Since its release back in 2013, the PS4 line-up of consoles has become the hardware to own in the gaming world.
Having come hurtling off the starting line with an excellent launch
proposition, Sony kept the momentum going with exclusive release after
exclusive release, creating a console ecosystem of must-have games to
sell its hardware.
2017 has been a particularly strong year for gaming in general, but
Sony’s PlayStation 4 has excelled in delivering experiences you can’t
get elsewhere too. From ultra-violent first-person shooters intricately
detailed open-world adventures, here’s what reckon are the best releases
of 2017.
Horizon: Zero Dawn: £29.99, Amazon
The first truly next gen-game for PS4 and PS4 Pro,
Horizon: Zero Dawn
proved the potential of 4K visuals and HDR gaming. It’s a stunning
open-world adventure that’s more than just pretty graphics, with great
combat and a thoughtful, emotional story, which all creates one of the
most memorable experiences of the year. It was a surprise – developer
Guerilla Games is most known for its shooter series,
Killzone, and the pivot to the open-world genre could’ve proved difficult. However, the studio pulls it off amazingly well and
Horizon is a fabulous exclusive PS4 experience, whether you’re playing on base hardware or the upgraded console.
Buy now
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus: £19.99, Amazon
A superlative narrative-driven shooter, the follow-up to 2014’s
Wolfenstein: The New Order
is a rollercoaster ride of crazy proportions. Developer MachineGames
ups the ante considerably in this sequel, which is bigger, braver and
better in every respect. Throughout its 10- to 12-hour campaign you’ll
witness things you’ve never seen before in a game, and all of it serves
the incredibly well-written plot, which sees multiple characters
fighting it out against Nazi oppression. It feels like a relevant take
on today’s political climate, and it’s all compounded with ultra-violent
FPS gameplay. An absurd, unforgettable must-play.
Buy now
Prey: £9.99, Amazon
Immersive sims are hard to come by nowadays but developer Arkane is
at the forefront of the genre. Off the back of last year’s immense
Dishonored 2,
Prey is a similar first-person game in a very different setting. Sacking off the steampunk world of
Dishonored for something more sci-fi,
Prey
heads to space and lets you free within a persistently evolving space
station. After an alien outbreak you have to uncover the mysteries
surrounding the disaster, and the game offers up tons of freedom to play
your way and experiment with the myriad systems at your disposal. It’s
full of inventive ideas and surprises that come about because of your
actions, and it’s a testament to games about agency.
Buy now
Resident Evil 7 Biohazard: £15, Amazon
Terrifying from the off,
Resident Evil 7 is a gruesome and macabre first-person horror experience. Making full use of
PSVR,
too, it’s a game that toys with your fears as it leads you through its
incredibly detailed and unsettling, unpleasant locations. With a family
of actual mad men chasing after you,
Resident Evil 7 is packed
full of terrifying encounters as you tip-toe around a ranch in the
middle of the Deep South. Its first-person perspective makes for an even
more claustrophobic horror game, and it’s a return to form for the
series after a couple of lacklustre, more action-rooted efforts in the
last few years.
Buy now
Destiny 2: £28.99, Amazon
The massively anticipated sequel to the original,
Destiny 2
makes good on its promise of improving pretty much everything that was
iffy about the first game. The gunplay is still the best in the
business, with a satisfying feedback loop that makes every new gun feel
like a discovery, and there’s a sense of power to each of the game’s
individual and unique classes that makes you feel like a complete
badass. A better story, bigger and more impressive set-pieces, and an
all-round better progression system make
Destiny 2 one of the most content-rich multiplayer shooters out there – it’ll likely keep you entertained for dozens of hours.
Buy now
Assassin’s Creed: Origins: £39.99, Game
After two years off, Ubisoft returned in 2017 with
Assassin’s Creed: Origins.
The brief pause on the series gave the studio time to rework what had
become dull and repetitive about this franchise. Following on from
2015’s poorly received
Syndicate,
Origins is a return
to form in almost every way. Not just artistically – although the truly
overwhelmingly large world of ancient Egypt is an absolute treat – but
in terms of gameplay too. It’s a better structured game with more
cohesive writing and a plot that makes sense this time around.
Origins is a game to sink 40-plus hours into over Christmas – and you get to climb the pyramids. What more can you ask for?
Buy now
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider: £9.99, Amazon
Another of Arkane’s games on the list,
Death of the Outsider is a fantastic expansion to last year’s
Dishonored 2. With a new protagonist, Billy Lurke,
Death of the Outsider
takes players to all new locations within its colourful, vibrant yet
still miserable world. It thrives off of the same attention to detail as
its predecessor, delivering tons of gameplay options that encourage
experimentation and invite multiple replays. It’s a great send-off to a
series that defines the immersive sim genre.
Buy now
Little Nightmares: £24.86, Amazon
Little Nightmares is a big delight. With an unforgettable
art style and a wonderfully dark, foreboding sense of dread, this little
adventure delivers more than its fair share of memorable moments. It’s
consistently creepy (and often terrifying) as you skulk around its
beautifully detailed and subdued locations. There are a couple of
standout moments in the adventure that are up there with the best of
short, bitesize indie experiences. Like
Limbo and
Inside before it,
Little Nightmares proves that you don’t need huge budgets to make a big impact.
Buy now
Persona 5: £41.82, Amazon
One of the best J-RPGs in years,
Persona 5 is one of the
most ostentatious PS4 games you can play on PS4. It’s defined by a
stunning block colour-art style that pops with an insane level of detail
in every single frame. From its beautiful dungeons to the schoolground,
to the characters themselves, all the way to the individual menu
screens,
Persona 5 is an artistic masterpiece. It helps that
its plot and combat are some of the most inventive in the business, too,
delivering a huge, bold role playing game from start to finish. It’s by
far the longest game on the list, too, and could easily keep you
entertained for upwards of 70 hours.
Buy now
Nioh: £24.99, Amazon
By far the toughest and most challenging game on this list,
Nioh takes cues from the cult classic
Dark Souls
and its sequels to deliver a punishing romp through ancient Japan. It’s
full of mystery and magic, and comes armed with a best-in-class combat
system that hands a lot of customisable control to the player. Whichever
style you choose to play,
Nioh will push your patience to its
limits, but the euphoria of coming out on top once you’ve bested the
latest boss is without parallel. Just prepare to die, a lot.
Buy now
The Verdict: PS4 games of 2017
With hours and hours of great adventuring, interesting quests, an
intriguing story and undoubtedly the best graphics in the business,
Horizon: Zero Dawn
delivers an experience you can’t play anywhere else. It’s one of the
great exclusives of the generation, and will entertain you from its
humble start to its climactic finale.
IndyBest product reviews are unbiased, independent advice you can
trust. On some occasions, we earn revenue if you click the links and
buy the products, but we never allow this to bias our coverage. The
reviews are compiled through a mix of expert opinion and real-world
testing.
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