The 25 best PlayStation 5 games
What are the best games on PlayStation 5? Now that supply issues are over, Sony’s latest console is flying off shelves, while its library of games rapidly fills up. New and old PS5 owners will be wondering what to play, so here’s our living list of the best video games we’ve played on the platform, to be updated as more games come out.It’s worth noting that the PS5 does have backward compatibility with PlayStation 4 games, so our list of the 28 best PS4 games will also serve you well.Our latest update to this list on April 25 added Forza Horizon 5, which I (Oli) have played for far longer than I care to admit.How we pick the best games on PS5The Polygon staff plays a lot of video games, and everything in this list comes personally recommended by at least one of us. We determined what should be on our list of the best PlayStation 5 games by looking at the quality of each title, but also with an eye for breadth and variety — so you should find something on the list you’ll enjoy, no matter what genres of game you like, how much time you have, or what vibe you are after.Alan Wake 2$50$8038% off$50It’s a bold move, on the part of Remedy Entertainment, to actually make a decade-late sequel to a game that defined the studio, but whose ambitions it has arguably outgrown in the years since — particularly in its stunning, architectural action game Control. Might a trip back to Alan Wake’s spooky woods, so obviously haunted by the ghosts of Stephen King and David Lynch, not feel like a step back?Hardly. What Remedy created by bringing all its experience to bear on its most beloved creation is nothing short of a survival horror masterpiece, as well as a meta mystery about its own creation. Horror author Alan is joined by a co-protagonist, FBI agent Saga Anderson, who’s investigating a case linked to Alan’s disappearance over a decade earlier. Using this dual setup — impressively, you can fluidly switch between Alan’s and Saga’s stories essentially at your discretion — Remedy works outward from the original game’s premise, twisting it into a methodical detective thriller one moment and a reality-bending cosmic horror the next. Alan Wake 2 announces the start of a new generation of blockbuster horror gaming. —Oli WelshAnimal Well$25$25This strange, spooky puzzle adventure is being compared to the 2012 indie classic Fez — and honestly, there can be no higher praise than that. It’s tough to describe without spoiling it, for this is a game in which the mystery of discovery is paramount, and which disguises many important facets of its true nature until you’re deep into it. It’s one of those games that is best played with notebook to hand, and that could easily turn you into an obsessive conspiracy theorist if you get sucked in.For now, it’s enough to know that you play as an egg-blob-thing living in a spectral forest inhabited by exquisitely animated, ghostly animals. The game unfolds like a Metroidvania, as you build out its 2D platforming map in non-linear fashion by collecting gear — but it’s even more inscrutable and mysterious than that might suggest, and really operates like a giant puzzle written in a language you have to learn as you go. It’s also gorgeous, drawn in translucent, glowing pixel art that’s at once ephemeral and materially tactile. A seven-year labor of love by developer Billy Basso, it was well worth the wait. —OW$25 at PlayStationAstro Bot$50$6017% off$50One of the most exciting gaming stories of 2024 has been the elevation of Team Asobi, makers of a series of charming tech demos, to the top flight of Sony’s in-house developers with Astro Bot. Expanding on the free pack-in game Astro’s Playroom, intended as a demo for the capabilities of the DualSense controller, Astro Bot is a dazzling, full-fledged, tour de force platform game capable of standing toe-to-toe with some of Nintendo’s greatest — and it’s surely the best platformer Sony has ever released.Astro Bot is many things at once. It’s a stunning technical showcase, from the sheen of its ray-traced surfaces to the tippy-tap of the adorable Astro’s footfalls rendered in the DualSense’s haptics and speaker. It’s a nonstop riot of invention that keeps throwing new ideas, gizmos, slapstick interactions, hilarious bosses, and tortuous challenges at you. And — with its hundreds of collectible bots dressed up as PlayStation game characters — it’s a wholehearted, even moving celebration of PlayStation history in the brand’s 30th anniversary year that takes particular care to honor the many wild creations of Japan Studio, the now sadly defunct in-house developer Team Asobi used to call home. It’s poignant to reflect that the time of such creative PlayStation games as Ico, LocoRoco, and PaRappa the Rapper is past. But it’s joyful to realize that Astro and