Summary
Some PS5 games improve the more they are played, as unlocking new areas, abilities, and plot threads results in a more engaging experience.
Games like Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Elden Ring showcase gradual growth in gameplay and story quality over time.
Stellar Blade and Astro Bot proved critics wrong as they developed into critical and commercial successes with unique identities of their own.
Sony’s newest video game console, the PlayStation 5, has been keeping gamers around the world entertained since 2020, with its vast and diverse catalog of quality titles: from colorful and lighthearted platformers to ambitious open-world adventures. However, as good as most of its games are, some of the best ones require the player to invest some time to reach their full potential.
Of course, some of them may just have relatively slow starts, but many others are good from the get-go and get even better after a few hours of play time. Regardless, the following PS5 games are notorious for increasing their quality the more they’re played, as gamers will slowly unlock new areas, abilities, powers, and plot threads that make the experience feel more engaging, entertaining, and satisfying.
Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Proving That Miles Is Worthy Of The Spider-Man Name
Originally released in 2020 as a launch title, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a spiritual successor to 2018’s Marvel’s Spider-Man by Insomniac Games. The first few hours of this game left a lot to be desired, however, as it feels like a simple rethread of the last game, but with Miles Morales instead of Peter Parker as the main playable character. Even the opening sequence pits him against Rhino, a villain who had already been a major boss in the previous adventure.
However, everything gets much better as soon as Peter leaves and Miles’ new storyline takes center stage. Not only does he get some much-needed character development that allows him to grow both as a person and as a superhero, but he also confronts his own collection of villains that are only connected to him and not Peter. On top of that, Miles unlocks his own distinct set of powers a few hours into the game – like Venom Blast and Invisibility – which make his gameplay feel more refreshing while also setting him apart from his iconic mentor.
Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition
Represents One Of The Core Aspects Of The Hack-And-Slash Genre
Gradual growth is a core aspect of the gameplay in the hack-and-slash genre (also known as “character action”), and one of the best examples of this phenomenon is Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition. This is a solid action game through and through, but the first half of this campaign is marginally inferior to the second.
Playing as Nero during the first few chapters is surprisingly fun, but the experience gets a lot better as the player unlocks new moves and Devil Breakers for him, thus diversifying his moveset and playstyle. However, Dante’s gameplay is arguably better than Nero’s and, since he’s unlocked in Mission 10, players will have to play through at least half of the game to finally control the franchise’s iconic protagonist. Lastly, the enemies and bosses gradually get tougher and tougher with each new mission, so fans of the genre who are looking for a good challenge won’t feel disappointed with Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition.
Horizon Forbidden West
Things Can Be Slow Until Aloy Reaches The Titular Forbidden West
Horizon Forbidden West is the long-awaited sequel to 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn, and unfortunately, some fans of this series may feel underwhelmed during its initial hours. While this game obviously looks and plays excellently, its first 20 minutes are slow, tedious, and filled with mediocre dialogue that focuses on the intertribal politics of this world, instead of unveiling the mysteries of the ancients that Aloy was set to investigate at the very end of her last adventure. Not even the new machines are interesting or menacing, except for a brief scripted encounter against a Slitherfang.
However, things get exponentially better around 25 minutes into the main story, when Aloy reaches the titular Forbidden West and can finally set off on her new adventure. The map opens up significantly, the missions and side quests get much more entertaining, the story picks up the pace, and a bunch of new dangerous and cool-looking machines, like Widemaws or Tideripper, get introduced. And that’s not all, because the quality of Horizon Forbidden West’s gameplay keeps increasing incrementally, as players will slowly unlock new weapons, armor, and skills for Aloy to use and new areas for her to explore.
Elden Ring
An Open-Ended Soulslike With A Lot Of Freedom Of Choice
Elden Ring is the next natural step for FromSoftware’s signature formula, as it ditches the linearity seen in the studio’s previous soulslike projects in favor of a more open-ended open world inspired by similar games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This resulted in a challenging but satisfying action RPG that rewards players who take their time to learn the mechanics and explore its enormous world.
