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What are the best strategy games for PS4?

9

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Considered

13

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Recs.

Jul 27, 2018

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Updated

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9 Games Considered

Best strategy games for PS4	Price	Platforms	Genre
-- Invisible, Inc.	$19.99	PlayStation 4, Windows, iOS, Linux, macOS	Turn-Based Tactics, Stealth, Roguelike
-- XCOM 2	$39.99	Windows, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox One	Tactical role-playing game, Turn-based tactics
-- Prison Architect	$29.99	Windows, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox 360/One, Android	-
-- Darkest Dungeon	$24.99	Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One, Windows, Mac, iOS	Role-Playing
-- Valkyria Chronicles Remastered	$29.99	-	-

Invisible, Inc.

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Top Pro

Excellent difficulty progression

As you take longer time during missions, the general difficulty level increases gradually. Time and mission profits must be balanced wisely. See More

Top Con

Very static story

While the gameplay is randomized and meant to be played repeatedly due to the randomization, the story is still static, so after every mission there will be cut scenes that are always the same. After a while this becomes annoying due to familiarity, while they can be skipped, it would be nice to turn them off completely in order to save time. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Turn-Based Tactics, Stealth, Roguelike

Top Pro

You get to choose which missions to take

When playing the game, you're presented with options of several different missions to take, and they all result in different perks. For example, you may need some extra money, so you take a mission with a much higher payout than the rest. Or maybe you need new gear, so you set out on a mission with a new piece as a reward. See More

Top Pro

There's different ways to play

Invisible, Inc. offers you a few different choices on how to play the game. Maybe you want to have a team full of stealthy people and sneak your way toward your goal, or maybe you just want to run in and beat the bad guys down. Both of these options are perfectly viable, even though the game is more favored to the stealth style. See More

XCOM 2

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It's fun to manage your squad

One of the main aspects of XCOM 2 is preparing your squad for each mission. You need to consider the terrain, objective, and enemy types. Based on these you'll select the appropriate soldiers, weapons, and gadgets. A lot of the missions have some leeway, so you'll be able to form a squad that fits your playstyle. It can either be a group of stealthy rangers, running in with machetes to surprise the enemy. Or it can be a group sharpshooters, allowing you to systematically clear the area from afar with sniper rifles. After each successful mission/kill your soldiers will earn experience. With enough experience you'll be able to promote them and earn learn new skills. You can also research new weapons and build them. A lot of it comes down to looting alien technology and reverse engineering it back at the base. All these things add up and it's really exciting watching your soldiers grow into unstoppable killing machines. See More

Top Con

Poor performance

At times it feels like the PS4 struggles to run XCOM 2 properly. Inconsistent framerates, stuttering, and really long load times, which can get in the way of fun. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Tactical role-playing game, Turn-based tactics

Top Pro

Excellent suspense

Throughout the campaign you'll always be running against the clock. You have a limited window of time to save humanity before the aliens take over completely. Successful missions only set them back slightly. Unsuccessful missions set you back significantly. It always feels like you're in an uphill struggle and failing means the end. It always feels like you're not gaining an advantage and the aliens have something else in store. This is reinforced in the missions. You never know what type of aliens there will be or what their reinforcements will bring. Encountering new species makes you fear for the well-being of your squad. It's rare for a game to keep you feeling like this. See More

Top Pro

Makes you feel more for your characters than most character driven games

One of the more fun parts about this game is managing your squad. You can customize the looks, voices, and even names of your soldiers. As you take your soldiers on missions you'll get attached to them. This will create a lot of tense moments when your soldiers are about to die and you desperately try to save them. If you decide to input the names of your friends or family, multiply the tension by ten. See More

Prison Architect

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Top Pro

Relaxing to play

Building your prison is almost zen like. There are periods of stress when there are riots or things going wrong, but you can always pause to take your time and figure out a good solution. See More

Top Con

Gameplay is poorly explained

The game does a poor job of explaining all the mechanics to the player when they begin the main game which leaves the player guessing as to what they need to do in order to be successful. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Developers are releasing free updates and additions to the game

Developers have been updating the game almost every month with new content, improvements and tweaks to the game. See More

Top Pro

Great freedom of playstyle

You can run the prison in the way that you see fit. You can put the wellbeing of prisoners at the top of the priority list by making sure their living spaces are comfortable, that they're well-fed, have the opportunity to educate themselves and often get to go outside in the yard to socialize and exercise or you can run the prison with an iron fist by instituting regular shakedowns, putting CCTVs, metal detectors, K-9 units and armed guards in every corner. Whichever play-style you choose, the game will offer challenges that will keep the game interesting. See More

