PlayStation What was the best PS Studios/Sony first party game of the PS4 generation?

[Phantom Thief]

Last generation saw the ascendance of Sony's first party. While they have always variously delivered good games before, last generation, we saw them delivering system selling and generation defining hits on a consistent basis.

Which of these many great games did you personally like the best? For the purposes of this poll, I did want to keep the discussion confined specifically to their in house development teams - meaning nothing that came from collaborations with external studios. So no Death Stranding, no The Order 1886, and, yes, no Bloodborne. This is about Sony's studios only.

Absent Bloodborne, my favourite game of the ones I have mentioned is The Last of Us Part 2, which I think is genuinely one of the greatest designed games of all time. The sandbox style encounter design and marvellously designed wide linear levels are truly a step apart from most other games I have played. However, I also want to take the time to give a shout out to Ghost of Tsushima - I have never been a fan of Sucker Punch, and definitely never been a fan of Sony's glorified Ubisoft style open world design for many of their games, but Ghost of Tsushima, while being guilty of so many of those same excesses, came together to be greater than the sum of its parts for me. Everything in the game worked so well to ground me into its setting and making me truly engaged with every part of the structure and mechanics.

What about you, what is your answer for the best Sony first party game last generation, and why?

 

[Phendrift]

I’ve completed God of War and Astro Bot, and played through a good bit of Horizon but it didn’t captivate me enough.

god of war is probably my favorite. The level design and setting appeal most to me, as well as the combat. I don’t really think that Naughty Dog’s games have great level design. after playing the first three uncharteds and a good bit of TLOU, I didn’t really feel a strong desire to play their 8th gen games.

Astro Bot is also amazing, just lighter on content

 

[1upmuffin]

Astro Bot easily, phenomenal game, one of the best 3d platformers in years. It fills me with a sense of joy that few games do, some others being Mario 64 and BotW.

I think a lot of modern Sony games, while being enjoyable and well produced, miss the mark on fun and joy. Asobi and Media Molecule are luckily still around to keep that spirit alive at Sony.

 

[Lant_War]

Astro Bot is one of the most joyful platformers out there. Just pure creativity through and through while offering things no other platformer can because of its use of VR, would make me really sad if all entries from now onwards were designed for flatscreens.

 

[Theswweet]

...Where's Gravity Rush?

 

[Phantom Thief]

...Where's Gravity Rush?

I was short on poll slots lol. So "Other" will have to stand in for it, Gran Turismo Sport, Dreams, and so on.

 

[z1ggy]

Its between Bloodborne, TLOU 2 and Ghost of Tushsima...but yeah, its TLOU 2 for me.

 

[HockeyBird]

I would say Ghost of Tsushima was my favorite. It appealed to my particular interests. I still need to finish GOW 2018. I played Uncharted 4 and I thought it was fine but I was never big on the series to begin with. I played a few hours of Horizon but it just hasn't clicked with me. I need to give it a second go.

 

[Sadist]

Honestly from what I’ve played

The Last of Us Part II > God of War > Bloodborne > Spider-Man > Uncharted Lost Legacy > Uncharted A Thief’s End > Death Stranding > Horizon Zero Dawn > Until Dawn > Ratchet & Clank >>> Days Gone

 

[Imitatio]

no Bloodborne

Reported.

From those listed in the poll -- hm, hard to pick one over the other between TLG and HZD, due to them being so different from one another. I enjoyed the former a lot for the emotional plot and character interactions. Gameplay was pretty middling, I found. HZD is brilliant presentation wise and has good combat, but the story didn't really grab me.
I think I'd ultimately choose HZD over TLG, but it's close.

 

[MCeleste]

TLOU2 by a country mile. Most of Sony's big PS Studios games are well made but lacking in a certain spark, favoring enormous production values and more straightforward design. TLOU2 is the best of both worlds.

Shoutout to Gravity Rush 2 and The Last Guardian as well, both great games that definitely did have that spark.

 

[Josh5890]

For me it goes in this order.

