The Only 2 Near-Perfect PS4 Games, According To Metacritic

The PlayStation 4 has established itself as one of Sony's most successful consoles. The company has sold over 117 million PS4 units worldwide, overtaking the original PlayStation, the PS3, and the PSP. It's difficult to quantify why the PS4 performed as well as it did, but one thing that's true of every console is that it's only as good as it's games — and the PS4 has some great ones. It offered exclusive titles like "God of War," "Horizon: Zero Dawn," and "Uncharted 4," which could only be played on the Sony platform at the time of their release. The PS4 also boasts a wide variety of third-party entries. Some of these games were incredibly well-received and got high marks from reviewers.

Metacritic, a website that uses dozens of critic and user reviews to aggregate average scores, provides one of the simplest methods for measuring game quality. At the time of this writing, two releases had tied for the best PS4 game with near-perfect scores of 97. Both titles were developed by the same studio: Rockstar Games.

"Grand Theft Auto 5" is widely considered one of the best games in the franchise. It follows three main protagonists: Franklin, an up-and-coming criminal looking to make some money and escape the neighborhood where he grew up; Michael, a retired criminal in therapy for anger management who lives in the Los Santos hills with his somewhat problematic family; and Trevor, a rage-fueled, drug-addicted psychopath who lives off the grid and occasionally goes on one-man killing sprees. Circumstances force the trio to band together and perform a series of complicated heists, often involving heavy machinery and over-the-top escape vehicles.

Of the 66 critic reviews on Metacritic, exactly half gave "GTA 5" a perfect score of 100, while the others range entirely in the 90s. Most praised the game for its story, characters, and mechanics. The primary complaint from outlets like Financial Post that awarded it less-than-perfect scores seemed to be that the PS4 edition didn't have enough innovation over the PS3 edition to warrant buying the entry a second time. The user review score is much more diverse, averaging an 8.3 out of 10. Still, this number comes from 6,045 positive votes, 633 mixed votes and 674 negative votes, with most of the negative remarks targeting problems with the online mode.

The other game that managed to pull a 97 on Metacritic was Rockstar's "Red Dead Redemption 2." "RDR2" changed gaming with its gorgeous visuals, unique open-world, and heartbreaking story. It follows Arthur Morgan, the second in command of Dutch van der Linde's gang of outlaws, as he and the group ride across the American West in search of a place to settle in a land ever more inhospitable to their way of life. It won the 2018 Game Awards for Best Narrative, Best Score, and Best Audio Design.

"RDR2" has 99 critic reviews. Similar to the results from "GTA 5," just over half of them gave the title perfect scores of 100 while all but a few of the rest are in the 90s. The largest complaints related to the pacing of the story. "Red Dead Redemption 2" scores slightly higher in the user section than "GTA 5," with an average of 8.6 out of 10. This comes from an aggregated score of 16,189 positive reviews, 1,190 mixed reviews, and 1,856 negative reviews, with most of the mixed and negative reviews citing awkward controls.

There's no denying that Rockstar is an impressive developer, but managing to create both of the highest rated games on the PS4 is quite a feat. What might be even more impressive is the way that both of these games managed to remain relevant for years after their launch. "Red Dead Redemption 2" was released in 2018 and "Grand Theft Auto 5" was released all the way back in 2013, yet both of these games still have dedicated fan bases. Their massive open worlds are jam-packed with side quests and collectables that can keep players busy for hundreds of hours, but the real secret to their sustained popularity is their online modes.

While fans of the franchise are looking forward to the next step in the "Grand Theft Auto" franchise, it doesn't look like "GTA 6" will be releasing anytime soon. Those looking to get their car-thieving fix can still do so in "Grand Theft Auto Online," which has regularly seen new bonus missions and added content such on a regular basis. This has kept the game feeling full and fresh for years. "Red Dead Online" was also initially quite popular, but unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have been able to match the longevity of "GTA." Rockstar announced in July 2022 that there would be no further updates to the online game mode. However, as noted by IGN, that hasn't stopped the game's devoted players from promising to continuing playing till the bitter end.