease, inspiring questions, curiosity, and an ever-forward march as it spins a complex web of terrors. But while it weaves a tale that seems to dance out of reach with every strange chapter, as the interlocking stories of Saga Anderson and Alan Wake play out, deft writing and a strong plot means the answers eventually coalesce in gripping fashion.”
Read: Alan Wake 2 Review – Save The Writer, Save The World
“That’s not to mention that Remedy hid a full-blown musical in this game, and plenty of other quirks besides. It’s a phenomenal experience and one well worth exploring yourself.”
Catch up with more of GameHub’s favourite games of 2023, including platform-specific lists and picks from special guests in our Best of 2023 roundup.