1. The Last of Us Part 2
2. Horizon: Zero Dawn
3. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

 

[Caviar]

Spider-Man was fantastic, but not good enough to beat out my love of horror games and Ueda. I voted for The Last Guardian in the poll, but Shadow of the Colossus remake or Until Dawn would work too.

 

[Sander RX]

I really should get my hands on a cheap PS4 some time, lots of cool exclusives I'd like to play.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

It's Tearaway, there should be no further debate.

(It was released five days after the PS4, so it counts!)

Never has a game been more expertly crafted for the hardware it was originally released for. Even Astro's Playroom, while being a finely built tech demo in it's own right. Doesn't get anywhere near as special as some of the moments in this game!

Even without the clever use of the Vita's featureset in mind, it's still amazing. The fact Media Molecule went out of their way to create hundreds of Papercraft models (Some of which they let you print out and create yourself!) to be modeled in-game deserves special recognition.

(fittingly, even the main menu was modeled out with real paper!)

 

[Uniomni]

TLG.

Nothing else in their lineup was as ambitious as this one.
Ueda was the only one producing games that felt like classic material imo.
I know the western stuff gets the most eyes, but team ico was far and away the best thing they had to offer.

 

[9-Volt]

I only liked Ratchet & Clank remake, hated everything else. I really despise Sony's "cinematic action" bullshit, now they put an actual STORY in a God of War game.

Haven't tried Bloodborne though, I simply can't progress in From's timing based action games. Only one I managed to finish was DS1 and that was on Switch.

 

[Pandora]

It was Tearaway , followed by Gravity Rush and then Soul Sacrifice .Not gonna go on a rant but all of these games encapsulate for me a thing that used to make Sony special and interesting that’s missing now.

 

[Aigis]

I was short on poll slots lol. So "Other" will have to stand in for it, Gran Turismo Sport, Dreams, and so on.

You put Days Gone on the poll. You have no excuse

 

[ReddDreadtheLead]

I’d say… Ratchet and Clank. I’m a sucker for whimsical and cartoony titles.

 

[Benzychenz]

Thinking about it more I want to change my vote, I put GoW.

1. Horizon
2. God of War
3. The Last Guardian

Horizon I found super appealing. The combat is just fantastic. I love archery in games and I love fighting big monsters, so this is great. The story was very intriguing and kept me hooked to find out all the mysteries of the world.

 

[Mendinso]

I was short on poll slots lol. So "Other" will have to stand in for it, Gran Turismo Sport, Dreams, and so on.

Clearly it's missing the best game of the generation:

Spoiler

Jokes aside, I legit love Knack but I completely get why it was not included.

---

As for the topic at hand, I really, really, need to check out more first party titles. I got both Knack and Ratchet & Clank, but I've not picked up the sequel to Knack (which I legit heard was a much better game), The Last Guardian, and a few other titles that have caught my interest (be either enhanced ports from PS3/Vita or originally for PS4). Tearaway and Gravity Rush were among the ones I was most interested in. I'm hoping I can eventually pick up Spider-man at some point (but may just get the enhanced port for PS5 at this point, once I get a PS5 down the road).

 

[Jaded Alyx]

Spider-Man was the only one I finished (platinumed as well). I bought Horizon on PC after owning it on console. I got further than before but dropped it immediately when you activate the thing and a million ubisoft icons populate the map. I did like God of War but it could never seem to maintain my interest long enough. Never played Tlou2 since the first one did nothing for me.

 

[AndroidOS]

I've actually just played a lot of these - I didn't have a PS4 but got a PS5 when it was released, so I've been working my way through the PS Plus Collection. It's a close call between Horizon and God of War for me, but I think God of War clinches it - I find the combat of Horizon a bit cumbersome at times, whereas God of War's is just brilliant all round. Conversely, while they both have great stories, I found Horizon really pulled me into the world - I wanted to learn more about the world's history.

Ghost of Tsushima would be up there too, but as much as I enjoyed it I do think it got a bit same-y towards the end - I wish there was a bit more variety in the side quests.

