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The PlayStation 5 is here, but that doesn’t mean you should count out the PlayStation 4. In fact, given how hard it is to get your hands on a PS4, Sony’s last-gen console is probably your best bet for playing PlayStation games. And, oh man, are there a ton of all-timers. From tight puzzle games to sprawling open-world adventures, the PS4’s library has it all. Read on to learn about the cream of the crop.
But first, there’s something we need to discuss.
PS Now and PS Plus Benefit
Microsoft might have Game Pass, but Sony has PlayStation Now. For $10 a month or $60 annually, you get access to a games-on-demand service with a library of more than 800 games, dating back to the PS1. Of the games on our list, just one (Bloodborne) is currently available, but many others (including Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War) have previously had temporary windows of availability on the service.
Beyond that, PS Plus members who own a PlayStation 5 will be able to play a selection (20, currently) of the most well-regarded PS4 games on their new console. Some of the games on our list (like God of War, Persona 5, and Monster Hunter: World) are accessible with the service. So are some of the games that used to be on our list (Uncharted 4, Until Dawn, and Infamous: Second Son, among others). If you’re thinking about picking up a PS4 for these games explicitly—and have a high level of patience—it might be best to think about investing in a PS5 instead.
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Final Fantasy VII Remake
Whether you played the 1997 original a dozen times or have no clue what a Tifa is, there’s something to like about Final Fantasy VII Remake, a bold reimagination of one of gaming’s great role-playing games. Remake takes the first section of Final Fantasy VII—a four-hour stretch of game set in a dystopian city known as Midgard—and blows it up into a forty-hour adventure. You play as Cloud, a former soldier with a fuzzy memory. In short order, as with the first game, he’s roped into an eco-terrorist plot and a vast corporate conspiracy. No spoilers, but Final Fantasy VII Remake deviates from the original in some major ways. Even those who think they know every beat are bound to be surprised.
A Good Match For: Fans of playing action-RPGs, min-maxing stats, and gawking gape-mouthed at top-flight visuals.
Not A Good Match For: Players who abhor backtracking as Remake has a few sections that demand it.
Read our review.
See it in action.
Study our tips for the game.
Purchase From: PlayStation Store | Amazon | Target
Pyre
Pyre is a sports game unlike any other. You control a group of exiles, a set of miscreants banished from a prosperous kingdom to an underworld-esque realm. Their goal, as with most exiles, is to claw their way back to society. To do so, they engage in a trial of games, known as “rites,” that can best be described as “soccer, but magic.” Every character has different attributes, each of which helps immensely in rites. (Some are fast, some can triple jump, some can fly, and so on.) And when an exile wins enough rites, they’re able to become un-exiled—which means leaving your team. Inevitably, this means your best players hit that crossroads earliest. Thus begets a tough choice: Do you deny this beloved character the one thing they want, all in the name of furthering your victory? Or do you bid them farewell? Pyre further shines in its player-vs.-player mode. The campaign is easy enough, especially once you get the hang of it. Play against another human, though—with all the raw unpredictability that entails—and you’re bound to find yourself locked in a series of palm-sweating, curse-laden matches.
A Good Match For: Fans of Transistor, Hades, and Bastion, and anyone who likes the frenetic competition of fast-paced, nontraditional sports games like Rocket League.
Not A Good Match For: Those who lack a competitive streak (for the multiplayer). Those who need constant action (for the single-player).
Read our review.
See it in action.
Purchase From: PlayStation Store
Uncharted: Lost Legacy
Let’s be honest: longtime protagonist Nathan Drake has had enough time in the limelight. Uncharted: Lost Legacy—a planned Uncharted 4 expansion that ballooned, in development, to a nearly full-size campaign—takes the focus off Drake and instead puts fan favorite Chloe Frazer front-and-center. The campaign features all the quality third-person shooting and eye-popping vistas the series is known for, and adds a few new features. There’s an open world section, complete with side quests (a series first) and a map. There’s a photo mode in which you can pause the game and make Chloe wink at the camera. And the last level packs more setpieces into 30 minutes than any Uncharted before it.
A Good Match For: Time-pressed gamers who want something to entertain them for 12 to 15 hours. Uncharted fans who want more Uncharted but have had enough of Nathan Drake’s laissez-faire hijinks. Indiana Jones.
Not A Good Match For: Anyone who had their Uncharted fill after playing the first four console games.
Read our review.
Watch it in action, and in inaction.
