The Best PS4 Games Of 2020

First unveiled during E3 2013 — and released in November of that same year — the PlayStation 4 was met with near-unanimous acclaim. This was, in no small part, thanks to the console's crisp HD graphics, fluid gameplay, and a redesigned OS that ditched the PS3's proprietary processing tech (which, according to IGN, made software "arduous and costly to produce"). Sony's eighth generation console blew its competition away, outselling Microsoft's Xbox One by nearly 70 million units by early 2020.

By 2016, 4K graphics had become all the rage, and so, in order to adapt, Sony released the PS4 Pro. And while its 4K compatibility was nifty, it wouldn't be until the Nov. 2020 release of the PS5 that gamers saw what the real next generation was capable of... well, for the, like, 12 people who could actually get their hands on one, at least.

Pour one out for the PlayStation 4, because the jig is up. Sure, the PS4 continues to be supported by Sony, but the end is certainly near for the last generation's king of consoles. That said, don't sell off your PS4 yet, because it still has plenty to offer. These are the best PS4 games of 2020.

Naughty Dog's 2013 PS3 opus The Last of Us combined a satisfying gameplay loop with the tension of trying to keep from becoming fungi food. Its emphasis on the relationship between protagonists Joel and Ellie made for emotionally taxing examination of morality in the face of catastrophe. Both gamers and critics lapped it up — so when The Last of Us Part II was announced in Dec. 2016, the industry lost its collective mind.

It's hard to talk about The Last of Us Part II without tip-toeing into spoiler territory, but the title was, in a word, divisive. Once more, Naughty Dog had crafted an immersive, emotionally complex tale that Tim Biggs of the Sydney Morning Herald called, "Heartbreakingly grim and powerfully optimistic." And while the likes of IGN's Jonathon Dornbush rated the game 10/10, claiming that it "makes time for a stunning, nuanced exploration of the strength and fragility of the human spirit," it would be irresponsible to ignore the backlash that fans of the original game heaped upon the title.

Still, The Last of Us Part II is easily one of the most critically well-received PS4 titles of 2020, according to Metacritic.

Let's cut to the chase: Media Molecule's Dreams isn't exactly a game. Rather, Dreams is basically a digital sandbox masquerading as a simplified game engine. It's a big, flashy toolkit full of odds and ends that allow players to create any number of multimedia projects, from music to animation to bite-sized video games. And while Dreams' learning curve can seem daunting — especially at first — the "game" also features a slew of helpful in-game tutorials. That means dreaming up the next big cutesy Kaiju city-smashin' simulator is easier than ever.

For the grumpy "That's-not-a-game, that's-homework!" gamers out there, fear not. Jumping into the "game's" Dreamiverse lets players access a vast multitude of their fellow Dreamers' creations. Sure, the available content is a mixed bag. Like PlayStation Lifestyle's Chandler Wood wrote, "Most things feel like tech demos, proofs of concept, and highlight reels in a creator's portfolio[.]" 

Still, that's not to say players won't be impressed by the Dreamiverse's varied selection. Missed out on Hideo Kojima's Silent Hills teaser P.T.? No worries — there's a fan recreation. Ever wondered what a Bob's Burgers video game might look like? Wonder. No. More. 

Dreams holds a high score on Metacritic.

Released in September 1999, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater changed the relationship between sports and video games forever. In an interview with The Guardian, pro skater Rodney Mullen explained that the title, "not only [blew] up the existing community and our place in it, it also brought an awareness and a respect for skating to outsiders." It should come as no surprise, then, that 2020's critically-acclaimed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 — a total remaster of the first two games in the franchise — brought skateboarding games back to the forefront of gaming in a big freaking way.

Firmly straddling the line between "ain't broke, don't fix" and "fresh coat of paint," Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 feels like pure, undiluted nostalgia shot straight into the heart, Pulp Fiction-style, and the reviews reflect that. In fact, VG24/7's Dom Peppiatt goes as far as saying, "Muscle memory that's been dead some 20 years will wake up in your hands, and you'll be a slave to its undead twitching."