Top Pro

Works great for both long and short play sessions

The gameplay lends itself well to both doing a couple of things around the prison every once in a while or setting up elaborate systems that can take hours upon hours of time. The game can be saved at any time so you don't have to make commitments in one way or another. See More

Top Pro

Amazing depth

The game consists of a wide variety of overlapping systems that work together to create excellent depth. You have to figure out the layout of your prison, how to manage the needs of your inmates, how to earn enough money to expand and hire new staff, what to do in the case of a natural disaster, a riot or attempted escape and so on. Every decision you make will impact all other elements of the game. For example, instituting regular shakedowns will help prevent prisoners from carrying banned items like forks taken from cafeterias that can be used to dig tunnels, but will also make the inmates more angry and thus more likely to riot. You can decide to instead use tunnel-sniffing dogs set to patrol around the perimeter, but that will cost more money and if the inmates pick up on the patrolling patterns they will tunnel around them. Or you may decide to check each inmate individually to see who's tired from staying up late to dig while everyone else has been sleeping though that approach may not scale. See More

Darkest Dungeon

Top Pro

Great monster visual design

There's a wide variety of extremely well-designed monsters and characters in the game. You confront bandits, skeletons, undersea terrors, pig monsters, and all sorts of otherworldly horrors. There's a lot of gruesome detail on each and every enemy, so the longer you'll keep looking the more you'll notice. This can be bloodstains, an extra set of eyes, an appendage that looks like a tentacle, and many more. It sometimes really feels like you're losing your mind alongside the adventurers, seeing whatever fits into your schema. See More

Top Con

Gets really repetitive

You'll spend dozens of hours repeatedly running the same dungeon, killing the same enemies, and collecting the same loot just to progress further into the game. On top of that, if you lose a character at any point, you'll be set back by another 3 hours. If you don't enjoy grinding, Darkest Dungeon might not be the game for you. See More

Specs

Genre:Role-Playing

Top Pro

Outstanding narration

Even though the only character that talks in this game is the narrator, his delivery of the lines is excellent. He talks in a deep and raspy voice that is also very pleasing to listen to. The narrator usually describes the events happening on-screen such as upgrading your settlement buildings, recruiting adventurers, various dungeon interactions, and many more. Additionally, he’ll start dropping story bits every time you near a boss, creating a very minimalist approach to storytelling that is also very enjoyable. See More

Top Con

It can be frustrating at times

Darkest Dungeon heavily relies on random events that can happen at any point in a dungeon. Some of them don't make any sense and most of them don't feel fair. For example, right after stepping inside a dungeon your characters might suddenly go hungry. If you don't feed them they'll get a penalty, setting you back for the rest of the dungeon. If you feed them you'll have used up your food but your characters might still go hungry again. You can't reliably plan around stuff like this, which can be annoying. See More

Top Pro

Interesting adventurer management

While the fabled heroes are off slaying dragons, battling demon kings, and saving princesses, the small-time adventurers have to clean up the dregs. You as the lord of a small settlement will employ these adventurers to clear out the mysterious dungeons surrounding your property. To clear a dungeon you’ll need to prepare adequately. This involves having decent party setup, which usually consists of at least 1 tank, 1 healer, and 2 damage dealers. This also includes having enough provisions such as torches and food. Planning out what and/or who to take with you can sometimes take as long as running a dungeon but it really makes you feel like you’re organizing an adventure. Another interesting part is the stress mechanic, causing your adventurers to accrue stress as they keep adventuring. If stress passes the first threshold, your adventurer might incur various penalties or even refuse your orders. If stress passes the second threshold your adventurer will die from a heart attack, so it’s important to relieve it regularly. This can be done by sending them to the tavern to blow off some steam or to the abbey to request absolution. Either option will make them unavailable for a week, so it’s a good idea plan ahead and have multiple parties of adventurers ready. This mechanic makes it feel like you’re managing real people rather than the indomitable figures often seen in fairy tales. See More

Top Pro

Immersive atmosphere

Darkest Dungeon has an almost intoxicating atmosphere created by three main aspects. Firstly, it’s the visuals: the somber color palette that accompanies a sunset, the creepy environments your party of four will anxiously proceed through, and the detailed, fearsome, and sometimes disgusting enemies that will tirelessly try to slaughter you. Secondly, the audio: an eerie soundtrack filled with murmurs of otherworldly creatures, teemed with bloodcurdling sound effects that render monster strikes more impactful. Even a charismatic narrator providing insightful interjections, as uttered by his mysterious, deep voice. Lastly, it’s the highly unpredictable and sometimes unfair gameplay. Whatever short triumph you may have, it will get drowned in a sea of despair. These elements combined make it very easy to immerse yourself into the world of Darkest Dungeon. See More

Valkyria Chronicles Remastered

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Great turn-based, tactical gameplay

