War is fertile ground for gaming. Of course, the realities of war are far too horrific to depict in a video game (unless it’s trying to make a serious point, of course), but there are plenty of gaming experiences you can turn to if you want to experience a “gamified” version of war. The PS4 is no different in this regard; you’ll find that there are a huge amount of PS4 war games you can play if you want to immerse yourself in a Hollywood blockbuster-style war, or, indeed, if you want to think about the realities in which many people find themselves when war visits them. Here are the best PS4 war games to play in 2022.
Call of Duty: Vanguard
We’d be fools not to mention a Call of Duty game if we’re talking about war gaming on the PS4. Vanguard is the latest game in the series, and it takes things back to the theatre of World War II, hitting a lot of the so-called “greatest hits” of the conflict. The single-player’s storyline is mournful and surprisingly well-considered; it touches on subjects like racism among the Allies, so it’s not just a typical meat-headed Call of Duty campaign. Over in the multiplayer arena, the gameplay is classic Call of Duty, right down to the World War II tech on display.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War
We wanted to give a special shout-out to Ubisoft’s rather underrated little adventure game Valiant Hearts: The Great War on this list. Unlike other war games, The Great War isn’t really about conflict; rather, it’s about the human beings who find themselves caught up in those conflicts, and tells a series of human, engaging stories revolving around the titular Great War (that’s World War I). The gameplay itself is somewhat inconsequential, but the beautiful art style contrasts well with the emotional gut-punches on offer here.
Wolfenstein: The New Order
Before the release of The New Order, the Wolfenstein series was in pretty desperate need of a rejig. That rejig turned out to be exactly what The New Order was offering. Recasting series hero B.J. Blazkowicz as a tired, jaded veteran, The New Order showed that there was life in the old dog yet. Its narrative of exhausted friends just trying to do right by each other was consistently compelling, and its first-person stealth-shooter action blended excellent level design with satisfying violence and a suite of perks to unlock.
Call of Duty: Warzone and Modern Warfare
Warzone debuted alongside Modern Warfare back in 2019, with one being a solid battle royale offering and the other being a more conventional Call of Duty game. Warzone is still the better proposition thanks to consistently being updated and changed, but Modern Warfare is worth revisiting as well. If you want to immerse yourself in a landscape of war that’s closer to the modern day than any rose-tinted perception of what past wars were like, then both Modern Warfare and Warzone should sate that hunger for you.
Enlisted
Another game that revolves around World War II, Enlisted casts you and your friends as a squad in one of the key battles of the conflict, asking you to battle other squads for supremacy. Enlisted is one of the most authentic-feeling World War II multiplayer experiences around; the developers have carefully crafted weapons, items, and other things that appeared during World War II in order to achieve maximum realism. Of course, it doesn’t feel like being in a real war, but it’s as close as you’ll get without travelling back in time and signing up with the military.
Sniper Ghost Warrior: Contracts 2
Released in June 2021, Sniper Ghost Warrior: Contracts 2 is akin to games like Hitman in its mission-based approach. You’re given a target and a level to assassinate them in, and you can choose, largely speaking, how you do it. Will you run at the target guns blazing, or will you approach them silently? Will you set up at a distance and aim your sniper rifle at them, taking them down without them even realising what’s happened? There is, of course, a story as well, although it’s not particularly interesting compared to the open-ended, freeform gameplay.
This War of Mine
Developer 11 bit studios set out to craft something a little more cerebral with This War of Mine. It’s a management game in which you take care of a colony of civilians during a war, looking after their needs and making sure they have enough resources to survive. Along the way, you’ll eventually have to potentially rob others in order to stay alive, as well as making some difficult moral decisions about who gets to live and who doesn’t. As you might imagine, this isn’t exactly a gung-ho wartime experience; it’s dark, depressing, and thoroughly engaging.
Battlefield 1
When developing Battlefield 1, it seems like EA wanted to create something a little less modern than the series’ more recent instalments. The company achieved that with this game, which takes things back to World War I. Campaign-wise, you’re getting a series of vignette-style stories, each of which focuses on a different soldier during the conflict. The multiplayer is also robust, evoking the chaos and brutality of a real battlefield. If you want to experience life as a World War I soldier, then you could definitely do a lot worse than Battlefield 1.