Top 5 BEST PS4 Games Ever

Playdead’s first game Limbo became one of the poster games for Xbox Live Arcade back in the day, but it is in its follow-up, that the team managed to create a masterpiece of dystopian horror and mystery that is still difficult to categorize. Without a single spoken word, the story of a young boy traversing an industrialized world gives way to a mystery far deeper and more disturbing than it appears on the surface. The mechanics might not be groundbreaking or deviate too much from what Playdead established with Limbo, but the game’s cleverly designed puzzles and nuanced, drip-fed story details and world building keep me coming back to play this game at least once a year and then immediately searching online to compare theories about what it all means. The fact that the meaning of Inside is still being debated six years later is a testament to its incredible world building.

Like many of you, I love my shooters, moreso when it’s a boomer shooter that copies “DOOM” or an arena shooter with explosive weapons, environmental hazards, teleporters, secret passageways, and the like. “Drawn to Death” was the latter, and in my opinion, it got a lot of unfair flak. In a sea of hyperrealistic, tactical military shooters, “Drawn to Death” was that breath of fresh air set in an angsty kid’s notebook world. Pick from a handful of awesome characters with their own special abilities, give them a loadout with weapons like flaming dodgeballs and a ‘Murican-made RPG, and go kick ass. I was also fascinated in how the story was not told through the gameplay, but its trophies instead, adding a new way to interact with PlayStation’s trophy system. Sure, there were problems with its convoluted progression system, but “Drawn to Death” has still managed to stand out to me years later.

As Ty so eloquently described in one of our ranking meetings, you either love or hate Death Stranding. I clearly fall into the former category. While I won’t try to defend the game’s nearly nonsensical story which even its mastermind Hideo Kojima has attested to not fully understanding, there’s no denying the creator had a singular vision when crafting the world of Death Stranding. Despite the game being a “walking simulator” in every sense of the phrase, its unique multiplayer “Like” system, in which players can help one another traverse the desolate world without ever interacting, filled me with a sense of accomplishment that few other multiplayer titles ever have. There are some absolutely ridiculous moments for sure, but cresting a mountain and seeing your destination in the distance while Low Roar’s soundtrack slowly builds as you descend is a feeling that has yet to be duplicated.

Sometimes, I like it when a video game is just that - a simple video game. Give me a solid adventure, a unique premise and cast, and some basic combat. You don’t always need to get too crazy with it. That’s why I love the “MediEvil” remake even today. “MediEvil” doesn’t hide any kind of nonsense from you. While the controls take some getting used to, “MediEvil” excels in the other checkboxes I had: unique premise and cast, imaginative environments, diverse enemy designs, simple combat. It’s a game that’s perfect for those who like a spooky and chill evening. Plus, if you 100% the game, you’ll unlock the original “MediEvil” game so you can relive the 1998 classic or experience it for the first time.

Every video game wants the player to “live” in the world they’ve created, to feel as though they’re a part of it, and live their day to day lives as though it was truly their own. While a few titles have managed this monstrous feat, few have executed it as well as Rockstar has with Red Dead Redemption 2. With one of the most compelling stories ever told in gaming, I quite literally “lived” this game for almost 3 months after it came out, taking every opportunity to explore and survive the Wild West with Arthur Morgan and the Van Der Linde gang. The amount of detail that went into every aspect of the game’s world may never be reached again, and the Arthur that I played felt like my own and all the choices I made as my Arthur made the experience feel more personal than even RPGs full of different choices.

I’m not one for sports games all that much unless it's one of Mario’s many sports outings. But in my time with the PS4, “Everybody’s Golf” is a sports game I will forever champion. To be honest, this game already had me given I am a casual golf fan. What I didn’t expect was the amount of passion this game has for the sport in the most unexpected ways. “Everybody’s Golf” takes its time to teach you almost everything about golf, the rules, the terminology, and more. The character customization is incredibly flexible, nailing shots can increase your stats, and you can even take part in simple pleasures like driving around courses on a golf cart or fishing! There are a lot of great ideas here in “Everybody’s Golf” that other sports games really should be borrowing if they want to attract new audiences.

This is gonna be the most contentious pick on my list but the story of The Last of Us Part 2 is one of the most confident in its vision in gaming and is one of the most mechanically solid video games ever made. Despite the story causing massive division amongst the fanbase, I was fully engrossed in the story the writers set out to tell. It’s not meant to be a fun experience, it's designed to show the faults of its characters and the never ending cycle of violence that can stem from the pursuit of revenge. The original Last of Us is one of my favorite games of all time and Joel and Ellie will always be some of the most engaging characters in gaming but the choice to switch to Abby’s perspective half-way through helped give the player insight into the mirrored journey of both Ellie and Abby and the consequences of their anger.

By now, you’ve probably realized how my colleague has chosen mostly AAA games for his list versus my list of games which didn’t make as big of a splash. I do play the big stuff, too, and out of all of Sony’s first-party titles, “Ghost of Tsushima” is the one that I would say is the closest to perfection. Originally, I was really worried about this game since we didn’t really know anything about it until less than two months before launch. What we got was the ultimate samurai-ninja experience with combat that boasted simplistic controls and incredible depth with the different stances and weaponry. I’m currently replaying it on my PlayStation 5, and it’s even better than when I played it the first time. The pacing is perfect, the combat feels even more fast and fluid than before, and it features the cleanest UI I’ve ever seen in a game. Why this isn’t on Aaron’s rank is beyond me, but if he enjoys being a UPS employee more than a samurai-ninja, live and let be I suppose.

Despite Ty’s attempts to make his picks more indie than mine, nearly all of his choices were still published by Sony, so whether they were massive hits or not, they were still backed by AAA money even if they weren’t the mainstream success my choices were. Just because a game is an entry in an established franchise, doesn’t mean it can’t still meaningfully change what we expected from a beloved character. 2018’s God of War completely flipped the script on the angriest protagonist in gaming and recast him as a reserved father trying his best to deal with all the anger still residing inside him just below the surface. Gameplay-wise, the title didn’t reinvent gaming itself but what makes this one of my favorite games of all time is the dynamic of Kratos and Atreus and their often heartbreaking journey through Norse mythology. God of War 2018 is such an important game for me, my son is even named Atreus Loki and he’s every bit the little trickster god we see in the game.

I’ll admit that I slept on “Persona 5” for two years after it launched. The hype for this game seemed very unhinged in my eyes, but in 2019, my need for a JRPG kicked in, and “Persona 5” was screaming at me. I spent a month and a half playing only “Persona 5”. You want a perfect PS4 game? This was it. “Persona 5” has an incredibly deep and satisfying combat system with its Baton Pass mechanic, various Personas and amalgamations of Personas, the dating sim aspects with the Confidants, the voice acting, occasional animated cutscenes, the writing, the design of the dungeons - I cannot think of a single moment in this game where I felt my experience was stained. I even went and added a bunch of the music to my Spotify (“Rivers of the Desert” is my personal favorite). If you’re an RPG fan in even the slightest, most general sense, you absolutely need to play “Persona 5”.