Summary
The science fiction genrealways brings intriguing futuristic elements and spacefaring narratives with it, and the PS5 is certainly not short on titles that deliver the immersive story-driven sci-fi content you want to play. You even see a majority of exclusives from first-party studios at Sony Interactive Entertainment delivering remarkable sci-fi adventures.
Alien invasions, sci-fi bug infestations, horror mysteries in outer space, animal AI machines, and traveling between dimensions are but some of the sci-fi fun to be had on the PlayStation 5 console. If your preferred genre of gaming is indeed science fiction, here are all the best picks you’ll find.
High on Life will be the most hilarious sci-fi FPS game you can play on PS5. It’s made by one of the creators of Rick and Morty, and has a variety of talking guns called Gatlians for you to use on various species of alien enemies.Voicing each Gatlian are recognizable nameslike J.B. Smoove, Betsy Sodaro, and Michael Cusack.
The game’s storyline entails an extraterrestrial criminal organization called the G3 Cartel led by Garmantuous looking to harvest humans and synthesize their souls into drugs. Only you – a high school graduate nobody joined by your older sister – must now assume the role of a bounty hunter to prevent the G3 from achieving their goals.
A sci-fi gameyou’ll only find available on PS5is Stellar Blade, which is a surprisingly solid, complex, and graphically impressive action RPG from Shift Up, a studio known mainly for smaller mobile games. The game is striking for both its sci-fi plot and the choice of protagonist, who here happens to be Eve.
The story starts like almost every other post-apocalyptic sci-fi drama where an alien species invades the Earth and it’s up to a team of characters to reclaim it and fight back against them, yet it delves into its own original lore that shares its influences with NieR: Automata. The game’s UI design also perfectly fits the sci-fi theme, and the alien Naytiba boss fights are well-crafted.
If you’ve not yet experienced Ubisoft’s brilliant sci-fi masterpiece Beyond Good & Evil, now you can in all its next-gen glory with the 20th Anniversary Edition. It launched all the way back in 2003 on PS2, and it proved to be a cult hit over the years. With this upgrade on PS5, you can now expect it to run with 4K visuals and at a frame rate of 60 FPS.
Beyond Good & Evil follows the alien invasion of the DomZ on a planet known as Hillys during the 25th century, which is already controlled by a military group called the Alpha Section. You’ll play from the perspective of photojournalist Jade working with the IRIS Network to bust a conspiracy,and there are plenty of stealth elementsthrown in between the game’s science fiction and journalistic premise.
The original Dead Space remains one of the best EA games of all time, and its current-gen remake equally lives up to it. The graphics, visuals, lighting, sound, and the grotesque Necromorph enemy designs all manage to be more impressive and stunning. Unlike most other games here, Dead Space is a survival horror experience that’s truly frightening.
As Isaac Clarke, you’ll join a crew to investigate a distress call on the infamous planet-cracking ship named the USG Ishimura, where your girlfriend Nicole also happens to be. Intense sequences and an unnerving spaceship atmosphere don’t even begin to describe the horrors that unfold in this gory sci-fi adventure.
Every generation of the PlayStation console deserves a new Ratchet & Clank entry, and the PS5 saw the titular duo’s return in Rift Apart, a new dimension-hopping entry in the universe and a sequel to 2013’s Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus. You’re also introduced to a new playable Lombax protagonist named Rivet, who’s voiced by Jennifer Hale.
On PS5, a Ratchet & Clank game has never looked more dazzlingly gorgeous, with planetary environments that can rival other sci-fi games like Jedi: Survivor and No Man’s Sky. The platforming mechanics, level design, and gadgets will be familiarif you’ve played the previous games, but if you’re a newcomer, you’ll still get as easily hooked.
By now, it’s no secret that Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding is extremely convoluted and an acquired taste for even the most seasoned fans of science fiction, but it does havesome of the most original out-of-the-box storytelling to offer. Though there’s action, horror, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi narrative, a social system, and delivery transport missions, it still somehow falls into another genre category entirely.
In the world of Death Stranding, you’re a porter named Sam, played by actor Norman Reedus, and you have all this high-tech gadgetry and even a B.B. (Bridge Baby) attached to you as you traverse the landscape, with some of the most realistic physics and graphics. There are so many characters also played by famous stars,all with weird characteristics, down to the naming conventions and their role in the story.
Prepare to fight for Super Earth in Arrowhead Game Studios' Helldivers 2, a multiplayer third-person shooter that’s a sequel to the studio’s 2015 top-down twin stick shooter. Ever since its launch,Helldivers 2 quickly amassed one of the largest multiplayer communities, thanks to its satirical themes and alien creature designs influenced by the hit sci-fi movie Starship Troopers.
Squadded up with four players, you’ll use a variety of weapons to take on the alien bug threat, which will come at you in enormous swarms that will test your bravery as a Helldiver. It’s some of the most fun you’ll have slaying alien creatures in a video game, so stop reading, because democracy awaits!
With The Witcher 3, you’ve seen CD Projekt Red dominate the fantasy genre, and with Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red has officially mastered the sci-fi genre using a dystopian cyberpunk open-world setting. With all the improvements and updates since its launch, especially now with the Ultimate Edition available that bundlesthe expansive Phantom Liberty DLC, it’s never been a better time to enter Night City.
Being a first-person shooter and RPG, the narrative in Cyberpunk 2077 largely depends on your choices as protagonist V. There are plenty of exciting missions, tragic twists and turns throughout the main storyline, and you’ll even be joined by a rock star and revolutionary fighter companion named Johnny Silverhand, who’s portrayed by none other than Keanu Reeves.
Returnal gives you a double dose of sci-fi with its alien creatures and a mysterious planet setting of Atropos, yet at the same time, the core mechanic involves a time loop,given the roguelike structure of the game. You’ll be in the shoes of Selene Vassos, who crash lands and gets stranded on the planet at the start of each loop, but who also exists between worlds to witness a devastating car accident.
This sci-fi game has a compelling mystery storyline that teeters on horror, where you have to help astronaut Selene Vassos survive various biomes filled with challenging Souls-like-caliber bosses through bullet hell combat. The hostile creatures are unique, along with the environments, upgrade system, and the puzzling lore the game sets up.
One of the best sci-fi games on the PS5 console (if not one of the best sci-fi games ever created) is the PS-exclusive Horizon Forbidden West, the sequel to Guerrilla Games' Horizon Zero Dawn that continues Aloy’s journey. This developer is known for futuristic sci-fi projects, particularly with its Killzone series, but this is a third-person RPG with a sci-fi story and open world that enlists giant animal machines.
As Aloy, you have your bow and spear to target the weak spots of a variety of different kinds of rogue AI machines unleashed into the world by the Faro Automated Solutions corporation. The sequel expands the bestiary as well as the stunning locations you’ll be traveling to, covering the devastated Western parts of the United States, with the Burning Shores DLC sending you to Los Angeles.