Purchase From: PlayStation Store | Amazon | Target | Best Buy
Inside
Inside is the rare game that’s so good we don’t want to tell you anything else about it. It takes the framework of a 2D puzzle-platformer and wrings it for three hours’ worth of gobsmacking surprises. Horrifying, engrossing, brilliantly constructed and perfectly paced, Inside is one of the best games in recent memory. Just go play it.
A Good Match For: Anyone who liked the developer’s last game Limbo. Those looking for something they can finish over the course of an evening that will stick with them for much longer.
Not A Good Match For: Those who need their games to be lengthy affairs. Anyone freaked out by the monstrous and the deadly.
Read our review.
Watch it in action.
Purchase From: PlayStation Store
The Last of Us Part 2
Flaws and controversy (both valid and disingenuous) aside, the fact of the matter is that The Last of Us Part 2 is a tour de force. There’s so much worthy of commendation here. We could tell you that the writing rivals anything from a prestige HBO show (indeed, Halley Gross, a writer for HBO’s Westworld, served as the game’s narrative lead). We could tell you that it’s a more-than-worthy follow-up to 2013’s The Last of Us, one of the most acclaimed games of all time. We could go on at length about how tight the gunplay is, how tense the stealth is, how well-realized this cynical vision of a bombed-out America is, how terrifying the fungal not-zombies are. We could, as so many have, sing the praises of Naughty Dog’s unrivaled technical prowess. But, boiled down, the key thing to know about this tremendous game is that it’s all but guaranteed to elicit emotion. Rage, elation, and anything in between, no one who’s played this game can reasonably say they walked away feeling nothing. Whether that’s a positive or a negative is up to you. In our mind, it’s worth giving a shot.
A Good Match For: Lovers of stealth games, action games, horror games, survival games, story-driven games, really just well-made games in general—there’s not a pixel out of place here.
Not A Good Match For: People who like to rush through games: Part 2 is best enjoyed in bite-sized chunks, not 10-hour marathon sessions.
Read our review.
Watch it in action.
Study our tips for the game.
Purchase From: Amazon | Walmart | Best Buy | GameStop | PS Store
Ghost of Tsushima
At a glance, Ghost of Tsushima looks like a pastiche of “stuff that’s been done before.” You’d not be wrong for thinking that, but it’s no reason to skip this one. In fact, Ghost of Tsushima is a terrific distillation of some of the best ideas from this generation of console gaming. There’s an open world, but it’s parceled more manageably, and more enticingly, than anything out of Ubisoft. Combat is a standard mix of swinging swords and dodging (or parrying) other swords, but it’s more slick and responsive than similar action games (including some on this list, like The Witcher 3). Sealing the deal is a distinctive setting—an island off the coast of Japan during the 13th century—that’s rendered in astonishing beauty. Bonus: Ghost is also loaded with subtle quality-of-life tweaks (exhibit A: non-player characters will match your speed) that other developers would be wise to copy in the future.
A Good Match For: Fans of feudal Japan, Akira Kurosawa, and compulsive open-world gameplay.
Not A Good Match For: Players who want action as difficult as Bloodborne; Ghost can be tough, but it’s by no means punishing.
Read our review.
Watch it in action.
Study our tips for the game, and read our leveling guide.
Purchase From: Amazon | Walmart | Best Buy | GameStop | PS Store
Horizon Zero Dawn
At a cursory glance, Horizon Zero Dawn may seem overly familiar. It’s got Uncharted platforming, a Far Cry open world with stealth and crafting, Tomb Raider third-person bow fights and Monster Hunter-style battles against massive robot dinosaurs. Wait a minute, did we say overly familiar? Because that sounds great. Horizon actually manages to simmer those promising raw ingredients into something that works even better than we’d hoped. It’s got a steady stream of exhilarating gameplay and awe-inspiring sights all wrapped up in a surprisingly engrossing and satisfying story. As a bonus, it’s one of the most most technically advanced, gorgeous games you can play on a PS4.
A Good Match For: Fans of the games mentioned in the description above, anyone who’s ever wanted to go toe-to-toe with a robot velociraptor.
Not A Good Match For: Those looking for an easy time. Horizon is a bracingly difficult game, and you’ll have to play smart and aggressively to make it through alive.
Read our review.
Study our tips for the game.
Watch it in action.
Purchase From: Amazon | Walmart | Best Buy | GameStop | PS Store
Red Dead Redemption 2
From tip to tail, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a profound, glorious downer. It is the rare blockbuster video game that seeks to move players not through empowering gameplay and jubilant heroics, but by relentlessly forcing them to confront decay and despair. It has no heroes, only flawed men and women fighting viciously to survive in a world that seems destined to destroy them. It is both an exhilarating glimpse into the future of entertainment and a stubborn torch bearer for an old-fashioned kind of video game design. It is a lot, and also, it is a whole, whole lot.
