The 23 best PS4 games to play right now — October 2023

The PlayStation 4's best games mix different genres, game lengths, difficulties, and trophy lists. Since 2013, the PS4 has been churning out all-time greats.

Kes Eylers-Stephenson

Published 02 Sep 2023

Update: The best PS4 games list has been updated for October 2023 with a new game at the end of the Staff Picks list: Wolfenstein The New Order. The TrueTrophies team and the community have taken a look at the PS4 games list and put together a list that offers a best-in-class selection of games on the PlayStation 4.

Before we get onto the games, we wanted to qualify our methodology. We had Editor Kes and Staff Writers Lee and Sean list their favorite PS4 games, then used them to create a list of the most iconic games for PS4. In certain cases, when we felt two or more extraordinary games offered something similar, we opted for one of the selections rather than adding both. Finally, we decided to open up the floor to some of the best games in a specific genre and to the community, just to ensure we had variety, range, and a communal vibe. Without further ado: TrueTrophies' best PS4 games.

Staff Picks — 18 best PS4 games

Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of the best games on PS4

Red Dead Redemption 2

Red Dead Redemption 2 deserves to be front and center of the best games on PS4 — you just don't make games this next level unless you are Rockstar. To call it a 'story' would feel inadequate: this is the yarn of Arthur Morgan's life, the fading world of the old West, and the reaction of those inhabiting that strange space. What really sells it is the level of interaction. You can react to everyone and everything, creating emergent scenarios, unlike anything I've ever played. You can choose to go out hunting, exploring, playing poker, or just journeying for days and days, ignoring the magnetic figure of Butch and his Van der Lind gang that you call family, if you so choose.

Why would you want to, though, when that tale is so compelling, drawing you back in with every utterance of a heist plan brewing? It has one of the best twists of all time, it has an unbelievable epilogue, and it has everything in-between. Besides, the actual landscapes of the West are simply extraordinary too, filled with emergent tales that are never one and the same. It's stunning work, it really is.

Production values are through the roof, with music, graphical fidelity, writing, and all the other little bits that make a game work are amped up to 11. Franky, it puts other open-world games to shame at times, making it hard to go back to collect-a-thons, map-unveiling towers, and big onscreen markers denoting things of interest. There are only two minor mistakes in my opinion. The multiplayer mode is fun, but it feels sparse on content and stingy on the currency by Rockstar standards. Then, some of the controls feel like they are out of the PS2 era, but you get used to the quirks in no time so this is really just a nitpick. The Red Dead Redemption 2 trophies are a hoot, too. This is an extraordinary game — one of the best of all time, not just for the PS4.

The Last of Us Part II

We almost don't want to talk about The Last of Us Part II because it is so controversial... almost. I think this game is exceptional — but it's also clearly not for everyone. Some of the narrative choices it makes fly in the face of the relationships you create and find solace in during The Last of Us Part I. To the TT team and I, it was a heartbreaking reminder of mortality — a reminder that we are not superheroes in the apocalypse of The Last of Us, but people attempting to live in a world filled with infected, ghoulish creatures and the much, much worse human beings populating the American states.

This is a tale of the horrible things humans are capable of. So, if you want to pursue Ellie's journey, invest in that pathway to hell emotionally, and try and open yourself to the people that appear; you are going to get hurt. For our money, that is a brave and unique way to make a game and it's helped by the fact it is pulled off exceptionally well. If that's not your kind of duffel bag of golf clubs — that is also totally fine.

Naughty Dog, no doubt, flaunt cinematic prowess by using the linearity of the game to its advantage. The motion capture and environmental design are pushed up a notch from anything it has done before, and I think it's fair to say the writing finds a new gear Naughty Dog could only find being let off the leash like this.

Sometimes, a result of that off-the-hook writing is occasionally preachy dialogue that tries to shortcut show-don't-tell, but it feels like it is surpassed by other moments of narrative that could only be this impactful in a video game. Throw in a great score, nice The Last of Us Part II trophies, and we have another game that stands above a generation as a controversial all-time classic.

