i plan to get a ps4 soon and these are the games I really want to get and why:
Dishonored Series (Dishonored, Dishonored 2, Death of the Outsider):
- I have played all of them and most of the DLC before on several different systems, but by and far they are one of my favorite series. If you don't know, they are a sandbox type game similar to Prey or the Bioshock series or Half Life 2. You are placed into a level, which is typically a rather large area filled with buildings, NPCs, several mission areas, and includes underwater channels to get to your location, overhead rooftop locations, or neutral street sides. Your objective is typically to eliminate a certain NPC by any means necessary, and you have a myriad of gadgets and powers at your disposal, from a mine that displaces razorblades that chop up anyone who walks by, to supernatural powers like possession of rats / humans or the ability to teleport a short distance. The best thing about this series is the amount of freedom you have and the ability to play around in these levels. It is a stealth game first and foremost, so you can think of it kind of like supernatural hitman. There are so many ways to go about killing people, or not killing people, eliminating a target via an epic sword fight or setting him up to be publicly shamed and ostracized by doing side missions. It is a really cool epic series and I HIGHLY recommend it over anything else
Here is a video that showcases some of the cool stuff you can do in the game. This guy is a speed runner though, most levels typically take 1-2 hours if not longer unless you are just running through and the world is VERY cool. Steampunk dystopia with tons of random books and lore to pick up that tie a bunch of random shit together, it really makes the world feel real
and immersive.
Honorable Mention: Prey
Hollow Knight
- I have talked about this before but this game is a really really cool indie game. It is a metroidvania, on both the Switch and PS4, and if you dont know what a metroidvania is it's similar to zelda games. You get a large mapped area that you have to explore in order to find more powerups for your character which in turn unlock more of the map. Hollow Knight is an absolute steal, only 15$ and for that reason alone it's well worth the money. If anything I feel bad only paying 15$ because it is easily worth 60$. There is multiple DLC out for free with the game, and this game is one of those I played that I was 30 hours in and was STILL discovering new areas, new enemies, new bossfights, etc. It is highly unlikely unless you look at a guide that you will uncover everything there is to uncover in the game; hell I doubt you'd even uncover 60% of the game in a normal playthrough. Another must buy imo, I've pirated it twice, bought it once, and plan to get it on PS4 once again. It's a little difficult to get the hang of the combat but once you do it's so smooth and rewarding
Here is a video that showcases a boss fight, imo one of the best and coolest fights. The level of difficulty in this game is high, and I like games like that that challenge you, but oh man is it rewarding when you finally beat them. The coolest thing about this game is that although there are a lot of super hard fights, you only technically have to fight like 4 bosses to beat the game. So there are always other areas to explore if you get stuck, other upgrades you can get to make a fight easier, etc.
Honorable mention: Axiom Verge, Shadow Complex, Celeste
Bioshock collection (Bioshock 1, Bioshock 2, Bioshock Infinite)
- If you have not played these before on PS3 or PC I highly recommend them as well. These are an immersive sim like Dishonored although there is less freedom involved on how and what to do in beating the game. The setting is one of the best I've seen in a game in a while, an underwater dystopia filled with insane humans. You start off with a wrench like in Half Life and quickly gain an assortment of powers, such as the ability to summon Bees that attack your enemy, fire to light things on fire, a shock power, etc. The cool thing about this is that there is just so much to explore and collect, along with the story of them being great. I did not like Infinite as much as the first two but Infinite is really cool with its twisted history of the foundings of America and its astute analysis of the political and social climate (particularly in regards to race). This is one of those I had planned to buy just to have the entire series and able to play, very very good.
Honorable Mention: Thief, System Shock
Dark Cloud 1 + 2
- These are legacy games, originally PS2 but I believe they are on the PS store. They are based on dungeon crawling games, with a randomly generated dungeon with random enemies, and the goal is just to get to the end of all the floors. Maybe this is nostalgia speaking but I loved these games as a kid and have revisited them over and over. The unique thing about these games is you have a power that lets you unlock real world items, called "Georama," that you must encounter in the dungeons and use to build up the real world (which has been completely obliterated by an evil genie). In a way, its kinda like a dungeon crawler meets Sim City, as you can customize your town how you want (limited in the first game, more customizable in the second game). The more stuff you unlock, including different NPCs, the more items you can buy as well as well lore and story progression. The only shitty thing about the first game is that it has a thirst system that you have to constantly make sure you are hydrating yourself with "Tasty Water" or else your health will drop. An RPG classic if you are into RPGs like that.
Here is a gameplay video if you wanted to view it, Dark Cloud 1 is more limiting but still very fun imo. Dark Cloud 2 has a TON of extra features. There are multiple minigames you can play on top of the basic dungeon crawling + overworld area, such as a fishing minigame, a fish RACE minigame in which you use the fish you have caught and race with them, a golf minigame that you play in the dungeon, medal collecting for collectathon ppl out there, and a photography mode that lets you invent new items. Very well worth 100+ hours.
