It’s been a fantastic year for gaming, but the same cannot be said for the best PS4 games of 2023. With few able to compete against the best of this year, what are your top picks?
There have been many great games released for 2023, but the PS4 has been rather lackluster this year. As we approach the end of 2023, I realized just how little I was able to play due to only having the PS4 in my arsenal. One PS5 purchase later, the gates opened and filled me with enough enjoyment and satisfaction to make 2023 a great year for gaming. But what happened to the older generation?
Will the PS4 have another year under its belt for video games, or is 2023 the final year this console generation had under the spotlight? Only time will tell, but these are our top five PS4 games released in 2023.
Top 5 PS4 games released in 2023
The slow shift from the PS4 to the PS5 has never been more evident than this year’s releases. With few entries that stand above the pack as the best of the best this year, it’s been a simple year for the PS4. While life across the platform pond has more options when it comes to fantastic video game releases of 2023, the PS4 is lacking.
It is shown best in my purchases where I’ve spent more in the last month biting the bullet with the PS5 than the accumulated total of PS4 games I purchased throughout the entire year. With that in mind, these are my top five PS4 games of 2023, and they likely won’t surprise anyone, but they may hurt a few people.
Lies of P
Lies of P is, in my opinion, the best Soulslike game to come out in recent years. While others come close to FromSoftware’s standards, like Lunacid and Remnant 2, Lies of P is a beautifully morbid and twisted tale that shows the more real story of Pinocchio rather than the Disney version most of us have seen (aside from that horrifying donkey scene). Lies of P easily feels like it could pass as a FromSoftware entry into their Dark Souls series or as a standalone product just like Bloodborne.
The visuals are stunning, and the character models often put me in awe. I’m a massive fan of dark, dystopian tales, and Lies of P fits the brief of a synthetic rebellion that swept through civilization and created powerful anatomical abominations. Lies of P offers moments to breathe in the bottomless pit of boss arenas with levels that you can freely explore, farm ergo, and master different gameplay mechanics.
There is a lot of experimentation with this Soulslike. Crafting your own kind of weapon using the various handles and blades you find along the way to suit your playstyle is a fantastic touch and one I wish Dark Souls had.
Resident Evil 4 Remake
The masters of the remake returned this year for Resident Evil 4 Remake. Being the only game in the horror franchise that I hadn’t played (due to its original tank control), I was excited and thrilled to see that the hype for this game was accurate for once. As someone who is quite known to my circle of friends and acquaintances to be an incredibly critical and picky person, I didn’t trust the popular opinion that RE4 is the best in the franchise. However, upon playing this game, I see that it truly is the perfect survival horror game.
Resident Evil 4 has a ton of challenging moments (especially if you play on hard difficulty), but it remains entertaining from the moment you hit New Game. Although it is linear, you have a lot of freedom in how you want to play the game. If you are someone who enjoys the RPG elements of completing quests, you can focus on the Merchant’s job assignments. For those who love flat-out action-packed adventures, then exploring each area, picking up the ammo, breaking every crate in sight, and spending that coin on the devastating rocket launcher.
I’ve never viewed the Resident Evil series as scary aside from the seventh game, but RE4 added that much-needed layer of horror in its remake. It included the new enemy Brute and added realism to iconic characters like the Chainsaw Villager with blood on his clothes and his piercing wide eyes seen through the sack on his head.
Amnesia: The Bunker
I’ll say it again: Amnesia is a masterclass of horror that makes you paranoid. There is nothing more Lovecraftian than the fear of the unknown, and Amnesia hits this time and time again. The Bunker is quite different from previous Amnesia entries, but it holds what The Dark Descent did best—making you terrified of the dark.
While The Bunker removed the ability to see in the darkness and the core sanity mechanic often used in games made by Frictional, The Bunker added a winding flashlight mechanic that was key to your survival but also detrimental due to its sound.
In my opinion, Frictional Games are best at storytelling through notes. The journal entries you pick up throughout this short, nightmarish adventure detail upcoming events that you are inevitably going to witness. Reading the cursed song that the soldiers sang as they grew paranoid and mad from being trapped in the bunker and then seeing the song come to life and the shadowy hallucinations of the lost soldiers in the bottomless pit, trapped for eternity, starved from light and life was horrifying.
The Bunker is set at a time of war where paranoia filled the walls that you could almost hear screaming at you. But it turns out that the screams belonged to a monster. A monster that is on your tail from beginning until end, and you are trapped down there with it. Amnesia: The Bunker is like the modern-day version of the Terminator or a display of cat and mouse—but in this case, you’re the mouse.
Hogwarts Legacy
Hogwarts Legacy is a great game, don’t get me wrong. It’s a valid but bold claim and one that I stand behind as a non-binary person. If you ignore everything you know about JK Rowling (and I mean everything), and this wizarding world being her idea, Hogwarts Legacy is simply just a fun game. While I grew up on the iconic PS1 Harry Potter games that cannot be beaten, Hogwarts Legacy is a beautiful, vast open world that stays faithful to its source material.
While I am not a huge fan of open-world games outside of the few that made an impact on me, like Assassin’s Creed II, Mass Effect, and Red Dead Redemption, Hogwarts Legacy was a welcoming sight for someone as picky as me.
Hogwarts Legacy offered multiple paths, storylines, characters to align yourself to, and quirky creatures to tame and befriend. Although Ravenclaw was done a bit dirty in the house differences, the game included replayability and seasonal quests that would vanish if you failed to complete them (reappearing only in the post-game).
There was something for everyone in Hogwarts Legacy. The story didn’t need to be complex enough to engage the gamer, but in the case of “all style, no substance,” Hogwarts Legacy finally offered a game that included both alike. The puzzles and ability to explore everywhere easily made me lose track of time, similar to playing a cozy game. The fighting is fluid and satisfying, although I wish you could have actually become a villain in Hogwarts Legacy with some kind of mortality system implemented.
My only real problem with this game is the lack of rewards on offer through the various collectible items like chests and dungeons. It’s like Avalanche Software learned about cosmetic items being popular at the time of making Hogwarts Legacy and made sure that this was the only reward available in the game (regardless of the quest you completed).
Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon
There is nothing cooler than anime. I am a bit biased in my judgment, I know, but Armored Core 6 takes on the popular mecha anime feel and attaches a rugged, dystopian aesthetic for the hardcore FromSoftware fans to enjoy. Armored Core 6 is a damn cool game and one that challenges even the best Dark Souls veterans. While I am no vet myself, nothing was stopping me from picking up the controller and trying this game out for myself.
I’ve grown fond of and inspired by FromSoftware’s games so much that I always look forward to their next release. Armored Core 6 is another name to add to the list of FromSoftware bangers. Unlike Dark Souls, Armored Core 6 offers plenty of replayability after your first playthrough. You can repeat missions with ease to get a better runtime, practice different gear and weapons, and master new playstyles to defeat the upcoming boss.
Yes, Armored Core 6 is difficult, and this cannot be changed, but there is nothing quite as satisfying as defeating one of FromSoftware’s creations. Get ready to pose as the next anime protagonist in Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, an iconic, challenging, and cutthroat game that will either leave you rocking in the corner, writhing in pain from a single boss, or doing the robot dance when that S rank hits your screen.
