The Best-Looking PC Games to Play in 2024

Being fully immersed in a game's world, story, characters, mechanics, freedom to explore, action, and heady choices is the result of a lot of hard work from teams of talented artists and programmers. Like a great cocktail, the best games present a mix of various elements - from art direction to story to music and controls.

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However, it is hard to look past a game's visuals when it comes to that first impression. Walking out onto the bustling streets of Night City for the first time in Cyberpunk 2077, visual fidelity and the sheer detail present in every corner is a big part of immersion. Doubly so when played on a PC with ray-tracing enabled.

It's no secret that games in 2024 look better than ever. They take advantage of modern graphics hardware, like the powerful GeForce RTX 40 Series from NVIDIA, leveraging cutting-edge AI to deliver realistic lighting that looks and feels like you're in the middle of a cinematic blockbuster. When paired with excellent gameplay, art direction, story, dialogue, music, and sound effects, that's when it all - to borrow a gaming term - levels up.

All titles included in this piece were released this year, with many featuring cutting-edge technology like real-time ray tracing, DLSS Super Resolution, DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction, and Frame Generation. Some, like Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, incorporate real-world photogrammetry with motion capture to deliver never-before-seen cinematic immersion. From the lush, dynamically lit jungles of Black Myth: Wukong to exploring planets in a galaxy far, far, away in Star Wars Outlaws, here's a look at the Best-Looking PC Games to Play in 2024.

Black Myth: Wukong

Gameplay captured in 4K with a GeForce RTX 4090 with max settings and DLSS enabled.

A highly anticipated release and one of the most played and talked about single-player games of 2024, Black Myth: Wukong probably doesn't need an introduction. The fast-paced, action RPG shares much in common with 'Souls-like' titles like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and iconic PlayStation 4 blockbusters like God of War. With a cinematic story rooted in Chinese mythology, specifically Journey to the West, players take on the role of the Destined One as they traverse strange and fantastic lands, battling strange and wondrous creatures.

With incredible character and environment detail, from the smallest pebble to the largest towering temple, Black Myth: Wukong is a visual treat - with each new location and mythical boss encounter adding to the rich lore of the world you see. On PC, running on a high-end GeForce RTX 40 Series GPU, the cinematic immersion is ramped up considerably thanks to the game's 'Full Ray Tracing' mode that adds realistic-looking reflections, shadows, indirect lighting, and more. Throw in DLSS Super Resolution, Reflex, and Frame Generation, and you have smooth performance that compliments the incredible visuals.

Star Wars Outlaws

Gameplay captured in 4K with a GeForce RTX 4090 with max settings and DLSS enabled.

From Ubisoft Massive, the studio behind the excellent Division games, Star Wars Outlaws is an open-world action-adventure set during the classic time period of the Original Trilogy. The story is centered on the underworld, as players take control of scoundrel Kay Vess (with her trusty sidekick Nix) and sneak into fortified locations to steal sensitive data while dealing with the growing threat of the Galactic Empire. With stealth, action, open-world exploration, and even heading out into space, Star Wars Outlaws leans into the cinematic world and rich characters of the Star Wars Universe.

With its default ultrawide presentation (in the cinematic 21:9 aspect ratio), Star Wars Outlaws taps into the retro-future look and lived-in feel of the original Star Wars from 1977. Kay Vess herself looks like a Han Solo-like antihero from the '70s or '80s, especially when going up against Stormtroopers and Hutts. With Full Ray Tracing enabled, the planets and interior environments look stunning on PC. Venture outdoors, and the world feels alive thanks to NVIDIA RTX Dynamic Illumination (RTXDI) and little details like smoke rising into the sky, mist dissipating, and grass blowing in the wind. And with DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction, the level of detail across lighting and reflections is often jaw-dropping.

Horizon Forbidden West

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The sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn, Horizon Forbidden West, is a sequel that ramps up everything that made the first game resonate with gamers. There are more extensive and diverse environments to explore, more intricately detailed dinosaur machines to battle, a new ability that lets Aloy soar majestically through the skies, and a story that is chock full of cinematic twists and turns. Horizon Forbidden West is an epic action-adventure, and with its debut on PC earlier this year, it's also one of the best-looking games ever made.

The PC version improves on the PlayStation 5 original, with improved texture quality, environment detail, and more advanced visual effects. It also adds support for unlocked frame rates, ultrawide displays, DLSS Super Resolution, and Frame Generation. Very few AAA games deliver this level of detail and sustained cinematic immersion, which comes down to a blend of spectacular art direction and game design mixed with production values that are out of this world. Or, in the case of Horizon Forbidden West, a distant post-apocalyptic future full of vibrant, overgrown jungle environments and giant mechanical dinosaurs to battle.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

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Sure, this is an expansion and not technically a "full game," but Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is the expansion to 2022's Game Of The Year that introduces a new area to explore in one of the most celebrated and bellowed games ever created. FromSoftware's open-world take on Dark Souls was revelatory, and Shadow of the Erdtree lives up to the original by presenting one of the most impressive (and challenging) fantasy worlds ever seen in a game. In fact, it plays more like a sequel than a bit of DLC.