Dark Souls Trilogy / Bloodborne
- I mentioned before that I like difficult but rewarding games, and so obviously this list has to have Dark Souls in it. Infamous I'm sure you've heard of them, so I won't touch onto the difficulty. I for one don't really find the difficulty to be that bad. The learning curve at first is a little rough but by the time you've beaten like your 2nd or 3rd boss you should be getting into the swing of things. The thing I love about these games is the indepth world building; I have literally never seen a game with such little story thrown to you that actually has a deep and immersive world behind each and every insignificant item drop. Every item in the game has a tiny, sometimes 1-2 sentence description of how it pieces together in the world, and people literally spend hours making lore videos to piece together the story of the Dark Souls universe. You play the game or that sense of accomplishment, but you continue past your first game or your first playthrough just so you can see more of the lore. I highly recommend Bloodborne at least, as it is possibly the most coherent of all the series games in terms of lore, and is one of the easiest to play due to its mechanics (there are things called blood vials that make it easy to heal, you get health back if you immediately retaliate with an enemy, allowing you to trade blows in a sense, and the fast paced combat makes fights pretty easy to handle). Additionally,
Nekiro: Shadows Die Twice is going to come out in 2019 and looks to be amazing. Imagine dark souls but instead you are a ninja with the ability to grappling hook everywhere. Very excited for this one.
Honorable Mention: Salt and Sanctuary, Nioh
Darksiders Series
- I have only played the 2nd one, but on ps3 i encountered a game breaking bug about 95% of the way through the game so I never finished it. Very fun, it was like an amalgamation of Devil May Cry combat meets Legend of Zelda exploration with inspiration from a ton of different games like Portal or God of War. A mixture of combat and puzzles, I personally can't wait for Darksiders 3 to come out next year (I think in March?) You play as one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse and go on a journey discovering more about the supernatural side of the world, from encountering demons in one level to the undead in the next to fighting angels and then also visiting the human plane of existence. From what I understand there are tons of side quests and mini bosses / puzzles to go backtrack and revisit areas. Mindless fun to an extent, you really feel like an acclaimed warrior with some of the powerups, and a lot of the boss fights are super epic. There is one bossfight that is reminiscient of Shadows of the Colossus in the 2nd game that is super cool.
Honorable Mention: God of War games
Borderlands Collection
- Cool games, I thoroughly enjoyed them best with a friend. Basically these games are all about loot, it's just a self aware, hilarious and edgy game series with excellent dialogue and premise. They don't give two shits about a story for the most part, all your character wants is to explore the world and gain treasure and bigger and better weapons. They are fun solo but with other people are an absolute blast. Borderlands 2 VR is out I think, I keep seeing ads about it and that's probably pretty fun. If you want witty dialogue or just kinda mindless shooting and entertainment then these games will keep you going forever. There are tons of easter eggs or side missions and collectables to get and the missions themselves, however pointless, never seem to really get old. Fuck, when I was playing with my friend for the first time we would literally do every single mission we could and not once did I ever say "fuck it I jsut want to do story" as the missions themselves were often well worth the effort (not even in loot just in experience lol).
Honorable Mentions (games I have not played or cannot write a paragraph about)
- Persona 5
- Spyro Trilogy / Crash Bandicoot Trilogy
- The Witcher 3
- Okami -----> highly recommend if you like zelda games, I've never played it but i've been anxiously waiting to get it when I get a ps4
- A Hat in Time: Collectathon, if you like Super Mario Odyssey or Super Mario Sunshine then this is a cute game for you to pick up
- Agony / Outlast: Survival Horror games, very good. Don't highly recommned them because I personally cannot play them for very long but they are good nonetheless
Games that are Eh for various reasons but may be worth your time:
- Assassins Creed series
Personally I don't really mind the series, but I have not played since AC4 came out. To my knowledge Odyssey and Origins are both good, but I'm not sure if that's just because they're flagship titles and get acclaimed reviews or if they are actually good. I thoroughly enjoyed AC2 --> AC4, being able to play as a pirate or as Ezio or as a native american is really cool. I live in Virginia, so AC3 was especially cool because there were a lot of places, events, and people that I have learned about or saw. AC4 is especially beautiful, probably more so on PS4 (I played on PS3) and it's just so fun to just be a pirate and do pirate things. The downside to these games is that they are often a little buggy visually (as I'm sure you've seen memes), the "real life" story is kinda garbage, and a lot of the missions or side quests are just checklists of things to do. Kill this ship, find this special codex item, kill this dude. If you're looking for an assassin game, Dishonored is so much better, but being able to parkour and explore the different environments is what I really like about this game series. Again, haven't played Odyssey or Origins, and from what I've seen not really sure if I want to as i don't really like the RPG elements they've put into the game but go for it if you want
- "Press triangle to win" games
These types of games are games that include the Batman Arkham series, some of the Assassin Creeds games, the Shadow of Mordor series, etc. Basically these games would be super cool, with a nice environment, pretty graphics, maybe a cool theme, but or me the whole thing is ruined by the combat, which often just revolves around pressing Triangle at the right times. Shadow of Mordor and Batman in particular do this and that can get frustrating once you realize that fact, as the counter is just blatantly overpowered. These are games that I thought didn't really have that great of a story or were so convoluted so as to detract from the story, and the combat just doesn't really make up for that fact. Probably around a B tier game series imo.