The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt is another game, like Red Dead Redemption 2, that outclassed every other open-world fantasy RPG. The gravel-voiced Witcher himself, Geralt, hunts monsters on The Continent but is ostracised from the very communities that pay him to swing his sword about. He finds solace in the company of other outcasts, witches, witchers, and his semi-daughter Ciri. The young lass begins a mystery that will take you through some wonderful quests, like the legendary tale of the Red Baron, the islands of Skillige, and the streets of Novigrad and Oxenfurt. It will also take you to every damn inn along the way, be it on a windswept hill or in the graven bogs, hunting for Gwent cards.

Combat is fine and rife with compelling systems for armor, weaponry, potions, and more, but the creatures you will face off against elevate it to the level of richness very few games could ever aspire to. The side quests are utterly fantastic, the main narrative compelling, and fantastic environments tell you a tale all of their own. Underpinned by great dialogue and deep, compelling lore — we think nothing touches The Witcher's fantasy world. It happens to have two extraordinary expansions, Blood and Wine and Hearts of Stone, too. Both are, honestly, required reading because they are actually all-time greats. The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt trophies will require work and time, but if you fall in love with this game like us, you will have no problems at all. The Witcher 3 is, no doubt, our pick for the best open-world fantasy game.

Marvel’s Spider-Man

Why have we plumped for a swing through the Marvel’s Spider-Man trophies from Insomniac Games over Ghost of Tsushima or Horizon Zero Dawn in the staff list? Well, while those other PlayStation Studios games are incredible, Marvel's Spider-Man delivers on the dream kids and grown-ups alike have had since the nascency of video games: to be Spider-Man. While we’ve had great contenders in the past — the iconic Spider-Man 2 from Treyarch comes immediately to mind — Insomniac’s effort makes good on every element of the Spider-Man power fantasy, from the cityscape web-swinging to the spidey-sense tingling combat, and even the questionably enjoyable but still fantasy-fulfilling dream of being able to unravel massive scientific discoveries via Pipe Dream-esque minigames.

What really stands out, aside from the stunning graphical fidelity and technical achievements of the game afforded to it by the power of the PS4, is how well-crafted and genuinely affecting the story of Marvel’s Spider-Man is. The narrative works in tandem with the gameplay — where gameplay lets you feel like the seemingly invincible Spider-Man, the story lets you feel like the considerably more vulnerable Peter Parker. The combined success of both elements makes this game a must-play on the console.

Persona 5 Royal

Persona 5 Royal trophies are an absolute treat to collect for JRPG fans, allowing you to explore its compelling story, engaging characters, over-the-top boss fights, insane enemy designs, an OST that slaps, and a slice-of-life element to keep you on your toes — you’ll never be bored in Persona. There is nothing Atlus hasn’t thought about when crafting this slick and stylish world of Persona 5, there is so much to see and do, you’ll need to complete two whole playthroughs to have a chance to witness everything the game has to offer.

Bloodborne is one of the best PS4 games

Bloodborne

You must note, dear reader, that despite our runs through the Bloodborne trophies, the namesake of the Soulsborne genre did not appear on any of our individual best lists. Fear not — we know its true place is still here. The truth, for myself at least, is that despite frequent attempts, I have perpetually failed to find my footing with Bloodborne. After finishing Dark Souls Remastered, I revisited the game hoping it would finally click for me, but for whatever reason, I simply cannot get into the spirit of the game’s more aggressive combat mechanics.

However, I’ve seen plenty of others play the game well. I’ve seen the joy it elicits when the combat does work and how deep and rewarding the twists and turns of the game’s world can be. Despite failing to conquer Bloodborne, I still come crawling back every time because I know I could love it, if my brain and my thumbs would only keep up with my heart. I just can’t let my thumbs be the reason Bloodborne doesn’t make it on the best PS4 games list.

