The Best PlayStation Game of 2024
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The Best PlayStation Game of 2024

With the shadow of Harmony’s demise hanging over the latter half of the yr, it might be straightforward to fall into the lure of considering 2024 was a tough time for PlayStation. However the previous twelve months have been actually stable for Staff Sony, with a range of video games that basically spotlight the console’s power in a number of areas, be that gargantuan RPGs, slick cinematic motion, or spine-chilling horror.

It’s a superb job there was such an incredible unfold, too, as 2024 marks the return of our platform awards after being absent for the previous few years. We’ve aimed to seize what made every console really feel distinctive this yr, and so naturally meaning exclusives or video games that really feel distinctly “at house” on a particular platform. That was fairly straightforward for PlayStation due to a protracted listing of PS5 exclusives that handled us to the likes of Astro Bot’s inventive platforming challenges, Black Delusion: Wukong’s ferocious boss battles, Helldivers 2’s chaotic co-op missions, and way more moreover.

However just one might be topped the very best PlayStation sport of 2024. What did the IGN crew decide to be essentially the most worthy? Let’s check out the outcomes…

Honorable Mentions

2024 has supplied a stable vary of experiences on PlayStation, nevertheless it’s notably been a fairly good yr for motion video games. Two have stood out particularly: Stellar Blade and Black Delusion: Wukong. Whereas neither fairly picked up sufficient votes to climb onto the rostrum, they got here in shut behind our finalists.

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Stellar Blade made a splash earlier this yr due to its glorious fight system, which blends slightly Darkish Souls (parries, therapeutic flasks, and bonfire-like checkpoints) with the fashionable flare of Platinum hits like Bayonetta. It does so whereas additionally utilising all of the PS5’s energy, guaranteeing that it appears to be like beautiful regardless of should you’re combating scrap robots within the desert or duelling monsters in a lab.

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Just some months later we bought Black Delusion: Wukong, one other sport that blended some of the sensibilities of FromSoftware with extra conventional character motion staples. Its boss rush construction means you’re at all times going through a enjoyable or fascinating new foe, be {that a} tiger bathing in a pool of blood or a dragon-headed pig swinging electrical maces. Mixed with slick fight that may be augmented with all types of experimental skills (similar to a gang of ape clones), Black Delusion: Wukong is amongst 2024’s most noteworthy motion video games.

Runner-Up: Silent Hill 2

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The unique Silent Hill is a PlayStation 2 basic. Staff Silent’s 2001 survival horror is one of the style’s most celebrated accomplishments, largely due to a sombre story that rewrote the rulebook on learn how to discover significant themes by way of an interactive medium. Following in these footsteps, Bloober Staff has managed to create what is bound to be thought of a PlayStation 5 basic with its remake of Silent Hill 2 – a sport that respects and honours PlayStation’s position throughout the peak period of survival horror innovation whereas additionally fastidiously updating it for the trendy age.

In an period the place “remake” can imply many issues, Silent Hill 2 treads essentially the most conventional path. It’s a largely devoted recreation of the unique sport, telling the identical story with the identical characters, and so it hits all of the excessive factors followers anticipate. However these previous environments, story beats, and encounters are revisited from a brand new over-the-shoulder perspective, making exploration all of the extra immersive and fight a way more intuitive expertise. The result’s a contemporary tackle a beloved reminiscence for veterans, and a method for brand new followers to expertise one of the easiest survival horror video games of all time in a format that’s extra comfy to play.

Effectively, we are saying “comfy” referring solely to the controls and digital camera system. 23 years later, the unique story of Silent Hill 2 stays simply as harrowing as ever. Bloober’s phenomenal new coat of paint solely helps reinforce that – shadows have by no means appeared so oppressive, rust has hardly ever been this grotesque – and so Silent Hill 2 simply takes the highest spot in relation to the PS5’s scariest video games. Lastly, we are able to’t ignore actor Luke Roberts, who brings protagonist James Sunderland to life with astonishing nuance that highlights the character’s struggling humanity in each single line.

Runner-Up: Helldivers 2

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Again in January, Helldivers 2 was barely a blip on the radar. Quick ahead a month and players internationally have been spending each spare waking minute spreading Managed Democracy, such was the alluring energy of Arrowhead Game Studio’s masterful co-op third particular person shooter.

