The Best Stories in PlayStation Exclusive Games

In recent times, no platform has defined itself more on the merits of strong stories than Sony's exclusives. If the game falls in this category, there's a pretty good shot that the story is going to be worth paying attention to.

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Whether it's adaptations of big Marvel IPs or strange but wonderful visions of the apocalyptic future, Sony's exclusive game stories run the gambit. As a note, some of these games have made their way over to PC by now, but every entry was exclusive to Sony on launch.

8 Returnal

Hear The Story Again And Again

The rogue-like genre is unforgiving with a near-saturated market where gamers need something new to be truly drawn into the experience. Returnal stood out from the crowd by being one of the biggest budget attempts at the genre, and it told a great story to accompany it.

Returnal tells the story of an astronaut stranded on a mysterious and eldritch planet full of horrifying creatures. What begins as a quest for escape turns into a twisty descent deep into the psychology of the protagonist Selene as she attempts to break the cycle that resets her every time she tries to escape, with some of the most audacious story twists seen in a rogue-like.

7 Ghost of Tsushima

Samurai or The Ghost?

For as long as video games have existed, gamers have wanted an open-world game where they can inhabit the role of a samurai in feudal Japan, and Ghost of Tsushima may be the most perfect evocation of that fantasy ever conceived where players can embody whatever build they so desire to wreak vengeance.

Set during the Mongol Invasion of Japan in 1274, gamers play as Jin Sakai, a fallen samurai who begins to adopt the dishonorable but ruthlessly effective persona of The Ghost to drive off the invaders, isolating himself from the rigid samurai honor code in the process. It's a great story inspired by Kurosawa films that's appointment playing for any fan of the genre.

6 Uncharted 2

Spielberg On The Small Screen

While Naughty Dog may be best known for The Last Of Us games these days, they made their first major splash in the gaming space with the Uncharted series, particularly Uncharted 2, which is widely considered to be the best of the series and is well known for shaping Naughty Dog's future thereafter.

Taking clear inspiration from Indiana Jones films, Uncharted 2 follows perennial adventure Nathan Drake on a quest to find Marco Polo's treasure from his doomed voyage to China. It's a simple story, but a rollicking good time full of big characters and delicious Hollywood setpieces.

5 God Of War

Slay The Gods

By the middle of the 2010s, the God of War series had gained a reputation as being exceedingly over-wraught with it being nothing more than over-the-top Michael Bay-style action. Santa Monica Studio seemed to take that as a challenge because 2018's reboot God Of War single-handedly redefined the entire franchise in one fell swoop and became one of the greatest stories ever told in the franchise.

Gamers resume the role of Kratos, but now, he has made a quiet life for himself in the world of Norse mythology and wants to do little more than look after his son Atreus after the death of his wife. However, his reputation reaches the ears of the treacherous Norse gods, and soon Kratos finds himself forced into doing what he does best: killing gods.

4 Marvel's Spider-Man

Web Up The City

Many gamers have fond memories of the original Spider-Man 2 game for the PS2, and this 2018 refresh of the entire series is a clear and loving tribute to open-world web-slinging where players can spend hours just navigating the massive map of New York and beating up the rogue's gallery of villains.

Marvel's Spider-Man follows Peter Parker several years into his Spider-Man career as his life is rocked by the emergence of a new supervillain called Mr. Negative. What follows is a classic-style superhero film full of big setpieces, twisty plot moments, and a surprising gut-full of pathos in the game's final moments.

3 Death Stranding

To Death And Back

Hideo Kojima is well renowned for crafting some of the greatest, and most complicated, stories in gaming. His narratives aren't for everyone, but their sheer idiosyncratic nature makes them appointment playing because gamers are guaranteed to see something entirely new.

In Death Stranding, players take control of Sam Bridges, a courier in a post-apocalyptic version of America that has been ravaged by a series of supernatural disasters where dying is no longer the end of life as we know it. The game turns into a mighty pilgrimage west upon the game's many different vehicles as Sam is tasked with reconnecting the world, and it's a surprisingly heartfelt tribute to human connection.

2 Shadow of the Colossus

A Giant Undertaking

JapanStudio, led by Fumito Ueda, changed the entire gaming world with the release of Shadow of the Colossus in 2005. Clearly inspired by the tone and style of Hayao Miyazaki's films, Ueda's masterpiece has one of the most famous attempts at meta-narrative commentary ever made that inspired many games that came after and is sure to redefine the culture again should a sequel arrive.

Gamers play as Wander, a boy who is trying to revive Mono after she has seemingly died. Wander is tasked with slaying sixteen massive Colossi to do it, but it becomes increasingly clear as the game moves on that Wander may not be the hero he first seems. To say more is to spoil one of the most elegant plot twists ever made in a game narrative.

1 The Last of Us

The Best Of PS

Since its release in 2013, some have criticized The Last of Us as not bringing anything substantially new to the table when it comes to game narratives. While in some ways that is true, The Last Of Us excels where no game had before, delivering performances, atmospheres, and a narrative that has made indelible history in the gaming space.

Players take control of Joel, a smuggler in the post-apocalypse who is tasked with ferrying a girl called Ellie across the United States, as she seems to hold the secret to curing the cordyceps virus that ravaged the world and turned many of its inhabitants into horrifying monsters. However, as Joel and Ellie bond on their journey, they are forced into a series of catastrophic decisions that conclude in one of the most memorable conclusions in recent memory.

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