A Good Match For: Cowboys, open-world connoisseurs, history buffs, lapsed game-playing persons lured by a game whose atmosphere strikingly mimics many masterpieces of film and literature.
Not A Good Match For: Those averse to open worlds, because this sure is the open-worldest of all possible open worlds. Also, Sonic the Hedgehog fans need not apply (your cowpoke’s walking speed is the exact opposite of going fast).
Read our review.
Watch it in action.
Study our tips for playing the game.
Purchase From: Amazon | Walmart | Best Buy | GameStop | PS Store
Nier: Automata
Nier: Automata will probably surprise you. It starts out as a fast-moving action game in the vein of Bayonetta or Devil May Cry, telling a story about hot robots exploring a ravaged future earth. And until the first time the credits roll, that’s what it remains. Keep playing, though, and Nier will begin to open up and transform. It shifts viewpoints and twists inside of itself, eventually unfolding in a spiral of revelations that crescendoes all the way to the grand finale(s). Yes, you must “finish” Nier: Automata five times to get the complete story. But like the rest of this fantastic game, that doesn’t mean what you think it means.
A Good Match For: Fans of narrative mindfucks like the first Nier or the Metal Gear Solid games; people looking for something ambitious and unapologetically weird.
Not A Good Match For: People who like their game stories straightforward, anyone who doesn’t like beat-em-ups or shoot-em-ups.
Read our review.
Watch it in action.
Purchase From: Amazon | Walmart | Best Buy | GameStop | PS Store
Yakuza 0
What if there was a soap opera that made you cry, but also let you play classic Sega games? The Yakuza series is a unique mixture of melodrama and comedy, packed with compelling characters and criminal intrigue. It’s also a series where you can hire a chicken as your real estate manager and manage a cabaret club. Yakuza 0 is the perfect entry point into the series, spinning a tale of two criminals wrapped up in intersecting plots. The story twists and turns, while the open world provides colorful sidequests and distractions. It starts slow, but if you stick with it, you’ll find one of the most sincere games on the PlayStation 4, emotionally packed and surprisingly funny.
A Good Match For: Tattoo enthusiasts, anyone who loves a good plot twist, folks interested in great localizations, mini-game lovers, and anyone looking to experience a rich story.
Not A Good Match For: Anyone who absolutely hates cutscenes, that one guy who says “this would be better with English voice actors,” and players looking for a shorter narrative experience.
Read our review.
Watch it in action.
Study our tips for the game.
Purchase From: Amazon | Walmart | Best Buy | GameStop | PS Store
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
There’s no shortage of ambition in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Geralt of Rivia’s latest adventure is massive, a world you can get lost in for hours and still have plenty to do. And while many games these days have sprawling landscapes, The Witcher 3 is utterly dense. Every nook and cranny is filled with memorable characters, clever writing, and rewards for curious players. The main story is as thrilling as it is emotionally draining, and the side quests are actually worth doing! Best of all? You don’t need to have played a Witcher game to enjoy the heck out of the third.
A Good Match For: Open-world fans, especially those who enjoyed Skyrim but were disappointed by the combat. In The Witcher 3, fighting is nearly as enjoyable as exploration.
Not a Good Match For: People who value their time and social life, or those who prefer their games hyper-polished without any framerate drops or other nagging technical flaws.
Read our review, and thoughts on the game’s (excellent) free DLC.
Watch it in action.
Study our tips for the game, and catch up on The Witcher lore.
Purchase From: Amazon | Walmart | Best Buy | GameStop | PS Store
Outer Wilds
“Be curious on your journey!” proclaims one of the characters in Outer Wilds. No line could sum it up better. At the onset, your silent alien hero is given a rickety spaceship and sent off to explore the universe with a single goal: Go on an adventure. Roughly 20 minutes later, the universe explodes, and you wake up on your home planet as if nothing ever happened. Soon you’ll find yourself ticking off goals and jotting down questions: Why is the universe exploding? How did that ancient alien race go extinct? What’s up with that planet that keeps disappearing when you try to land on it? And is it possible to save the universe? Outer Wilds mixes the exploration of Metroid with the time loop of Majora’s Mask to brilliant effect, and it culminates in one of the most satisfying endings we’ve ever seen in a video game.
