What PS5 games have the best graphics?
That's the question we were asking each other this week, as we tried to cook up a list video for our YouTube channel. However, we kept coming to blows over what we actually considered to be "good graphics". Was it the immaculately detailed The Callisto Protocol or should we consider something a little less technically detailed but no less jaw-dropping like Octopath Traveller 2?
That's when we decided to open the floodgates and let you decide!
What PS5 titles deserve to be ranked amongst the best-looking games of the generation? Are you someone who is enamoured by a visual style, or is it all about graphical fidelity? Were you awestruck by the boss fights in Black Myth Wukong? Or are you currently in love with the visuals of Hollow Knight: Silksong?
Let us know which PS5 games you deem to have the best graphics down in the comments below, along with why you love that visual style. We'll then compile all of the results to make up our best PS5 graphics list for our YouTube channel!
Comments 76
If we're going by raw technical detail, Death Stranding 2 might be the best for me. There are moments in it that trick my brain into thinking I'm staring at real-life footage. And it runs at a smooth 60 fps, which is crazy. Visually, DS2 is almost flawless.
But, if we're going by art direction, Ghost of Tsushima might be my favorite. That game's color palette, weather effects, lighting, shot composition, and sense of atmosphere is so overwhelmingly beautiful that it has made my jaw drop open and even moved me to tears on multiple occasions. It might hold the record for the number of times I've said "wow" out loud while playing a game.
Honorable mentions that currently come to mind would include Red Dead Redemption II, The Last of Us: Part II, Uncharted 4, Persona 5, Cuphead, Journey, Shadow of the Colossus, and Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2.
Borderlands 3 and Baldur’s Gate 3 amaze me every time!
TLOU2 is also pretty damn impressive.
And the Spider-Man games! Horizon as well.
Tis in the eye of the beholder...some games like Death Stranding 2 are photorealistic, others like Rachet and Clank are like a Pixar feature and then you can have something like Fez or Journey which are also beautiful...tough question to answer;)
As primarily a JRPG player there's not too many realistic looking games I've played but Death Stranding 2 looked insane, Tsushima and Forbidden West also had great environmental visuals. For jrpgs I think Tales of Arise and Final Fantasy 16 looked incredible especially those eidolon fights. Kena Bridge of Spirits and Ratchet Clank were also visually pleasing for the animated aesthetics.
Hotline Miami
Black Myth looked terrible on PS5.
Death Stranding 2 and Horizon Forbidden West are the gold standard this Gen for visuals especially if played on the Pro.
When I first started playing Death Stranding 2 I thought they had incorporated live action footage, amazing graphics.
Of games I've played Carlisto protocol was and still is stunning, that Resi 4 and Silent hill 2 dead space remakes look damn fine too.
Mafia the old country looked stunning at times.
Astros playroom, astrobot and Ratchet rift apart are 3 of the most stunning looking platform games I've seen.
The recent Sword of the sea was beautiful too
Some forgotten (or less mentioned) games that look amazing are Greak, Kena, Tails of Iron 1 & 2, Nobody wants to die, lost records, Dave the diver, thank goodness you're here and cat quest 3
In terms of actual graphics, it's easily Horizon Forbidden West and Death Stranding 2.
Death Stranding 2 for me is the best.
Amazing graphics and great optimization
Assasins creed shadows on ps5 pro looks stunning. Looking forward to yotei. Also indiana jones environments look great too.
Whilst you could argue Sony's bigger titles have more visual clout non can compete with the balletic, bullet hell firework display of Returnal. The Nemesis and Hyperion fights especially, are visual poetry on screen.
Nobody's matched demon souls for me yet in terms of lighting ect even though never played horizon that looks good to death stranding looks good aswell
Overall quality: Horizon Forbidden West, Death Stranding 2
Art style: Ghost of Tsushima
Also fantastic: Callisto Protocoll, GT7, Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart, Kena
Great with issues in image quality: Star Wars Outlaws, Alan Wake 2, Wukong, Jedi Survivor, Avatar
Astro's Playroom and Astro Bot.
They're all amazing. A beautiful game is a beautiful game.
