PS4: Most Challenging Launch Games

Looking for a PS4 game that’ll test your skills? We have a few suggestions.

When a new console launches, a lot of money is spent. Between the large investment of the console itself, plus the accessories you’ll need, and a couple of games, it’s not a stretch to say that many people will be spending $600 or more later this week. With that kind of money on the line, some people want games that will give them a challenge and hopefully last through the launch window until the next wave of quality titles hits. We took the liberty of compiling a list of some PS4 launch titles (in no particular order) that should give you more of a challenge.

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Battlefield 4

You can argue whether or not Battlefield 4 is more challenging than Call of Duty: Ghosts until the cows come home. The reason we selected Battlefield over CoD in this feature is because the Battlefield crowd tends to skew slightly more hardcore than the CoD crowd. Just getting previous games in the series running on user-generated servers is a testament to that.

It’s also important to note that Battlefield has been out longer and you’re likely to see more than a few PS3 or Xbox 360 players making the jump to the PS4 version of the game. They’ll already know their way around the maps, and probably have a solid grasp on which guns are best in specific situations. You’ll have a hard time going up against these experienced players in online multiplayer.

Injustice: Gods Among Us

Battlefield 4 has been out for a few weeks, but Injustice has been out for over half a year. Most of the people playing this game on the PlayStation 4 have probably played the game quite a bit over the last few months. They know the ins and outs of the characters and are accustomed to high level play, both online and offline. You won’t be able to get away with “noob” tactics against most of the online crowd. Bring your seasoned A-game, or you’re going to get stomped to the ground. Even if you played Injustice when it first released, the PS4 version features all of the DLC characters that have released since the game first hit the PS3 and Xbox 360. If you don’t know your character match-ups, it almost doesn’t matter how good you are, you’re going down.

Need for Speed: Rivals

Almost every previous entry in the Need for Speed franchise has offered a solid challenge to racing game fans. You won’t find the technical aspects of a simulation racer, but for a fun, arcade-style racing game, the Need for Speed series has almost always delivered. With Rivals, the new AllDrive multiplayer feature blurs the line between single player and multiplayer. You won’t know if you’re chasing down an AI racer, or if a friend joined your game with his own bag of tricks. Couple this with the new RPG-like system to level up your in-game persona, and it will take some time to unlock all of the weapons and tricks you can unleash on your friends and AI opponents.

Of course, in addition to all of this, you have the standard depth and challenge that comes with any racing game. You’ll need time to learn all of the tracks, find out where the short cuts are, figure out where and when to use roadblocks and other tools, and figure out how to get the best times on the point-to-point runs. There’s a lot to do here that should hold racing fans over until DriveClub hits.

Super Motherload

The PlayStation 4 isn’t just about the big-budget titles from major studios. There are plenty of indie and smaller studio games that will be released on launch day. Super Motherload is one of these titles, and it’s looking to be one of the more challenging games in the launch lineup. Each world in Super Motherload is generated procedurally, which means every new level will be a completely new experience. Playing this game over and over won’t result in learning each level, so you’ll find something new with each play through.

There are over 150 puzzles in the game that are begging to be solved, not to mention a hardcore mode that severely kicks up the difficulty. With multiple endings and 10 playable characters you can unlock, there’s a lot of gameplay in this little package. That’s not even mentioning the online and local multiplayer, which adds yet another layer to the challenge and appeal of the game. This game is like Dig Dug on crack, and we love the challenge it presents.

Resogun

When it comes to shooters, Geometry Wars is easily one of the most popular from the current (last?) generation of consoles. However, on the PlayStation 3, Super Stardust HD offered a moderately close counterpart to Geometry Wars. The game wasn’t quite as challenging, but it was also no less fun. Fast-forward to the launch of the PlayStation 4, and we’ve got the spiritual successor to the Super Stardust series, Resogun.

At first glance, Resogun may not seem all that challenging. It resembles that old shooter Defender more than any of the more hectic modern shooters. You find the humans, collect them, and deliver them to safety. Sounds easy enough… but then you look at everything you have to do all at once. At any given moment during the game you’ll need to target bad guys, grab the humans, dodge a plethora of attacks, watch out for dangers from either side of the screen, AND deliver the humans to safety. It’s not quite the “bullet-hell” that some shooters present, but put it all together and it’s far more challenging than you may think.


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Author
Bryan Dawson
Bryan Dawson has an extensive background in the gaming industry, having worked as a journalist for various publications for nearly 20 years and participating in a multitude of competitive fighting game events. He has authored over a dozen strategy guides for Prima Games, worked as a consultant on numerous gaming-related TV and web shows and was the Operations Manager for the fighting game division of the IGN Pro League.