25 Addicting Video games That Took Over Our Lives
Games can capture hearts and minds like no other form of media. This was evident during COVID-19 when something like Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out on the Nintendo Switch and captivated everyone when the world was shut down. Other games like Final Fantasy XIV are designed to “never” end with new content coming out regularly and being able to explore massive new worlds with a group of friends.
1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Initially released in 2011, this classic title has given gamers hundreds of hours of entertainment on multiple platforms. It is available to play on almost every major platform on the market. One reason for its success is the open-world nature, the fact that you can do pretty much “everything,” the deep RPG system the game has, and of course, dragons.
2. Red Dead Redemption 2
Red Dead Redemption 2 was released in 2018 and is still the high water mark for an immersive experience in a game world. Nothing has been able to touch what Rockstar Games achieved with this sequel to Red Dead Redemption. Rockstar will probably be the first to top themselves once Grand Theft Auto VI releases. In Red Dead Redemption 2, you live out the fantasy of being a cowboy roaming the land and dealing with civilization and the changes that come with it.
3. Elden Ring
Elden Ring was highly anticipated due to the pedigree of the development team, and they delivered in a big way. It is an action role-playing game that was at least partially written by George R.R. Martin, the guy behind Game of Thrones. Elden Ring also comes from a line of games that are known to be notoriously tricky.
4. Hades
Hades is a game that will keep you on your toes due to its roguelike nature. For those unfamiliar, a roguelike game involves procedurally generated levels which is a fancy way of saying that no playthrough will ever be the same due to the random nature of this genre. In Hades, you must escape the Underworld to reach Mount Olympus utilizing the hack-and-slash combat system. You can also use items you found on previous runs to try and be more successful on your next try.
5. Fallout 4
In Fallout 4, you enter the wasteland as the sole survivor of Vault 111. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic version of Boston and the surrounding area of Massachusetts. The development team included many local landmarks, such as Fort Independence and Bunker Hill. This robust RPG puts you in the driver’s seat and gives you important decisions that will affect the overall outcome. You could spend hundreds of hours in this open-world adventure trying to see and experience everything available.
6. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The Witcher 3 takes place in a fictional location based on Slavic mythology. You are Geralt of Rivia, a monster slayer known as a Witcher. This game includes weapons and magic, which you will use to acquire experience and gold to equip and level up your character. You will also have relationships to deal with throughout your adventure. These relationships include your lover Yennefer, your ex Triss, a dwarf warrior named Zoltan, and more. You can also check out The Witcher on Netflix, with the third season recently getting underway.
7. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
When Nintendo brought one of their most popular franchises to the Nintendo Switch, they took a big gamble by completely changing the formula. The Legend of Zelda has had some open-world games but nothing on this scale. The fact that you could essentially go anywhere and do anything in Hyrule gave everyone a sense of freedom we had not experienced before with this franchise. The physics in the game are fun to play around with, and the fact that Link could climb anything (except when it is raining) means almost nothing was off-limits. Nintendo also introduced weapon degradation to the franchise here, which received a mixed reaction.
8. Mass Effect Trilogy
The Mass Effect trilogy is one of the first I remember where your choices had legitimate consequences. Many games market themselves as you being in control, but Mass Effect turned that into a reality. The decision you made in the original Mass Effect could come back to bite you in Mass Effect 3 if you went the renegade route or perhaps someone remembers that you helped them in their time of need and return the favor. This is also a series with a morality system. What you decide to do can mean life or death for certain characters, as no one is guaranteed to survive the journey.
9. Nier Automata
Nier Automata is the result of a collaboration between Square Enix and Platinum Games. This game is set during a proxy war between human-crafted androids and alien-created machines. If you want to see the complete picture, you will have to go through the game multiple times due to the branching nature of the story. The gameplay is a mixture of different genres with some hack-and-slash mixed with role-playing elements one moment, and then later, you might be in a text adventure or feel like you are playing a shoot ’em up.
10. Persona 5 Royal
Persona 5 was released in 2016, and then a few years later, we had the expanded version with Persona 5 Royal. It is a Japanese role-playing game set in modern-day Tokyo. You are a high school student named Joker, and the game goes through one full year of school. Persona 5 Royal also had some new content the original release didn’t have, such as an entirely new school semester, new animated story cutscenes, new weapons, and more.
11. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
You can live a pirate’s life in this swashbuckling adventure set in the West Indies during the Golden Age of Piracy. The location gives the player incredible freedom as you can sail the high seas with your crew in the Assassin’s never-ending war with the Templars. You can sail to your destination and disembark to explore new territories, participate in ship-to-ship combat on the open seas, and then loot your enemies’ ships if you are victorious. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is one of the most popular entries in the franchise, and recently there have been rumors that Ubisoft might be completely remaking it for modern consoles.
12. Clash of Clans
Clash of Clans is a mobile game that many people can’t seem to put down. A lot of strategy is involved as you try to get your clan to the top of the food chain. It has been on the market for over ten years and is still a popular way to game on your phone or tablet. The game is set in a fantasy world where you play the chief of a village. You can join clans with friends and participate in Clan Wars together. You can chat with each other, donate or receive troops, and be in a clan with up to 50 people.
13. World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft was the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that everyone has played for many years. It is also trendy today, even though it might have lost some mindshare to other titles. It takes place in Azeroth, approximately four years after the events in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. World of Warcraft has almost infinite replayability with all of the expansions that have been released, being able to level up your character, raid dungeons with friends, and just basically live in the world that Blizzard created.
14. Minecraft
Minecraft is the best-selling game of all time, which everyone knows about, even if you haven’t played it for a second. Minecraft is a sandbox game where you can let your imagination run wild and create whatever you want. When you start, you find yourself in a blocky, procedurally generated three-dimensional world you can build up any way you see fit. You can build complex structures, harvest materials from the planet, battle hostile mobs, and more in a game that could be played “forever.”
