The PlayStation 4 is a hugely popular console. With games on it like The Last of Us and Grand Theft Auto V, it's not hard to see why so many people have one of these in their living room. Huge games are constantly being released on the PS4 and they often garner a lot of attention from gamers and game critics.
While those games are wonderful, just about everyone has played them and those huge games aren't the only ones that are available on the PlayStation 4. Along with games that we all know and love like those, the console is also home to some lesser-known games that not a lot of people have checked out, but that definitely deserves to be played through at least once.
Updated by Gabrielle Huston on March 10, 2022: There are plenty of reasons you might have missed a game. Most often, you never heard about it in the first place, but there are also the ones that go viral for a week and then disappear off the internet entirely. We're here to remind you of some of the very best games you can play on the PS4!
15 Oxenfree
- Genre: Indie adventure
- Released: 15 January 2016
Oxenfree was released in 2016 and has been ported to quite a few different systems, but the PlayStation 4 version of the game was among the first releases. This game was nominated for quite a few awards at The Game Awards 2016, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't one that many gamers totally missed out on.
This supernatural, story-driven game follows Alex, a teen girl who is going with her stepbrother to a party on a nearby island. Unfortunately for the two of them, their night takes a truly terrible twist after their arrival awakens an ancient spirit that inhabits the island.
14 Never Alone
- Genre: Indie puzzle-platformer
- Released: 18 November 2018
Never Alone is a platformer game that came out in 2014 and has been released on a wide variety of different platforms, including the PlayStation 4. This unique game is based on a story from the Iñupiaq culture called Kunuuksaayuka. The game development company worked with a Iñupiaq storyteller to make sure that the game was a faithful adaptation of this culture's folklore.
The game follows a Iñupiaq girl named Nuna and her companion, an Arctic fox. The game has players swap back and forth between controlling Nuna and her fox in order to complete a variety of different puzzles and advance through the story.
13 What Remains Of Edith Finch
- Genre: Indie adventure
- Released: 24 April 2017
What Remains of Edith Finch is a game that was released on a variety of platforms in 2017. This is a unique, story-driven adventure game that became really popular with people who played it, but it's definitely a game that a lot of people missed out on.
This game has the player control a girl named Edith. Edith is a member of the Finch family, a family that seems to have a mysterious curse placed on it. This curse causes all but one member of each generation of the family to die in a mysterious way. Creepy, right? The game allows the player to explore, learn about the Finch family, and unlock the secrets to their past.
12 The Evil Within 1 & 2
- Genre: Survival horror
- Released: 2014 - 2017
The Evil Within is a series of two games that were released in 2014 and 2017 on a variety of different consoles. The games were directed by Shinji Mikami, the creator of the Resident Evil franchise, so survival horror fans will definitely know how terrifying this game is going to be.
The first game in this series sets up the story and follows a detective named Sebastian who is investigating a horrific crime at a hospital. After arriving, Sebastian and his partners find themselves thrust into a nightmare world where they're forced to try to survive and get back to the real world.
11 Nex Machina
- Genre: Shoot 'em up
- Released: 20 June 2017
Nex Machina is a game that was released on PC and PlayStation 4 in 2017. This game is a shoot 'em up-style game with a top-down perspective that's definitely reminiscent of older arcade games, giving the game a nostalgic type of appeal for people that grew up playing them.
The player goes through various areas of the game, taking down enemies while trying to save the people that are under attack. Players can find a variety of power-ups to help them take out more enemies in each area of the game.
10 Night In The Woods
- Genre: Adventure platformer
- Released: 10 January 2017
Night in the Woods is a game that was released on multiple different platforms including the PlayStation 4, the Nintendo Switch, PC, and Xbox One. This game was originally released in 2017 and even though it's been ported to multiple different platforms, this indie game has been largely overlooked by many gamers.
This game follows Mae, a 20-year-old who recently dropped out of college and moved back to her hometown, a town that is struggling with the recent closure of the nearby coal mines. The game follows Mae's return to her hometown, her struggles with mental health, and the bizarre happenings in the town she once knew.
9 Gone Home
- Genre: Exploration
- Released: 15 August 2013
Gone Home is a fairly simple, first-person exploration game. This game is a short one that won't take even the most detail-focused gamer more than a few hours to play, but if you're looking for a heartfelt storyline and a really unique gaming experience, it's still worth it to pick this game up when it's on sale.
