January’s Free PlayStation Plus Games Are (Mostly) Fantastic

If you’re one of the millions of people playing their games in the wide world of PlayStation, you should probably sign up to PlayStation Plus. Not only is the service required to play online using your PS4 or PS5, but you’ll also get a bunch of free games each month and, depending on your subscription tier, access to an ever evolving ‘vault’ of on-demand classics: essentially allowing you to dive deep into the PlayStation brand’s storied history for a nominal fee each month.

For what it’s worth, PlayStation Plus costs AU$95.95 for the ‘Essential’ tier, AU$169.95 per year for the ‘Extra’ tier, and AU$196.95 per year for the ‘Deluxe’ tier. If you’re confused, we’ll list out the differences a bit further down in this story.

The ‘Extra’ tier is a good deal, in our opinion, and here we’ll break down everything you’ll get at the start of each month, as well as the best games you can play using the service’s back catalogue. So, without further ado, let’s jump in.

January’s Free PlayStation Plus Games

It’s worth noting that these games will remain available for download by PS Plus subscribers until February 3rd, when they’ll be cycled out. Get them while they’re hot!

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League

• Release Date: 30 January 2024
• Platform: PS5
• Genre: Third-person Looter Shooter
• Players: 1 offline, up to 4 online
• Metacritic: 60

Ever wanted to play as the bad guys, doing good things, in a bad way? That’s basically the concept of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. As can be inferred based on the name, you’ll be playing as members of the Suicide Squad: DC’s most down-and-out super villains that are regularly tasked with government-backed one-way missions in order to potentially get a reduced jail sentence. Harley Quinn, Deadshot, King Shark and Captain Boomerang are put centre-stage, given free reign to explore the vast city of Metropolis in order to – you guessed it – kill the Justice League.

The game out in 2024 and, in all honesty, disappointed a lot of people. Suicide Squad comes by way of Rocksteady Studios, the talented team behind the Arkham Asylum/City/Knight trilogy that defined what a superhero game could be for a lot of people, but that team didn’t put its best foot forward with this one. Still, free is free, and it’s a fun co-op multiplayer game to play with your friends: the movement around Metropolis is a lot of fun, even if the combat gets a bit stale, and the team at Rocksteady have added a few new characters to play as, such as the Joker and Deathstroke.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered

• Release Date: 6 November 2020
• Platform: PS4
• Genre: Arcade Racer
• Players: 1 offline, up to 8 online
• Metacritic: 75

If you’re like me and tend to spend more time crashing than winning in racing games, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit was pretty much made for you. Yes, there is still a focus on ‘winning’ races, but you’re also incentivised to take out your competition. It’s an arcade racer more so than a racing simulation, so cars feel fast and snappy compared to something like Sony’s Gran Turismo, and the fact that it can hit 60fps on PS4 Pro is a nice addition.

It is an upgraded remaster of a PS3 game, so don’t come in expecting the graphics to knock your socks off even if some of the tracks are surprisingly beautiful. You’re here for the gameplay, and thankfully all the best bits made the transition to the remastered version intact. You can play as either street racers or the police looking to bust them, who can use techniques such as setting up roadblocks or throwing out tyre spikes to slow them down, giving the game something unique and memorable. It’s a great addition to the racing genre, and it holds up well even today.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe

• Release Date: 27 April 2022
• Platform: PS4, PS5
• Genre: First-Person Puzzle
• Players: 1
• Metacritic: 90

In my opinion the best game of the bunch this month, The Stanley Parable was amazing when it first launched in 2013, and it hasn’t lost any of what made it special in this re-release. If you haven’t played it yet, I don’t want to spoil anything, but you play as Stanley: a man working in an office. As you start moving and interacting with the world around you, a narrator will begin telling the story of Stanley and things just go completely off the rails.

It’s a surprisingly open game, despite the fact it’s largely set in very small environments, and rewards player ingenuity and repeated play throughs. The more you put in, the more you’ll get out, and there’s a bunch of new content added to the Ultra Deluxe edition to keep even those that played the original coming back for more. I really can’t recommend this game highly enough, and the fact that you’re getting it for free is insane. Get it, play it.

Best of the Back Catalogue

If you’re willing to spend a bit more on the ‘Extra’ or ‘Deluxe’ tier of PlayStation Plus, you’ll get access to the Games Catalogue, which allows you to play hundreds of games for free as part of the subscription, and features many of the best games to have ever graced Sony’s platforms.

We can’t talk about every game on the service, but instead want to highlight the creme of the crop so that you can decide what you’re going to play next. Happy gaming!

PS1 Games

Resident Evil (Director’s Cut): While there’s plenty of rumours to suggest Capcom is currently working on a second remake of the first Resident Evil, the original is very much still worth playing today. Essentially birthing an entire genre in survival horror, as well as popularising fixed camera angles and ‘tank controls’ for an entire generation, Resident Evil is a slow, methodical trek through the infamous Spencer Mansion – a creaky, creepy estate hidden in a deep forest, filled with zombies, traps, and worse.

Harvest Moon: Back to Nature: If you’ve loved the resurgence in cozy farming sims in recent years, why not go back to where it all started? Harvest Moon was the original farming game, and its PS1 debut (the first of the series not to be on a Nintendo console) is still a delight to play today. Is it more basic than what you’d find in something Stardew Valley? Of course, but there would be no Stardew Valley without Harvest Moon. Sometimes it’s fun to see where it all began.

Dino Crisis: One of Capcom’s forgotten gems of the PS1 era, Dino Crisis takes the gameplay improvements of Resident Evil 2 and 3 and melds them with a Jurassic Park-ish story of dinosaurs, military agents, and lots of blood. While the series continued with a couple of sequels, neither of them quite captured the original’s mix of scares and scales.