Valkyria Chronicles features an expertly-crafted, turn-based combat system, where you control only a few characters in each battle. You are often against greater numbers, so tactics play a huge part in this game. The combat system is called BLiTZ (Battle of Live Tactical Zones). You view an overhead map of the combat area and can control each character individually. There are a plethora of options with each character: repositioning to have a better attack capability, taking cover, using special abilities or items, or simply attacking. These actions are limited by the AP gauge, so you'll have to pay close attention to how much you can do in a single turn. Each character also has their own class, so you'll also have to plan around their strengths and weaknesses. Some are better at moving, some are better at shooting, but most of them are defined by their special abilities and stat modifiers. See More

Top Con

Characters have permadeath

If a character dies in a skirmish, they are dead forever, no getting them back. See More

Top Pro

Very immersive story

Valkyria Chronicles is a story about war and all the ugly truths behind it. It effectively uses cutscenes for outlining each team member's motivations, so you really get invested in keeping them alive. In the end, it's the soldiers who suffer the most. See More

Top Pro

Amazing soundtrack

This game features a soundtrack composed by Hitoshi Sakamoto (known for his work on FFT and FFXII). The orchestra music makes you feel various emotions at the right times. It's a mix of melancholy, hope, and also fear. Some of the songs make you feel even more tense than the battles themselves. See More

Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance

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Fun tactical gameplay

In Disgaea 5 it's all about having your character cooperate. They can perform combos together, multiplying the damage done and showing a cool animation. They can pick each other up, allowing you to throw them into a better position to perform a devastating attack. They can also pick up enemies to throw them among your squad, allowing for a multipronged beat down. Your monsters can be combined into a giant monster or turned into weapons a humanoid character can equip. All of these and many other things give the gameplay enough variety to keep it interesting for a long time. See More

Top Con

Can get really repetitive

Disgaea 5 is all about leveling your characters and items. This means repeating the same stage, defeating the same enemies, or running the item world hundreds of times. See More

Specs

Genre:Tactical Role-Playing

Top Pro

Making your characters strong is addicting

The first time you 1-hit-kill an enemy, you'll realize how good it feels to overpower an enemy. So when you encounter stronger enemies, you'll want to keep this feeling up, turning it into an obsession. This will repeat all the way to the strongest boss in the game – Overlord Baal. Being able to defeat him in a single turn feels like a lifelong accomplishment since you've reached the pinnacle of strength in Disgaea 5. See More

Top Pro

Tons of content

There are multiple endings, secret superbosses, hidden items, unlockable classes, and even a map editor for creating new content. All of this keeps it interesting for a long time, allowing you to easily spend hundreds of hours playing Disgaea 5. See More

Orcs Must Die! Unchained

Top Pro

A great twist on the tower defense genre

Most tower defense games follow the same formula – you build a bunch of towers and watch enemies slowly get slaughtered by them. The Orcs Must Die franchise steps away from this by allowing you to jump into action yourself. You can choose one of the many heroes and just slash, shoot, and cast spells at the incoming enemies in a third person view. This creates a really fun experience with hardly any downtime at all. See More

Top Con

Poorly balanced singleplayer

OMDU is primarily designed as a multiplayer game, so you'll have some difficulty when playing alone, especially when just starting out. This is mostly because the enemies have a lot of health, meaning your damage might be too low to take them out on time. There’s also the issue of some levels being quite big, so you might not be able to cover all the paths easily. OMDU is certainly playable on singleplayer but only if you’re up for the challenge. See More

Top Pro

Really fun to plan out trap layouts

This game is all about slaying hordes of orcs and other demihumans. To do that you’ll have to set up many traps, including spike traps, tar pits, massive meat grinders, and many others. Your success depends on how well you plan out the layouts, so it feels really satisfying when you make a great death trap. See More

Top Pro

Quite funny

It's very surprising how lighthearted it feels despite all the blood and death in it. From its cartoony and colorful designs to heroes cracking jokes in the heat of combat and the nonsense orcs spout at you, this game clearly doesn't take itself too seriously. OMDU somehow makes orcs getting dismembered feel funny. See More

Ironcast

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Unique setting

The game takes place in an alternate timeline 1886 victorian England, but with a steampunk twist. England and France go to war over Voltite, a recently discovered resource which causes a great surge in mechanical and engineering advances. From this new technology springs the Ironcasts, a war machine that is a cross between a tank and a mech. In the pilot seat of your Ironcast, you play on the side of England as it attempts to thwart a French invasion. See More

Top Con

Favors RNG over skill

Due to the randomness of the gem matching game used for combat, an element of luck will always be present. Pure RNG determines what mix of combat gems (ammo, energy, repair, and coolant) are placed on the board, which may turn off those who want to truly master a game through skill. See More