In this game, you play a character who is returning home for the first time after spending a year in another country. But no one is home, and it seems like something very unusual has happened. Throughout the game, you explore the house and solve the mystery of where everyone has gone and what changed in your absence.
8 Dying Light
- Genre: Open-world survival horror
- Released: 27 January 2015
Dying Light is a post-apocalyptic action-adventure game that was released in 2015 on multiple different consoles, including the PlayStation 4. Rumors of this game being a sequel to the zombie game Dying Light were rampant at first, but were later denied by the developers.
This game involves the player going to a zombie-stricken country in order to find a political figure who stole an incredibly important document. This open-world game has a heavy focus on parkour and is super unique in the world of zombie games.
7 Hohokum
- Genre: Exploration
- Released: 12 August 2014
Hohokum is a whimsical and colorful adventure game on the PlayStation 4 that was released in 2014. This game's regular price is $9.99, so it's already a pretty affordable game to try out, but it regularly goes on sale for even lower.
This adventure game has eye-catching, original artwork that will draw you in through each of the worlds that you travel through. In the game, you play a kite-like creature that flies around to different worlds and interacts with everything and everyone there. It's fun and quirky for when you want to play something simple.
6 Guacamelee
- Genre: Metroidvania action platformer
- Released: 9 April 2013
Fighting games are definitely nothing new and, for people that are into the genre, they're a lot of fun to play. Guacamelee is a game that was originally released back in 2013 on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita, but an enhanced port of the game was brought to the PS4 in 2014.
Guacamelee is a game that was inspired by traditional Mexican culture and folklore. This game is a ton of fun and it's a combination of a brawler game and a platforming game that takes the player through various Dia de los Muertos-themed battles in order to complete objectives.
5 Tearaway Unfolded
- Genre: Adventure platformer
- Released: 8 September 2015
Tearaway Unfolded is a platforming adventure game that was released on the PlayStation 4 in 2015. It's an expanded remake of a game that was originally released in 2013 on the PlayStation Vita.
This game is set in a storybook-type world where everything is made entirely of paper. The player controls one of two characters who is tasked with taking a message through a portal out of their world. Along with taking that message to the portal, the player has to defeat enemies and help other people to create things.
4 Until Dawn
- Genre: Survival horror
- Released: 25 August 2015
Until Dawn was released in 2015 exclusively on the PlayStation 4. This game is one that has a pretty star-studded cast, including actors and actresses like Rami Malek, Hayden Panettiere, and Nichole Bloom. The game became pretty popular among fans of horror games, but is definitely one that was missed by a lot of gamers.
In this game, a group of friends come together on the anniversary of the disappearance of their friend's sisters. Their friend invites them to his family's cabin in the middle of the mountains and strange things begin to happen. The choices players make (or don't make) change the way the game plays out.
3 Dragon Quest Builders 1 & 2
- Genre: Sandbox action-adventure
- Released: 2016 - 2018
Dragon Quest Builders is a sandbox action-roleplaying game that has appeared on multiple consoles, including the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation Vita. Despite the fact that it's been released on multiple consoles, this game is still one that has been overlooked by many gamers.
The game is set in Alefgard, the same world as the original Dragon Quest game. In this game, Alefgard has been destroyed by monsters. The player controls a Builder who is tasked with gathering materials from all over the world in order to restore Alefgard to its former glory.
2 Infamous First Light
- Genre: Action-adventure
- Released: 26 August 2014
Infamous First Light is a standalone game that was originally released as DLC for the game Infamous Second Son, but can be played as a standalone game without having played any other games in the Infamous series.
Because of the fact that Infamous First Light was released as DLC for Infamous Second Son, many people skipped over the game with the assumption that they had to play the other games in the series. But, that isn't true as this game introduces a new character to the series and is a solid action-adventure game.
1 Gravity Rush Remastered
- Genre: Action-adventure
- Released: 2 February 2016
Gravity Rush is a game that was originally released on the PlayStation Vita back in 2012. But, it was then re-released in a remastered version on the PlayStation 4 in 2015 in Japan and 2016 everywhere else. Even though it's appeared on two different consoles, this game is still one that many gamers have missed out on.
This game is an action-adventure game in which the player controls Kat, a woman who has the ability to control the force of gravity. The player takes Kat through the open-world setting of Hekseville, both on foot and through the air using her powers, in order to do quests for NPCs and battle enemies.