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Sony’s PlayStation brand has delivered some of the greatest games ever made, from PS1 darlings like Crash Bandicoot to the cultural juggernaut that is The Last of Us. There’s good reason for this, though, as Sony’s own studios have often focused largely on creating memorable worlds to be explored by some of the most devout gaming fans out there.
But there still has to be a best of the best, right? Well, short of ranking the best PlayStation games of all time, we decided we’d instead present a few of the best games available for PlayStation’s latest console generation: The PlayStation 5.
In this list, we’re largely focusing on games that can’t be found anywhere else, or appeared on the PS5 before making the jump to other systems, i.e. PC. We’re also omitting remasters that launched on the PS4 and then got a port to the PS5, since those are just PS4 games with a facelift (though there is one remaster in the list, it’s from a game that came out about 15 years ago).
In short, if you’re looking for some of the best games to dive into on your PlayStation 5, look no further!
The Best PS5 Games at a Glance
1. Demon’s Souls
- Genre: Action RPG
- Developer: From Software (original), Bluepoint (remaster)
- Players: 1 offline, 1-5 online
- Release Date: 12 November, 2020
- Metacritic: 92
The granddaddy of the Souls series got a facelift. When it launched in 2009, the original Demon’s Souls in many ways reimagined what the action adventure game could be, and though it wasn’t perfect, it delivered on most of what we know and love about the series today. Much of From Software’s success has been pinned to its subsequent title, 2011’s Dark Souls, but Demon’s Souls laid the foundations to what would inevitably evolve into 2022’s incredible open-world adventure Elden Ring.
Back in 2009, though, most people didn’t play Demon’s Souls, which is why BluePoint’s remaster is such an important game. Not only does it bring an overlooked and important game up-to-date with modern gaming sensibilities, it also acts as a way for modern Souls players to see where the series began without the PS3 jank.
As is par for the course with BluePoint, the graphics and art direction of the remaster are incredible. Some questionable art direction changes aside, the game looks, runs, and feels incredible to play, and, when played on the more powerful PS5 Pro, Demon’s Souls hits a stable 60fps at near 4k resolutions.
You play as a lone hero diving deep into the kingdom of Boletaria, which has become besieged by demons that appear out of the strange colourless fog emanating from an ancient beast, the Old One. Shackled to the mysterious Nexus, you are given a simple task: lull the Old One back to slumber to save the kingdom from ruin.
How you do that is up to you: as a knight, a ranger, a sorcerer, a cleric, or something else. You fight, you die, you get stronger, you dive deeper, you die more, and the cycle repeats. I’d be lying if I said the game would be easy, but if you’ve already played and mastered Elden Ring you’re unlikely to find much challenge in Demon’s Souls.
That said, it’s still one of the main reasons to actually buy a PS5, since most of the other exclusives have come to Steam.
2. Gran Turismo 7
- Genre: Racing
- Developer: Polyphony Digital
- Players: 1-2 in split screen, up to 4 online
- Release Date: 4 March, 2022
- Metacritic: 87
We’ve probably all heard of Gran Turismo at this point: the series is one of Sony’s biggest, oldest, and most successful, and, thankfully the series’ latest entry is one of its best. Well, at least the gameplay is great.
Gran Turismo is Sony’s premier racing sim, and the technical wizards at Polyphony Digital have once again delivered some magic, with GT7 being one of the best looking and running games on the PS5 system – as well as one of the best reasons to upgrade to a PS5 Pro, assuming you have an amazing TV, of course. Gran Turismo 7 is one of the only games on PS5 to feature a 4K 120fps mode, as well as a 4K 60fps mode using real-time ray-tracing on PS5 Pro.
Within the game you’ll find 39 race tracks, on which you can drive over 500 cars, all of which are rendered in incredibly beautiful quality. One of the missteps, though, is just how hard it is to get your hands on those cars, unless you’re willing to drop some more cash. You don’t need to spend any more money, of course, but depending on how much time you have available, or are willing to drop on the game, you’re probably not going to drive anywhere close to the total number of cars. Getting a new car will need a few hours of grinding out races and saving up in-game currency, or dropping a few bucks on the store.
If you can get past that you’ll find an incredible racing sim that, again, you’ll find looks absolutely incredible on a high-end display.
3. Helldivers 2
- Genre: Third-Person Shooter
- Developer: Arrowhead Game Studios
- Players: 1-4 players
- Release Date: 8 February, 2024
- Metacritic: 82
If 2024 was the year of any game, it was the year of Helldivers 2. The bug-ridden shooter (as in, you’re shooting the bugs) dropped early in the year and immediately became one of the biggest and best games of the year, with millions of players worldwide jumping on across PS5 and PC.
In Helldivers 2, you and your allies will take on the role of soldiers fighting back the Terminid invasion of Super Earth. You’ll jump onto different worlds, take on missions ranging in difficulty from Trivial to Super Helldive, and (should you survive) get paid. You’ll spend your Super Credits on better weapons, armour and tools, before heading back into the fray for just one more mission.
Best of all, you can do it with your friends.
It might look like a Starship Troopers rip-off, but it really is more than the sum of its parts, and is easily one of the best multiplayer games around today, let alone on the PS5. The game hasn’t been devoid of controversy though, with the game launching in many regions that PlayStation’s own services don’t support before having their access cut off, leaving many people who purchased the game out of luck. It’s something that has largely been forgotten by the fan-base, but many people who purchased the title at launch are simply locked out of it today.
