20 Best Looking PS4 Games

The Lost Legacy is a standalone expansion in the Uncharted series and the first Uncharted game without Nathan Drake. You play treasure hunter Chloe Frazer across towns, ruins and temples in the Western Ghats of India, in bigger and more open areas than earlier games in the series. The cast came back for voice and motion capture, with Nadine and Sam Drake joining Chloe. It came out in August 2017, and critics gave it generally favorable reviews.

Players tend to name it in the same breath as Uncharted 4, which sits much higher on this list. If you finished Nate's last adventure and wanted more of that look, this is where to find it. It is also short enough to finish over a long weekend.

Ragnarök came out on November 9, 2022, on both the PS4 and the PS5, the first God of War released across two console generations. It is the sequel to 2018's God of War, with Kratos and a teenage Atreus as they prepare for the battle that will end the world. The camera never cuts away and there are no loading screens. It sold 5.1 million units in its first week, the fastest first-party launch week in PlayStation history. Critics praised its storytelling and its visuals.

Players who ran it on an original PS4 remember the console working very hard to keep up. It is worth the noise. Give your old PS4 some air before you start.

The Phantom Pain was Hideo Kojima's final work at Konami and the ninth main game in the Metal Gear series. It came out on September 1, 2015, on old and new consoles at once. Snake gets large open world maps in place of the narrow corridors of the older games, with a real-time day and night cycle and weather that changes how well enemies see and hear you. Critics praised its gameplay and its graphics, and it is considered one of the greatest video games ever made.

Players often put it right next to Uncharted 4 when they pick the best looking PS4 games. It also came out on the PS3, so the PS4 version is the one to play.

Bloodborne is an action RPG set in Yharnam, a Victorian-era inspired city whose people are sick with a disease carried in the blood. Director Hidetaka Miyazaki wanted everything to be as detailed as possible and felt a game like this was only possible on eighth generation hardware. The horror borrows from H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Critics praised its atmosphere and its interconnected world design, and some criticized its performance at launch, which later updates improved.

The players who pick it are clear that the art wins them over more than the raw power does. Expect gaslit streets and church spires in place of sunsets. Bloodborne does not look real, and that is the point.

Ghost of Tsushima puts you in the armor of Jin Sakai, a samurai defending Tsushima Island during the first Mongol invasion of Japan. Sucker Punch visited the island twice to get its culture and history right, and the team drew on samurai cinema, particularly films directed by Akira Kurosawa. It came out on the PS4 in July 2020, near the end of the console's life. It had sold over 13 million units by September 2024.

Players name it in the same breath as Ragnarök when they talk about how far the PS4 went at the very end. Few open worlds use color like this one. Stop at the top of a hill now and then.

Marvel's Spider-Man was the first licensed game by Insomniac in its then-22-year history, and development took approximately four years. It tells an original story in which Peter Parker, a 23-year-old research assistant, faces Mister Negative and a deadly virus while dealing with his own life. It came out on the PS4 on September 7, 2018. Critics praised its graphics and its web-swinging, and a remastered version followed on the PS5 in November 2020.

Players rate it alongside Sony's other big exclusives of the generation. The city is the star here. The best way to see it is from the top of a skyscraper, just before you jump off.

Death Stranding is the first game from Kojima Productions after their split from Konami in 2015. You play Sam Porter Bridges, played by Norman Reedus, a courier carrying supplies to isolated colonies across a post-apocalyptic United States. The game features actors Mads Mikkelsen and Léa Seydoux, plus the likenesses of film directors Guillermo del Toro and Nicolas Winding Refn. It was first released for the PS4 in November 2019, and critics praised its visuals and its voice acting.

The players who pick it do so without a second thought. Most of the game is spent crossing open land on foot, so it helps that the land looks this good. Cutscenes are where the faces shine.

Star Wars Battlefront came out in November 2015 for the PS4 and other systems. Critics praised its visuals and its high production values and criticized its lack of content at launch. It still sold more than 14 million copies worldwide. Space maps only arrived later through downloadable packs, the Death Star in September 2016 and Scarif, from the film Rogue One, that December. A sequel, Star Wars Battlefront II, was released on November 17, 2017.

Players often name it alongside Batman: Arkham Knight. For a shooter built on the films, looking like the films is most of the job.

The Last of Us Remastered brought Naughty Dog's 2013 PS3 game to the PS4 in 2014. It runs at a 1080p resolution with higher resolution character models, improved shadows and lighting, upgraded textures and 60 frames per second. It also includes Left Behind, a single-player campaign following Ellie and her best friend Riley. Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson portrayed Joel and Ellie through voice and motion capture, and Gustavo Santaolalla composed the score. The game sold 17 million by April 2018.

Not every player agrees it belongs here, and some say it looks weaker next to newer PS4 games. It started life on the PS3, so that is fair. The faces still carry it.

Detroit: Become Human is an adventure game developed by Quantic Dream, set in a near-future Detroit where androids serve humans. You follow three android protagonists, Kara, Connor and Markus, through branching storylines and multiple endings. It grew out of the studio's 2012 technology demonstration Kara. To research the setting, the developers visited Detroit. Writer and director David Cage completed the script in over two years. It was released for the PS4 in May 2018 and is Quantic Dream's best-selling game, at 15 million units by January 2026.

Players say it comes closer to looking like a film than almost anything else on the PS4. If faces are what you care about, start here.

