Alan Wake 2 legit blurs the line when presenting a character; between film footage and digitizing the actor. Even the games environments blend in photographed and filmed objects. It's a masterpiece of a game, with beautiful graphics, and a fun and bonkers story.
I should be playable from Epic Games Store via Lutris or similar. Or from sailing the high seas.
AW2 is DRM-free. I imagine it can be run completely independent of Epic. You’d need the store to purchase and download it but you could probably even uninstall the Epic app afterwards. I haven’t tested this though, so please don’t just take my word for it.
It helps to understand some of the deeper lore, but AW2 does a good job of letting you know the important bits so it's not necessary to have played the first one.