Most soulslike games feel better as they’re played – it’s in their DNA – but Elden Ring is one of the most noteworthy examples because of its open-ended approach that allows fans to play around with different weapons, skills, and playstyles. If experienced in a certain way, the playable character has the potential to become an unstoppable force of nature that can one-shot almost every enemy and boss by the end of the adventure, thus making the player’s patience all the more worth it.
The Last Of Us Part 1
When An Already Bleak Story Gets Even Darker
There’s no denying that The Last of Us is an absolute masterpiece from the get-go, and its 2022 PS5 remake is a high-quality upgrade in terms of graphics and overall polish. However, since this is a narrative-heavy game that puts an emphasis on its story, it only makes sense that the entire experience gets better as long as its plot gets better.
Every single chapter of Joel and Ellie’s post-apocalyptic zombie adventure is brilliantly written: things slowly but gradually get even darker and more intense in a way that’ll make players keep their eyes glued to the screen and their hands glued to the controller until the very end. After all, there are many reasons this is highly regarded as one of the best video game storylines ever created, and its perfect pacing is definitely one of them. The sequel, The Last of Us Part 2, also has a very solid plot, but it could be argued that it has multiple low points and high points intertwined with each other.
Final Fantasy 16
Clive Rosfield’s Move Set Grows As He Absorbs More Eikons
Final Fantasy 16 is an action RPG in which players take control of Clive Rosfield, a former slave turned rebel, who goes on a mission to destroy all the Mothercrystals of Valisthea while also meeting and either befriending or defeating the Dominants, people who host the Eikons, giant beasts of immense power, within them. At the very beginning, the action gameplay can feel extremely repetitive and boring, but things get a lot more interesting when Clive awakens one of his special abilities.
It turns out that, as the vessel of Ifrit, he can absorb the powers of the Eikons after defeating them, which allows him to unlock incredible new abilities. As he absorbs more and more Eikons, the combat of Final Fantasy 16 will get even more complex and more diverse, since players will be able to pick and choose from a vast variety of special elemental moves and attacks. And if all that wasn’t enough, the story’s stakes also get higher the further it goes along, as the game will introduce even more powerful enemies and bosses against which players will be able to put their new skills to the test.
Stellar Blade
It’s More Than Just A NieR: Automata Clone
When Stellar Blade originally came out in April 2024, a lot of people initially dismissed it as a generic clone of 2017’s NieR: Automata, and only based on its first few hours, it doesn’t feel like these critics were wrong. At the very beginning, this adventure feels very derivative of Yoko Taro’s masterpiece, but the gameplay is a lot slower, and the story is a lot less interesting.
However, players who endured the first lackluster hours of Stellar Blade eventually found out that this action game gets a lot better the more they played it: the characters get some much-needed development, the story has its own set of unique twists and turns, the combat gets a lot deeper and more refined and the bosses get a lot more challenging. When experienced from beginning to end, it’s easy to understand why Stellar Blade became such a critical and commercial success with an identity of its own.
Astro Bot
Slowly Discovering What Made The 2024 GOTY So Special
There are few video games out there that are as lighthearted, entertaining, and addictive as Team ASOBI’s Astro Bot, and gamers who still don’t understand why and how it won Game of the Year in the 2024 edition of the Game Awards should definitely check it out. Of course, this may seem like a run-of-the-mill 3D platformer for children at first: fun, but nothing special.
However, Astro Bot is the perfect example of a solid PS5 game that gets better the more it’s played. Not only is every single level expertly designed, but each one of them has its own set of mechanics and power-ups that keep things fresh and interesting. This game is filled to the brim with brilliant surprises that’ll surely make players smile from beginning to end, not to mention that it also features hundreds of cameos from beloved PlayStation icons that Astro will have to save in each level. Lastly, any players who’re looking for a good platforming challenge should look no further, not only because Astro Bot has an excellent difficulty curve, but also because some of its hardest levels can only be unlocked at the very end.
