PlayStation users can celebrate 30th anniversary with these free greatest hits
With PlayStation turning a grand old 30 years old, it’s worth taking some time to look back over five generations of the console, and revel in some of the finest games out there. We’ve had some great adventures, from zombie infested heartbreakers to eye-popping platformers that ease the soul.
If you’re new to the Japanese brand, boy do you have some bangers to catch up on. If not and you just want to bask in the glory of brilliant titles, it’s easy to do with PlayStation Plus, as so many of the games that PlayStation laid down as its foundations are available to play for free. You might wonder why some key titles are missing, like Horizon Zero Dawn and Marvel’s Spider-Man, but you’ll have to ask papa Sony about that. We’ve got 12 unmissable titles we believe are the PlayStation greatest hits available to play today.
Ghost of Tsushima
One of my personal highlights of recent PlayStation games is Ghost of Tsushima - a gloriously beautiful traipse through ancient Japan. I don’t want to play down the wonderful story of loyalty and revenge, but for me it takes a back seat to the countryside and open-world activities. I hadn’t enjoyed getting lost in a game world like this in forever. One moment I’m scaling rock faces to reach a torii gate, the next I’m following a fox to find hidden items, then I’m riding horseback through windswept fields as the sun dips below the horizon, setting the world on fire.
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Of course, the action and stealth moments round out the game to be one of true triumph, offering so much to do, even when sticking to the guided path of the story. Ghost of Tsushima manages to transport the player to unreachable lands in time, while keeping the story grounded in everyday human pain.
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart
A different kind of beauty comes from Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. I remember first seeing promo screenshots where Sony was showing the light fur on the faces of Ratchet and Rivet and thinking, ‘there ain’t no way it’ll look that good’ but Insomniac Games were cooking. The whole game is stunning, from the textures and lighting to the visual design of each area. Then the SSD carrying weight to shift the player from place to place through rifts in space and time? That was incredible.
The plethora of weapons makes everything wonderfully chaotic, bringing action by the bucketload. It’s got bags of heart too - a lovely story of finding your place in the universe, and you can’t overlook the touching moments of friendship throughout. Oh, and the music. That soundtrack is charm and sass from beat to beat.
Demon’s Souls
The Soulslike genre was birthed back on the PlayStation 3 with Demon’s Souls, but as that game is lost to dust and the shelves of CEX, it’s a good job we have the stellar remake to play instead. This was Fromsoftware redefining the action genre with a game that became known for its esoteric storytelling and rock hard difficulty. A game that went on to spawn myriad other games injecting new mechanics and features into the repertoire of developers.
Is it their best? That’s up to the player as it’s incredibly different from Dark Souls and Elden Ring, yet the challenge is intact and this remake, released early in the lifecycle of the PS5 showed just how you should do a remake. With a polished sheen, it’s still the grimdark fantasy underneath the updated visuals, and it’s still a masterpiece.
The Last Guardian
A beautiful elegy to companionship and love, The Last Guardian is pure joy. The way Trico, the large fluffy bird/cat creature, moves around is sublime. There’s such character in the way they jump, prance, and communicate. The echoes you get of your own pet is spot on and it only makes some moments of the story hit that much harder.
While I would put this at the bottom of the trilogy that featured Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, it’s still a terrific experience. One that will stay with you long after the credits roll. Based purely on puzzles, traversal, and interaction with Trico, there’s a strong sense of simplicity throughout which only elevates the beauty in the subtlety.
God of War
I’m referencing the reboot here, though the original game can be found on PlayStation Plus via the God of War HD edition, which is always worth checking out. What made Kratos such an amazing protagonist through the PS2 and PS3 era was his strength and the awe inspired by the mythological world around him. They were action-packed games that took no breath as they took no prisoners.
The reboot doubles down more on inner strength, though there are plenty of brutal fights, and the quietness of a world swept up in loss. Moving to a more RPG focus, the battles took on a more calculated edge which heightens the tension in each encounter. Surrounding all of this is a beautiful world based on very different myths and more emotive moments in a story designed to explore what makes us human. God of War is nothing short of brilliant.
Resistance: Fall of Man
Alternate history was big in first-person shooters, and Resistance: Fall of Man nailed that idea of what could have been. Insomniac Games managed to create a great world of gruff soldiers versus alien invaders, which was a hot pot of creativity in the mid-2000s. Arriving to a decent amount of praise, you can’t really say that the game broke any moulds, but it did deliver high quality action.
