Top 10 PS5 Games to Play 2021

Top 10 PlayStation 5 games 2021

The PlayStation 5 is still young as far as consoles go - and still very hard to get hold of, although stock is starting to come through a little more reliably now. But it already has a burgeoning list of terrific games to try. Of course, it will also play almost the entire PS4 back catalogue via backwards compatibility, so even at this early stage you are overwhelmed with choice. To help you narrow that particular choice down, head over to our best PS4 games list, which has some cracking recommendations, from the classic to the unsung.

For this list, we're focusing purely on actual PS5 games, which means games that are exclusive to the console (of which there are only a couple at present, like Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart), cross-generational releases that launch on PS4 at the same time (like Hitman 3), and earlier PS4 games that have been updated with significant PS5-only patches (like Control: Ultimate Edition). As the machine is so young, we've restricted ourselves to just 13 picks, but you can expect this list to grow quickly as the library for Sony's latest machine is fleshed out.

Demon's Souls

Link: https://amzn.to/3vQd9QI

The debate about From Software's best will rage on until the last embers have died out, but there's no arguing which game started it all. 2009's Demon's Souls not only birthed a genre but raised the bar on murky video game adventures, gifting us with deep lore scratched into the stonework, exquisite combat that has you clanking iron against armour and atmosphere that's to die for.

To see all that resurrected and refined on PlayStation 5 is quite the thing, and in so many ways it's the ideal launch game - and ideal accompaniment when you first pick up your PS5. Here's a classic whose heritage and excellence is undoubted, delivered with searing fidelity thanks to Bluepoint's exhaustive makeover. Is the original FromSoft game the best one? The debate will never be settled, but for now this is the most impressive one you can currently play.

Spider-Man Miles Morales

Link: https://amzn.to/3ChJTVs

What's better than a big triple-A blockbuster? A not-so-big triple-A blockbuster, it turns out. Like Uncharted spin-off The Lost Legacy, Insomniac's Spider-Man: Miles Morales is an improvement on the original as it trims down so much of the fat found in modern big-budget games, delivering an open world adventure that's as tight and trim as a superhero's suit.

It helps that Miles Morales has been elevated to a starring role, and - sorry dear Peter Parker - he lifts the whole thing, his gangly nerviness as he learns those silken ropes the perfect foil as you clumsily bound around Harlem and Manhattan. Oh, and we should probably mention this thing is absolutely gorgeous on PlayStation 5 - a blockbuster spectacle for a blockbuster machine.

Control Ultimate Edition

Link: https://amzn.to/3Gpo6Oh

Cor, what's that font? And where do you get those up-lighters? And is that a monstera, skulking in a sweet concrete flower bed? Control is special. It's a smart and fast-paced action game from the people behind Max Payne, but it's also a whole world stuffed into a beautiful, terrifying, mid-century modern office building. The lighting's by Kubrick, the floors are by Harry Gesner. You get to chuck trash cans around with your mind, blast zombies with a gun that transforms into a different kind of gun, and even uncover a room filled with Post-it notes.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

The best thing about Control is that it knows when to take itself seriously, such as with the perfect animation for a projectile hitting a filing cabinet, and when to enjoy the campy nonsense, which is generally where the plot and world-building come in. With a sweet upgrade for the PS5, this game has never looked better.

God Of War

link: https://amzn.to/3Gtw2hm

Sony sometimes seems so in love with Oscar-bait misery that you can forget how much fun even its more sombre games can be. Is God of War sombre? It has a protagonist grappling with fatherhood and a bit of a mid-life crisis, certainly, but he also makes friends with giant snakes and at one point gets to punch Faraday from Lost through a small mountain.

It's beautiful stuff - which now, thanks to an update, runs at a silky 60 frames per second on PS5 - a Metroidvania wrapped in luxurious mythical detailing, and powered by a wonderfully brutal bit of theatre whenever you lob your axe into someone and then god-brain it back into your hand, as everybody around you erupts into fountains of hot Lucozade. Not bad, Sony, but can we have another Sly Cooper soon?

WRC 9

Link: https://amzn.to/3pMVA30

The quality of the WRC series might come as a surprise to more casual racing game fans, and understandably so - having coasted along under the watch of the ever-industrious bunch at Milestone, not much was expected when the officially licensed rally series shifted over to upstarts Kylotonn with WRC 5. What's happened since then, though, has been nothing short of remarkable.

From a knowingly arcade initial offering, the series has evolved into a hard-edged take on what's a somewhat underappreciated golden age for the sport, with cars as powerful and awe-inspiring as those seen in the Group B heyday. WRC 9 is the culmination of all that, and is the measure of - perhaps even superior to - Dirt Rally 2.0 when it comes to off-road kicks. The PS5 version, with its brilliant use of the DualSense controller's haptics and adaptive triggers combined with a 60fps frame-rate, simply seals the deal.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Link: https://amzn.to/3jJrSrY

Personality is the order of the day with Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, as it always is when Insomniac's the team behind things. Digital Foundry will rightly point to the technical marvels of its portals - which are themselves ray-traced to perfection - but what matters as much as the method is the effect.

