The Best PS4 Games Of 2020

First unveiled during E3 2013 — and released in November of that same year — the PlayStation 4 was met with near-unanimous acclaim. This was, in no small part, thanks to the console's crisp HD graphics, fluid gameplay, and a redesigned OS that ditched the PS3's proprietary processing tech (which, according to IGN, made software "arduous and costly to produce"). Sony's eighth generation console blew its competition away, outselling Microsoft's Xbox One by nearly 70 million units by early 2020.

By 2016, 4K graphics had become all the rage, and so, in order to adapt, Sony released the PS4 Pro. And while its 4K compatibility was nifty, it wouldn't be until the Nov. 2020 release of the PS5 that gamers saw what the real next generation was capable of... well, for the, like, 12 people who could actually get their hands on one, at least.

Pour one out for the PlayStation 4, because the jig is up. Sure, the PS4 continues to be supported by Sony, but the end is certainly near for the last generation's king of consoles. That said, don't sell off your PS4 yet, because it still has plenty to offer. These are the best PS4 games of 2020.

Let's cut to the chase: Media Molecule's Dreams isn't exactly a game. Rather, Dreams is basically a digital sandbox masquerading as a simplified game engine. It's a big, flashy toolkit full of odds and ends that allow players to create any number of multimedia projects, from music to animation to bite-sized video games. And while Dreams' learning curve can seem daunting — especially at first — the "game" also features a slew of helpful in-game tutorials. That means dreaming up the next big cutesy Kaiju city-smashin' simulator is easier than ever.

For the grumpy "That's-not-a-game, that's-homework!" gamers out there, fear not. Jumping into the "game's" Dreamiverse lets players access a vast multitude of their fellow Dreamers' creations. Sure, the available content is a mixed bag. Like PlayStation Lifestyle's Chandler Wood wrote, "Most things feel like tech demos, proofs of concept, and highlight reels in a creator's portfolio[.]" 

Still, that's not to say players won't be impressed by the Dreamiverse's varied selection. Missed out on Hideo Kojima's Silent Hills teaser P.T.? No worries — there's a fan recreation. Ever wondered what a Bob's Burgers video game might look like? Wonder. No. More. 

Dreams holds a high score on Metacritic.

It'd take up far too much time explaining the monumental impact that Final Fantasy 7 has had on not only RPGs, but gaming as a whole — but here's a refresher. Square Enix's massive hit RPG Final Fantasy 7 dropped in 1997 to critical acclaim, eventually selling upwards of 13 million copies as of May 2020, according to IGN. Lauded for its cinematic graphics and its complex and mature storyline, Square's little RPG became an instant classic.

Fast-forward eight years. FF7 developer/publisher Square Enix might have claimed that their suspicious E3 2005 tech demo was nothing but that — a simple PS3 tech demo. But fans knew (or at least hoped) better. They watched. They waited. 

And then, like a healing rain from the Lifestream itself, April 2020 saw Final Fantasy 7 Remake hitting the PlayStation 4 after a decade and a half of teasing. Reviews were swift and near-unanimous, praising the game's subversive re-examination of its source material. GameSpot's Tamoor Hussain wrote, "Square Enix tells a smaller, more personal Final Fantasy 7 tale," while Slant's Justin Clark was impressed by its willingness to make nostalgia "another enemy to be slain."

Nestled among some big-budget AAA games and remakes decades in the waiting is a little platforming title courtesy of acclaimed indie game developer Derek Yu. But, as the old adage goes, big things come in small packages — and Spelunky 2 holds a big Metascore, beating out some super hyped heavy-hitters.

Spelunky 2 builds upon the "rogue-lite" stylings of its predecessor, which combined old-school platforming gameplay with procedurally generated roguelike elements. The charming (yet deceptively punishing) 2D platformer sees its protagonist Ana traveling to the moon in order to seek out treasure — and to find her missing folks. 

Well, Ana and her adventure had quite the impact on critics like IGN's Mitchell Saltzman, who wrote, "Spelunky 2 takes everything that made the original great and expands upon each of those individual aspects without ever over complicating the elegant, retro simplicity of its 2D platforming." However, Saltzman also noted that players turned off by the original Spelunky's challenging gameplay won't be in for a less frustrating ride. 

