Great strategy games, especially tricky games that offer a real challenge, are usually associated with PC gaming. It can be easier to assign intricate controls when players have access to a full keyboard, with the accuracy of control that is allowed by a mouse. However, the PS5 has a huge catalog of incredible games and among this treasure trove are a number of solid strategy games that work surprisingly well with a controller.

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For fans of punishing strategy games that make every decision count, the PS5 can more than provide. Here are some of the hardest strategy games that can be played on the PS5, ranked in order of their difficulty.

7 Stellaris

Space Civilization On An Epic Scale

The grandest space strategy game out there, Stellaris is unmatched in its massive scope. Players control an interstellar civilization that is expanding across the galaxy. Along the way, players will encounter other alien civilizations. The game hinges on managing an empire, whether through careful democracy or authoritarian rule, and changes to law can upset factions that establish themselves within the player's ranks.

Fighting massive wars across the void of space, establishing expensive megastructures, and ensuring that fans don't have their settlements falling prey to other civilizations or rogue ideologies make this a very detailed exploration of space. The opportunity to choose their approach can be overwhelming and the game is hard, but fair, offering the player many routes to success.

6 Frostpunk

Chilly Survival And Management

Frostpunk is brutal. Survivors of a new ice age struggle against the cold while supplies run low and the city slowly builds. Workers must be protected as an invaluable resource, and other statistics to manage include the depressing 'hope' level of the player's settlement. Making tough decisions for their people, unrest is likely to build against the ruling class.

It can often feel like spinning plates in Frostpunk and hoping that none of them will fall. Consequences are real here, and it can be all too easy for the settlement to die during a cold snap that catches a player by surprise. This punishing and uncertain mood is part of Frostpunk's appeal; mastering this challenging system is slow and purposeful.

5 Slay The Spire

Delicious Deck Builder

The great deck builder that ignited the genre, Slay The Spire is difficult. It never shies away from the challenges that it throws at the player, letting them try to engineer their deck into something that can clutch victory from the hordes of monsters along the path. Every failed attempt will urge the player on with new unlocks, and eventually, players will understand the deep strategy in card choice, which relics to collect, or when to focus on defending rather than throwing out attacks.

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On the PlayStation, the game's controls are intuitive, and sitting down to embark on another quest through the Spire will inevitably lead to a barrage of attempts until fans get that perfect run that gives them a well-earned victory. While it is undoubtedly one of the hardest strategy games on the PS5, it is also one of the best.

4 Shadow Tactics: Blades Of The Shogun

Isometric Strenuous Stealth

Great stealth games usually have their suspense heightened by immersion, but Shadow Tactics uses its stealth in a different way. Each level is made up of a series of mind-bending puzzles that have to be carefully navigated. Different characters have different skills and so offer different approaches.

Players will have to decide when to use a distraction to break up big groups and when to throw in a character who can take them all out at once. These chains of cause and effect that occur across the map form a playground that can be manipulated by the most savvy players — but that may leave those with less of a knack for tactical thinking behind.

3 Crusader Kings 3

Making History, One Failure At A Time

Delivering the incredible experience of governing their own people to players on the PS5, Crusader Kings 3 builds on the previous installment in huge game-changing ways. Players will have to manage their empire through a leader who can have heirs, give their people freedom (or rule with a tyrannical fist), and kill their successors.

Marrying a wealthy noble to bring some good fortune to the country is just one of a host of options at players' fingertips. Using espionage to investigate enemy factions and weaponizing religion are features that have been fleshed out in the third game, and fans of previous entries will find plenty to sink their teeth into.

2 XCOM 2

Turn-Based Tragedy

The Earth is under alien occupation. In XCOM 2, the player must rebuild a resistance force to battle the alien oppressors. Between managing resources, research, and diving into guerrilla warfare with the extraterrestrials, the player will be stretched thin and constantly need to make hard decisions.

The most brutal and touching part of the game's ingenious design comes from the player's soldiers, who can be customized, named, and leveled up to make them whoever the player desires. However, one lucky shot by an enemy — or one poorly thought-out move — and that character can die; the player not only loses the character's talents and experience but also loses a personality that has been a core part of the experience since the beginning of the game.

1 Desperados 3

Gun-Slinging Genius

The dusty landscapes of the Wild West are stunningly realized in Desperados III. A game that hinges on well-executed plans and tactical thinking, Desperados gives players control of a small band of cowboys: a gunslinger, a trapper, a bounty hunter, a seductive bride who can infiltrate in costume, and a voodoo practitioner who uses blood magic.

The countless options for approaching combat build a perfect synergy with the narrative, putting the player in control of the protagonist's redemption in a story for forgiveness that is easy to compare to the incredible Red Dead games by Rockstar. Using slow-motion showdown mechanics, unique weapons and abilities for every member of the gang — and building manic plans on a whim to escape any kind of ambush or attack — players can lose themselves in a world of vast opportunity and constant danger.

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