God of War (2018)

God of War is very good, isn't it? Santa Monica not only brought back the God of War series from the brink of death with the 2018 entry but saved itself as a studio, too. Kratos gets paired with his son, Atreus, in a world of the Norse rather than the traditional Greek mythology. It was a stroke of genius by director Cory Barlog as this semi-open world adventure nails its setting and themes as hard as Kratos' Leviathan axe satisfyingly slams into strange new enemies populating the world... before even more satisfyingly coming straight back to you.

The sense of scale is epic, the narrative is compelling, and the level design is utterly perfect, The one-take camera shot really adds to the sense of this game being an event experience — denoting it as one of the purest cases of out-and-out video game fun on this list. The God of War trophies are another manageable list? Well, that cements its place as none of PS4's best games!

Liara T'soni the badass biotic is currently taking centre stage!

Mass Effect Legendary Edition is one of the best PS4 games

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition

Collecting the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition trophies laid out by Bioware is one of the greatest RPG gaming experiences you can play. With rich and engaging lore that helps build this vast and breathtaking world, there is so much to see and do. When you aren’t busy saving the world from giant unstoppable machines of death, you can build up your relationships with the many companions available throughout the trilogy. Who knows, maybe something deeper could form between you and them.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

Uncharted 4 A Thief's End makes it to the list of the best games on PS4 for Naughty Dog's second entry. Why? Pirates and adventure... and emotion and graphics and some other really good stuff. It's almost a little tricky to break down why Uncharted 4 is so special, but we think it's because it nails every incredibly high barometer the other games in the series set — but then nonchalantly adds combat, narrative, and graphical upgrades that deepen the adventuring experience, rather than expand it. To us, though, the final chapter in the tale of Drake — which you can read about in our Uncharted Compendium — is nothing short of perfection.

The characters are more human and emotive than ever before, the environments teem with intrigue, and the gameplay runs smoother than ever. Even the Uncharted 4 A Thief's End trophies are a great bag of fun that will make you fall in love with every component of the game on multiple runs. This game is the epitome of action adventure — it doesn't need a higher recommendation than that to make it on this list.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake

Final Fantasy 7 was a game that defined the original PlayStation, representing a massive step forward in what was possible in video game presentation, story-telling, and production scale. FF7 stood boldly as a once-in-a-generation achievement, but with its blend of abstract character models and prerendered detailed backgrounds, it was always going to look its age. In 2020, after over two decades of fan requests, Square Enix finally released the long-awaited Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and while it was never likely to redefine modern gaming as we know it today, it delivered tremendously well on reinterpreting the source material and translating that to a modern experience. Where the original showcased raw PS1 power, Remake manages to accomplish the same feat for the PS4.

Devil May Cry 5

Collecting all the Devil May Cry 5 trophies would be nothing short of a miracle. Despite Devil May Cry 4’s broadly positive critical and commercial performance, the next entry in the series, DmC Devil May Cry, would be a full-scale reboot courtesy of Ninja Theory. While the game was certainly no disaster, it felt like an unnecessary course correction for a series that seemed to keep getting better with each subsequent entry (if you discount DMC2, of course).

For Devil May Cry 5 to come out 11 years removed from the previous numbered entry and not only retain the quality of DMC4, but to actually make substantial refinements and improvements to the series formula is like some kind of divine intervention. DMC5 finally shakes free from the constraints of the old Resident Evil prototype DNA in its bones, bidding farewell to backtracking and puzzle labyrinths at long last. The results put action front and center to create a tremendous new high for the series.

Fall Guys is one of the best PS4 games

Fall Guys

When Fall Guys trophies landed on PS4 via PS Plus during the summer of 2020, it was like being woken from a long, drab nightmare. At first, we were disoriented — the colors, the music, and the somewhat alarming bean people. Then the haze lifted, and we remembered, oh, that’s right — video games can be anything.

Video games don’t have to have guns, swords, plots, or even coherent worlds to be enjoyed. They can be as simple and as beautiful as a bunch of bean people corralled into inflatable balloon arenas and forced to race one another for coveted gold crowns. Fall Guys is a precious reminder that the creative potential of video games remains still untapped, and we have the PS4 to thank for really making the impact of that message felt in the world.

