Here are the best historical games on PlayStation. Our miscellany of great games includes titles that immerse players in historical worlds and where history is a major subject. These choices are thoroughly contemporary, playable on PS4 and PS5, and extend beyond the orbits of Assassin’s Creed and Tomb Raider.
On this list, you’ll find impressive virtual reimaginings of historical environments as well as the best historical strategy games and the best historical action titles available on PlayStation. On the other hand, you can take a look at the best historical games on Xbox Game Pass. Here are PlayStation’s best historical games.
Best historical open world games on PS4 and PS5:
Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut
What amounts to a fresh approach on Assassin’s Creed is composed of an engaging open-world Japanese island, a slick, minimal interface and a satisfying sword-based combat system which employs different “stances”.
Red Dead Redemption 2
The mythologised “frontier” of the American West is the subject of Red Dead Redemption 2’s engrossing open world.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
You can take your pick with the Assassin’s Creed games as to which setting you expect you will find the most enjoyable to acquaint yourself with, but Odyssey perhaps steals the show for its interlinking of familiar Homeric tales, Thucydidean history (it’s set during war between Athens and Sparta) and transporting environments.
Mafia: Definitive Edition
The Definitive Edition of the original game in the Mafia series invites players into an open world, but one designed less as a destination in itself and more as the setting for a period mobster fantasy.
Best historical strategy games on PS4 and PS5:
Northgard
Govern a burgeoning Norse settlement on a newly discovered shore in this alternately relaxing and tense historical real-time strategy game. Taking leads from myth and history, Northgard is a solid PC game which also has firm feet on console.
Civilization VI
The classic historical turn-based experience is available on PlayStation, letting players chart a course through human history, or at least a tile-based interpretation of it located entirely on their console’s SSD.
Best historical action games:
God of War
With his axe and son in tow, Kratos forges links between the Greek mythology of the preceding God of War games and an evocative impression of Norse mythology.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
From the creators of the notoriously tricky Dark Souls games is this fantastical adventure set in 17th century Japan.
Hades
In the colourfully revisionist Hades, completing loops of frenetic fighting furnishes new episodes of a story that’s set in the ancient Greek underworld.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
Uncharted 4’s large levels and explosive set-pieces give the Nathan Drake sequel the feeling of a blockbuster adventure. The game builds narrative beats from historic shipwrecks, jungle ruins and heritage theft.
Best historical multiplayer games:
Chivalry 2
The large-scale multiplayer of Chivalry 2 casts medieval warfare in an utterly unserious light, unashamedly reducing its clashes to ridiculous, joyous, bloody brawls.
Battlefield 1
The World War One version of the long-running Battlefield series is an enjoyable multiplayer shooter, as at home on PS4 or PS5 as anywhere else.