PlayStation Universe's John-Paul Jones takes this almost exaggerated praise even further, claiming that Spelunky 2 is "one of the greatest roguelikes ever made."

What do you get when you cross a swath of cutesy anime teenagers with giant robots, gargantuan kaiju, and a whole lot of wacky, junk food sci-f? Well, normally you'd get an unmitigated mess — but in the case of the absurdly-named but critically-beloved 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, you get one of the PS4's best games of 2020.

Aegis Rim combines beautifully drawn characters and environments with surprisingly involving real-time strategy combat. It also features the twistiest, turniest, tropiest sci-fi story this side of that one classmate's novel they've been writing for a decade. Just how trope-y? According to Eurogamer's Malindy Hetfeld, the game's storyline includes: "A talking cat. Time travel. Time travel, but also not really. Androids. Clones. Android clones. Memory-wiping drugs. A robot that looks like Wall-E. An underground UFO." But, again, in this case, it works. 

And, yeah, there's a pretty snazzy RTS combat system that takes place on a semi-holographic map — but Aegis Rim's combat isn't its selling point. Rather, its endearing characters and — again — its totally, unabashedly bonkers storyline, which Siliconera's Jenni Lada called "a complicated masterpiece."

For whatever reason, Team Ninja's Nioh 2 — a.k.a. "Yokai-Slayer Sim 2K20" — kind of flew under the radar. The original Nioh introduced players to a unique take on the "Souls-like" formula, which its 2020 sequel only further polished. Nioh 2 took its predecessor's "high risk, high reward" shtick and bumped it up to 11. Game Informer's Daniel Tack wrote, for instance, "Refining your weapons into murder machines, gaining levels and skills, and collecting buckets of loot to complete gear sets is satisfying."

Nioh 2's combat is still as punishing as it was in its 2018 precursor, but, as IGN's Mitchell Saltzman put it, "for everything Team Ninja made notably harder, they balanced it with something that makes it notably easier — if you're able to take advantage of it."

It's also worth noting that you can transform into a monstrous yokai, which is literally the raddest thing in the world. And while it may not be one of those titles that you overhear folks talking about at the local GameStop, Nioh 2 was a huge hit with critics. In other words, it deserves a second look from skeptics.

Wrongly assumed by many to be a "Japanese Grand Theft Auto," due in no small part to their heavy focus on Japan's criminal underworld, Sega's Yakuza games are equal parts interactive Japanese crime drama, brutal third-person beat-em-up, and taxi-driving, karaoke-belting, crane machine-binging mini-game fest. They can be best summed up by the words of series producer Daisuke Sato, who called them "a series where you can do stupid things very seriously."

While the majority of the games in the series follow former Yakuza chairman Kiryu Kazuma, the seventh main entry in the long-running franchise — 2020's Yakuza: Like a Dragon — threw players into the shoes of the poofy-haired, Dragon Quest-obsessed Ichiban Kasuga. It also marked the series' first foray into turn-based combat. Though longtime fans were skeptical at first, the transition to turn-based mechanics — which was originally shown as an April Fool's Day joke — were well received, with GameSpot's Michael Higham writing that the new combat system "comes together remarkably well for Yakuza's own RPG debut." 

Comicbook.com's Evan Valentine summed up the game's critical success in general when he wrote that it possessed "amazing mechanics, compelling storytelling, and flawless gameplay."

Developer Sony San Diego Studio has been handling The Show franchise since 2006. In that time, the decorated studio has incrementally added new game modes, improved graphics, more realistic commentary, and a heightened sense of dynamism to each annual entry in the long-running MLB series. Thanks to the studio's obsession with improving the quality of each ensuing title, their 2020 offering — MLB The Show 20 — is more than just a simple baseball game. According to critics like USgamer's Kat Bailey, it just might be "one of the best sports sims period."

With overhauled A.I. that reacts to players' statistics, an enhanced batting system that rewards accurate contact, and a slew of quality of life fixes, The Show 20 represents a masterclass in improving upon a celebrated formula while maintaining its soul. Gaming Trend's T.K. Hale described the game, which he stated is his favorite in the series, as "a culmination of all that the developers have learned over the years and are now serving it up to us with a ninety-five miles-per-hour fastball to the face."

Basically, MLB The Show 20 hit it out of the park.