Outer Wilds

Kes: Outer Wilds is going to be hard to justify to some, but those who know, know. This is one of the greatest games of all time and a pinnacle of game design. You are an astronaut in a solar system with a dying sun. With every 20 minutes comes another time reset, waking you up over and over to an alien ship exploding above you. From there, it's down to you to solve what is going on, putting together stands of disparate puzzles until they form a greater whole. That's it. Why have AAA graphics or a massive open world when all you need is top-tier environmental design, story-telling, and simple-but-effective puzzle mechanics?

To even describe Outer Wilds' components individually is an insult to it because it works as a harmony, swelling and softening with the realization that you are solving something with concepts that should be way above you. Every time you see a new planet, it's like hearing the floaty joy of a flute. Every time the actual Outer Wild score swells, it is like closing your eyes to your favorite song. Even the Outer Wilds trophies offer a well-thought-out voyage. This game is sensational and makes for the perfect indie inclusion on our list of the best PS4 games.

Wreckfest

When we decided to look for a racer to include, we didn't know which route to take: sim or arcade? Then we realized that Wreckfest exists and, despite its name, it strikes a perfect balance of seriousness and fun. One moment, you can be concentrating on cornering speeds and braking zones, the next you are driving around a loop-the-loop with a combine harvester trying to mangle your rear tires. What Wreckfest has going for it above all else is that it doesn't sacrifice the driving feel for its love of fun.

Its damage model is just insane, but it only adds to the severity of a race online as you calculate the risks of any contact. If you crunch too much, you are going to be scraping around the track in a car shaped like a V, but without the capability to enact any kind of vendetta. If you don't take the risk, though, someone else will and find the advantage on you. Wreckfest trophies are great fun, too. This is the racer to beat on PS4!

Tekken 7 is one of the best PS4 games

Tekken 7

Grabbing Tekken 7 trophies from Bandai Namco gets your adrenaline pumping every time you pummel away at your foes in this high-octane fighting game. Successfully chaining together the most intricate combos you can to keep your opponents juggled in the air for maximum damage is a feeling of pure bliss when you manage to pull it off. Then you have the absolute beast of a soundtrack that works in getting you fired up more and more as the rounds progress — it is a sensation like no other.

Kingdom Come Deliverence

Listen, we know that there are more appealing AAA games that we could put on our best PS4 games list, sit back, and be done without any trouble. Our next pick, Kingdom Come Deliverance, is instead a messy, trial-filled RPG set in medieval Bohemia — a game where you literally have to teach idiotic protagonist Henry to read, to speak, to pick locks, and to fight if you want to get anywhere. It's not a perfect game by any means — it can be glitchy, some systems are shallow, and the map is a bit blank — but it is full of personality and character, executing a new form of historical sim so well and so endearingly well we can't not put it on this list.

The story is fantastic and its survival systems are innovative because they actually immerse you in the world of one-time European powerhouse Bohemia under threat by invaders. The fact Henry comes from nothing and has no skills is narratively refreshing but also makes the gameplay so much more rewarding when you actively learn how to shoot a bow without accidentally executing a passing peasant. Collecting those Kindom Come Deliverance trophies is no easy feat, either — but you'll see every detail, nook, and cranny of the wonderful world Warhorse have put together. Kingdom Come is a fan-favorite pick, we know — but we truly believe it is an underrated RPG that trounced many of the big names (see: Fallout 4, Dragon Age Inquisition, Mass Effect Andromeda) in the PS4 generation.

Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain

Legendary creator Hideo Kojima's last game before his split with Konami, you owe it to yourself to collect the Metal Gear Solid The Phantom Pain trophies. It's a game that isn't quite finished — somehow making it even more interesting — but what it does contain in story and gameplay is just outrageous. Taking place in an open-world Afghanistan, you'll find yourself in a sandbox with so much freedom you won't be able to drag yourself away from all the possibilities. From rain disguising footsteps to the time of night affecting how visible you are, small details have a big influence on how your intrusions into enemy camps go.