As for some of the others: I've never really cared for The Last of Us really, and although Spiderman is good I guess the fact that I'm not really into the comics or movies means I didn't enjoy it as much as others.

 

[Beard]

The Last of Us Part II is one of the greatest games I’ve ever played.

 

[SuperFakerBros]

There are still quite a few I want to get to and play first, like The Last of Us 2 and Horizon Zero Dawn, but, out of all the ones I've played so far, I'd say God of War. Within this specific type of Sony games, I'd say it has been, so far, the only one I particularly liked. A genuinely great game and I think there's potential for the sequel to be even better

 

[xsquiddox]

Spiderman and God of War and Horizon for sure those 3 were amazing. And especially horizon for a new ip. And as a dutch dude im proud we finally have a big ip! Gaming wise.

 

[NarohDethan]

Gravity Rush 2

 

[Jencks]

The Last Guardian was the only one interesting enough for me to actually enjoy

 

[Uniomni]

The Last Guardian was the only one interesting enough for me to actually enjoy

People may disagree and feel he's higher or lower, but his studio was the only one that made me feel like they could compete with Nintendo in terms of pure game design chops.
Nobody else in that house ever made me feel that way

 

[hologram]

The Last of Us Part II, and it's not particularly close. God of War is a very good game, and Spider-Man was a lot of fun, but it's no contest IMO

 

[Sir Brienne of Tarth]

My two favorite are Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon. However, I'd say the best is tlou2. I started God of War but did not finish it and I've been meaning to give it another try.

 

[Vito]

God of War.

I enjoyed The Last of Us Part II but I can't lie and say I wasn't very disappointed by that moment in the first hour of the game. God of War in the other hand gave me nothing but joy during my entire playthrough. I'm actually getting the Platinum at the moment and I'm having a blast.

 

[Lord Azrael]

I haven't played all of them yet, but I really liked Spider-Man. Surprisingly, it's the story and characters that really impressed me (though the gameplay was fun and polished too, if a bit repetitive)

 

[Heron]

That is an absolute murderer's row of games. I was aware at the start of the generation that Sony wanted to get to the place where Nintendo was at where they had a multi-million strong fanbase eager to cheerlead for any first party game - but I never imagined they'd get their so quickly, with such high quality game releases.

For me, it's Astro Bot, because it brought back the wonder I had playing Mario 64 for the first time. It was a true next-gen experience, and the most memorable game on the list.

Next is God of War. Every facet of this game, from gameplay (and gamefeel) to pacing to writing to voice acting to graphics etc is peerless.

After that would be Horizon, and then Tsushima. Both very polished games with excellent narratives, but both disappointing use of the modern open-world template made popular by Ubisoft.

As for negatives, The Last Guardian had its moments but really didn't live up to Ico or SotC at all. And TLoU 2 was a technical and game design tour de force in service of an absolutely miserable experience and truly rotten story. It relied on you feeling a certain way about characters entering the game or the whole thing crumbles. If you're sympathetic to Abby from the start as I was - and if you never particularly liked Joel - the game structure which relies on the opposite just doesn't work, and becomes an exercise in tediously preaching to the choir.

 

[Aniki]

Of the ones i have played from that list it's Horizon Zero Dawn. I liked the combat and the world was beautiful. The one thing that puts it over the others for me is the story though. I remember how amazed i was by the world building and the story buildup until the twist was revealed. I remember how floored i was by the revelation. It was a great pay-off. I also like Aloy as a character (her constant commentary included). Some things i didn't like were how static the world felt. It felt somewhat archaic compared to BotW. And many of the characters felt flat and were not very interesting to interact with. Can't wait for the sequel.

Spider-Man, God of War and The Last Guardian were also all excellent. I was not a big fan of Playstation's first party games before last gen but now i'm invested in quite a few of their games.

 

[daiquiri]

I came in to wax lyrical about Bloodborne and then actually read the OP.

I didn't play any of the games listed (didn't vote) but I do own The Last Guardian and keep meaning to dip in. It looks like the perfect stave off work fear on a Sunday game.