In Alan Wake 2 you will encounter a thing called Echos when playing as Alan. Here is what you need to do when you find Echos to unlock them.
In Alan Wake 2 you can find "Echos" when playing as Alan. These are basically snippets of story that can be collected as you explore the world. They appear as small circle's of light projected onto surfaces in the open world, and in front of them you will see a sphere of swirling dark matter.
When you go near Echos in the open world, you will get a notification saying: "Align the Echo by approaching it from a specific angle". But for me at least, it wasn't obvious what the Echo was and how I was meant to align my perspective. I did work it out, thankfully, and you can find exact screenshots of what Echos are and how you are meant to "solve" them below.
How To "Align The Echo"
This is what an Echo looks like, this particular one is from an early section in Alan's story, when he is first exploring New York:
All you need to do is focus your camera on the Echo and move around until the swirling black mass is blocking the circle of light. Try it by moving laterally from left to right, or vice versa. You shouldn't need to get any closer or further away from the Echo.
Once this is achieved, you will see a snippet of story appear in front of you. I would love to be more specific, but it's useless to try and explain in words how the story appears to you; it's nightmarish but strangely hypnotic and beautiful (which is typical of Alan Wake 2 and one of the many reasons we rate the game so highly).
Here is a graphic to help explain the process of aligning Echos in Alan Wake 2:
It's quite simple once you know what you're looking for and what you need to do. Now you're equipped to "solve" every Echo in Alan Wake 2.
Anyway, good luck escaping the Dark Place! And If you enjoyed Alan Wake 2 then we highly recommend checking out Resident Evil 4 next.