Metal Gear Solid V is basically just a mad ride from start to finish, with organic gameplay making a solid comparison to pretty much every other AAA game outside of Red Dead Redemption 2. You also have your home base where you will grow a mercenary group, which, in turn, allows you to employ researchers who unlock weapon progression and crazy new toys to play with. The story is good while it is running, though it's a bit absent even when it is present. That does leave your gameplay moments to do the talking in Metal Gear Solid V — just as the best of the PS4 games should!

Wolfenstein The New Order

Of all the mind-blowing FPS games to get our blood pumping on PS4, who knew it'd be our time collecting Wolfenstein The New Order trophies that would make it on here? New Order features the hulking BJ Blazkowicz in the lead suffering from amnesia after failing to take out a Nazi compound, now rejoining the fight in a steampunk-esque modern day with oppressive Nazi imagery dripping from every corner of the world. Released in 2014, it arrived as Call of Duty and Battlefield had down generations, with Bethesda keeping the single-player FPS afloat with both a revision of Wolfenstein and DOOM.

We've plumped for Wolfenstein The New Order because it does literally everything right. It's got meaty combat that effectively uses guns-blazing akimbo and stealthy savagery equally well. The level designs are not only gorgeous but incredibly inventive and full of imaginative set pieces. Add in a story that, despite the ultra-violence in gameplay, has a surprisingly gruffly tender narrative at its heart. It manages to showcase the horror of the Nazi regime and allows you the cathartic destruction of it. Finally, with its great soundtrack and fantastic characters, you've got yourself the best single-player FPS on PS4!

Community Picks — 5 best PS4 games

Ghost of Tsushima is our first Community Pick

Ghost of Tsushima

Gathering 13.58% of the vote in our poll for the best PS4 games made this Sucker Punch classic the first community pick for this list. Ghost of Tsushima is mesmerizingly stylish with its presentation of feudal Japan under siege by the invading Mongols. The gameplay combines samurai action and stealth perfectly, with the 'stance system' for open combat proving to be an immensely smart design. As you pick a stance, you open up different moves for different situations, resulting in constant changes in mentality in a single combat scenario as you balance parrying, long-range, short-range, and mid-range combat.

More impressive than that, though, is the world. The environments are gorgeous and look immense on PS4, let alone on the PS5 as we noted in our Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut review. Sucker Punch totally stripped out a lot of the HUD that has plagued modern open-world games, and replaced it with environmental tells like the wind or a curious fox blazing a firey trail through swaying green grass. The story is decent and the side quests are well managed, though we still felt the game was a little large for its own good. The Ghost of Tsushima trophies are easy as you like, as well. This is a fantastic 60-hour epic and certainly one of PS5's best offerings.

Horizon Zero Dawn

With a massive 15.59% of the community poll vote, Guerrilla Games' near-perfection of the traditional Ubisoft-style open-world formula brought Aloy straight into the sights of our community in Horizon Zero Dawn. No wonder, this first attempt at an action RPG-lite was a big step for the developer of the FPS Killzone series when it was released in 2017. As the TT community rightly points out; with a deep story, beautiful graphics, and meticulous and smart creature designs — Horizon Zero Dawn is one of the PS4's best games.

Aloy isn't exactly the most emotionally complex leading lady, but she has a charm to her straightforward, no-nonsense attitude and has quickly become one of the new faces of PlayStation. However, it's the post-post apocalypse that really shines here with its dinosaur-like terraforming creatures. The combat is honestly some of the best around and has layer after layer of bow and arrow goodness to deconstruct. It's absurdly good fun, and the story introduces a few wonderful characters along the way. If we have any gripes, it's that the HUD is occasionally fiendish and the amount of lore tucked away in menus is absurd — but you'll forget all that in a heartbeat as you grab those easy Horizon Zero Dawn trophies. This game is a modern PlayStation classic, so get on this wild ride now!

