Cliff Notes – The 14 best PlayStation 5 DualSense games – from Deathloop to Astro Bot
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Enhanced Immersion: The DualSense controller’s adaptive triggers and haptic feedback significantly enhance gameplay, making experiences like sprinting in A Plague Tale feel more intense and realistic.
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Unique Game Experiences: Titles such as Deathloop and Kena: Bridge of Spirits utilise the controller’s features creatively, offering distinct sensations that elevate gameplay mechanics, from weapon jamming to varying attack resistances.
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Diverse Game Library: A range of genres, from survival horror in Silent Hill f to puzzle platforming in The Pedestrian, showcase the DualSense’s versatility, proving it enhances both action-packed and more subdued gaming experiences.
The 14 best PlayStation 5 DualSense games – from Deathloop to Astro Bot
The DualSense’s features can be literal game changers (Metro)
GameCentral celebrates the magic of the DualSense controller with the best PlayStation 5 games from Sony and others, that use its features to the fullest.
While the PlayStation 5 is often criticised for its lack of big exclusives, even its harshest critics admit that its DualSense controller is a significant improvement over what came before.
Whether it’s the original or the excellent DualSense Edge, Sony’s controller is widely considered superior to the Xbox one, thanks to its adaptive triggers and haptic feedback. However, like many such hardware features, they’re only used to their full potential in a handful of games.
The ones that do use them properly really benefit from the fact, so if you’ve only recently acquired a PlayStation 5, and are looking for some games to make the most out of the DualSense, here’s our list of the best examples you can add to your library.
A Plague Tale: Innocence & Requiem
A Plague Tale: Innocence was already an impressive stealth horror adventure when it launched in 2019, but its PlayStation 5 port is particularly good because of its DualSense implementation – which also goes for its sequel, A Plague Tale: Requiem.
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Moments where you need to flee are more tense than ever since you need to hold one of the adaptive triggers to sprint and there’s some resistance, making it feel like a genuine struggle to escape from whatever’s chasing you. The triggers are also used for the slingshot weapon, which encourages you to not take too long with aiming and firing, since your precision will worsen.
The haptic feedback is the star of the show, though, since aside from replicating footsteps across whatever terrain you’re walking across, the frequent hordes of rats you encounter cause the controller to vibrate in such a way that it almost feels like they’re running across your hands, adding to the creepiness of it all.
Bugsnax
Among the PlayStation 5’s initial line-up of games, Bugsnax was easily the oddest (that’s a compliment, by the way). And while it has since been ported to Xbox and Nintendo Switch, the PlayStation 5 is still the best place to play it because of the DualSense controller.
Aside from the fact that you can hear the titular and adorable looking bugsnax (cartoonish hybrids of bugs and food) let out Pokémon-esque cries through the DualSense speaker, exploration is more immersive as the haptic feedback changes depending on the terrain and weather.
The game also makes the most out of the adaptive triggers, using them differently with every gadget you acquire and making the act of catching bugsnax more satisfying.
Silent Hill f
Konami’s immersive new survival horror makes good use of haptic feedback with its weapons and melee attacks but one of the best gimmicks in Silent Hill f is using the DualSense’s built-in speaker to emit static when you’re near a radio.
Radios are carefully hidden Easter eggs in the game, while the static sound is a nod back to the earliest Silent Hill games, where it was originally an indication that monsters were nearby.
In fact, it’s a shame it’s not used more, as the game is creepy enough as it is, with the way it makes you question the reality of its story, that when it suddenly breaks into your living room, with sounds unexpectedly coming out of the controller, it’s a real shock.
Chorus
Space combat sim Chorus didn’t initially make use of any of the DualSense’s features, when it launched in late 2021. A few months later, though, and developer Fishlabs shared an update that included support for the controller’s adaptive triggers.
While we don’t think its inclusion would’ve affected our final score, it’s a very welcome addition, with the adaptive triggers working with each weapon and making it more impactful whenever you fire one.
It’s a little thing that helps make Chorus slightly more immersive. If you’re a fan of space sims and this one slipped you by, we still highly recommend it, especially since it’s pretty cheap at £19.99.
Deathloop
One detail that went overlooked, when Deathloop was first released in 2021, is how it takes full advantage of the DualSense’s capabilities in ways beyond the basics, especially for a third party game.
The game’s weapon jamming mechanic almost feels tailor made for the DualSense, since adaptive triggers will lock up whenever it happens – which is a novel way of encouraging you to switch weapons and provides a level of immersion not possible on other platforms.