Some of my favourites over the last few years:
Hi-Fi Rush
Hellblade 2
Prodeus
Red Matter 2
Arkham Shadow
Ghost of Tsushima
Cyberpunk 2077
Donkey Kong Bananza
Mortal Kombat 1
Octopath Traveller
Walking Dead Saints & Sinners
Splatoon 3
Earthion
Blasphemous
Axiom Verge 1&2
Little Nightmares
Street Fighter 6
Death Stranding
Callisto Protocol
Sonic Superstars
Crash Team Racing
Kena
Alan Wake 2
Avatar
Quantum Break
Death Stranding 2 for the win here. Alan Wake 2 impressed me as well for the sheer creativity of the visuals. Rift Apart is another high water mark as is AC Shadows. My sister was over while I was playing Shadows one time and she remarked that she didn’t realize I was even playing a game when a cutscene was going on.
Silksong and Astro Bot are subtle contenders too. They have such fantastic art direction.
@AdamNovice When you say actual graphics are you referring to realistic graphics?
Horizon Forbidden West still take the cake for me. But Octopath Traveler 2, and Spider-man 2 are in my Top 5.
have to echo Horizon FW and Death Stranding 2. Nothing else is even really close that I can think of
I like very colorful games, so right now I have still butterflies in stomach when I run Divinity Original Sin. I pretty like Elden Ring graphics also. I never focused on graphics so much. It is rather about style. Speaking about PS5 clearly, Final Fantasy 16 was pretty. I don't know if I had so bad hand, or if it's some trend, but games I bought (Atomic Heart, Mortal Shell, Necromunda, Diablo 4) all have weird bland graphics with pitch black shadows, so it looks like textures are missing. I still didn't hit any PS5 game with some "wow" graphics. But as I mentioned before, I don't care about graphics, rather entertaining (and I'm not entertained when I cannot see nothing more that black in shadows)
Fort Solis looked so good I went for the platinum. Yes it was short too so just as well the glitch on a drawer where you can’t pick up a trophy thing if you close and reopen wasn’t that big a deal 🙄
Agree with most of the above comments but no one has mentioned:
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora!
Beautiful too.
Horizon FW
GOW Raganarok
Spiderman 2 / MM
Rachet and Clank
Astrobot
Demon Souls
Hogwarts Legacy
Honorable mentions to Lies of P - particularly the DLC.
NB I haven't played Death Stranding 2, but im sure that would make my list.
To be honest, Performance, and keeping at or above 60fps at all times is THE most important thing.
Being able to uncap to 120hz using VRR is very nice too and adds honorable mentions for the Pro versions of RE4 / REV, and SBlade.
The Last of Us Part 2 is flawlessly true to life.
The Alan Wake 2 has unmatched lighting and visual design.
Horizon Forbidden West has the most flawless 4k texturing with a great 40fps mode.
And I'm really surprised at how much Sword Of The Sea impresses with its art design and colors.
Alot of games are stunning visually but look blurry and downgraded on console. That being said you can still see that beauty through the down grades even on PS5, but I'll not ate pc is the best visually
Not going to even give credit to rereleases of ps4 games like TLOU/Tsushima:
Clair obscur (pc) , bg3(pc) , Alan Wake 2(pc) lies of p (pc), hell is us, horizon forbidden west, Ragnarok, Rift Apart, Demon Souls Remake, Avatar, Indy, Wuchang (pc), Wukong. (pc)
Horizon Forbidden West for me. I know Death Stranding 2 is probably up there, but I haven’t played it yet.
For open world Horizon: Forbidden West is still my high bar... though I haven't played Death Stranding 2.
For smaller but more detailed world Hellblade 2 is up there.
A few honourable mentions: GOW Ragnarok, it's less about absolute fidelity and more about attention to detail. Alan Wake 2 and Demon's Souls also up there.
But gameplay trumps graphics every day of the week and artistry beats graphical fidelity.
My personal faves are GT7 which at times are just stunning. God of war ragnarok is really nice too and I thought borderlands 3 had some superb graphics. I've not played a lot of horizon forbidden west but from what I have seen so far its probably the best of the bunch..GT7 though during races that shift from early evening into night are just out there..
