Best PlayStation games of all time

Elden Ring▲ Rising

FromSoftware took the Dark Souls formula and cracked it wide open into the Lands Between, where you could stumble into a dragon fight, a hidden catacomb, or Malenia herself in almost any order. Miyazaki plus George R.R. Martin's world-building produced something that felt genuinely undiscovered in an era when every map has a checklist. It's the rare game that made 'exploration' feel dangerous and mythic again.

Year: 2022Critic score: 9.6/10

added by IJRin 13 rankings

Red Dead Redemption 2▲ Rising

Arthur Morgan coughing blood into his journal while the Van der Linde gang's utopia rots from within is the closest games have come to Greek tragedy. Rockstar built a West so dense with weather, wildlife, and wandering strangers that 'open world' stopped meaning empty map filler and started meaning a living, breathing elegy. It earns its spot as the most staggering technical and emotional achievement in the medium's history.

Year: 2018Critic score: 9.7/10

added by IJRin 11 rankings

The Last of Us▲ Rising

That opening sequence with Sarah rewired what people expected a zombie game to be about—grief, not headshots. Joel and Ellie's cross-country trek toward a cure that ends in a lie built entirely on love set the template for prestige-TV-style game storytelling that studios are still chasing. It's the game that made 'cinematic' mean something earned rather than just pretty cutscenes.

Year: 2013Critic score: 9.5/10

added by IJRin 13 rankings

God of War (2018)▲ Rising

Kratos trading his blades of chaos for an axe and a son named Atreus, filmed in one unbroken take, was Santa Monica Studio betting everything on reinvention—and winning. The Greek rage-monster became a weary father navigating Norse myth and his own violent legacy, culminating in that gut-punch reveal of who Atreus really is. It single-handedly proved a franchise could grow up without losing its teeth.

Year: 2018Critic score: 9.4/10

added by IJRin 5 rankings

Metal Gear Solid▲ Rising

Psycho Mantis reading your memory card and dodging your attacks by making you plug the controller into port 2 was the moment players realized games could break the fourth wall with genuine menace. Kojima smuggled Cold War paranoia, nanomachine nonsense, and Snake's soap-opera melodrama into a stealth game that basically invented cinematic stealth as a genre. Every codec call and cardboard box gag since owes it rent.

Year: 1998Critic score: 9.4/10

added by IJRin 5 rankings

The Last of Us Part II

Killing Joel in the first act and then forcing you to play as his killer's target, Abby, was one of the boldest, most divisive swings a AAA studio has ever taken. Naughty Dog weaponized the player's own bloodlust against them, turning a revenge story into an indictment of revenge stories. Love it or loathe it, it's impossible to talk about ambition in games without landing here.

Year: 2020Critic score: 9.3/10

added by IJRin 2 rankings

God of War Ragnarök▼ Falling

Ragnarök had to deliver the actual end of the world after its predecessor's slow-burn setup, and it answered with Thor as a terrifying drunk god and Kratos finally confronting what kind of father—and man—he wants to be. The Lake of Nine sequel didn't just escalate scale, it deepened every relationship Atreus and Kratos had built. It closes the Norse saga with the kind of earned catharsis sequels rarely manage.

Year: 2022Critic score: 9.4/10

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Uncharted 4: A Thief's End▼ Falling

Nathan Drake's supposed retirement gets interrupted by his long-lost brother Sam, sending the series out with a truck chase through Madagascar and a finale that trades treasure-hunting bombast for quiet reflection on mortality and legacy. Naughty Dog polished blockbuster set-pieces to a shine no one has matched since. It's the swan song that made a pulpy adventure series feel genuinely human.

Year: 2016Critic score: 9.3/10

added by IJRin 3 rankings

Bloodborne▼ Falling

Trading shields for guns and turtling for aggression, Bloodborne told players that the best defense in a FromSoftware game was punching back, and Yharnam's cosmic-horror descent from gothic hunters to eldritch nightmares backed that philosophy up with pure dread. The Hunter's Dream and that final Moon Presence fight cemented it as the studio's most atmospheric, feverish work. It's the PlayStation exclusive Souls fans still beg for a sequel to.

Year: 2015Critic score: 9.2/10

added by IJRin 6 rankings

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night▼ Falling

Discovering the inverted castle halfway through—doubling an already massive map—was the moment 'Metroidvania' stopped being a Metroid-only word. Alucard's gothic, RPG-infused exploration of Dracula's castle turned a stagnant action franchise into the blueprint every 2D exploration game since has borrowed from. Its influence dwarfs its original PS1 sales tenfold.

Year: 1997Critic score: 9.3/10

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Ghost of Tsushima▼ Falling

Jin Sakai abandoning the samurai code to fight dirty against the Mongol invasion gave Sucker Punch's gorgeous open world an actual moral spine instead of just pretty pampas grass and wind-guided exploration. The Ghost armor's silent, ruthless efficiency reframed the whole power fantasy the genre usually sells. It's the game that proved you could make an open-world checklist feel like poetry.

Year: 2020Critic score: 9.2/10

added by IJRin 6 rankings

Final Fantasy VII▼ Falling

Aerith's death in the Forgotten Capital, delivered with blocky polygons and a Nobuo Uematsu theme that still wrecks people decades later, is the moment JRPGs became a mainstream cultural event in the West. Cloud, Sephiroth, and Midgar's eco-terrorism plot smuggled genuine environmental and identity themes into a game about giant swords and chocobos. It's the title most responsible for making console RPGs a global obsession.

Year: 1997Critic score: 9.2/10

added by IJRin 4 rankings