January 2025’s PlayStation Plus Essential Games Have Been Revealed

The annual end-of-year madness is finally over, and we all get to settle into a new year. Whether you’re the type to make resolutions or treat January like any other month, we have changed to a new calendar, which typically gets everyone jazzed about the new games on the horizon. Like most years, it takes a few weeks before the releases get cooking, so you’ll need something to play to tide you over. 

As detailed on the PlayStation Blog, January’s PlayStation Plus Essentials games are Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered and The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe. These three games will be available for download on January 7.

I try to stay somewhat positive when running through the PS Plus line-ups, but this will be a tricky one. Playing as the titular group of misfits and murderers, you’re tasked with entering Metropolis following a Brainiac invasion to, as the game’s name suggests, kill the corrupted Justice League. I’d love to say that Rocksteady pulled off the impossible and made this live-service shooter work as a true Arkhamverse entry, but that’s not true. Suicide Squad is wonky, repetitive, and devoid of that special sauce that made the Arkham games incredible. But hey, you can at least play the game offline now, that’s…something. We gave Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League a 4 in our review, and that was being kind.

Everyone has their favourite Need for Speed game (I’m a Carbon man, myself), and many of a certain age would point to Hot Pursuit. Letting you live on both sides of the law, as either a racer or a cop, Hot Pursuit offers up a fun little dynamic, with both letting you screech around at break-neck speeds. The Remastered version modernises the visuals of Criterion’s racing game while adding all of the post-launch content that was originally dropped for it. If you’re really feeling up to it, the game’s online multiplayer is still intact, so you can jump in and race with some mates while enjoying some annual leave.

You probably know what to expect here if you’ve heard of or played The Stanley Parable. Thankfully, the Ultra Deluxe version of the game doesn’t give a damn if you’ve seen the tricks pulled in the original game, as it has a host of new ones up its wonderfully narrated sleeves. For those unfamiliar, welcome, you’re in for a good time. All you really need to know is that you play as Stanley, and his job is to press a button. Whether you do that or not is up to you, but just know that it’s not the only choice you’ll be making.

If you haven’t downloaded It Takes Two, Aliens: Dark Descent, and Temtem, you’ve got until January 6 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.