10 Best New Video Game Characters Of 2017
4. Bayek (Assassin's Creed: Origins)
![Horizon Zero Dawn](https://d2thvodm3xyo6j.cloudfront.net/media/2017/12/4df29c83334907e0-600x338.jpg)
Look, everybody knows that Ezio is the greatest Assassin's Creed protagonist, and the rest are... well, the less said about most of them the better, right?
Thank the Gods, then, that the latest chapter gives gamers a hero they can actually enjoy spending time with in Bayek. He's a Medjay who is both a certified badass and somebody who doesn't take himself too seriously (which is the worst); a man who does his best to do what's right even when the path is not clear.
Bayek is a character who, at first, doesn't necessarily stand out because he's not big and showy like so many AAA franchise leads. In his quest to avenge the death of his son, it takes time for the game to expose the different sides to his character. In the process, Bayek struggles with how to feel about the terrible things he must do.
Another thing that ensures this guy as one of the year's best stems from the way he isn't always in the same boring mood (like so many other Assassin's Creed heroes, and indeed so many other video game protagonists). Bayek is, at times, prone to anger and violence. In other moments, though, he is kind and gentle, or we see him messing around, acting silly, as if he were still a young boy.
This all comes together to generate a hero who isn't just a dull, stoic, literally the most boring person you've ever encountered type, but somebody with strengths and weaknesses - a human being. In this franchise, who'd have thought it?