Best PS5 Games 2021: Top PlayStation 5 games ranked

While there are thousands of games that can be played on PS5 through PS5 backward compatibility, a lot less are specifically designed for Sony’s newest powerhouse. We’ve rounded up the very best games you can play on PS5 today and split them up by genre so that you can easily browse what interests you most. From RPGs to multiplayer games and free-to-play, we’ve got you covered.

For the purposes of this list, we’ve tried to stick with newly released games with PS5 versions or games that have been updated to take advantage of its extra power. Rest assured, it’s not an exhaustive list of everything available on the system right now. For that, you’ll want to check out the best PS4 games. As more games are released in the coming months, we’ll branch out and add more categories.

Best PS5 RPGs

Role-playing games have stood the test of time and are continually some of the most popular on the market. There aren’t a ton of RPGs designed for PS5 at the moment, but the few that are are well worth your time. And if that isn’t enough for you, the PS4 has a huge back catalog of RPGs to peruse.

Demon’s Souls

Originally developed by FromSoftware, Demon’s Souls was the 2009 precursor to Dark Souls, which would go on to jumpstart an entire genre of Souls-likes. Set in the Kingdom of Boletaria, players embark on a journey to defeat King Allant, who has awakened an ancient evil and its demon army. As you can expect, the combat in Demon’s Souls is extremely challenging, and there are no difficulty settings to turn it down. You “git gud” or you die trying. Over and over and over.

Bluepoint completely remade Demon’s Souls as a PS5 launch title, and the attention to detail is immediately apparent. While staying true to the original vision, its graphics are overhauled to meet today’s standards. With some quality-of-life fixes and small changes here and there, Bluepoint ensured it left any old jank in the past. What remains is an excellent remake, possibly one of the greatest ever done. It’s more action-RPG than a straight-up RPG, but it still fits the bill.

Starting out as an action/adventure stealth series, Assassin’s Creed has morphed into a full-blown RPG with recent entries like Origins and Odyssey. Its latest mainline game, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, doubles down even further and lets players live out their Viking fantasies in England during the Dark Ages. With constant strife ravaging Norway, our hero sets sail for the shores of England, but its current king and citizens are none too kind to these foreigners.

Players have the choice between a male or female Eivor, both of which can be customized with different tattoos and hairstyles. Like its predecessors, Valhalla allows players to equip a bevy of weapons, including the option to dual-wield two shields. There is also a large, branching skill tree and over a dozen abilities to unlock. No two Eivor’s will be the same, so personalize them to your playstyle and start raiding.

The Nioh Collection contains remastered editions of both the first and second game in the action-RPG series. Nioh follows an Irish samurai in Japan during the 1600s (though a fictionalized fantasy version of it), with gameplay similar to that of Dark Souls. Nioh 2 is a prequel that takes place during the late 1500s starring a half-yokai, a Japanese demon, working to take down the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Both games support 4K resolution at an incredible 120FPS, some of the very few titles that support such high frame rates. Each also comes with all major DLC, a total of six expansions. Like other games being updated for PS5, they also support DualSense features like haptic feedback and adaptive triggers.

When you think of JRPGs, one of the most iconic and acclaimed series that comes to mind is Final Fantasy. Square Enix decided to deliver on fans wishes and remake Final Fantasy 7, which many consider to be the best entry in the franchise. Its remake was outstanding, and it was only made better on PS5 when Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade released. Not only did it include PS5 optimizations, but it also added some fun DLC starring Yuffie.

Any RPG fan owes it to themselves to play Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade. It retains everything that made the original so great while modernizing it for today’s audiences with new gameplay mechanics. That’s a hard feat to achieve when the balance is so delicate, and Square Enix made it look easy.

Final Fantasy 14 Online had a rough development process and launch, but it’s finally become a game that’s worth playing in 2021. In recent months, it’s even taken on World of Warcraft in popularity, which is a testament to the support the game’s received over the years. Its upcoming Endwalker expansion is slated to release in November 2021, so you’ll want to get in on the action beforehand and be prepared.

Despite being an initial purchase of $60, players will still need to pay a monthly subscription fee to continue to access Final Fantasy 14 Online after the first 30 days. Memberships start at $12.99 per month and go up to $14.99 per month, with access to eight characters per server. The good news is that you don’t need a PlayStation Plus membership to play it on PS4 or PS5.

