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If you’re just discovering PlayStation 5 a few years after its debut, you’ve arrived at a great time. Sony’s in-house studios have produced some of their best work in this generation, exploiting the technical prowess of the console while crafting vast narratives and interesting characters. Meanwhile, both major third-party studios and tiny indie developers have exploited the machine and its innovative controller to astounding effect.
Astro Bot
Sony’s luscious 3D platformer sees the eponymous space robot stranded on a distant planet with his hundreds of adorable companions. All the parts of his mothership are guarded by a colourful array of bosses, and you must put it back together.
Why we love it: “It’s one of the best platformers I’ve ever played – and, as a child of the 90s, I truly have played a ton of them.” Read the full review.
Baldur’s Gate 3
One of the greatest role-playing fantasy games of the modern era, providing players with almost as much narrative and imaginative freedom as a table-top D&D adventure as they face off against the mighty mind-flayers.
Why we love it: “It’s a towering landmark of an RPG. Bustling with life, brimming with scope, and bursting with imagination.” Read the full review.
Cocoon
The world didn’t know it needed a video game about a beetle that can traverse distant worlds in order to solve intergalactic puzzles – but it turns out we did. A beautiful, strange, gloopily organic mystery tour.
Why we love it: “Self-assured, understated, impactful sound and visuals support the most quietly brilliant puzzle game to emerge in years.”
Death Stranding
Hideo Kojima’s elegiac science-fiction adventure is like nothing else you’ll ever play: a post-apocalyptic quest to save humanity, following a parcel courier with an extremely valuable and unlikely parcel.
Why we love it: “This uncompromising, unashamedly political work of artistic intent is 2019’s most interesting blockbuster game by a distance.” Read the full review.
Demon’s Souls
Before Dark Souls came FromSoftware’s original hack’n’slash masterwork: a dark, dread-filled brawl through the ruined kingdom of Boletaria. This remake carefully updates the visuals, combat and structure to forge something new and equally deadly.
Why we love it: “One of the most quietly significant games of the 00s has been transformed here into a visually incredible, endlessly rewarding dark fantasy.”
Elden Ring
A grandiose fantasy opera from the makers of Dark Souls, filled with spectacular landscapes, bizarre characters and seemingly insurmountable bosses. Complete with the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC it’s a challenging and engrossing open world like no other.
Why we love it: “This is a massive world, astonishingly rendered (the sun and moon wheel in the sky, casting each scene anew) and seemingly limitless in its creative diversity. It is an unrivalled feat of design and inventiveness.” Read the full review.
Final Fantasy VII Remake
The first in an epic reimagining of Square’s revolutionary role-playing adventure from 1997, with lavish new visuals and extended sequences.
Why we love it: “Final Fantasy VII Remake elevates the original to new heights. It looks spectacularly good, but, more importantly, its gameplay has acquired a modern sheen without losing what made the game distinct in the first place.” Read the full review.
God of War Ragnarök
The sequel to Sony Santa Monica’s incredible reboot of the revered mythological action adventure series. This time, hero Kratos and his teenage son must explore the frozen landscapes of Scandinavia to find a lost god and prevent the end of the world.
Why we love it: “There haven’t been many interpretations of ancient mythology as gripping, detailed and imaginative as this, in video games or any other medium.” Read the full review.
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Gran Turismo 7
The landmark PlayStation driving simulator gets a stunning 4K makeover and a vast array of meticulously modelled super cars.
Why we love it: “This is a jaw-slackeningly beautiful game. Each vehicle is fettled in obsessive detail, down to the exact arrangement of reflective elements in an individual car’s headlights.” Read the full review.
Helldivers 2
A thrilling co-op space shooter and a glorious pastiche of Starship Troopers, in which players land on a series of planets to blow deadly robots, giant insects and other alien scum to smithereens.
Why we love it: “It is so precise, its gunplay so invigorating, its feedback and effects so generous. Everything about this game is ridiculous, including how good it is.” Read the full review.
The Last of Us Parts I and II Remastered
Vulnerable teen Ellie and cynical survivor Joel fight their way through the apocalyptic states of America looking for the cure to a zombifying fungal infection – and then must deal with the consequences of what they discover. Updated for PS5, Naughty Dog’s brutal yet beautiful adventure games are industry landmarks.
Why we love it: “Experiencing this brutal adventure once again, in a visually and haptically enhanced format, was a bludgeoning experience, as exhausting, moving and invigorating as my first playthrough.” Read the full review.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Peter Parker and Miles Morales team up to defeat Venom and a cabal of super villains threatening to destroy their lives, loved ones and the entire city of New York.
Why we love it: “It is a genuine pleasure to play something that has been so lovingly envisaged, and which is so true to its source material. It’s a game everyone with a PS5 should experience.” Read the full review.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Two furry heroes warp between worlds to defeat an evil galactic emperor in a visually astounding multiverse adventure.
Why we love it: “This is a blissfully uncomplicated cartoon science-fiction escapade … Everything you do feels good and showers you with sensory feedback, whether visually, aurally or through the controller’s haptic rumble.” Read the full review.
Returnal
After crash-landing on a hostile alien planet, sole-survivor Selene must escape a nightmarish cycle of life and death if she is to get away. A merciless time loop shooter.
Why we love it: “It’s unforgiving and sometimes dispiriting, but also intriguing, mysterious, and just glorious to play.” Read the full review.
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection
Nathan Drake hunts for a lost pirate treasure in Uncharted 4, while high-class thief Chloe Frazer searches India for the fabled Tusk of Ganesh in The Lost Legacy. Two wonderful globe-trotting adventures, remastered for PS5.
Why we love it: “Uncharted 4 is a rollicking, globe-trotting adventure that manages to be funny and exciting, yet also touched with sadness.” Read the full review.