I’d have to second Death Stranding 2, being on top of a mountain and seeing the massive moon, or a sunset. Wow! I think is has the best mist/fog/snow I’ve seen in a game too. Lords of the Fallen shows what a good implementation of UE5 can do. Astrobot has got some of the most polished graphics, shows it’s not just Nintendo that can produce that kind of quality. Lumo is a fantastic interpretation of 8 bit isometric adventures too. GT7’s weather system and raytracing too. But hey, for every powerhouse like DS2, there are a bunch of indies that use graphics to make you feel something. It’s not just about the flash
I can get it if you like that "style" but games like Silksong or Octopath Traveller has no business in a debate like this.
Horizon-Forbidden West, Spider-Man 2, The Last of Us Part II(still) has some of the best graphics.
Alan Wake 2 was very dissapointing overall but graphical fidelity was something else. Especially back alleys of made-up New York, lighting etc.
Resident Evil 4 remake looks incredible too.
I am sure both GTA VI and Intergalactic will show us the new benchmark. Just like RDR2&LoUP2 a few years ago.
I agree with many of the comments above!
Also I Just played the POOLS demo and I was very impressed by that. Thought Chernobylite was a really good looking game too.
The best looking game from a technical standpoint is definitely Death Stranding 2, but one of my favourite looking games in recent memory is the Trails in the Sky remake. There's just something about it that I love.
This would have served everyone a LOT better as a poll.
Alas, here we go:
Regardless of whether the original’s artistic vision was compromised or not, Demon’s Souls Remake is still stunning to this day. The fidelity is out of this world, and performance is surprisingly solid.
Death stranding 2 is stunning
Graphics are so tied together with art direction and atmosphere - and sometimes nostalgia too - so this will always be an ‘in the eye of the beholder’ debate. My rose-tinted specs still tell me that the PS2 iterations of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus had the best graphics and art direction I’ve ever seen, but in more recent times I’ve been wowed by The Last of Us (both), and by Death Stranding and Assassin’s Creed Shadows and HZD too, even if the quest for photorealism sometimes doesn’t let your mind fill in the blanks (or the blurriness) with a better version of what the game actually looks like, which is why games like Hollow Knight - and many older classics - remain both timeless and venerated.
My personal choice is Fantasy Life I .
The character design looks cute, the environment design looks whimsical and gorgeous at the same time.
The creativity of fantasy plants design looks great.
I love the terraforming in Fantasy Life I as it looks similar as Animal Crossing New Horizons.
Fantasy Life I PS5 is my personal GOTY 2025 candidate. 95 from 100.
I do not care about the graphics!
I care about the experience the game(s) provides us.
It is all about the ride / journey we have in games...
Death Stranding 2
Horizon Forbidden West
God of War: Ragnarok
AstroBot
Hellblade 2
I didn't play it much and it's not an exclusive but I thought the opening of Avatar Frontiers of Pandora looked great.
Death stranding 2.
Guerilla are total Magicians with their graphics, Hence the creation of Decima. If the next Horizon is built on the Death Stranding 2 ver. of Decima it will be a huge spectacle. But if word gets out that they can even have another modified ver. of Decima on ps5 for Horizon 3 then man I bet that will become the bar of all bars for graphics, even early into ps6 since things are prob gonna be cross gen again
Number of polygons means nothing if they are wasted on grey corridors. A Hat in Time had a budget of Kratos nipple, and still looks (and plays) better than every GoW.
Decima engine is king.
Kinda surprised no one has said cyberpunk 2.0+ yet. That game looks fn phenomenal
I still think Horizon Forbidden West is the peak of graphical quality on PS5. The level of detail in the environments and characters really blew me away. The mocap in Burning Shores specifically is incredible. Although Death Stranding 2 is right there with it imo.
Horizon Forbidden West for me and I didn’t even play Burning Shores. Graphically that game is beautiful.
@Scottyy I disagree about your Silksong take. While I personally wouldn't put it up there, I have to appreciate anything hand drawn in a world dominated by photogrammetry and mocap. Me, personally, I think TLoU Part1 and 2 take the prize. But most of the games mentioned, you could make a case for
@Splat It is a great open world engine
Top 5 graphics:
Top 5 art direction:
Honorable mention:
@PuppetMaster oooo Returnal. Best game this gen hands down
@Balaam_
Demon Souls remake is unusual in performance terms - its locked to 60fps in its performance mode, but to this day it looks much higher.
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. I still believe the PS2 R&C games are beautiful, but Rift Apart legitimately looks like a top-tier animated film. It's a tough call between Rift Apart and Demon's Souls though.