Days Gone is one of the best PS4 games

Days Gone

The critics got Days Gone wrong. Meanwhile, the TT community managed to get the game an impressive 10.12% of the total vote, making it the third entry in our community picks section. So, why is this the case? Well, our lead Decon St. John is perhaps not the most friendly bloke in the remaining ~~zombie~~ Freaker-infested Oregon world. That and the biker aesthetic probably put a few off, but for most, it becomes steadily more endearing as the game roars on. The open-world fatigue had probably set in at the end of the PS4's lifespan, too. With its wildernesses, mountain ranges, and deserts — Orgeon is a breeze of fresh air amongst the same old end-times worlds we have seen before. It just came at the wrong time with first-party games Horizon and Ghost of Tsushima to fight against.

What no one can disagree with is that PlayStation's Bend Studio really loved the game they made and that shines through. The central narrative about Decon's journey in the apocalypse is sometimes overwrought and cliche, but it's utterly endearing. The is a love knot right at the center with wild tales spinning off left and right as you deal with issues of the survival camps and a strange government entity operating in the background. Then you have the bike — your modifiable horse that gives the game its most unique spin. It is a glorious beast you will come to love more dearly than anything else in the game.

Don't doubt the community, or get your throat slit

Finally, the freaks themselves in their giant hordes are spectacular. Oh my, these moments can be few and far between, but there is nothing scarier or more impressive than trying to escape a ludicrously large horde while pounding away at them with a limited ammo supply. Throw in a long road of Days Gone trophies to keep you driving through and it confirms it: this is a survival game that does so much right that it deserves a place on this list as the underrated oddity of the PlayStation catalog.

Detroit Become Human is one of the best PS4 games

Detroit Become Human

What makes someone a person? That is what long-time interactive storytelling guru David Cage set out to explore in his third major PlayStation exclusive, Detroit Become Human, after scribing Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls for PS3. Of Quantic Dream's trilogy of interactive butterfly effect stories, we think that PS4's Detroit Become Human is the cleanest and best representation of what this kind of video game can do. It's almost as though when we say we think it's one of the best PS4 games, we know you'll agree, isn't it? In the community poll, the tale of dystopian Detroit at breaking point with the fallout of underclass androids and masters-in-chief humanity found a lot of the voting audience.

We can see why. Though Quantic Dream's writing has occasionally been clunky and stilted, in Detroit, it works in favor of helping the player decipher complex politics and dense world lore. You follow three android characters through the slowly unraveling human and android sides of Detroit society, choosing your path through each moment. Each choice shapes the future, which really pays off as you unravel the web of possibilities the story could have had for you by the end.

Detroit: Become Human is Quantic Dream's best game

It's beautiful, too. The world feels more bustling than in the other two games, and the performances of the main characters' actors really come alive. That is a massive compliment because humanoid robots needed to feel alive for this story to land — and boy, does it land. There are tense scenes, emotionally ravaging scenes, and heart-pumping action set pieces... and they all hit the mark because they are underscored by emotionally resonant writing and performances. Detroit is fantastic, so we are so glad it has made the list of the best PS4 games thanks to our community.

Nier Automata is class, pure PS4 class

Nier Automata

For many, the PS4-era's most experimental period was found while trying to collect all the Nier Automata trophies. What genre is it? Well, we think it's a JRPG, but it's also a hack 'n slash action game. You see, it's also a bit of a platformer, text adventure, and shoot 'em up too, but don't worry about it — director Yoko Toro certainly doesn't care what genre is what, he just cares about fun. And indeed, this is a stunningly well-designed game with fun at its core. It also has a fantastic story that requires multiple playthroughs to understand. It's a unique entry for our best PS4 games list, but Nier Automata deserves its plaudits — exactly why you voted this game in, we suppose!

The Best Games on PlayStation

So, those are our best PS4 games! What do you think? Get in the comments for a healthy discussion!

More Wolfenstein: The New Order stories:

PlayStation 4

Written by Kes Eylers-Stephenson

Editor Kes is our resident expert in PlayStation and other gaming news. He writes about PS5 exclusives like The Last of Us and Horizon, PS Plus news, and his favorite games — The Witcher, Assassin’s Creed, and God of War — before an evening swim.