A Good Match For: Curious gamers, anyone who loves the idea of getting into a space ship and exploring the cosmos.
Not a Good Match For: Impatient people, people who need combat in their games, people who hate finicky controls.
Read our review.
Watch it in action.
Listen to our podcast discussing tips for starting the game.
Purchase From: Available digitally on the PlayStation Store.
Bloodborne
If we had to sum up Bloodborne in a single phrase, it would probably be “There’s blood everywhere.” From Dark Souls maestro Hidetaka Miyazaki and his team at From Software, Bloodborne represents both a careful iteration of the Souls formula and a significant departure from it. The games’ fundamental structure and signature difficulty remains, but everything has been intensified, with knife-cuts and quicksilver bullets flying faster than your eye can track. Bloodborne is a gore-soaked masterpiece.
A Good Match For: Fans of From’s other games like Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, people who like tough games, H.P. Lovecraft buffs.
Not a Good Match For: Anyone who gets easily frustrated by difficult games, people looking for a more traditional RPG with a more traditional story.
Read our review.
Watch it in action.
Study our tips for the game.
Purchase From: Amazon | Walmart | Best Buy | GameStop | PS Store
Persona 5
What if you could relive high school but do it way, way better? That’s the promise of Persona 5, and Atlus’s killer social sim slash dungeon crawler more than delivers. You’re a high school student spending a year at a new school in Tokyo, but you’re anything but ordinary. You and your motley crew of friends have the ability to infiltrate the subconscious “palaces” of the various villains and tormentors who challenge you in the real world, changing their hearts and bringing them to justice. As the days tick by, you’ll spend your afternoons deciding whether to go shopping, hang out with your friends, or head into a dungeon to slay some demons. The more you play, the more the cast expands, the story unfolds, and the mystery deepens. What’s really going on? Where do these mystical powers come from? How’s it all gonna end? And will you finally be able to get Makoto to go out with you?
A Good Match For: Fans of previous Persona games, along with anyone who likes stylish art and killer music. Persona 5 is overflowing with both.
Not A Good Match For: People who hate turn-based JRPG combat, people who don’t like games with a lot of text to read, anyone looking for a game they can finish in a single weekend.
Read our review.
Study our tips for the game.
Watch it in action.
Purchase From: Amazon | Walmart | Best Buy | GameStop | PS Store
God of War
God of War is every bit the prestige, mega-budget action game it sets out to be. It’s got uncommonly satisfying combat, gorgeous music and art direction, and gives players hours and hours of fun stuff to do. Like past God of War games, it mixes joyously violent melee fighting with clever environmental puzzle solving. Like past God of War games, it takes players on a Cliff’s Notes tour of an ancient religion, with Norse mythology taking over this time for the Greek pantheon of its predecessors. Unlike past God of War games, however, it takes greater care with its story, revitalizing and to an extent rehabilitating its long-in-the-tooth anti-hero Kratos by focusing on his relationship with his young son Atreus. Their story is full of shocking twists and massive set-pieces, but some of its best moments feature the heroes quietly rowing a boat down a river, regaling one another with stories of ages past. God of War is an unusually thoughtful blockbuster, an epic that manages to be quietly reflective and wildly entertaining at the same time.
A Good Match For: Fans of Norse Mythology, people who like intense action, anyone looking for something that’ll really show off how good a PS4 game can look.
Not A Good Match For: Those uncomfortable with on-screen violence. God of War’s mayhem doesn’t feel as gratuitous as past games in the series, but there’s still some extremely brutal stuff.
Read our review.
Watch it in action.
Study our tips for the game.
Purchase From: Amazon | Walmart | Best Buy | GameStop | PS Store
How has this list changed? Read back through our update history:
Update 8/2/2021: We’ve totally overhauled our list of the best PS4 games, shattering the 12-title limitation. That means re-adding Inside, but also adding Uncharted: Lost Legacy, Pyre, and Final Fantasy VII Remake. Sadly, Tetris Effect has few defenders on staff these days, so it’s gone.
Update 8/7/2020: It’s been a big year for Sony exclusives, as Ghost of Tsushima and The Last of Us Part 2—the final two major PS4 releases before the PS5 shows up—kick off Return of the Obra Dinn and Monster Hunter: World.
Update 12/20/2019: We’ve added Outer Wilds and Return of the Obra Dinn while finally saying goodbye to long-tenured entries Overwatch and The Witness.