PlayStation Universe's Sebastian Hawden echoes these sentiments, writing, "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 retains everything that made the games amazing in the '90s."

It'd take up far too much time explaining the monumental impact that Final Fantasy 7 has had on not only RPGs, but gaming as a whole — but here's a refresher. Square Enix's massive hit RPG Final Fantasy 7 dropped in 1997 to critical acclaim, eventually selling upwards of 13 million copies as of May 2020, according to IGN. Lauded for its cinematic graphics and its complex and mature storyline, Square's little RPG became an instant classic.

Fast-forward eight years. FF7 developer/publisher Square Enix might have claimed that their suspicious E3 2005 tech demo was nothing but that — a simple PS3 tech demo. But fans knew (or at least hoped) better. They watched. They waited. 

And then, like a healing rain from the Lifestream itself, April 2020 saw Final Fantasy 7 Remake hitting the PlayStation 4 after a decade and a half of teasing. Reviews were swift and near-unanimous, praising the game's subversive re-examination of its source material. GameSpot's Tamoor Hussain wrote, "Square Enix tells a smaller, more personal Final Fantasy 7 tale," while Slant's Justin Clark was impressed by its willingness to make nostalgia "another enemy to be slain."

When it comes right down to it, modern video games are usually little more than power fantasies. Sure — every once in a while, video games tug at those ol' heartstrings. Or, y'know... there's a dog to pet. But most games are about smashing, bashing, slicing, dicing, and fragging felonious fools into effing oblivion. Doom Eternal knows this. Hell, Doom Eternal revels in this. 

Developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks in December 2020, Doom Eternal follows the exploits of the Doom Slayer, following the blood-splattered events of 2016's soft reboot of the long-running FPS franchise. 

With glowing critical responses like those of Game Revolution's Michael Leri suggesting, "[DOOM's] greatest victory might be slaying the impossibly high expectations set by [its] genre-defining precursors" — Doom Eternal burst onto PlayStation 4 with all the bombast of a jet engine explosion. As worded perfectly by God is a Geek's Mick Fraser, the game is "loud and brash and hellishly violent, but above all it's 100% video game. It's not trying to be an interactive movie, political commentary or thinly-veiled ad campaign; it's a game about killing demons as quickly, as messily, and as efficiently as possible."

Nestled among some big-budget AAA games and remakes decades in the waiting is a little platforming title courtesy of acclaimed indie game developer Derek Yu. But, as the old adage goes, big things come in small packages — and Spelunky 2 holds a big Metascore, beating out some super hyped heavy-hitters.

Spelunky 2 builds upon the "rogue-lite" stylings of its predecessor, which combined old-school platforming gameplay with procedurally generated roguelike elements. The charming (yet deceptively punishing) 2D platformer sees its protagonist Ana traveling to the moon in order to seek out treasure — and to find her missing folks. 

Well, Ana and her adventure had quite the impact on critics like IGN's Mitchell Saltzman, who wrote, "Spelunky 2 takes everything that made the original great and expands upon each of those individual aspects without ever over complicating the elegant, retro simplicity of its 2D platforming." However, Saltzman also noted that players turned off by the original Spelunky's challenging gameplay won't be in for a less frustrating ride. 

PlayStation Universe's John-Paul Jones takes this almost exaggerated praise even further, claiming that Spelunky 2 is "one of the greatest roguelikes ever made."

In a perfect world, speed demons could spend their Saturdays hopping into Formula One cars and burning up the track with their buds. Unfortunately, most normies don't have a one-ton hunk of low-laying metal just sitting around in their garage, so hopping into Codemaster's critically-acclaimed 2020 F1 sim — the aptly/lazily titled F1 2020 — is gonna have to cut it.