Plus, pretty much everything triggers the haptic feedback, from firing your guns to sneaking through the snow or running across steel walkways. You can even feel fireworks exploding in the distance. You also have nemesis Julianna taunting you through the controller’s speaker, making the rivalry a lot more personal.
Inscryption
As a deck-building card game, Inscryption wouldn’t be the first game you’d think of for full DualSense compatibility. And yet it uses the controller’s features better than many triple-A games.
There’s haptic feedback for picking and playing cards, which is even relative to where they’re positioned, as well as any other movement on the board, like when new pieces are placed or removed.
Despite the lack of high-octane action, even the adaptive triggers are used, demanding you apply extra force when ringing the bell that ends your turn or picking cards to sacrifice, almost as if they’re resisting it. The best instances, though, are tied to more dramatic and shocking moments we’re loathe to spoil, so you’ll have to take our word for it.
Kena: Bridge Of Spirits
Kena: Bridge Of Spirits is another example of a PlayStation release that eventually went multiplatform but is arguably best enjoyed on PlayStation 5 thanks to the DualSense.
Aside from the graphics, the DualSense functionality is the most modern aspect of this PlayStation 2 era throwback, with Kena’s light and heavy attacks causing the controller to rumble in different ways. The sensation of blocking with the shield is particularly satisfying.
Additionally, the adaptive triggers provide different levels of resistance depending on your choice of attack and when using Kena’s bow, fully drawing the string will allow for a more accurate and stronger arrow shot.
Metro Exodus
If you’re only ever going to play one Metro game, make it the PlayStation 5 version of Metro Exodus’ enhanced edition. While it’s a fantastic survival game regardless of platform, its use of the DualSense is enough to make the PlayStation 5 port the best option.
Admittedly, the actual gunplay isn’t Metro Exodus’ strongest suit (almost deliberately so), but the haptic feedback gives it an edge over other platforms, with each weapon feeling distinct and even gaining subtle changes as you customise them.
Combined with the adaptive triggers, which require increased pressure for certain weapons and actions like rowing, it’s easily the most immersive version of the game. Hopefully, such features will be retained for the next Metro game.
The Pedestrian
A 2D puzzle platformer like The Pedestrian doesn’t seem like an obvious choice for DualSense support and developer Skookum Arts was under no obligation to add any for the game’s PlayStation 5 port.
Regardless, it boasts some fantastic DualSense implementation, with nearly everything in the game triggering the haptic feedback, whether it be your stick figure character’s footsteps, picking up objects, or background effects like rumbling subway trains.
This extra sense of immersion feeds into The Pedestrian’s overall atmosphere, which is further enhanced by the excellent soundtrack, though you should play this game regardless thanks to its cleverly made puzzles.
Stray
Like some earlier examples, Stray is more widely available nowadays, across multiple platforms. But its initial PlayStation 5 version is still the best way to play it thanks to how developer BlueTwelve Studio takes advantage of the DualSense.
Having the playable cat’s meows come out of the controller’s speaker was an obvious inclusion, but Stray takes things further, using the adaptive triggers to simulate the cat’s claws as it digs into and scratches against surfaces like wooden poles and carpets.
The haptic feedback is the best feature, though, especially for cat fanatics since you can feel every movement the cat makes, from pushing glasses off tables to even when it takes a little nap and purrs softly in its sleep.
Returnal
We wanted to avoid focusing too much on Sony’s own output, since its games typically always make use of the DualSense, but Returnal really goes the extra mile.
Its use of both the adaptive triggers and haptic feedback is fantastic, with the former working so that pressing the left trigger halfway lets you aim, but clicking down activates the alt-fire mode – the random effects applied to each weapon.
As for the haptic feedback, our favourite example remains the subtle pulses that accompany raindrops. Each weapon handles differently, but never to the point of becoming distracting. Hopefully, such features will return for developer Housemarque’s next game Saros in 2026.
Astro’s Playroom/Astro Bot
Astro’s Playroom is the most obvious inclusion for this list considering it’s literally a tech demo for what the DualSense, as well as the PlayStation 5 itself, is capable of.
The controller is constantly and pleasingly rattling in different ways depending on the environment and the motion controls for Astro’s various power-ups work incredibly well, which also make fantastic use of the adaptive triggers. Even the touchpad is used in charming ways, like zipping up Astro into a mech suit or flinging him out of the onscreen controller
Unsurprisingly, all of this was retained for the kinda sorta sequel Astro Bot, but that game also boasts some of the best force feedback we’ve ever seen (or rather felt), with the constant rumbling intensifying or softening to satisfying degrees throughout the adventure.
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