Borderlands

God of War Ragnarök is an action-adventure game that sold more than 11 million units in just two months. At the time, it was the fastest selling first-party launch in PlayStation history when it sold 5.1 million units in week one and had 15 million units under its belt by the end of 2023. Borderlands 3, the third in a first-person shooter (FPS) series, sold five million games in its first week and achieved the 15 million copy milestone two years after its release in 2019. Half-Life, released in 1998 and setting the gold standard in video game storytelling within FPS gameplay, and its sequel, Half-Life 2, have spawned more than 2 000 mods and, after 25 years, remain popular titles. Games come back, time and again, to crush headcrabs with Half-Life’s silent protagonist Gordon Freeman and his crowbar.

What these games share, alongside Call of Duty (in all its iterations), Counterstrike, League of Legends and Doom (another classic) is reflexes. Skittering monsters, humanoids, aliens and creatures jump out at you from dark corners, powered by menacing soundtracks and deep shadows and the only thing saving you from restarting at a checkpoint or your last save is the speed at which you spin and shoot.