10 Best New Video Game Characters Of 2017

Senua, the titular heroine from Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, is completely unlike most video game protagonists gamers are used to. She isn't super-powered or muscular, and she isn't imbued with any physical prowess. She's a regular woman who finds herself caught in a terrible situation, and it's entirely refreshing to find yourself on the end of a character designed in this way.

Senua is a warrior who spends the length of this nightmarish game suffering in the wake of a horrific trauma, battling various forms of mental illness, mainly psychosis. Tackling these themes is incredibly ambitious for a video game and admirable by default, but the execution is amazing too: the character work employed to explore Senua - her design, her movement, her voice acting - is breathtaking.

Senua feels so real that she puts other video game characters to shame. Only once you've played Hellblade do you realise that most of the character work in other games is poorly done. It's games like this, and protagonists like Senua, that will ultimately raise the bar, further cementing the medium as a true art form.

In a truly inspired move, Melina Juergens - Ninja Video's video editor - was cast in the role of Senua. Originally she was just supposed to stand-in until the team brought in another actress to play the part, but they ended up liking her performance so much that they kept it. It's a stroke of near genius, because Jeurgens' line readings have a raw ingenuity that works perfectly with the character.

All of this combines to offer players something they rarely get to experience in video games, classic or modern: a hero who is genuinely believable.