Helldivers 2 is one of these video games that’s virtually negligible on paper. A four-person crew drops right into a sandbox map, works collectively to finish an goal, after which escapes through evac ship. However somewhat than really feel like many of the copycat extraction shooters which have landed in recent times, Helldivers 2 looks like a contemporary, unique imaginative and prescient. That’s partly due to the way in which it balances brutally unforgiving mechanics on a comedic knife edge; pleasant hearth signifies that one fallacious set off pull will punch a deadly gap by way of a pal’s cranium, or drop a killaton bomb in your total crew. By some means that at all times looks like a hilarious punchline somewhat than an infuriating crew kill.

The actual key to Helldivers 2’s genius is its good method to the meta sport. Every profitable mission pushes you additional up the tech ladder, unlocking more and more outlandish weapons and orbital bombardments with which to obliterate enemies. However mission success additionally impacts the shifting frontlines of the galaxy map, which sees humanity’s enemies acquire and lose floor of their try and invade Tremendous Earth. The player-driven tales that this technique creates, as planets are liberated and fan-favourite maps fall underneath enemy management, is the actual secret sauce that makes this phenomenal shooter tick. It’s the very best multiplayer sport PlayStation has delivered in years.

Runner-Up: Closing Fantasy 7 Rebirth

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Sq. Enix had already proved that it knew what it was doing with Closing Fantasy 7 Remake, however there was no denying that the primary chapter on this reimagining of the 1997 PlayStation basic was overly-linear and stretched a lot too skinny (it remodeled simply 5 or so hours of the unique sport right into a 40-hour epic). The trilogy’s center chapter, this yr’s Closing Fantasy 7 Rebirth, tackles these points head on, and the result’s a grand, expansive RPG that looks like a totally fashionable Closing Fantasy as a lot because it does a homage to an old-school nice.

As with many RPGs, Rebirth made the swap to an open world design, however did so in an interesting method. Moderately than a colossal map, its open world is made up of a number of hubs that signify not simply various atmosphere biomes, however totally different strategies of exploration. One space’s actions could also be accessed by way of easy working or climbing, whereas one other calls for the use of an off-road car or a flying Chocobo. All which means that whereas Rebirth’s open worlds could also be crammed with conventional style fare like pick-ups, towers, non-compulsory bosses, and a genuinely glorious card sport, really accessing these actions requires you to rethink the way you navigate and discover with each new location visited.

After all, these open zones are additionally the stage for the grand journey that’s Closing Fantasy 7. Freed of the darkish metropolis slums of Midgar, the story is ready to hit the true highs of the unique sport, together with a humorous stint on the Gold Saucer theme park. These are joined by Rebirth’s personal unique additions, similar to a surprisingly dramatic card event aboard a ship and lots of extra sequences we dare not spoil. All this, mixed with what’s undoubtedly the easiest Closing Fantasy battle system because the days of the ATB gauge, and you’ve got Sq.’s most fun RPG in a really, very very long time.

Winner: Astro Bot

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It’s solely proper that, within the yr of PlayStation’s thirtieth anniversary, we crown one thing that celebrates the console’s legacy as the very best PlayStation sport of the yr. Astro Bot is a Mario-matching 3D platformer that excels on all fronts: super stage design, intuitive motion, enjoyable power-ups, and a sensible method to combining all of these parts in thrilling new methods on every world visited. It’s emblematic of the creativity that helped outline the early years of PlayStation, and one thing we see all too hardly ever now on a console largely devoted to mature, cinematic tales.

An enormous quantity of pleasure might be present in Astro Bot’s novel method to enjoying with PlayStation historical past. Virtually each stage riffs on a Sony basic, from a glittering on line casino that winks at Sly Coopers’ most daring heists, to a mushroom world the place characters from The Final of Us disguise among the many fungi. There are a small quantity of direct homages that brilliantly translate the console’s blockbusters into platformer experiences, together with a miniaturized God of Battle that basically does seize the essence of Santa Monica Studio’s Norse beast. But it surely’s when Astro Bot is flexing its personal bespoke inventive muscle mass that it proves essentially the most thrilling. Throwing Kratos’ axe is nice, nevertheless it’s Astro’s grabby gloves and explosive canine backpack that basically sparkle.

Whereas good design is the factor that basically powers Astro Bot’s immediate pleasure machine, we are able to’t not point out the collectable PlayStation characters. What might have felt like a soulless model train is as an alternative maybe essentially the most partaking collectathon of the era, with a continually mounting military of basic characters – some world well-known, others deep-cuts recognisable to solely long-time fanatics – coming collectively in an exquisite diorama that looks like a digital PlayStation museum.

However you don’t must be a PlayStation devotee to essentially get Astro Bot. Regardless of should you care about its homages or not, this can be a platformer made with coronary heart that delivers pleasure in spades. It’s, unquestionably, the very best PlayStation sport of 2024.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Options Editor.

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