While the PlayStation 3 had undeniable jewels such as Demon’s Souls, Infamous, and Dark Souls, it’s hard to compare the console to its older sibling, the masterful PlayStation 2. The PS2 was home to a library of classics we still can’t seem to stop remastering or porting, and while the PS3 certainly delivered later in its life, it wasn’t until the PlayStation 4 that we saw a more consistent life cycle of irrefutable classics.
The PS4 marked the return of the PlayStation in full force and, with it, one of the best video game catalogs in the history of Sony’s systems. If you’re a little late to the party, or just want to make sure you’ve hit the highlights, I’ve got a list rolling covering some of the best PS4 games you should play.
10. Horizon Zero Dawn
I remember audibly gasping when I read that Horizon: Zero Dawn was coming out in the same week that Nintendo released The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild. I thought there was no way in hell that Guerrilla’s new IP stood a chance against Nintendo’s Zelda-driven behemoth. I was very wrong and on more than one front.
Horizon: Zero Dawn became PlayStation’s — not just the PS4’s — highest-selling first-party title ever. It currently sits at over 24 million units sold, just seven million shy of BOTW’s numbers. Not bad for a new IP. Even more importantly, it more than turned out to deserve the hype as it expertly mixes tight combat mechanics, exploration, movement, and astonishing visuals.
9. Ghost Of Tsushima
I imagine the pitch for Ghost Of Tsushima was just someone saying, “50% of the team voted for Samurai, and 50% voted for Ninja, so let’s just do both.”, as that alone would’ve had me sold. This game is a miracle. Making a GTA-scale game about the path of the Samurai must be quite the undertaking already, so making one that also included satisfying, fluid inspirations from Ninja seems impossible.
Luckily, Ghost Of Tsushima ended up the closest we’ll likely ever get to Red Dead Redemption 2 with blades, bows, and Ninja secrecy. It’s a masterful game that lets players approach all sorts of scenarios in whichever way they choose, and the only guarantee is that they will never forget their experience.
7. Spider-Man
It was back in ’04 that Spider-Man 2, the game about the movie, would inexplicably rock my world. It was the first to implement “realistic” web-slinging and swinging mechanics. No longer being able to stick your webs to clouds made a world of difference for me, and I’m not alone in remembering it fondly.
Lightning only struck again nearly 15 years later, when Marvel’s Spider-Man outdid my favorite superhero game of all time. The new Spider-Man essentially learned all the lessons from the classic, built upon them, and even added a bunch of new stuff to create one of the best superhero games ever made.
*If you, like me, aren’t too keen on the weird infatuation Peter Parker has with the police in this game, then consider just playing Miles Morales or Spider-Man 2 on the PS5 — or the original Spider-Man 2 on the PS2.
5. God Of War
After a stellar trilogy and a few possibly canonical games that also ruled, the Norse Mythology-inspired God Of War sequel had some dangerously big shoes to fill. GOW was a mix of many things. There was the more personal father-and-kid dynamic from The Last Of Us, the Dark Souls-inspired combat, and the over-the-shoulder perspective from Resident Evil 4, but it pulled them all off like a total pro.
Though not original in itself, it’s a unique mix of many elements that just work, and that naturally resulted in one of the most solid games of its era.
6. Death Stranding
I’ll be the first to admit that Death Stranding let me down big time when I first played it. The plot varies from overcomplicated to nonsensical, and a lot of the actors feel like they’re just there because Kojima really likes their beautiful Hollywood faces, There’s also the more action-oriented gameplay mechanics feeling almost forced in to appease anyone longing for gunplay.
Outside of that, however, Death Stranding has the guts to ask players to become errand kids and actually pulls it off by making the movement fun, the challenges dreadfully comical, and providing a vast, open world for introspection and mystery.
Death Stranding is a game like no other, the rare experience where you see that someone’s authorial vision, wacky as it might be, take center stage. Though I maintain that Death Stranding went overboard on many aspects, I believe it’s better to have high-budget games taking similar risks than not.
5. Persona 5
Sadly, the PS4 felt a bit lacking in terms of Japanese RPGs, but Persona 5 is so good that it nearly filled that void by itself. Don’t get me wrong. We also got FFVII Remake, which masterfully played with its formula, but P5 was a marvelous trifecta of old, new, and great.
Though it features a combat style similar to what we’d previously seen in many times before in many other RPGs, Persona 5 never fails to tinker with the classic formulas to come up with top results, even for this already usually stellar series. The cast of characters and soundtrack are also legendary, but that should come as no surprise.
4. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
I considered Uncharted 4 for this spot, but, back in its day, this was the true next-gen Uncharted experience. Uncharted 4 looked better than anything before it, but it was, essentially, just another Uncharted game — one filled with unnecessary changes to its established canon, even.
Lost Legacy gave us a fresh new start with two beloved characters in a now wide-open world for players to explore. Though I’ll never stop loving the other entries in the franchise, it’ll be hard to go back after Lost Legacy.
3. P.T.
P.T. isn’t a retail release, but it’s only version of the project, so the demo counts. Even if it weren’t, I’d probably still try to come up with a reason to put it on this list, as it’s simply one of the best horror experiences of all time—not limited to just the PS4. It was also one of the most bizarre, surprising reveals in the video games industry, with its 2014 Gamescom reveal sending everyone into a detective frenzy to uncover the who or what was behind the demo.
Though it features arguably simple gameplay mechanics, P.T. offers players first-person horror like no other game. It is also, or was, completely free. We might never get anything of the sort again, as Konami pulled the demo from the store years ago after the project was canceled. So, either cherish your PS4 that still has it installed or never let others forget that it was once a thing—like I’m doing right now!
2. Dreams
And if Ghost Of Tsushima allows you to be both a Ninja and a Samurai, Dreams allows you to be anything. Dreams is the game version of that very Reddit-like “I’m a gamer, I don’t have a life, I have many” meme. It invites players to play a wide range of games made in Dreams and, if they are daring enough, or not satisfied with what was on the catalog, to make their games via the very user-friendly Dreams toolkit.
Dreams wasn’t just a game but both a collection and a factory of great games. Sadly, Media Molecule has since stopped support for Dreams, though its community remains as strong as ever.
1. Bloodborne
This was my placement for Bloodborne as soon as I finished it, and it only got more cemented as time went on. What FromSoftware started with Dark Souls, it has perfected here. Bloodborne is the perfect mix of challenging gameplay with action fun. It has the best world ever devised by FromSoft, and one of the best, darkest, and most engrossing stories I’ve ever seen in a game. I’d recommend it to anyone with a strong stomach because of all the gore, yes, but also because of the choppy framerate.
I love it so much that I’d be totally down for a sequel, but I’d be perfectly happy even with a remaster that adds nothing other than a better framerate.
