Each month, the quiet ritual of digital curation reminds us that play is not one thing but many — a spectrum from visceral catharsis to meditative beauty to nostalgic homecoming. In October, PlayStation Plus assembles a catalog that honors this range, anchoring its offering around a long-delayed zombie epic, a wordless visual poem, and the return of a beloved comedic adventure. It is a small but telling gesture: a platform acknowledging that its subscribers are not a single kind of person, but a community of many hungers.
Dead Island 2, Gris Lead Packed October PlayStation Plus Lineup
A thirteen-year wait finally ends with a return to form
So Dead Island 2 is the main event here. Why did it take so long to come out?
The game had a rough development history. It was announced years ago, then seemed to disappear. But it finally shipped, and it sounds like it was worth the wait for people who wanted that kind of co-op zombie action.
Right, but we should be clear—the source doesn't actually explain why it was delayed. We just know it was delayed. The "blast to play" assessment is the reviewer's take, not a fact about the game itself.
Fair. What about Gris? That's been out for a while, right?
Several years, yes. It was a hit when it came out, and now it's coming to Plus. The visual design is the thing people remember—reviewers were genuinely impressed by how it looked.
The "prettiest game ever made" is a quote from Engadget's own review, so that's their bar, not universal consensus. But the game clearly resonated with people.
And Return to Monkey Island is the big franchise comeback.
Thirteen years since the last one. It's a point-and-click adventure, so it's deliberately old-school. The reviews were positive, which matters because fans had been waiting a long time.
The source says reviews were "kind" and players called it a return to form, but it doesn't give us specifics on critical scores or what the actual criticisms were. We know it landed well, but not how well.
So this is a solid month for variety.
Absolutely. You've got action, you've got relaxation, you've got comedy adventure. And that's just the three biggest titles.
And Premium members get even more—VR content and Dino Crisis. Though the source doesn't say when those hit or what the full Premium lineup looks like.
Il Polso
- Dead Island 2 finally arrives for subscribers after years of development limbo, bringing gore-soaked cooperative chaos to PS4 and PS5 with six playable characters and three-player co-op.
- Gris offers a rare counterweight — a critically beloved 2D platformer so visually arresting that it reframes what a game can feel like, asking patience over precision.
- Return to Monkey Island closes a thirteen-year gap in one of gaming's most beloved franchises, reuniting fans with Guybrush Threepwood and the slow, satisfying logic of point-and-click adventure.
- A deeper bench of titles — Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me, and others — signals Sony's strategy of casting wide to hold a diverse subscriber base.
- PlayStation Premium members receive exclusive additions including a PS VR2 title and the classic survival horror game Dino Crisis, rewarding the highest-tier commitment with genuine rarities.
Each month, the quiet ritual of digital curation reminds us that play is not one thing but many — a spectrum from visceral catharsis to meditative beauty to nostalgic homecoming. In October, PlayStation Plus assembles a catalog that honors this range, anchoring its offering around a long-delayed zombie epic, a wordless visual poem, and the return of a beloved comedic adventure. It is a small but telling gesture: a platform acknowledging that its subscribers are not a single kind of person, but a community of many hungers.
October's PlayStation Plus Game Catalog arrives with unusual range, anchored by three titles that could hardly be more different from one another — and that may be precisely the point.
The month's loudest entry is Dead Island 2, a zombie-slaying action game that spent years in development before finally reaching players. Set across a sun-drenched, destroyed Los Angeles, it offers six playable characters and supports three-player co-op, leaning hard into creative carnage and environmental destruction. It lands on both PS4 and PS5, making it broadly accessible.
Quieter but no less significant is Gris, a 2D platformer from Nomada Studio that drew widespread critical admiration for its visual artistry. It asks nothing of the player in terms of speed or precision — only a willingness to move through its world slowly, solving puzzles and absorbing its atmosphere. The studio's next project, Neva, appears to carry forward the same aesthetic ambitions.
Rounding out the headliners is Return to Monkey Island, which brings the beloved point-and-click franchise back after a thirteen-year absence. Rooted in the 1990s Lucasfilm Games tradition, the series follows the comedic misadventures of Guybrush Threepwood, and critics found this new chapter a faithful and warm revival of what made the originals endure.
The broader catalog adds Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, Overpass 2, Tour de France 2023, and The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me. PlayStation Premium subscribers — the service's top tier — also receive The Last Clockwinder for PS VR2 and the classic Dino Crisis. Taken together, the lineup reads less like a random assortment and more like a deliberate argument: that a subscription service earns its keep by refusing to serve only one kind of player.
PlayStation Plus subscribers are getting a notably generous month in October, with the Game Catalog welcoming a lineup that spans action, adventure, and puzzle genres. The centerpiece is Dead Island 2, a zombie-slaying game that took years to reach players after a long development cycle. Set in Los Angeles, the game lets you choose from six different characters and supports three-player cooperative play, making it built for groups. The action is visceral and gore-heavy—the kind of game where environmental destruction and creative kills are part of the appeal. It's available on both PS4 and PS5.
Alongside the zombie mayhem sits Gris, a 2D platformer that earned considerable praise when it first released. The game is visually striking enough that reviewers have called it among the most beautiful games ever made. Rather than demanding precision or speed, Gris asks you to move through its world at your own pace, solving puzzles and exploring while jumping between platforms. The developer behind it, Nomada Studio, has another project in the works called Neva that appears to share the same visual sensibility.
The third major addition is Return to Monkey Island, which marks the franchise's return after thirteen years away. The series originated in the 1990s with Lucasfilm Games titles that became classics of the point-and-click adventure genre. This new entry follows Guybrush Threepwood, the franchise's protagonist, through more comedic misadventures. Critics received it warmly, with many describing it as a genuine return to what made the original games work. Fair warning: this is old-school adventure gaming, rooted in the tradition of clicking on objects and parsing dialogue trees.
Beyond these three headliners, October's catalog also includes Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, Overpass 2, Tour de France 2023, and The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me. PlayStation Premium members—the highest tier of the subscription service—get additional exclusives this month, including The Last Clockwinder designed for PS VR2 and Dino Crisis. The breadth suggests Sony is banking on variety to keep subscribers engaged across different play styles and interests.
Citazioni salienti
Gris might be the prettiest game ever made— Engadget review
Return to Monkey Island was called a true return to form by many players— Player reception