Team Asobi are here to keep that spirit alive into the future. —OW$50 at Amazon$60 at QVC$70Even after a very impressive three-year early-access period on PC, it’s still a shock how big a critical and commercial hit Larian Studios’ hardcore Dungeons & Dragons-based role-playing game turned out to be. It’s also surprising how well the Belgian studio has adapted this very computer-centric genre to console; Baldur’s Gate 3 feels perfectly at home on PS5.Perhaps thanks to the popularization of D&D via actual-play series, the whole world seems primed and ready for a game like this — and Larian overdelivers in spectacular fashion. Baldur’s Gate 3 is as close to tabletop role-playing as you can get in video games, delivering strong storytelling, indelible characters, incredible flexibility and player agency, and the requisite side order of messiness, happy chaos, and barely disguised horniness. All this, and the PS5 version offers split-screen co-op, too. It’s simply one of the best role-playing games of all time. —OW$70 at PlayStationCyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition$40$6033% off$40Making this list is quite the turnaround for a game that started out with an ignominious delisting from the PlayStation Store due to the poor performance of the PS4 version. But a Herculean effort from developer CD Projekt Red turned Cyberpunk 2077 into a definitive modern first-person shooter-RPG. First, the native PS5 version radically improved with tech and visual upgrades; then, 2023’s Phantom Liberty expansion ushered in sweeping gameplay updates as well as a compelling new storyline.All this sealed what should have been the cast-iron appeal of the original game: a 1980s-inflected cyberpunk fantasia that mixes the best of Deus Ex and Grand Theft Auto, Blade Runner and The Matrix. Cyberpunk 2077 is maybe not quite as cool as it thinks it is, but that can be part of its charm, and the makers of the Witcher games haven’t lost their talent for deft characterization, engrossing side-stories, and a kind of cynical romanticism. Plus, you get to be Keanu Reeves’ best friend — who could resist? —OW$60 at Best Buy$40 at GameStop$30Death Stranding: Director’s Cut is the definitive way to play one of the strangest games of the past few years. Where 2019’s Death Stranding welcomed a dedicated audience — and a good chunk of players that quickly bounced off — Director’s Cut makes Hideo Kojima’s independent debut more accessible without sacrificing its unique identity.Death Stranding: Director’s Cut still asks Sam Porter Bridges to walk across a condensed version of the United States, precariously stacking packages on his back. But this time, Sam has more tools in the initial leg of his cross-country journey. Instead of spending the first 15 hours walking around with a rope as your only weapon, you can quickly get a gun that stuns enemies with lightning. And instead of winging it in your first combat scenario with a new piece of gear, the re-release of Death Stranding offers a substantial firing range for you to test your loadout.But for all of its fancy new toys, Death Stranding is still a game about doing the grunt work necessary to connect with others. Its script can be metaphorically clumsy, but it never stumbles in expressing those metaphors through the gameplay itself. Nobody has ever accused Hideo Kojima of subtlety, but it’s Death Stranding: Director’s Cut’s smallest changes that make it so much easier to recommend. —Ryan Gilliam$20A grungy detective story about politics, alcoholism, and failure seems like fodder for a visual novel, walking simulator, or maybe horror game. But in fact, Disco Elysium, by Estonian art collective ZA/UM, is a role-playing game. And a very, very good one. On this list, only Baldur’s Gate 3 can compete with it in terms of the dizzying freedom it offers the player in how they make choices, define their character, and respond to situations.Although Disco Elysium was deeply influenced by tabletop RPGs, don’t expect much turn-based combat. Do expect a deep and fascinating system for skills and leveling — in this game, ideas like feminism are stat buffs — and do expect to build and explore your detective character’s psychology and worldview through tortured, sometimes amusingly overwritten internal dialogues with different aspects of his own psyche. The backdrop is a noir-ish murder-mystery in a dilapidated town that’s part 1970s, part steampunk. Disco Elysium is utterly idiosyncratic; there’s nothing else like it, and probably never will be. —OW$40 at PlayStation$20 at GameStopElden Ring$50$50The intricate, demanding action-RPG format FromSoftware started with Demon’s Souls gets blown out into an epic open-world adventure in Elden Ring, and miraculously loses nothing in the transition. What it gains is sheer scale, breadth