Best PS5 Action/Adventure Games

Action/adventure can mean a lot of things to different people, especially when the genre frequently borrows from others. It’s easy to define Assassin’s Creed Valhalla as an action RPG, for instance. Whatever the case, action/adventure titles make up a bulk of the AAA market today outside of shooters, and there are plenty of great ones on PS5.

Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut

Ghost of Tsushima was already one of the most acclaimed games on PS4, and it became even better with the Director’s Cut on PS5. Adding a new location with Iki Island and a host of DualSense features, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut gives those who’ve already played on PlayStation 4 some great reasons to hop back in. Tsushima is just as beautiful as ever and the combat is just as excellent as you’d remember.

When Mongols are on the shores of Tsushima island, samurai Jin Sakai must do anything he can to save his people, even if it means going against everything he’s been taught his entire life. Ghost of Tsushima is often described as Assassin’s Creed in Japan, so fans of the aforementioned series will feel right at home here.

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is easily one of the best entries in the franchise to date. The long-running series from Insomniac features a Lombax named Ratchet fighting evil alongside his robot buddy Clank. Rift Apart introduces some new characters into the fold like Rivet, Ratchet’s dimensional counterpart who’s a freedom fighter against the evil Emperor Nefarious.

When Clank gifts Ratchet a Dimensionator in the hopes that he’ll find other Lombaxes, things go awry and they end up in another dimension. In our review of the game, we said, “Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is this year’s summer blockbuster on PS5. Taking players through diverse and gorgeous worlds with excellent combat and platforming, Rift Apart is a ton of fun to play.”

Insomniac’s Spider-Man released a few years ago, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better superhero game. It sits right up top alongside the Batman Arkham series as many people’s favorite. Since Insomniac knocked it out of the park, it was only inevitable that it’d make a follow-up. Spider-Man: Miles Morales isn’t a full sequel, but it is a standalone adventure set in the same universe after the events of the first game.

With Peter Parker on vacation, Miles Morales takes up the mantle of New York’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. When Harlem comes under attack by an energy corporation hellbent on ruining the city for its own gain, Miles suits up to take them down with the help of a few friends. The city is fully explorable and features brand new suits, skills, and activities to complete.

The weird horror game from Remedy, which ties into the Alan Wake franchise, has its own quirks. Control is set in the Oldest House, a brutalist building that houses a secret government agency, the Federal Bureau of Control (hence the name). It’s here that the paranormal becomes reality as you fight your way through otherworldly enemies in the hopes of finding your brother.

Control on PS5 features two graphics modes, one that boosts performance to 60FPS and one that turns on ray tracing effects at 30FPS. No matter which you choose you’re looking at a 1440p resolution that outputs at 4K. What’s cooler here is that you can change these modes whenever you want in the display settings without having to quit out of the game and load from the main menu like with most other titles. As a cherry on top, the loading in Control on PS5 takes less than 10 seconds usually, far faster than what it was on PS4.

It’s probably getting old to hear Immortals Fenyx Rising called a Breath of the Wild clone, but the comparisons are apt. It plays like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild meets Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, taking the gameplay and art style from the former game and utilizing more of the Greek mythology featured in the latter. Mix in a ton of humor and it seemed destined for success.

After Typhon escapes from Tartarus and vows to enact revenge on the gods, a young Greek hero washes up on the Golden Isle to find it in disarray. In order to defeat Typhon and his minions, you’ll need to find the gods and help them restore their full powers. Immortals Fenyx Rising features several locations based on the Greek gods and has a slew of mythology enemies to take on. Not only can you flex your combat skills, but there are plenty of puzzles to solve as well.

No Man’s Sky was bad when it launched… and then it wasn’t. With nearly unending support and a drive to make the game live up to its full potential, Hello Games worked night and day to deliver major content updates and quality-of-life fixes that drastically improved the game. What remains is an excellent game that was recently enhanced for PS5 with more populated, denser worlds, improved resolution and framerates, and adaptive trigger support.

Boasting a procedurally-generated universe with over 18 quintillion planets (not a typo), No Man’s Sky allows players to explore the vast wonders of the universe. From hostile planets with boiling temperatures and acid…