Rift Apart is a breezy game, a light game. It has verve and snap and panache and all that but it's just such a joy to be in, above all. It's actually quite a humble PS2 game at its core, wrapped in an extraordinarily expensive jacket, and in many ways that's all you could possibly want from a Ratchet and Clank game coming out on a PS5. Shoot things, smash things, collect things, scoot about and get whipped around corners and along rollercoasters at warp speed. And the story, by the way, which introduces the all-new, all-empowered Rivet and Kit, is as kindhearted as any. What a treat.

Hitman 3

Link: https://amzn.to/3vSuCIn

Less about sneaking your way through enemy-filled bases and more about planning the perfect assassination in a Groundhog Day-style framework, the modern Hitman games have built up a well-deserved and devoted audience over the years.

Even if you're late to the party, the third game is the best place to start. Hitman 3 features some of the most varied and inventive levels in the series - one moment pushing through crowds in a warehouse-sized nightclub, solving a murder mystery in an English mansion the next - and the ability to import levels from previous games you've purchased (chances are you already own the original through PS Plus) makes it feel less of a sequel and more of a best of package.

On next-gen consoles is where Hitman 3 shines thanks to those all-important load times. It's a rare series where experimentation through save scumming - the act of reloading after you attempt something risky, like 'subtly' dropping a chandelier on your target and seeing if you can get away with it - is actively encouraged, and knowing you can do so in a matter of seconds feels like just the task SSDs were made for.

Fortnite

Link: https://amzn.to/3jLbc38

Recently, Fortnite hosted a short film festival, in which you could pull up and lob tomatoes at a screen showing Creature Comforts while the Predator mimed giving and receiving pizza just out of shot. This is a weird game, but it increasingly seems to be a classic: a perfect hangout space with a very nippy Battle Royale stuck in the middle of it.

And with its next-gen upgrade, it's genuinely beautiful too, great lighting effects and a lovely draw distance blending with an art style that turned out to be the secret weapon. This is a game where anything goes, and nothing looks out of place. Just ask the Predator.

Returnal

Link: https://amzn.to/2ZxMQTy

Playing through Returnal you will wonder, at some point, whether Returnal wants you to keep playing it at all. The best word for it is hostile: a hostile planet, a hostile (or at least inscrutable) UI, a hostile core to its mechanical design. This is a rock-hard bullet-hell rougelite - you die a lot, and when you do you have to start it all over again.

The upside of that, though, is how good it feels to progress, to triumph over a game that just seems to absolutely hate you. Successfully releasing yourself from a parasite, or cleansing a nightmarish malfunction, or vanquishing that one boss, is heavenly. Some of the combat is euphoric. Some of the guns are magic. Some of the "biomes" you visit - the muggy, mecha-foggy third is an all-timer - are just sensational. It's an unholy marriage, ultimately, of old-school arcade hardcore and new-school sci-fi action. Happy marriage or not, it's something you have to experience.

Hades

Link: https://amzn.to/3jLbaID

It's not that unusual for one game to sweep every game of the year award going, but it is quite unusual when it's a smaller-scale indie production - as happened with Supergiant Games' Hades in 2020. Carefully honed during a long early access period, this stunning, sophisticated and downright sexy dungeon crawler cast a spell on everyone who played it - and now it's available on PS5.

As Hades' son Zagreus, you must try to escape the underworld over and over again, facing randomised challenges - and bonuses - as you go. The action is fantastically well balanced and the character builds are deep and interesting, as is the seemingly bottomless well of story you experience piecemeal each time you progress through the game. It's a modern classic.

Deathloop

Link: https://amzn.to/3bf06yH

One of the most unlikely console exclusives in a while, and not just because the company that made it was recently acquired by Xbox. This is, on paper, rarefied stuff. It's an immersive sim made by the masters of this highly specialised genre at Arkane Lyon: a genre beloved by those in the know but seldom a big seller, which offers the player a tremendous amount of freedom of action within the tight confines of a claustrophobic and intense action game. Deathloop hardly simplifies the pitch with its head-spinning time loop conceit and strange world of hedonistic, immortal, sci-fi super-assassins trapped in a kitschy 1970s setting. It's a blend of Dishonored, Hitman, Austin Powers and Groundhog Day.

And yet it just works, thanks to brilliant design that refines Arkane's previous, already very sophisticated template while increasing its accessibility and ramping up the fun factor. The outrageously cool art direction goes a long way, and the icing on the cake is the asymmetrical multiplayer endgame, inspired by Dark Souls, in which players can invade others' games and attempt to assassinate them while they play.

PlayStation 5 Accessories

Dualsense Charging station PlayStation 5

Link: https://amzn.to/3vYQu4Y

Dualsense Wireless Controller Black

Link: https://amzn.to/3pMYK6S

Dualsense Wireless controller Red

Link: https://amzn.to/3nyVXM2

Pulse 3d Wireless Headset for PlayStation 5

Link: https://amzn.to/3ElpgrX

Bagpack for PlayStation 5

Link: https://amzn.to/3nDl53Y

Skin for PS5