to go with the traditional Soulslike depth, as well as a sense of freedom and discovery that the warrens of the Dark Souls games could never provide. But it’s still as mysterious and sorrowful as fans of From’s string of dark fantasy masterpieces have come to expect.You have to be up for a challenge: Elden Ring is still not an easy game, although like its predecessors its difficulty has been overstated. This is, as ever, a game in which patience, restraint, and planning will take you just as far if not further than razor-sharp reactions, even in some of the most testing boss encounters in gaming history. But the openness of Elden Ring’s world, and the sheer flexibility of its class designs, make it From’s most inviting game to date, without sacrificing any of its imposing stature. A modern classic. —OW$50 at Best Buy$60 at AmazonFinal Fantasy 14$20$20Final Fantasy 14 is the only massively multiplayer role-playing game to truly emerge from World of Warcraft’s shadow, and to rival Blizzard’s game for popularity, in 20 years. It almost never happened. On its original launch in 2010, it was a disastrous failure, but Square Enix doubled down and enlisted producer Naoki Yoshida to relaunch it in a completely revamped version in 2013. Moving from PlayStation 3 to PS4 and now PS5 over that time, it has steadily built in reputation and popularity, and it can now be considered one of the all-time titans of the genre. Gaming has rarely seen a comeback story like it.The reasons for its success aren’t complicated, but they must have been near-impossible to pull off. It’s a beautiful world, with strong storylines and appealing characters, deeply grounded in Final Fantasy lore and fan service. It’s a solid MMORPG with great flexibility and individuality in the character classes, and fun PvE dungeons and raids. It puts players first, even implementing a “story mode” that allows players to solo climactic multiplayer content. And — the trickiest feat of all — it plays beautifully on console, something no other MMORPG (save perhaps its predecessor, Final Fantasy 11) has managed. —OW$20 at PlayStation$20 at GameStop$60Admittedly, there’s a fun novelty value in putting a former Xbox exclusive on our list of best PS5 games. But I’m not trolling; the arrival of the superlative open-world racing series on Sony’s system is a genuinely huge moment for PlayStation gamers. I’ve reviewed every entry in this series, and racked up hundreds if not thousands of hours of play across them all. Trust me when I say these have been the best, most accessible, and most purely enjoyable racing games around for over a decade (give or take a Mario Kart).Playground Games’ recipe is simple enough: a spectacular open-world landscape drawn from real-life locations; an upbeat festival vibe; a cool car list that’s been curated with thought and imagination; slick tech and gorgeous graphics; entertaining car physics that are just the right side of credible; and an absolute mountain of stuff to do, which includes a wide variety of on- and off-road racing, but also chill exploring. Recently, the games have also had robust, long-term live-service support. Forza Horizon 5, which sets players down in the arresting landscape of Mexico, deserves to be a big hit in its new adopted home. —OWRead Owen S. Good’s full review of Forza Horizon 5.$60 at PlayStationGod of War Ragnarök$45$6025% off$45Santa Monica Studio’s grandstanding cinematic beat-’em-up is the latest perfection of a certain kind of high-gloss, low-brain-cell entertainment Sony has always done so well. That’s not to say it’s not clever — there’s a very good, well-balanced action game in here, which interlocks neatly with some understated but satisfying RPG-lite character advancement. There’s also a smart script that assembles a lovable family of weirdos around our gruff, god-killing hero, Kratos, as it explores the soapier side of Norse mythology. And it’s topped off with the absolutely inspired casting of Richard Schiff (The West Wing’s Toby) as an irritable, grousing Odin.It’s just that it all goes down so easy — intentionally so. This isn’t Baldur’s Gate 3 or Elden Ring; it’s a largely on-rails spectacle full of delightfully brainless button-mashing, surprisingly touching acting, and a steady drumbeat of Big Moments to keep you alert. It also looks incredible, considering it was a cross-generational release with PlayStation 4. Just an extremely solid blockbuster. —OW$45 at Fanatical (standard)$52 at Fanatical (digital deluxe)Gran Turismo 7$55$7021% off$55Somehow, over 25 years in, a PlayStation console just doesn’t feel complete until it has its Gran Turismo game. That happened for PS5 in 2022 when it got GT7, which, despite some initial missteps around the grindiness of the economy and some overpriced microtransactions, is actually