Update 2/11/2019: We’ve added Tetris Effect, Yakuza 0, and Red Dead Redemption 2 while removing Rocket League, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
Update 11/14/2018: We’ve added Marvel’s Spider-Man and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey while taking off Fortnite and XCOM 2.
Update 5/3/2018: We’ve added God of War and Fortnite Battle Royale while removing The Last of Us Remastered and Hitman.
Update 3/9/2018: We’ve added Monster Hunter: World and XCOM 2 while removing Inside and Resident Evil 7.
Update 6/2/2017: We’ve removed Uncharted 4 to make room for Nier: Automata.
Update 4/19/2017: We’ve added Persona 5 and removed Destiny, which Bungie has been winding down in preparation for a sequel.
Update 3/8/2017: After much debate we’ve added Resident Evil 7 and Horizon Zero Dawn, while removing Diablo 3 and Grand Theft Auto V. These cuts are getting harder and harder, people.
Update 12/09/2016: We’ve added Hitman to the list and retired Metal Gear Solid V.
Update 9/23/2016: Inside makes its way onto the list, while Until Dawn departs.
Update 7/27/2016: Overwatch joins the list; Assassin’s Creed Syndicate comes off.
Update 5/26/2016: Welcome, Nathan Drake. Goodbye, Batman. We’ve replaced Arkham Knight with Uncharted 4 this time around.
Update 2/11/2016: The Witness makes it in, and Fallout 4 heads out. Also, we’ve added a video version of this post up top!
Update 11/26/2015: Fallout 4 and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate hop onto the list, knocking off Final Fantasy XIV and Assassin’s Creed IV.
Update 9/18/2015: The list gets another update: The Binding of Isaac, Transistor, and Dragon Age: Inquisition clear out to make room for Rocket League, Until Dawn, and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
Update 7/16/2015: These swaps are getting harder. After much deliberation we cut Wolfenstein: The New Order, despite our affection for the surprisingly good story-driven first-person shooter. We’re also saying goodbye to another over-achiever, Shadows of Mordor, whose best trick, the Nemesis System, isn’t enough to keep it on our ever more competitive top 12.
Update 04/07/2015: Bloodborne slices its way onto the list while Pixeljunk Shooter Ultimate says goodbye.
Update 11/25/2014: The fall has arrived, and with it a bunch of great games. Dragon Age: Inquisition, GTA V, PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate and The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth edge out Resogun, The LEGO Movie Videogame, Don’t Starve and TowerFall Ascension.
Update 10/21/2014: We’ve added Destiny and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor to the list, and removed Infamous: Second Son and Need for Speed: Rivals to make room.
Update 8/28/2014: Two games enter, two games leave. Outlast and Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition make way for Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition and The Last of Us: Remastered.
Update 6/18/2014: Change is in the air, as Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, Fez, and Injustice: Gods Among Us clear out to make room for Wolfenstein: The New Order, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, and Transistor.
Update 4/14/2014: Our PS4 list has hit its 12-game ceiling, and we’ve added (and removed) more games than in any other single update so far. Rayman: Legends, LEGO Marvel Superheroes, Doki Doki Universe and Strider all clear out to make room for Infamous: Second Son, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, Towerfall: Ascension, The LEGO Movie Videogame, and Fez.
Update 3/10/2014: Two more games make it onto the list: Last year’s fine Rayman Legends and the satisfying remake of the NES classic Strider. One more and we’ll be at 12, after which we’ll have to start cutting games to make new additions.
Update 2/14/2014: Our second update brings with it two games: The graphically enhanced Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition and the pee-your-pants-scary Outlast. Only three more additions before we hit our ceiling of 12 and have to start cutting games to make room for new ones.
Update 1/27/2014: Our first addition to the PlayStation 4 Bests list is Klei’s excellent survival game Don’t Starve, which brings the total number up to seven.
Want more of the best games on each system? Check out our complete directory:
The Best PS5 Games • The Best PC Games • The Best Xbox Series X And S Games • The Best Xbox One Games • The Best Wii U Games • The Best Nintendo Switch Games • The Best 3DS Games • The Best PS Vita Games • The Best Xbox 360 Games • The Best PS3 Games • The Best Wii Games • The Best iPhone Games • The Best iPad Games • The Best Android Games • The Best PSP Games • The Best Facebook Games • The Best DS Games • The Best Mac Games • The Best Browser Games • The Best PC Mods
Note: While some games on this list are download-only, all of them can be purchased on the PlayStation 4’s online store. If you buy any of these games through the retail links in this post, our parent company may get a small share of the sale through the retailers’ affiliates program.
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