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The Big PS4 Games Still on My List

By Wes Ellis3 min read
A black PlayStation 4 controller propped up on an empty wooden shelf.
Platform
PS4

Part 5 of the thread The PlayStation shelf

THE SHORT VERSION4 points
  • My PS4 collection leans small and arcade-y, so most of the famous exclusives are still unplayed.
  • God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, Spider-Man and Uncharted 4 are the Sony blockbusters at the top.
  • Red Dead Redemption 2 and Persona 5 Royal are the time sinks. Plan for them.
  • Sekiro and NieR: Automata are the hardest and the strangest of the bunch.

My PS4 shelf has a personality. It's roughly 157 games, and a huge share of them are shoot-'em-ups, metroidvanias, beat-'em-ups and roguelikes. Which is great, and also means I skipped most of the big-budget games the console is actually famous for.

My PS4 list has over 300 games on it. These are the heavy hitters from it, and a sensible order to go in.

The Sony blockbusters

Game Year What it is
God of War 2018 Kratos, older and quieter, raising a son in Norse mythology. One continuous shot from start to finish
Ghost of Tsushima 2020 A samurai open world during the Mongol invasion of Tsushima, with no map markers cluttering the view
Marvel's Spider-Man 2018 Insomniac's New York, and swinging through it
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End 2016 Nathan Drake's last adventure, and Naughty Dog at its most polished
Shadow of the Colossus 2018 Bluepoint's remake of the PS2 classic
Days Gone 2019 A biker in a zombie-filled Pacific Northwest

Kratos and his son standing in front of an enormous serpent rising out of a lake in God of War.

God of War. Screenshot from the PC release's store page.

The time sinks

These are the ones to start on a long weekend, not a Tuesday night:

  • Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018). Rockstar's Western prequel, famous for its detail and its pace, which is slow on purpose.
  • Persona 5 Royal (2019 in Japan, 2020 elsewhere). The expanded version of Persona 5, and a very long game.
  • Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020). The first part of the remake, which covers the opening city of the original.
  • Dragon Quest XI S, Tales of Arise and Ni no Kuni II for more traditional JRPGs.

A lone samurai standing on a cliff above a coastline as smoke rises from a distant village in Ghost of Tsushima.

Ghost of Tsushima. Screenshot from the PC release's store page.

The hard and the strange

  • Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019). FromSoftware's samurai game, built around parrying rather than dodging. By most accounts the hardest of their modern games.
  • NieR: Automata (2017). PlatinumGames and Yoko Taro. An action game with a story that keeps turning itself inside out, which is all I'll say.
  • Outer Wilds (2019). A solar system on a 22-minute loop, and a mystery you solve only with what you learn.
  • Disco Elysium (2021 on PS4). A detective RPG with no combat, where your own thoughts argue with you.

Note

A lot of these have since come to PC, and some to PS5 with upgrades. The PS4 versions are still perfectly good, and usually the cheapest way in.

A sensible order

  1. Ghost of Tsushima. Beautiful, approachable, and a great first big game on the list.
  2. God of War. It sets up its sequel, so better to play it sooner.
  3. Outer Wilds. Best played knowing as little as possible, so before anyone spoils it.
  4. Red Dead Redemption 2, when there's time for it.
  5. Sekiro, when I'm ready to be humbled.

Tip

If you're working through a big backlog, alternate a long game with a short one. Finishing things is its own reward, and a list this long needs some wins.

The same idea on the previous console is the PS3 heavy hitters. And if you're wondering where Bloodborne is: it's already on the shelf.

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