one of the most roundly satisfying, accessible, and just plain fun games in the series’ history.Joyfully, instead of chasing trends, Polyphony Digital leans into Gran Turismo’s unique and slightly stuffy character to make a game that’s endearing in the way that it overflows with a nerdy love of cars and racing. The driving simulation is excellent and the photorealistic visuals are peerless, of course — but what reels you in is the charming single-player Café mode that takes you on a guided tour of the game’s thoughtfully selected garage, complete with sweetly enthusiastic talking heads.In a genre that often focuses on customization and box-ticking features, Gran Turismo 7 feels wonderfully authored and personal in all its myriad activities, from licence tests to mission challenges or the Scapes photo mode. It also has, in GT Sport, a superb online racing suite that’s both accessible and fair. Gran Turismo is still the thinking person’s racing series. —OW$70 at Best Buy$55 at GameStopHades$25$25If you only get one indie game for your PS5, make it Supergiant Games’ definitive dungeon crawl set in the world of Greek myth. Hades swept every game of the year award in 2020 — a rare feat for a small independent production — before it had even landed on PlayStation and Xbox platforms. It’s not hard to understand why. It’s a game of immense depth but also huge charm, that’s as sophisticated in its funny, gossipy storytelling as it is in its razor-sharp combat and roguelike-inspired structure.Hades casts the player as Zagreus, the rebellious son of Hades, lord of the Underworld, who’s making repeated attempts to escape his father’s realm. Every run takes you a little further through a randomized labyrinth of deadly rooms, using random boons and weapons bestowed upon Zagreus by the indulgent gods of Olympus. Hades is never the same, but you’re always mastering it, and discovering more about its sharply written gallery of gods; also, the mythical setting, where death is a trifle and immortality is a bore, is a perfect fit for the Groundhog Day action of a roguelike. Simply put, a masterpiece. —OW$25 at PlayStation$30 at GameStopHelldivers 2 (PS)$25$4038% off$25What if Starship Troopers was a co-operative, third-person shooter instead of a satirical sci-fi movie? It would be awesome, that’s what. Arrowhead Game Studios’ sleeper hit is a very simple formula, and that’s why it works so well. Most of its best ideas were already worked out in its 2015 predecessor; what this sequel does is to transplant those ideas from a top-down, isometric blaster into a full-fledged, fully 3D bug-battling warzone.The response from players to this instantly appealing concept was so immediate that Arrowhead’s servers were completely overwhelmed at launch. Once the dust has settled, what’s revealed is just a perfect, no-frills online game for enjoying with a squad of pals: tactical, lethal, surprising, often tense or funny, and garnished with some juicily unsubtle satire. There’s even a massively multiplayer element whereby the whole player-base works together to unlock new challenges. This is what live-service games should be like. —OWLego Horizon Adventures$60$60Here’s an unlikely bit of brand synergy that works great for all involved. Sony is trying hard to turn the Horizon open-world adventure games, about a post-apocalyptic tribal future in which hunter Aloy battles robot dinosaurs, into a mega-franchise. It’s all a bit self-serious, but a cameo level in Astro Bot and now Lego Horizon Adventures are revealing a bright, kid-friendly, humorous side to it.Meanwhile, the Lego games have long been stuck in a creative rut of dispiriting copy-and-paste design at original studio Traveller’s Tales. A fresh perspective was needed, and Guerrilla Games, together with Studio Gobo, has successfully revived the jokey, knockabout, co-op-forward formula without needing to change it significantly. Lego Horizon Adventures will help you see both Horizon and Lego games in a new light — and it’s a fantastic couch co-op game to play with younger family and friends, a rarity on PS5. —OW$60 at PlayStationLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth$42$7040% off$42The Yakuza games, now known by the translation of their original Japanese title, Like a Dragon, are an acquired taste, but a taste that has now been acquired by millions. There’s perhaps never been a better time to get involved: Infinite Wealth is the most ambitious, surreal, emotional, hilarious, and just plain huge game in the series yet — once it gets going.You’ll need to get through hours of backstory and exposition first, filling you in on the events of (at least) 7 games in this soapy series. Once you do, though, an astonishing playground opens up for Ichiban, Kiryu, and friends in Hawaii (the series’ first detour