PS2 Games

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Jak II and Jak 3: Inconsistent naming conventions aside, the Jak and Daxter series was developer Sony-owned developer Naughty Dog’s step into big, bold new places. While Crash Bandicoot was fun and lighthearted, the Jak series started delving into more the mature storytelling and gameplay we’ve come to expect from Naughty Dog. Not only that, but it’s also just a great trilogy of games that builds on itself to deliver a fun time.

Dark Cloud: Another forgotten gem, Dark Cloud takes some of the best aspects of the hugely successful JRPG genre and mixes it with something close to a city builder. Your character is tasked with delving deep into a deadly cave system to rescue missing townsfolk, bring them back to a destroyed village, and to help them rebuild. Doing so gives can make you stronger for your return to the depths, and the cycle continues.

PS3 Games

The Last of Us: I honestly don’t feel like I need to explain what this is, but if you’ve somehow missed the cultural juggernaut that is The Last of Us, start here. Before the remasters, and sequel, and TV show, there was just the original game and it’s incredible story and gameplay. Lead Joel and Ellie through a post-apocalyptic United States as they search for sanctuary.

Assassin’s Creed: Ezio Collection: While it’s fair to say the Assassin’s Creed franchise is a bit of a hot mess today, it all started out as a pretty simple sci-fi story using the tropes of historical fiction to contextualise a broader narrative spanning hundreds of years. Did I say simple? I meant batshit. Still, the ‘Ezio Collection’, which brings together Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, and Assassin’s Creed Revelations, is a return to when the story of the series was a bit more cohesive, and where the gameplay was (at the time) groundbreaking.

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection: Three of the best games on the PS3 system, the Uncharted series is renowned for just how great it’s storytelling was, as well as how likeable it’s characters were. The titular Nathan Drake might have been one of the first video games heroes to be written like a Joss Whedon character (but certainly not the last), but it doesn’t make him any less relatable, and following his journey through the original three Uncharted games is still a treat today.

Dishonored: Definitive Edition: One of the best series to come out of the PS3 generation, Dishonored picks up where the Thief series left off and adds its own twist on the stealth genre. You play as Corvo Attano, the Empress’ Bodyguard who fails to stop her assassination and is framed for it. Corvo is dragged into a bigger story involving corrupt politicians, revolutionaries and Old Gods, and you’ll love every second of it.

PS4 Games

Bloodborne: While we’re all waiting for a Bloodborne PC port, or a remaster, or just anything Bloodborne related, just go play the original. Bloodborne is one of the finest games to grace the PlayStation 4, and is still renowned as one of developer From Software’s best titles. Here, you play a hunter exploring the dark city of Yharnam on the worst possible night – the beast plague has broken out again, and you’re stuck right in the middle of a war between the city’s transforming population and the powers-that-be. The transforming ‘trick weapons’ are something I’m still waiting for From Software to bring back, as they bring so much variety to what is already an incredibly deep combat system.

Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut: Sony’s premier open-world samurai series, Ghost of Tsushima is more than just The Witcher in warring-states Japan: it’s also just a really, really good game. You take up the mantle of Jin Sakai, a samurai on a quest to protect Tsushima Island during the first Mongol invasion of Japan, and will be able to explore the island fully in your efforts. It’s a beautiful rendition of an idyllic but invaded place, and playing as a wandering samurai is many-a weeb’s dream come true.

PS5 Games

Demon’s Souls: The ‘Souls-like’ genre of games has taken gaming by storm in the past decade, from Elden Ring and Lies of P to Black Myth Wukong, and it really all started with the original Demon’s Souls. Well, that original has been given a new lick of paint and rereleased on the PS5 and, honestly, it’s just perfect. While the gameplay isn’t as refined as From Software’s later work, Demon’s Souls brings the basics of the tense, methodical combat and exploration that would go on to define that studio’s success, and delivers an engrossing and unique world to get lost (and die) in.

Returnal: Housemarque have always been a somewhat overshadowed studio compared to some of its Sony stablemates, but in Returnal it finally found a big-budget hit. Taking the intense, arcadey gameplay the studio is known for and pairing it with a mysterious story, a roguelike progression, and some truly stunning graphics, and you have one of this generation’s best games. Getting to play it for free alone is probably worth the price of PlayStation Plus alone, let alone all the other stuff you get.

What’s the Difference Between the Tiers of PlayStation Plus?

Originally there was only one tier of PlayStation Plus, but with the launch of the PS5 Sony decided to split the service into multiple tiers that would give its players different levels of access to the service. Namely, there is the ‘Essential’ tier, the ‘Extra’ tier, and the ‘Deluxe’ tier.

What’s the difference? Let’s find out.

Tier	Essential	Extra	Deluxe
Price	– AU$11.95 per month – AU$33.95 per 3 month – AU$95.95 per 12 months	– AU$18.95 per month – AU$54.95 per 3 month – AU$169.95 per 12 months	– AU$21.95 per month – AU$63.95 per 3 month – AU$196.95 per 12 months
Benefits	– ‘Free’ monthly games – Online Multiplayer on PS4 and PS5 consoles – Exclusive Discounts on the PS Store – Cloud storage – Share Play	Everything included in the ‘Essential’ tier, plus: – Access to the ‘Game Catalog’, which allows you to play select games without additional cost – Access to ‘Ubisoft+ Classics’	Everything included in the ‘Essential’, and ‘Extra’ tiers, plus: – Access to the ‘Classics Catalog’, which allows you to play select ‘classic’ games without additional cost – The ability to ‘trial’ some games before buying them

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