@Dalamar Of all the compliments I'd give A Hat in Time, I don't think the gameplay would be too high on the list. I played it a long time ago though. It was enjoyable, but I got this strange feeling like the environments were made for a different game.
@ozkrmz With games? Like video..games?
@SMJ I meant more in terms of fidelity, cos sometimes we judge the art style and graphics as the same thing.
For realistic games and anyone who plays VR regularly, Red Matter 2 and Arkham Shadow are two of the greatest looking games ever made.
For anyone else, nothing comes close to Hellblade 2.
Raw graphics: Horizon Forbidden West. I mean it was Digital Foundry's best graphics of 2022. BG3 also looks really good!
Art Direction: Elden Ring.
I’ll go with GT7, Demon’s Souls.
I’ve yet to play Death Stranding 2 or Hellblade 2 or Horizon Forbidden West.
Shout out to the PS4 versions of TLoU2, RDR2, and Detroit Become Human, which outshine many PS5 titles still.
My wife wants nothing to do with video games but Death Stranding 2 was the one that made me say "come look at this"
Interesting topic with many levels of interpretation. For me, graphics have always been about artistic style rather than technical excellence. Whether that's quantified by sheer beauty or simply clean visual functionality - a good looking game is a good looking game in my books.
Where I find technical grunt and aesthetic style differ is when you bring the passage of time into play. An almost photo-realistic or heavily detailed game of today arguably trumps a game that was considered so 20 years ago. But a beautiful game of 20 years ago - whatever your yardstick - remains a beautiful game to me today. And really, I find games virtually impossible to rank where the two differing interpretations exist.
I have often considered Shadow Of The Colossus to have some of the most beautiful and magical visuals of any game past and present, but on a technical level it could be viewed as relatively basic when compared to say, Death Stranding for example. For me though, often photo-realism leaves me a little cold, as it robs me of my ability to invest in the game with my own imagination. This is why I will happily play games from years ago that couldn't achieve such visual fidelity, as my mind would fill in the gaps, so to speak, and my enjoyment of the game would be significantly enhanced.
I definitely prefer beauty over power - it ensures that my favourite games remain my favourite games despite the passing of time, whereas those I consider technical paragons of the day often fade away as the years tick by.
Playing AC Valhalla with no HUD looks gorgeous but If I were to show off the graphical showcase of the PS5, I'd take a walk or drive through Japantown on a rainy night in Cyberpunk 2077.
@LikelySatan
How do you mean?
As for the graphics in general on all platforms: none. Every single game looks best on PC. As for graphics on PS5:
Sadly best looking exclusive PS5 games are basically PS4 games.
My list will be as follows:
Honorable mention: Dead Space remake (love this game)
@Tr3mm0r
It is literally asked "What PS5 Games Have the Best Graphics?"
I'd welcome all sorts of definitions on what 'the best graphics' is. My nominations are
Art Direction: BG3. The huge world and plethora of characters and monsters are one for the ages for me.
Best-in-class graphics: God of War: Ragnarok. Beautiful game, and one that keeps your jaw wide open during its runtime.
Best realised world: Cyberpunk 2077 a masterclass in open world design, rivalling RDR2 in some areas. Both are famously not really fully-fledged PS5-optimized titles, so if I had played enough of HFW, it might have taken the title.
Best overall art and graphics: KCD2 I find the realization of Bohemia absurdly well-done. Definitely one of my all-time favorite titles, although the list is long.
@mvhess
I would say it's a good art design and colors in some parts are really beatiful but overall I think it doesn't have anything worth mentioning.
@ozkrmz And i answered by giving my list, no? Additionaly you can play some PS5 games on PC too so...
Dear friend @Tr3mm0r
Are confused (or mixed up) me with somebody else?
If you gave your list, why you telling me:
"Nobody asked!"
What is going on here?
Last of Us 2 gave me goose bumps when I first played.
@ozkrmz Glitch in the matrix lol. Think i was supposedly commenting some other guy under different article lol. Sorry
@Tr3mm0r
Ok...
Best graphics is going to be a game that is 1) recent 2) AAA 3) first party.
No surprise it's Death Stranding 2. Art direction isn't best graphics.
Alan Wake 2 is best looking game hands down on this generation. Nothing came even close to it.
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