from Japan), with deep, silly turn-based combat, hours of drama, and dozens of diversions and minigames, including surprisingly full-fledged knockoffs of Pokémon, Animal Crossing, and Crazy Taxi. An endearingly barmy hymn to excess that keeps on giving. —OW$42 at AmazonMetaphor: ReFantazio$50$7029% off$50The improbable rise of Atlus continues. The once very niche Japanese developer and publisher, known for its hardcore Shin Megami Tensei role-playing games, saw SMT spinoff series Persona gradually ascend to become widely played and beloved with the release of Persona 5 in 2017. It might seem risky to move away from the series at the height of its popularity, but the gamble has paid off: Metaphor: ReFantazio is a triumphant application of everything that makes Persona great to a riveting new fantasy world.That means crisp, fast-paced, and brilliantly designed turn-based combat (although there’s now the option to soften up enemies with a few real-time blows first); complex relationship affinities between the characters to work on; and a calendar-based structure that applies a gentle sense of urgency to the story. What’s new is the grandiosity of the world-building in Metaphor’s unusual, anime-flavored fantasy world, where forces vie for control in a power vacuum after the king’s death, and frightening hybrid monsters — eerily called Humans — terrorize the land. This is the kind of RPG epic you might have sunk hundreds of hours into on PlayStation 2, brought thrillingly up to date. —OW$70Over two decades, Capcom’s action-RPG series has evolved from an online co-op gaming curio into a handheld sensation in its native Japan, and now a genuinely global AAA sensation. It’s an unlikely story — or maybe not. Monster Hunter has always been its own, highly specialized subgenre, but that subgenre couldn’t be easier to see the appeal of: Go forth and hunt dinosaur-like monsters, then turn them into trousers and food.Wilds is the slickest and most spectacular Monster Hunter yet. It boils this irresistible premise down to its essence, gives it a major next-gen glow-up, then carefully folds back in everything the series has become known for, from online multiplayer to the catlike Palico companions. If you always wanted to try this series, it couldn’t be a better time to start. —OW$70 at PlayStationRatchet & Clank: Rift Apart$30$7057% off$30Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is that next-gen title that awes you the entire way through. It looks stunning, the controller plays a big role in the gameplay, and the amount of bolts and particles on screen at any given time can be jaw-dropping.But as expensive as Rift Apart looks, it’s also just a great Ratchet & Clank game. Rift Apart takes classic Ratchet & Clank ideas and modernizes them. The series’ famous wacky weapons have unique alternate fire modes, activated by how hard you pull down the trigger. And the typical collect-a-thon aspects get a refresh thanks to the exciting Rift system and a detailed map.But the latest Ratchet also tells a story that changes its world forever, adding Rivet and Kit as another powerful duo in its ever-expanding cast of characters. If you’ve spent years playing Ratchet games, Rift Apart likely won’t surprise you outside of its visuals. But if you’ve missed the series, or haven’t played them in years, Rift Apart is a great reminder of why the Lombax and his robot pal have stuck around for 19 years. —RG$30 at AmazonResident Evil 4 Remake$20$4050% off$20Capcom’s 2005 classic Resident Evil 4 is pretty much unimpeachable. It’s one of the all-time great horror games, with perfect pacing that breaks up full-bore action with creeping dread, controls and camera that induce tension whilst keeping the game fluid and instinctive to play, and a classically Resident Evil tone that’s pitched somewhere between dead serious and mildly camp.There’s also no arguing with its 2023 remake, which lavishly overhauls the gory, gritty visuals whilst updating the game just enough to feel contemporary and slick, but not so much that it loses its essential character. Back in 2005, this game was a high-stakes reinvention for the Resident Evil series. Now, it’s the standard by which these games are judged — and still a hard-charging joy to play. —OW$30 at PlayStation$20 at Steam$38Returnal was the first PS5 game, outside of the free Astro’s Playroom, that really took advantage of what the new DualSense controller could do. To test the limits of the controller’s feedback, Housemarque took its refined arcade shooter craft and planted it in a third-person roguelite. The result is a game that demands precision — precision that your fancy new controller helps afford with its haptic triggers and immersive rumble.Returnal’s controller feedback is, outside of some stunning visuals, its most iconic