With lore and story that involved tapping into the genius mind of Game of Thrones creator George R. R. Martin, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree presents a memorable and unique experience from its very first moment to the last. On PC, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is a rarity in 2024 because even though you can enable ray-traced shadows that add depth and realistic detail to its fantasy world, it's a game without official support for DLSS 3 or Ultrawide resolutions (you'll need mods for these). Still, this is the sort of game where you could take just about any moment, frame it, and put it on a wall. It's that good and that good-looking.

Senua's Saga: Hellblade II

Gameplay captured in 4K with a GeForce RTX 4090 with max settings and DLSS enabled.

Senua's Saga: Hellblade II is a showcase for what's possible with Unreal Engine 5, especially when put into the hands of a talented studio like Ninja Theory. This sequel to award-winning Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice presents another deeply personal cinematic story of torment and tyranny in 10th-century Iceland. Running on a GPU like the GeForce RTX 4090, with DLSS 3 enabled, this is one of those games that makes you take a step back in awe and wonder, "How"? How can a game look this good?

It's not sorcery (okay, maybe some of it is). It's a combination of cutting-edge technologies, including in-house animation captured in one of the world's most advanced motion capture facilities. The result is seeing and feeling every emotion and detail from actor Melina Juergens' incredible performance as Senua. From how her eyes contract and move in close-ups to every movement when she walks through a scene looking "real." The environments are also excellent thanks to real-world photogrammetry and cutting-edge Unreal Engine 5 'Nanite' rendering. There's unprecedented detail everywhere you look, which makes Senua's Saga: Hellblade II one of the most impressive slices of interactive art you can experience.

F1 24

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This annual racing series from EA and Codemasters has been delivering realistic and fantastic high-speed races to F1 and gaming fans for several years. Even though each year feels like an incremental improvement over what has come before - F1 24 is different because, on PC, you can push the visual fidelity to new heights when enabling the game's many ray-traced effects. Ray-tracing is one of those things that becomes more impressive the more 'ray-tracing' you see - and in F1 24, that includes ray-traced reflections, shadows, and the brand-new Dynamic Diffuse Global Illumination for trackside lighting.

The proof isn't necessarily something you immediately see (unless you're watching one of the game's impressive TV-style replays) when racing around the Miami International Autodrome, Marina Bay Street Circuit, or the iconic Circuit de Monaco at breakneck 300+ km-per-hour speeds with DLSS enabled. You simply don't have the time to marvel at the reflection of nearby objects on the shiny coat of paint on your F1 car. The result is more impressive than that - you feel like you're there (especially when playing in VR) in Monaco, Australia, the UK, Spain, or Italy. There, behind the wheel of some of the world's most advanced and expensive machinery.

No Rest for the Wicked

Gameplay captured in 4K with a GeForce RTX 4090 with max settings and DLSS enabled.

Available in Early Access, where the game has already received several meaningful performance and feature updates, No Rest for the Wicked is a top-down isometric Diablo-like action RPG from the talented Moon Studios and the team behind the award-winning Ori and the Will of the Wisps.

No Rest for the Wicked's painterly visuals blend cutting-edge lighting and animation to deliver one of the most spectacularly detailed digital worlds ever created. It's akin to a Studio Ghibli or Pixar animated film come to life, albeit one set in a dark and gothic world where you slay monsters with swords and spells. No Rest for the Wicked is a testament to the idea that tapping into the power of a modern GeForce RTX 40 Series GPU isn't just about delivering more realistic or photo-real graphics.

Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut

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Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Shadows is set to release later this year, taking the long-running series to Japan for the first time. However, you could argue that Ghost of Tsushima from PlayStation and Sucker Punch not only got there first - but delivered when it comes to presenting an open-world Assassin's Creed-style action-adventure set in feudal Japan. With beautiful environments to explore, intense combat, and a memorable tale that spans dozens of hours, if you haven't jumped into Ghost of Tsushima, then there's no time like the present.

With the PC version fresh on the scene (the game first debuted on PlayStation 4), this is another excellent PlayStation port that ramps up the visual fidelity - which then ramps up the immersion. All the hits are here: uncapped frame rates, ultrawide display support, improved texture and effect detail, DLSS 3 Frame Generation, and even the ability to hook up the PS5 DualSense controller for haptic feedback. Jin Sakai's journey has never looked this good, and playing on PC with a high-end GeForce RTX 40 Series GPU feels like playing the definitive version of a true classic.