Specs

Genre:Turn-Based Strategy, Roguelike, Puzzle

Top Pro

A new experience each playthrough thanks to randomized missions

You must defeat 9 missions in order to win the game, however these missions are randomly generated and you are allowed to select 1 from a group of 3 each time you advance. The missions are also highly varied. Some missions require you to only do enough damage to your enemy so that your foe's mech can still be salvaged. Another may require you to battle waves of enemies until reinforcements arrive. Some require you to collect a certain amount of resources or even diffuse bombs. There's enough variety where you'll always be trying something new, so the randomized mission setup helps to keep the game feeling fresh. See More

Top Con

Permadeath doesn't feel like it fits in a luck based game

Sometimes you simply won't get enough ammo gems to do much damage, or enough shield gems for a proper defense. This will result in a loss, and because of the randomness, it never quite feels like it was your fault. In a game based on RNG and luck, permadeath just doesn't work and can feel extremely frustrating. When you die, you lose all your gold, xp, blueprints, weapons, and upgrades. See More

Top Pro

Loads of strategic combat choices

While each mech has its own overall health bar, each of their subsystems (weapons, shields, and drive) also has its own individual health bar. That means you can target your opponents various systems to disable their weapons or shields, or even disable their drive so they're unable to maneuver away from your attacks. Deciding which system to go for at opportune times can result in some rather strategic and exciting gameplay. For example, you might take down their shields so your weapons hit harder. Or you may opt to take out their weapon systems so they will have to repair before they can unleash more attacks. In addition to being able to target various systems, you can also choose a pilot and a mech separately. The pilots and mechs all have their own special abilities and cooldowns, meaning you'll be able to mix and match quite a few different setups. See More

Top Pro

Gameplay feels fresh and new due to the puzzle based combat

Combining match three puzzle solving with resource management results in an extremely fresh combat system that is rarely seen in the roguelike genre. By taking turns with your opponent and matching various colored gems on a 6x6 grid, you'll build resources. These resources do such things as fire your weapons, power up your shield, repair, and keep your mech from overheating. While you are only able to make 2 gem matches per turn to build resources, you can take as many actions as you want provided you generated the resources needed to pull them off. See More

Top Pro

Fun and exciting combat

Choosing which gems to focus on matching each turn results in some fun combat choices. For example, you could focus on pooling your ammo gems for several rounds, only to turn around and unleash a devastating assault on your enemy. If your enemy is relentless, you could work on matching only repair and shield gems to keep your shields up. The combat revolves around deciding which gem matches should take priority versus working around what gems the board is providing. Since it's always random, it can lead to some pretty exciting choices where you'll have to think and react on the fly. See More

The Banner Saga 2

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Solid tactical combat

Even though Banner Saga 2’s turn-based combat system is fairly straightforward. You and your opponent take turns in moving and attacking with units on a tactical grid. Each unit has its strengths, weaknesses, and set of unique abilities that you need to consider. For example, archers can attack from far away but they have low armor, so you can’t leave them out in the open. Another example are the Varl, very durable and strong melee units that occupy 4 tiles as opposed to 1. This makes it trickier to position them since more enemies can stand next to them and attack them. This creates combat that is not too simple but still has enough variety and strategy involved to feel rewarding. See More

Top Con

HP damage based attacks cause one-dimensional tactics

A unit's current number of hit points equals the damage it will deal to an enemy. Because of this, the best strategy is always to hit all enemy units in a sequence, so they inflict as little damage as possible. Any other strategy is too risky and can backfire way too easily, limiting your creativity. See More

Specs

Genre:Turn-based RPG

Top Pro

Great hand drawn graphics

Banner Saga 2 environments, characters, and animations are all hand-drawn. This includes your caravan as it marches over a snowy hill, passing trees and houses in the distance. The various viking-esque soldiers, centaurs and other mythological creatures, swinging axes and thrusting spears on a worn out bridge. Even the very detailed character sprites as they discuss matters with extremely serious expressions. Everything just feels like you’re watching an animated movie, which is something almost never encountered in a game. See More

Top Con

Incomplete story

To get a full and satisfying story, you’ll have to play the entire Banner Saga trilogy. Banner Saga 2 on its own feels like you’ve suddenly started reading a book from the middle. There are a lot of characters you know very little about, making it hard to understand their motivations. The on-going events are not explained fully. Even the ending is not a satisfying conclusion but just a setup for the next arc. See More

Top Pro

Helps you to learn the gameplay thoroughly

Tactical RPGs can be really intimidating, especially if you're just starting out. The tutorials often blaze forward, causing you to miss important mechanics. Luckily, Banner Saga 2 tries to alleviate this by adding a trainer NPC who will give you challenges. These involve performing various combat exercises, helping you to solidify your understanding of the game and even learn something new. See More

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