From zombie survival to medieval RPGs, there's a lot worth downloading this month.
Helldivers 2 came out in 2024 and quickly became one of the biggest multiplayer games of the year. Developed by Arrowhead Game Studios, it puts players in the role of Helldivers, soldiers fighting to protect Super Earth from alien and robotic threats. Up to four players can team up to take on missions, but things can quickly go sideways when calling in airstrikes, turrets and other powerful weapons. The game’s ultra-patriotic tone, reminiscent of Starship Troopers, makes it a must-play for fans of action games who also enjoy a bit of satire.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 takes players back to 15th-century Bohemia, where the protagonist, Henry, finds himself caught up in a war between rival nobles. Developed by Warhorse Studios, the RPG builds on the first game with a much bigger world, deeper quests and a commitment to making medieval life feel as realistic as possible. There’s no magic or fantasy here, just sword fights, political intrigue and plenty of situations where Henry can get himself into trouble. The game was also up for numerous awards across the industry, including Game of the Year.
Vampire Survivors looks deceptively simple, but that’s exactly what makes it so addictive. You control a character who automatically attacks while you move around the map, collecting experience and choosing new weapons and upgrades as increasingly ridiculous numbers of enemies swarm you. A run can start with a few bats and skeletons before turning into complete chaos, with dozens of weapons and upgrades combining to turn your character into an unstoppable killing machine.
Hell Is Us drops players into the war-torn country of Hadea, where a mysterious supernatural disaster has created creatures unlike anything else in the game. Protagonist RĂ©mi returns to his homeland looking for answers about his past, but what makes the game interesting is how much it refuses to tell you. There are no traditional quest markers or map guiding you from one objective to the next, so paying attention to conversations and the environment actually matters. Combat mixes melee weapons with a drone companion, while the strange world and its mysteries give the game a much darker, more unsettling feel.
Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash is a wildly strange take on horse racing mixed with a collection of chaotic party games starring the series’ horse girls. Instead of focusing on the actual racing that caught some gamers’ attention, the game has characters competing in events involving basketball, dodgeball, eating competitions and obstacle courses. There’s also a story mode and plenty of character interactions for fans of the anime and mobile game. The pixel-art presentation fits the game’s silly tone, while the different events give players a much more casual take on the Umamusume series than its usual racing-focused gameplay.
Two Point Museum puts a goofy spin on the usually serious business of running a museum. Building the perfect collection means sending experts out on expeditions to hunt down rare artifacts, then figuring out how to display them in a way that keeps visitors interested and spending money. There are dinosaurs, supernatural oddities, aliens and plenty of stranger exhibits to discover, with each museum offering its own challenges. Like the other Two Point games, things can quickly get ridiculous, but there’s also a surprising amount of freedom in designing the museums and deciding what kind of experience you want visitors to have.
Metro Exodus takes the Metro series out of the tunnels of Moscow and into the much larger, more dangerous Russian wilderness. Artyom and a group of Spartan Rangers board the Aurora, a heavily modified train that carries them east in search of a new place to live after the nuclear war. The game mixes the series’ tense survival-horror atmosphere with larger, nonlinear areas where players can explore, scavenge for supplies and decide whether to fight or sneak past enemies. It still feels like Metro, but the move aboveground gives the game a much greater sense of scale.
Dying Light 2 drops players into Villedor, one of the last major human settlements left after the zombie apocalypse, where surviving means dealing with both the infected and the people still fighting over the city. Parkour is a huge part of getting around, with rooftops providing safer routes through the city and plenty of ways to turn movement into part of combat. Nighttime changes the equation completely, as more dangerous infected emerge, while choices involving the city’s competing factions can alter parts of Villedor and the way the story plays out.
Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams arrived on the PlayStation 2 in 2006, wrapping up Capcom’s original run of Onimusha games for nearly two decades. Set 15 years after Onimusha 3, the story follows Soki, a warrior with supernatural powers who joins forces with several companions to stop Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his army of demons. The game also expanded the series’ combat with multiple playable characters, each with their own weapons and abilities, giving it more of an action-RPG feel than its predecessors.
Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire came to the original PlayStation in 2001, alongside the animated movie it was based on. The action-adventure follows Milo Thatch and the rest of the expedition as they make their way through dangerous environments on the way to the lost city, with players able to switch between several members of the crew. Each character has distinct abilities useful for overcoming obstacles and solving puzzles, while the gameplay combines exploration, combat and platforming.
For more on PlayStation Plus, here’s what to know about the service. You can also check out other games on PlayStation Plus and games on Xbox Game Pass.
