The 10 best video games you should have played in 2017

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

You can’t trust anything in this video game. What you see and feel and hear, you cannot trust.

And that’s an interesting thing for a video game: You can’t trust the character you’re playing. Senua, the main character, is plagued with “Furies,” voices she hears and visions she has (let’s just call it psychosis). Visual cues make you wonder if things really are what they seem here in Helheim (the underworld) or if it’s her psychosis lashing out.

Sometimes during game play you find yourself forgetting that you’re playing a video game. The tightly knit story, the controls, and the visuals all lend themselves to the overall feel of the game. And the voice acting is phenomenal.

You’re in this one for the story over the action/combat. The combat feels more like the punctuation on a scene than an additional sentence, or more of an obstacle to make it through than something more meaningful. That is — until you make it toward the end of the game. And if you die one too many times in the same fight, you lose your save and have to start over.

That’s brutal.

But that’s Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. Overall gameplay only takes about seven hours, so if you want a thrilling, enveloping story, my vote’s for this one.

Fortnite Battle Royale

Does this one count? The actual Fortnite doesn’t come out until 2018, but Epic Games released Fortnite Battle Royale as a free-to-play, purchase-what-you-want downloadable game in September.

This is your standard sandbox survival game. You and up to 100 other players land on the same island and fight to the last man standing as the playable area slowly shrinks down to a minute expanse of land. Play on your own or with up to four people on your team, it’s a heck of a lot of fun. (You also have the option to play a 50-versus-50 team match, too.)

The matches don’t take forever. If you lose, you aren’t forced to sit through the rest of the match (though you can follow the person who killed you); you can go back to the main menu and sign yourself up for another match. Try to be strategic about where you land to start a match; if you’re playing the free version, you only ever start with an axe. You’ll need to find a gun — and fast.

Honestly, this might be one game that’s more fun to watch than to play. Pick it up for your significant other, your brother, your sister, and make them play it while you eat some popcorn and watch the battle unfold.