Whether you celebrate or not, I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. And, if you’re still enjoying time off, I’m jealous, and I hope you continue to enjoy your rest. With the final days of 2023 slipping away, it’s time to look to the future at what we’ll all be playing next. It would appear as though PlayStation is looking to hit the ground running with PS Plus in 2024, as the next wave of Essential titles have been announced, and they aren’t too shabby.
December rounded out an uneven year with LEGO 2K Drive, Powerwash Simulator and Sable, but the new year looks to top that bunch. As announced on the PlayStation Blog, the PlayStation Plus Essential games for January are A Plague Tale: Requiem, Evil West and Nobody Saves the World. These three games will be available to download from January 2.
My two favourite kinds of PS Plus games are fun little multiplayer titles I can play with friends and narrative-driven single-player games that I missed when they were first released. Requiem may have thousands of rats, but a multiplayer game it is not, but it does fall nicely into the second category. Carrying on from 2019’s A Plague Tale: Innocence (which we gave a 9), Requiem once again has players embodying Amicia as she and her young brother Hugo attempt to survive a devastating mystical disease in 1300s France. The mature story is a grizzly one that doesn’t pull punches, but the sequel is required reading for anyone who enjoyed the first game. We gave Requiem a 9.
Careful, this change in tone might give you whiplash. Balancing the books with some arcade goodness is Evil West. This third-person action-adventure title plonks you in the boot and trenchcoat of a vampire hunter who’s packing enough technological firepower to level a small nation. Given a suite of melee and ranged weapons that all feel meaty, you set off to wade through bloodsuckers and all manner of beasts as you uncover plots and upgrade your gear. Better still, you can bring a friend along to enjoy the arcadey fun in two-player co-op. We gave Evil West a 9.
How good is Guacamelee? If your answer was “phwoar, real good,” then it might be worth getting your peepers around Nobody Saves the World. No, it’s not a side-scrolling beat ’em up, it’s a top-down action RPG, but the fine folks at DrinkBox Studios are behind both games, and it shows. The team’s off-kilter humour returns, wrapped around some excellent combat and a bizarre world that begs to be explored. Oh, and you can jump into co-op with some mates here as well, so spread the joy. We gave Nobody Saves the World a 9.
If you haven’t downloaded LEGO 2K Drive, Powerwash Simulator and Sable, you’ve got until January 1 to do so. As always, please remember that you can add these games to your library and download them later if you don’t have any precious space on your hard drive.
Which game will you be downloading first? What games would you like to see in February? Let us know in the comments or on our social media.
Adam's undying love for all things PlayStation can only be rivalled by his obsession with vacuuming. Whether it's a Dyson or a DualShock in hand you can guarantee he has a passion for it. PSN: TheVacuumVandal XBL: VacuumVandal Steam: TheVacuumVandal
