Update: We've updated this list with the most current games available on the PlayStation 3, while keeping in mind that most of the games we've already listed remain the cream of the crop, even to this day. Read on to find out what we've changed and what we've kept.
The Xbox 360 may have the Halo series and Gears of War to tide players over, but the aforementioned console clearly lacks games with the finesse of Nathan Drake, the artistry of Folklore and the sheer brutality of Kratos.
Sony's consoles have long since been home to some of the finest action adventure games ever made, from Okami to Shadow of the Colossus, and the PlayStation 3 is no different. Platform to some of the best action adventure games available today, the PlayStation 3 will soon be home to The Last Guardian, the next game by Team ICO.
Here are some of the finest games that the PlayStation 3 has to offer, many of which are available only on the platform.
Here are the Top 10 Action Adventure Games on the PS3 in no particular order,
DMC: Devil May Cry
DmC: Devil May Cry was subject to a whole lot of belly-aching before its release. Long-time fans complained that Dante, the game's protagonist, no longer had white hair, and that the game wasn't being true to its predecessors by being developed by a foreign studio like Ninja Theory.
Well, the game's out now, and it's managed to prove every one of the gamers who had bad things to say about it prior to its release wrong. Love it or hate it as a Devil May Cry title, it's a damn good game with fine action, well-written characters, and a narrative that grips you and won't let go.
Check out our review here.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Nathan Drake reprises his role as an internationally renowned treasure seeker in Uncharted 2, returning with his rogueish personality and rugged good looks. After Drake is approached by two fellow treasure hunters with an offer he can't refuse, he makes his way to a Turkish museum to retrieve an artifact in what seems like a simple milk run–assuming that leaping across rooftops and subduing armed guards is all par on course for the average adventurer.
As you would come to expect, there's no honor among thieves, and Drake finds himself betrayed by his former companions who have simply used him to acquire the treasure, with him to take the fall for the crime.
After spending many months in a Turkish prison, Drake finds himself liberated by his old friend Sully and one of the companions who betrayed him–his ex-girlfriend Chloe Frazer, who claims that the employer she's working for (a Serbian war criminal) intends to use the treasure towards some pretty nefarious ends. What else would you expect a military dictator? He can't really trust Chloe, but he can't let the bad guys get away with it, either.
In Uncharted 2, Drake makes his way through the jungles of Borneo, the wartorn streets of Nepal and the highlands of the Himalayan Mountains. As he does so, he runs into Elena Fisher again. What a pleasant surprise!
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
Enslaved is a retelling of the Journey to the West, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. It's a story that's inspired multiple TV shows, movies and animes from Korea, Japan and China.
Written by Alex Garland, best known for his work on 28 Days Later and Sunshine, Enslaved reimagines the story in a futuristic post-apocalyptic setting. With a few twisted details, the plot revolves around a young woman who enlists the protection of a warrior, who in the original story happened to be an elemental monkey god. Here, he's a big brawny guy who goes by the name of Monkey. He also beats robots to death with his fists.
The game combines the climbing and platforming of Uncharted with a rich and colorful portrayal of post-apocalyptic New York City set a century and a half into the future.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
Playing as Gabriel Belmont, the series' latest protagonist, you're a member of the Brotherhood of Light, an order of guardians sworn to protect the lands against supernatural foes. When Gabriel's wife Marie is slain by a beast, Gabriel vows to avenge her and sets off across the land to retrieve two sacred masks that have the power to revive her and defeat the Lords of Shadow who hold possession over them.
Castlevania is well known for its side-scrolling platformers, often referred to as "Metroidvanias" due to the popularity of both the Castlevania and Metroid series. With three almost identical games out on the Nintendo DS, one on PSN/XBLA and a remake for the PS3, Castlevania's far less remembered for its first forays into 3D on the N64 and later on the PS2.
Enter Lords of Shadow, Castlevania's re-entry into the action adventure genre. It's Belmont meets Nathan Drake meets Kratos in this game. Not only does it feature great hack and slash gameplay, it also offers boundless wall scaling and heavy acrobatics, all while retaining Castlevania's satisfying element of powering up.
God of War III
You're Kratos, the God of War and slayer of Olympus. After an epic journey through two titles on the PlayStation 2 and two more on the PSP, Kratos' odyssey is finally coming to an end. With the assistance of the Titans, he scales Mount Olympus to besiege the home of the gods to whom he owes revenge for the deaths of his wife and daughter–a premise that surprisingly hasn't become terribly old despite being mentioned over several games. He's incredibly pissed off, and he wants everyone to suffer for it.
God of War 3 offers one of the most violent experiences I've ever come across in any video game, as you get to watch Kratos dismember his foes limb from limb, bashing their skulls open with his bare hands and delivering some of the most painful looking death sequences ever conceived by a game developer.