15. Ori and the Blind Forest
Ori isn’t as big as some of the games on this list, but it has had a major impact on those who have played it. It starts pulling at your heartstrings as it introduces you to a world that is more of a hand-drawn art style. It sits in the “Metroidvania” genre, which means there is a lot of exploring, items to find, abilities to upgrade, and new areas to explore as you learn more in the game. It is also known for its difficulty level and certain game segments that can be really hard.
16. Death Stranding
Hideo Kojima’s latest masterpiece will be the strangest game on this list and one of the most surprising. A post-apocalyptic event has taken place and completely decimated the United States. Almost everything is offline, and it is your responsibility as a member of Bridges to deliver materials to their destination so that the rebuilding process can begin. You must use a “Bridge Baby” throughout your journey to help navigate the world. Otherwise, you might run into a “Beached Thing” whose soul is stranded in the world of the living thanks to the events of the Death Stranding. The premise sounds strange, but Death Stranding was a surprise hit when it was released in 2019. Gamers are eagerly awaiting the release of its sequel, which was revealed in 2022.
17. Pokemon Go
The summer that Pokemon Go was released was magical, as it made everyone happy. Pokemon Go is an augmented reality game where Pokemon can be seen in our world, and it is your job to catch them. For example, using AR technology, you could see Pikachu sitting on the hood of your car or Charizard sitting next to you at the dinner table. Once you caught them, you could help them evolve, and then you would battle against other players at “gyms” in real-world locations. The app would also tell you where Pokemon were located, and people would flock to places to catch their favorite character. Parks were crowded as people walked around trying to catch Pokemon, and businesses were even able to set it up so a Pokemon could be there to entice customers to come into the stores.
18. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
The release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons came at the perfect time, just days after the world started to shut down thanks to COVID-19. Millions wanted to get lost on their own virtual island and build it up as they saw fit. Along the way, you could recruit new villagers to your island, harvest fruit that you could trade with friends, catch fish, build up the island museum, participate in the stalk market (the game’s version of the stock market), and more.
Thanks to the game’s online capability, you could also visit your friend’s island and even send your friends gifts in the mail in-game. The seasons in the game also mirrored the real world, so, for example, if you were playing the game in December, you would see snow on the ground, and Christmas decorations would be up all around the island. You could easily spend hundreds of hours creating the island of your dreams while visiting others for inspiration.
19. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
This is a more recent release, but it immediately made a significant impact on gamers. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom took what made The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild great and made it even better. One of the most popular additions to this game was the ability to build anything you want. Utilizing almost any object in the world, you could create a car to get around the vast world, you could attach some fans to an item, push it off a cliff, and have yourself a device that would allow you to fly places, and you could even combine an item to a weapon to improve that weapon’s power and effectiveness. Then, of course, you have the story, a continuation from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. With the freedom to do anything they want, gamers have already spent hundreds of hours in this version of Hyrule.
20. Roblox
Roblox is a platform where you can both play and build games. The program hosts user-created games and is free to play, so anyone can jump in and experiment with how everything works. You use their propriety engine, Roblox Studio, to create whatever you can dream up. Suppose you aren’t the creative type. In that case, you can spend hundreds of hours browsing the marketplace seeing what games look interesting to you, and then jump in and play them to see what it is all about.
21. Final Fantasy XIV
Final Fantasy XIV is one of the biggest MMORPGs on the market today. It is set in the fantasy region of Eorzea. You can create and customize your character to your heart’s delight and pick the server you want to play on. Final Fantasy XIV features an ever-growing story that you can play alone or team up with a group of friends. Square Enix even lets you play a significant part of the story for free to see if this is the game for you, and if it is, you will want to purchase the expansions. The team that worked on Final Fantasy XIV also worked on the recently released Final Fantasy XVI, which arrived on the market only a few weeks ago.
22. Halo: Combat Evolved
The original Halo was groundbreaking when it arrived on the scene in 2001. It set the standard for how first-person shooters could be on consoles and helped Microsoft to launch the Xbox brand. It was one of the more popular games and remained that way for quite a long time. Since the original release Halo: Combat Evolved has been re-released on modern platforms with updates to bring it to the current consoles, and the multiplayer suite is still trendy among fans.
23. Monster Hunter World
This is the fifth mainline entry in the Monster Hunter franchise and has become the most popular one yet. You assume the role of a Hunter and travel to the New World to explore an untamed wilderness. You need to hunt down monsters so your team can research to understand better what is happening. As you go through the game, you can buy and sell goods, craft new equipment, unlock new quests, and more.
24. Borderlands
This is an action role-playing first-person shooter from Gearbox Software. The story focuses on vault hunters trying to find a vault that supposedly contains advanced alien technology and other treasures. The art style was fairly unique at the time for this type of game, with it going the cel shading route. One of the main selling points was the millions of weapons that could be found thanks to the random weapon generation system developed for the game.
25. Destiny
After Halo, the team at Bungie switched to Destiny and created another franchise that millions of people love. Destiny is set in a mythological sci-fi world, featuring a “shared world” with activities that allow you to play solo or with friends. You are a Guardian; it is your job to protect Earth’s last safe city from aliens. An on-the-fly matchmaking system here allows you to communicate with players you were matched with on any given mission and join at any time. After the game was available for a while, the team at Bungie also introduced raids into the mix, giving everyone another reason to keep returning to the game.
Creating some of the worlds and games highlighted on this list can take many years and hundreds of millions of dollars. Gamers can spend years on a game, watching it evolve over time if it is well done. Which game has taken over your life in the past?
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