Souls Like but not Git Gud hard:
Star Wars Force Awakens (great Star Wars fun and story, not an overly long game)
Ghost of Tsushima (gorgeous samurai fighting with a Kurosawa filter, fighting off mongol hordes, also open world)
Open World, fantastic stories:
Horizon Zero Dawn
Death Stranding (Hideo Kojima, starring Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelson, Lea Sedoux and tons of guest stars…does physics-style glorified amazon delivery fetch quest in a haunted post apocalyptic social-distancing-US)
J-Action RPG:
Final Fantasy VII Remake (2 hours of original expanded to 40 hours, action packed beautiful nostalgia-fest)
Random Short burst of fun, battle royale:
Fall Guys (get a PS+ subscription and pick up this fun little mario party meets physics engine meets battle royale genre minus the guns)
First Person gorgeous story telling:
Detroit Become Human (has some problems but gorgeous ethical ai future story telling with branching paths)
The Last Of Us 2 (best animation maybe in all of PS4, Death Stranding is close here, kind of brutal zombie story telling though, good queer representation)
I also like Outer Wilds which is a myst-like puzzler meets Zelda mask of majora time loop space explorer.
If you pick up Red Dead 2 or Witcher be prepared for hundreds of hours of gameplay to finish. Maybe a bit much in my opinion. I also think Red Dead is an overrated horse sim, and think that Ghost of Tsushima does a better western. But that’s my (slightly unpopular but not unheard of) opinion
I’ve really enjoyed the whole Borderlands series. Aways strikes the right balance for me of hunter/gatherer, open world wandering, and frenetic action. Immersive enough to feel engaged, but without fussy collecting of things to build potions or whatever. And lots and lots of guns.
Last of Us was great. Journey doesn’t quite fit your description, but is short and worth playing.
+1 on RDR2. The scenery is so nice, I actually don’t mind having to take a ride from Saint Denis up to, say, the veteran’s homestead. When I get bored with nothing to do, I like to head up to the cave near Annesburg, pull out my scope rifle and lure the inbreds out, pickin’ 'em off one by one.
Top down rogue-like bullet-hell-ish dungeon crawler - Enter the Gungeon - a million and one things to unlock, the better you get the more you unlock the better your runs. Great retro style.
TowerFall Ascension - awesome 4 player vs mode or 2 player co-op.
Crawl - This game is super fun with 3 or 4 people. You play a dungeon crawler and the other players are the monsters. Kill the player and you take your turn. Can play against AI. Level up monsters and gear as you go. Unique style of game with a very retro look.
Let It Die - i spend waaaayyyy too much time on this rather pointless 3rd person adventure game. But - it is free to play. Note, if you die it costs real money to continue (though you can earn that currency in game, not requiring you to spend much or anything.) I took it super slow compared to some people on how i climbed the tower.
I have dozens of games I have barely cracked into.
Which is a doubly amazing feat when you consider they pretty much had to have started the whole thing with “We want to shoot robot dinosaurs with a bow and arrow, how do we write a story that makes sense of that?”
Can’t second Last Of Us 1 and 2 enough. One thing not mentioned that is amazing is Human Fall Flat. Go forth and fall flat! Crazy fun, especially with a partner!
My whole family has enjoyed Jedi: Fallen Order. Spiderman will definitely keep you busy for a while. I’m a fan of cheezy fun, so pretty much any of the licensed Lego games hit that mark.
OH - I got Fallen Order - and oddly - have been consuming it in chunks. I do really like it so far, though I guess I had to adjust my play style. Once I did that I started to do a better job of not dying.
Did you mean Jedi:Fallen Order? That’s what I came to mention. Fun, easy (for a Souls-like), and has the likenesses of the human actors, which is pretty cool in my book.
This gets my vote, Bloodborne is a masterpiece of gothic horror. Incredible art direction, music, and sound design. It can be difficult at times, but the difficulty makes the experience more satisfying than other games of its ilk; you feel a palpable sense of relief after defeating one of its nightmarish bosses and progressing onwards.
Loved Detroit: Become Human. Great concept. Devastating emotionally at the end (which I loved in the game). Not open world, linear-ish, but story was great