While its violence may contribute to the game's visual appeal, God of War 3 is not without beauty. All the action takes place in an otherworld so vividly rendered that you'd have to be blind not to appreciate. Furthermore, the gameplay itself is so fluid that most hack and slashers feel totally sluggish by comparison.
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Most Batman games have suffered from a case of terminal atrociousness, which is a terribly kind thing to say about them considering how unplayable most licensed superhero games tend to be. But I digress. Where most Batman games have been little more than disappointments, Rocksteady's Arkham Asylum is more than merely good: it is great.
Arkham Asylum combines Batman's detective skills, his ability to stay hidden and his ability to hand a lot of bad guys their asses by splitting the game into a few different modes that blend seamlessly into one another as you make progress through the insane asylum. It gives us an extended glimpse at what it's like to be the Dark Knight, and it does so with skill and finesse. This winner of countless video game awards could not be more deserving of its prestige and it sets the bar not only for superhero games but for games in general.
While the game has seen releases on the PC, 360 and the PS3, it's on the consoles that Batman feels most at home. It must be something to do with the controls.
Assassin's Creed 2
Assassin's Creed 2 largely takes place in the genetic memories of series protagonist Desmond Miles as he seeks to uncover the secrets of the Assassins to learn their abilities in order to fight against the Templar, who were revealed to be master manipulators bent on taking over the world in the first game. The Templar, far from the good guys they're sometimes depicted as in popular media, seek to retrieve out-of-place artifacts called "Pieces of Eden" which, like the DaVinci-inspired Rambaldi Artifacts in the TV series Alias, will grant their owners unlimited power.
With the help of lab technician and researcher Lucy Stillman, Desmond escapes the Abstergo Industries complex he was trapped in, with his genetic memories in tow, and finds a safehouse in which he and a group of Assassins helps him to uncover his memories of his ancestor and Assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze in order to learn his abilities and uncover the secrets of the past.
In Desmond's genetic memory, the game largely takes place during the Italian Renaissance, in locales like Venice, Florence and the Tuscan countryside and follows Ezio's footsteps as he becomes a master Assassin. The plot is rife with politics and Machiavellian machinations that were the zeitgeist of late fifteenth century Italy.
Ezio, like his predecessor Altair, is damn good at parkour and prefers a display of acrobatics over simple movements. Stairs? Who needs to climb stairs when you can leap across rooftops?
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider is a fine game, and it's probably the best follow-up or reboot we could've hoped for the series, given the pedigree of its predecessors. Developed by Core Design and published by Square Enix, Tomb Raider is everything good about the series, made better by all the improvements and enhancements retooled and taken from more recent games.
In Tomb Raider, players once again play the role of Lara Croft, now younger, inexperienced, and happily enough, redesigned to cater less to the male gaze and to be much more fleshed out as a character of her own.
Needless to say, Tomb Raider stands up on its own and were it released without the pedigree, it would still be an amazing game.
On the awesome action-adventure scale of 1 to 10, Tomb Raider's an 11, far ahead of most of its counterparts in the genre.
Ratchet & Clank: Future Tools of Destruction
In the midst of jerking around on Metropolis, the series' titular heroes Ratchet and Clank receive a distress call from Captain Qwark, who informs them that a large army of robotic commandos have laid a full scale attack on the capital city at the behest of the evil Emperor Tachyon. Outgunned, the heroes flee from the battle and devise a strategy to turn the tide of battle. Without giving too much away, this plan of theirs involves acquiring new allies, and it takes them from planet to planet as they uncover secret technologies to aid them in their mission.
Future Tools of Destruction is Ratchet & Clank's first (of three) entries onto the PlayStation 3. Designed as the first installment of the "Future" trilogy, it sets the stage for what is to become one of the most memorable experiences that the platform has to offer.
Like all other R&C games, the game plays like a platform-shooter with quite a bit of exploration. It also comes with quite a bit of RPG elements, as weapons and armor can be improved according to a tree-like upgrade structure as you invest Raritanium crystals on upgrades. Beyond the regular game, Tools of Destruction also features race courses and on-rails space combat missions. Don't worry, it pulls those modes off pretty well.
Red Dead Redemption
I'd be doing John Marston a great disservice by calling Red Dead Redemption a Grand Theft Auto game set in the Wild West. It's a lot more than that. It's a gripping tale of a former outlaw seeking redemption of his past crimes by doing the government's bidding to save his family. Well, I suppose that's not too different from Niko Bellic wanting to take revenge on the man who murdered his squad in the Balkan War. Needless to say, Rockstar tells a good story and RDR is no exception.
Much of the game consists of walking around like a cowboy who's armed to the teeth and showing the outlaws who's boss around these parts. You take on the role of sheriff's deputy, revolutionary, and government marshall as you make your way across the blistering sands of New Austin to the unstable edge of Mexico that stands at the brink of war with itself.
Strap on your cowboy boots and give this one a spin if you're ever in the mood for some good old fashioned shooting, lassoing and a damn good story.