In the words of IGN's Luke Reilly, this game is the "deepest yet most accessible Codemasters Formula One experience to date." But that's not to say it isn't a pulse-pounding joyride for players of all skill levels. Learning the ins and outs is satisfying as heck, but for new F1 racers, the game's "Casual Mode" simplifies its sometimes overwhelming menus. That means leaping into a match is less nerve-wracking — and more fun — than ever.

The new My Team mode is a revelation. Described by Forbes' Brian Mazique as a mode in which players are "charged with creating a driver, finding sponsors, engine suppliers, hiring teammates, and being added to the F1 grid," My Team allows players to not only live out their F1 driver fantasies, but to get a sense of the behind-the-scenes action that goes into making their vehicles go vroom.

What do you get when you cross a swath of cutesy anime teenagers with giant robots, gargantuan kaiju, and a whole lot of wacky, junk food sci-f? Well, normally you'd get an unmitigated mess — but in the case of the absurdly-named but critically-beloved 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, you get one of the PS4's best games of 2020.

Aegis Rim combines beautifully drawn characters and environments with surprisingly involving real-time strategy combat. It also features the twistiest, turniest, tropiest sci-fi story this side of that one classmate's novel they've been writing for a decade. Just how trope-y? According to Eurogamer's Malindy Hetfeld, the game's storyline includes: "A talking cat. Time travel. Time travel, but also not really. Androids. Clones. Android clones. Memory-wiping drugs. A robot that looks like Wall-E. An underground UFO." But, again, in this case, it works. 

And, yeah, there's a pretty snazzy RTS combat system that takes place on a semi-holographic map — but Aegis Rim's combat isn't its selling point. Rather, its endearing characters and — again — its totally, unabashedly bonkers storyline, which Siliconera's Jenni Lada called "a complicated masterpiece."

The video game spin-off is a tricky beast to tame. Still, crafting a smaller, more personal experience helmed by a secondary character was the approach that Insomniac Games took when developing the next entry in their critically beloved Spider-Man series. Their efforts resulted in Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, a full-fledged adventure that sees young up-and-comer Miles Morales assuming his first proper Spidey outing. Needless to say, it's proven wildly popular with both critics and casual gamers alike.

While some players were put off by the game's shorter campaign, critics like GamingBolt's John Cantees actually saw its length — and its tighter focus — as a pro rather than a con. Calling the game "comic book story comfort food," he wrote: "Due to the games' shorter length than 2018's Spider-Man, it spends a higher percentage of its time moving the plot forward in meaningful ways[.]"

PlayStation Universe's Garri Bagdasarov, on the other hand, examined the game through a more technical lens and noted that the PS4 version didn't differ all that much from its next-gen counterpart. In fact, the reviewer claimed that "the difference between the two when it comes to performance is marginal at best[.]"

For whatever reason, Team Ninja's Nioh 2 — a.k.a. "Yokai-Slayer Sim 2K20" — kind of flew under the radar. The original Nioh introduced players to a unique take on the "Souls-like" formula, which its 2020 sequel only further polished. Nioh 2 took its predecessor's "high risk, high reward" shtick and bumped it up to 11. Game Informer's Daniel Tack wrote, for instance, "Refining your weapons into murder machines, gaining levels and skills, and collecting buckets of loot to complete gear sets is satisfying."

Nioh 2's combat is still as punishing as it was in its 2018 precursor, but, as IGN's Mitchell Saltzman put it, "for everything Team Ninja made notably harder, they balanced it with something that makes it notably easier — if you're able to take advantage of it."

It's also worth noting that you can transform into a monstrous yokai, which is literally the raddest thing in the world. And while it may not be one of those titles that you overhear folks talking about at the local GameStop, Nioh 2 was a huge hit with critics. In other words, it deserves a second look from skeptics.

And it really is. Crash fans waiting for a direct sequel to 1998's Crash Bandicoot: Warped rejoiced when the fourth mainline entry in the long, long, long-running platformer series was announced for the PS4 on June 22, 2020. To put that into perspective, gamers who were born on the day that the third mainline entry in the Crash Bandicoot franchise dropped would have graduated college by the time its sequel arrived.