The Witcher 3 follows Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter searching for his adopted daughter, Ciri, through a fantasy world based on Slavic folklore. CD Projekt Red built it on the REDengine 3 over three and a half years. It came out on the PS4 in May 2015, and the music was performed by the Brandenburg State Orchestra. It holds more than 200 game of the year awards and had sold over 65 million units by May 2026. Two expansions followed to critical acclaim, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine.

Players are quick to call it beautiful. It is a huge world, and it looks good from one end to the other.

Killzone: Shadow Fall was released on 15 November 2013 as a launch title for the PS4 in North America. It introduced a new in-house game engine called Decima. Tyler Bates and electronica artist Lorn composed the music, which favors ambient soundscapes and electronica over orchestral arrangements. By January 2014 it had sold over 2.1 million copies, the first PS4 game to pass the million mark. Critics also criticized its lack of innovation.

Players who were there at launch remember it blowing them away, story aside. A day-one game has no business looking this good. It is a fine way to see where the PS4 started.

The Last of Us Part II is set four years after the first game. Ellie sets out in revenge for Joel's murder, and the story also follows Abby, a soldier caught up in a conflict between her militia and a religious cult. Neil Druckmann returned as creative director, co-writing the story with Halley Gross. The developers pushed the PS4's technical capabilities, and development cost around US$220 million. It came out in June 2020 and became the fastest-selling PS4 exclusive, with over four million units sold in its release weekend.

Players most often name it next to Red Dead Redemption 2. It came out near the end of the PS4's life, and it shows in every scene.

Driveclub was announced at the PS4 press conference on 20 February 2013 and, after several delays, came out worldwide in October 2014. Critics praised the photorealistic visuals and the sound design and criticized the online play and the inconsistent AI. The weather feature was delayed up to two months after launch to include every improvement the developers wanted. A January 2015 patch added Japan. Evolution Studios kept going with 18 months of free content updates, and by July 2015 the game had sold 2 million copies.

Players remember the weather and the lighting most of all. Pick a track at dawn, add rain and drive.

Second Son is the third installment in the Infamous series, a standalone sequel to 2011's Infamous 2. You play Delsin Rowe, who has just discovered his superhuman power in a locked-down Seattle and fights back against the Department of Unified Protection. Sucker Punch was very involved with the development of the PS4 itself and set the game in its hometown of Seattle. It runs at 1080p at 30 frames per second. The studio said that graphical quality was possible because the PS4 was powerful and easy to use. It sold over a million units within nine days.

Players name it with Killzone: Shadow Fall as the prettiest of the early PS4 games. The neon and smoke powers against wet streets still look sharp.

The Order: 1886 is set in a Victorian-era London where people use advanced technology, and you play a member of an elite order of knights in a centuries-old war. The developer adopted a 2.40:1 aspect ratio to make it more cinematic. It is single-player only and runs at 30 FPS. It came out on February 20, 2015, and debuted at No. 1 in the UK retail software sales chart. Reviews were mixed. Critics praised the production value and the graphics, and they criticized the short length.

Plenty of players think nothing else on the PS4 touches it. It is a short game, so you can see all of it in a weekend.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a prequel to the 2010 game Red Dead Redemption, following outlaw Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang on the run across America. Development lasted over eight years, and Rockstar pulled all of its studios into one large team. It was Rockstar's first game built specifically for eighth-generation consoles, after the studio tested their technical capabilities while porting Grand Theft Auto V. It came out for the PS4 in October 2018 and made US$725 million in its opening weekend. It went on to win more than 175 Game of the Year awards.

Players single out the lighting above everything else, especially the way it plays with fog and weather. Go riding at dawn when the mist is still out.

A Thief's End sends a retired Nathan Drake back into the world of thieves, after a fabled pirate treasure with his brother Sam. It was Naughty Dog's first game developed specifically for the PS4, and the team took advantage of the hardware to process larger dynamic environments. Development began in 2011 under creative director Amy Hennig. In 2014 she and game director Justin Richmond left, and Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley replaced them. It came out in May 2016, and with over 18 million copies sold it is the highest-selling Uncharted game.

Players praise its faces and its small details more than anything. Stop and look at a face in any cutscene to see why.

Horizon Zero Dawn is set in a post-apocalyptic United States where large robotic machines dominate the Earth and humans live in primitive tribes. You play Aloy, a young machine hunter. It was Guerrilla Games' first new intellectual property since Killzone in 2004, and director Mathijs de Jonge considered it the riskiest idea among those pitched. It runs on Decima, the engine developed for Killzone: Shadow Fall. Anthropologists helped work out how the world decayed. It came out on the PS4 in February 2017 and has sold over 24 million units.

Players remember their PS4 fan roaring the whole time they played. Many of them also find the human faces stiff next to the machines. With mountains and robot dinosaurs this pretty, that is easy to forgive.

God of War moved the series from Greek mythology to Norse, in a mythical ancient Scandinavia. An older and more seasoned Kratos travels with his son Atreus and fights with a magical battle axe, the Leviathan Axe, instead of his signature double-chained blades. Creative director Cory Barlog described it as a reimagining of the franchise. It was released for the PS4 in April 2018 and sold more than five million copies within a month. By November 2022 it had sold 23 million, the best-selling game in the series. Critics praised its art direction and graphics as well as its story, and numerous outlets named it Game of the Year.

Players most often weigh it against Uncharted 4, and it is a close call every time. In the end it edged out the next game on this list by the smallest of margins.