feature. And because of some of the game’s downfalls, like its uneven repetition and imbalanced Parasite system, it’s perhaps doomed to be remembered mainly as a great showcase game for the PlayStation 5. But Returnal is still a game every PlayStation 5 owner should pick up and play, if only to feel every bit of that $500 rumble in your fingers. —RG$70 at Best Buy$38 at AmazonSea of Stars$35$35Sea of Stars is one of a growing number of indie role-playing games that set out to capture the heyday of 1990s console RPGs from Japan. Developer Sabotage Studio was inspired by the likes of Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana; a sprawling storyline, lush pixel art with adorable characters, and chewy turn-based combat systems are the order of the day.It’s note-perfect stuff — even if, in all honesty, Sabotage is better at the art and the combat than the storytelling. Well, two out of three ain’t bad, and Sea of Stars has a secret ingredient that really makes it stand out.That special something is a rarity in turn-based RPGs: a superb local co-op mode. With tons of thoughtful details, and a combat system that rewards synergy and good timing, Sea of Stars levels up from a good retro RPG to a unique, convivial co-op experience. —OW$35 at PlayStationSpider-Man 2$51$6015% off$51The word for Spider-Man 2 is confidence: This is an astonishingly slick, enjoyable, and just very together superhero adventure that even has the ambition to take some big storytelling risks as it puts its own spin on Spider-Man lore. It pays off in perhaps the most accessible and glossily entertaining PS5 game to date.At its core, this is an iteration on — and combination of — what worked in the first Spider-Man and Miles Morales, getting great mileage from bringing the two heroes together. You have the same peerless web-swinging traversal system and fluid combat combined with a more bustling city and a much more upbeat and socially conscious (and less cop-centric) attitude. As it’s a PS5 exclusive this time, there are impressive new tech flourishes too, like the lightning-quick fast travel and the ray-traced reflections on all those glass skyscrapers.But what really makes Spider-Man 2 come out swinging is Insomniac’s greater confidence as a storyteller, taking on perhaps the ultimate Spider-Man storyline — the advent of the symbiotes and Venom — and twisting it into an even more potent form, staging some unforgettable set-pieces along the way. —OW$51 at Green Man Gaming (Steam)Street Fighter 6$25$6058% off$25There’s so much to love about Capcom’s textbook revival of its fighting game champion: the deep, rewarding combat system, the plethora of ways to play, the series-best lineup of old and new characters, and the gloriously extravagant, pugnacious, and characterful design and animation that brings it all to vivid life. It’s absolutely a new high water mark in fighting games — but the best part of it is that it’s also a revolution in accessibility for the genre.Street Fighter 6 introduces a number of important innovations aimed at opening up this sometimes intimidating competitive gaming space. There’s the World Tour campaign that patiently teaches you the fundamentals as you level up a custom fighter. And there are also new control schemes — the streamlined Modern setup and the assisted button-mashing Dynamic mode — designed to welcome players of every skill and experience level into the fray. As much of a blast as a casual party game as it is in ranked online play, Street Fighter 6 is the first fighting game in a very, very long time that can claim to be for everyone. —OWTetris Effect: Connected$20$4050% off$20Tetris Effect is the greatest puzzle game of all time — perhaps the greatest game of all time, period — as reimagined by Sega’s former trance-master-in-chief Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the author of such minimalist trips as Rez and Lumines. On paper, Tetris Effect is very close to the latter, a puzzle game that yokes the block-matching action to a metronomic techno beat. In spirit, though, it’s more like the former: an almost spiritual, transcendental audiovisual experience that sweeps the player into a higher state of mind.It’s daring to make such a dazzling, enveloping experience out of such a visually simple game. But then again, if Mizuguchi’s aim is to induce a flow state in the player, he could scarcely choose a better vehicle than Tetris. Alexey Pajitnov’s design is so simple and satisfying that it operates on an almost subconscious level, and almost 40 years on, its global familiarity has become a virtue that dovetails nicely with Mizguchi’s themes of universality and hope. A stunning, transporting reinterpretation of an all-time classic. —OW$20 at SteamSee More:
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