According to reviews, It's About Time manages to capture what made its precursors such iconic games — particularly, as noted by GamingBolt's Shubhankar Parijat, its level design, which Parijat called "varied and dynamic." While the reviewer praised the game's reliance upon its predecessor's tried and true mechanics, he also praised its willingness to mix things up with new mechanics. These include the Quantum Masks that Crash and his sister Coco collect in order to gain additional abilities. Parijat called these masks the "highlight of the game."

Game Revolution's Michael Leri shared a similar opinion. Lerner explained that, while Crash Bandicoot 4 "mines nostalgia," as sequels to older games often do, the game "also strikes gold in how it impeccably balances respect for the bandicoot's history and modernity."

Wrongly assumed by many to be a "Japanese Grand Theft Auto," due in no small part to their heavy focus on Japan's criminal underworld, Sega's Yakuza games are equal parts interactive Japanese crime drama, brutal third-person beat-em-up, and taxi-driving, karaoke-belting, crane machine-binging mini-game fest. They can be best summed up by the words of series producer Daisuke Sato, who called them "a series where you can do stupid things very seriously."

While the majority of the games in the series follow former Yakuza chairman Kiryu Kazuma, the seventh main entry in the long-running franchise — 2020's Yakuza: Like a Dragon — threw players into the shoes of the poofy-haired, Dragon Quest-obsessed Ichiban Kasuga. It also marked the series' first foray into turn-based combat. Though longtime fans were skeptical at first, the transition to turn-based mechanics — which was originally shown as an April Fool's Day joke — were well received, with GameSpot's Michael Higham writing that the new combat system "comes together remarkably well for Yakuza's own RPG debut." 

Comicbook.com's Evan Valentine summed up the game's critical success in general when he wrote that it possessed "amazing mechanics, compelling storytelling, and flawless gameplay."

Not long after its July 2020 release, Suckerpunch's Ghost of Tsushima gained critical notoriety for its beautiful graphics, its sensitive handling of historical and cultural motifs, and its superbly balanced combat system. The tale of Jin Sakai and his quest to rid Tsushima of the Mongal horde is a love letter to the samurai of legend — a letter happily co-signed by fans and critics.

While many critics focused on Ghost's graphics, storyline, and characters, others — like DualShockers' Michael Ruiz — noted how well-implemented its various mechanics were. Referring to the way that wind acts as a navigation system, he wrote, "I really do think it boasts of the smartest design I have seen in a video game." 

Not only is Ghost of Tsushima's critical applause a testament to the game itself, but Destructoid's Chris Carter believes it reflects positively on its developers. Carter wrote, "With Ghost of Tsushima under its belt, Sucker Punch deserves to be in the same conversation as Insomniac, Naughty Dog, and Sony Santa Monica." He added, "If this generation is to wrap up soon, it's fitting that it'll end with Tsushima: one of its most beautiful games thus far."

Developer Sony San Diego Studio has been handling The Show franchise since 2006. In that time, the decorated studio has incrementally added new game modes, improved graphics, more realistic commentary, and a heightened sense of dynamism to each annual entry in the long-running MLB series. Thanks to the studio's obsession with improving the quality of each ensuing title, their 2020 offering — MLB The Show 20 — is more than just a simple baseball game. According to critics like USgamer's Kat Bailey, it just might be "one of the best sports sims period."

With overhauled A.I. that reacts to players' statistics, an enhanced batting system that rewards accurate contact, and a slew of quality of life fixes, The Show 20 represents a masterclass in improving upon a celebrated formula while maintaining its soul. Gaming Trend's T.K. Hale described the game, which he stated is his favorite in the series, as "a culmination of all that the developers have learned over the years and are now serving it up to us with a ninety-five miles-per-hour fastball to the face."

Basically, MLB The Show 20 hit it out of the park.