Still, if you do live somewhere that PlayStation’s online servers exist, Helldivers 2 is an incredible game and well worth your time.
4. Returnal
- Genre: Roguelike, Third-Person Shooter
- Developer: Housemarque
- Players: 1 offline, 1-2 online
- Release Date: 30 April, 2021
- Metacritic: 86
Housemarque has been one of Sony’s most exciting studios for years, dropping the absolute bangers Super Stardust HD and Resogun in the PS3 and PS4 generations, and for the PS5 it’s delivered something really special. Returnal, unlike Housemarque’s prior games, is a third-person roguelike shooter, and focuses on delivering something a bit more on the horror end of the spectrum than the studio has delivered before.
In Returnal, you play as Selene Vassos, an astronaut that gets stuck in a time loop while exploring a mysterious planet. The planet is home to myriad monstrous creatures and alien biomes to confront, and the time loop provides the justification for Vassos dying, returning, and exploring the procedurally-generated world again, and again, and again.
While the story of the game is definitely set up for one player, Returnal‘s Ascendancy update brought on the ability for two players to dive into the game together online, which certainly makes the repeated exploration and deaths more fun.
There’s also an endless mode called the ‘Tower of Sisyphus’, which can’t be played in co-op, but which gives you a bit more insight into the somewhat vague lore of the world of Returnal. Happy climbing!
5. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
- Genre: Open World, Action
- Developer: Insomniac Games
- Players: 1
- Release Date: 20 October, 2023
- Metacritic: 90
Everyone’s friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man is back, and this time he’s bringing his friend. While the first Spider-Man game launched in 2018 and focused exclusively on the Peter Parker version of the superhero, Spider-Man 2 brings Miles Morales into the fray, as well as a slew of the pair’s enemies.
If you’re looking for an incredibly solid open world to web-swing your way through, Spider-Man 2 is quite literally the best option you have. It’s an improvement over the first game in pretty much every way, and apes a lot from Rocksteady’s seminal Batman Arkham series.
That’s not a bad thing, those games were some of the best of the past few generations, and Insomniac has pulled a lot of the best parts of those games while lightning the mood significantly. Spider-Man is gonna quip, after all.
The combat is largely unchanged from the original, though the addition of the black symbiote suit adds a much needed switch-up to how you approach fights. When in the symbiote suit, you’re incentivised to fight more aggressively and take a more head-on approach to situations, which is in keeping with the venomous nature of the creature bound to Parker. Plus, web-slinging through New York is always a good time.
6. Astro Bot
- Genre: 3D Platformer
- Developer: Team Asobi
- Players: 1
- Release Date: 6 September, 2024
- Metacritic: 94
The best game of 2024, according to the Game Awards. While we’re not so sure we agree with that, Astro Bot is a fantastic, fun and family friendly romp through PlayStation’s storied history. It’s also the some of the most fun you can have in a 3D platformer outside of a Super Mario game, which is an accomplishment in-and-of itself.
If you think that this game is a bit of an outlier on this list, that’s because it is. Astro Bot is in many ways a return to how Sony’s games used to be: with the likes of Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Sly Cooper and Crash Bandicoot bringing colourful platforming goodness to the early PlayStation consoles. Here, you play as the titular Astro Bot, a PlayStation-5-themed robot that travels the world and collects other bots themed after some of PlayStation’s biggest and most nostalgic series.
It’s also far more family friendly than most of the other games on the list, giving you something you can not only play in front of your kids without worrying about giving them a childhood trauma, but you could actually play with them. It’s an often joyous game that doesn’t shy away from focusing on the fun, rather than creating something cinematic, and doesn’t get bogged down in the details.
7. God of War Ragnarök
- Genre: Action Adventure
- Developer: Santa Monica
- Players: 1
- Release Date: 9 November, 2022
- Metacritic: 94
Potentially the best game on this list, depending on what kind of games you like. God of War Ragnarök is a sequel to the 2018 God of War, which itself was a sequel to 2010’s God of War III. Numbers are hard!
You’re still playing as Kratos, and he’s still as grumpy as ever, but now he’s trying to come to terms with his anger issues. If that sounds strange, remember that he was once so angry that he literally ripped a sun god’s head off and wore it on his belt to help light up dark places. The newer God of War games are a meditation on anger and the folly of youth, with a deeply scarred and guilty Kratos looking to avoid how he feels about the whole ‘god killing’ business he got up to in the first few games. In Ragnarök he is faced with this past more than ever before, especially in the game’s Valhalla DLC.
Beyond being a fairly good story, God of War Ragnarök also boasts some very solid gameplay, with Kratos’ Leviathan Axe and Blades of Chaos serving as the bulk of his weapons, and both also working as tools for puzzle solving around the well-realised Norse world.
Ragnarök is undoubtedly one of the best games on the system, if not one of the best games released in the past decade. If you’re a fan of tough, combo-based combat, you’re going to find it here, especially if you turn the difficulty up.
There’s Plenty More
While these are a few of our favourites, there are literally hundreds of other fantastic games available on the PS5: Many of which can be played through the platform’s PlayStation Plus service. The PS5 generation is still going strong, and has some fantastic games to come, so we’re looking forward to seeing what Sony delivers in the next few years!