Don’t expect this to hold up as well as you’d hope. The basics are solid and the story beats still carry that Hollywood blockbuster style, but the framework is a little creaky after so many years. Still, it’s nice to see Sony give the game some love and put it onto PlayStation Plus.
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection
There are many mascots for the PlayStation console and most of them are cuddly and cute, but not Nathan Drake who carried the console on his back for a time. It’s been a while since we got a new adventure from Nate, but his older romps through jungles and lost cities still hold some appeal. A wise-cracking, ladies man, Nathan Drake became a bit of an Indiana Jones for modern gamers and his adventures were equally fantastic.
Each game stands out for different reasons, but you could argue that the second entry in the franchise revolutionised the idea of a blockbuster video game, using cinematic action and sweeping vistas to move the player. Uncharted deserves a spot in the hall of fame.
Bloodborne
Of course we have to have Bloodborne on the list. The game that has Soulslike fans gnawing on the walls, desperate for a remaster. Hell, we’d take a 60fps patch at this point. Bloodborne is something truly special. Of course, it appealed to those who loved the genre and the work of Fromsoftware. For me, it was the Lovecraftian, Eldritch narrative sweeping throughout that captured me. Doing away with the fantasy setting set it apart and in doing so, captured the attention of many.
It’s also, and I say this with my whole chest, a perfect action game. Everything about the Fromsoft formula is distilled beautifully. The confined feeling of Yharnam worked well too, making everything feel built on top of each other and constricted. Please Sony, do something with this game.
Heavenly Sword
Hear me out! Many wouldn’t put this on the list, but it was a big release back in the day and PlayStation put a lot on the line for it. Granted, the result wasn’t as great as everyone hoped, but it’s a part of the canon and should be recognised. Heavenly Sword is an action game by Ninja Theory that aimed to give players a properly cinematic action game with fighting usually seen on the big screen.
While it didn’t capture that essence entirely, what came out was still a lot of fun, utilising a combat style that felt unique on release. Switching fighting styles on the fly seems old hat now, but for Heavenly Sword it was bordering on revolution. Looking back now, there was a gorgeous sense of style in the bold colours used throughout and the world building was grandiose.
Death Stranding
Say what you want about Death Stranding and its pacing and oddness, but it’s a gem of a game. Sure, I prefer the walking simulator elements to it - noodling about in the wilds of post-apocalyptic America, delivering packages - but when you get into the nuts and bolts of the story it’s quite a beautiful and touching look at modern communication, loneliness, and longing.
It’s hard to always take it seriously with product placement, Hideo Kojima’s bizarre direction, and the breaking of the fourth wall, but it’s got heart. Plus a stellar cast that deliver great performances all around. It’s boldly beautiful to look at too, whether in rain-drenched moments of peril, up against eerie monsters, the design is great. Having played it very recently it’s still fresh in my mind and while I could moan for months about the combat, I find the surrounding game incredibly endearing.
inFAMOUS
Going back to the PlayStation 3, inFAMOUS was the gritty superhero story everyone wanted to tell - and often still try to. Sucker Punch, who up until now were known for cutesy Sly Racoon capers, took the gloves off and told a great story full of emotion and darkness. The feeling you get when Spider-Man swings through New York is how many of us felt when leaping about the place using electricity powers here.
Traversal was key here and played a big part in making it feel like a proper superhero game. It still feels lush today if you revisit, though the street battles have perhaps dulled due to age. inFAMOUS balanced a fine line of good vs evil which was furhter explored in later entries and it gave a real down to earth approach to what an average guy would do if he suddenly got superpowers.
The Last of Us Remastered
Which brings us to the last entry and one that I think many would agree personifies the PlayStation brand today. If Uncharted 2 set the path of cinematic action, The Last of Us treads that path and branches off into cinematic story. A tale so entrenched in the love of humanity. This is the story of a desperate and bereft father finding solace in the companionship of Ellie, herself a loner and an outlier. Brought together to tell a story of survival, their journey features all the hallmark twists and turns we expect from games since.
It’s a masterpiece in interactive story-telling, and one that will last for generations to come. Of course, the action matches the quality of the story, dancing between fraught and tense moments with your heart in your mouth, clinging onto survival, to epic set pieces, back to confined one-on-one battles that can be felt in your bones. Another masterpiece for the shelf.
Topics: PlayStation, PlayStation 5, Playstation Plus, PlayStation 4, Sony, The Last Of Us, Ghost Of Tsushima, Demons Souls, God Of War, Uncharted, Bloodborne, Death Stranding