The free PlayStation Plus games for October 2021 have been available for a little over a week now, but fans are still expressing disappointment in the lineup. While there are those who are satisfied with the free PlayStation Plus games for October 2021, there are many others who are disappointed, with one of the main reasons for their discontent being the lack of any horror or Halloween games.
While one could say that people shouldn't make any assumptions about the free PS Plus games, Sony has established a pattern when it comes to the free PS Plus games in October. For years, the free PS Plus games for October have included horror titles, and so fans can't really be faulted for assuming that the same would be the case when it comes to the free PS Plus games for October 2021.
Here are the horror games that Sony has released for PS Plus in October over the years.
Free PS Plus Horror Games October List
- Resident Evil HD Remaster (2016)
- Amnesia Collection (2017)
- Friday the 13th: The Game (2018)
- The Last of Us Remastered (2019)
- Vampyr (2020)
The early years of PlayStation Plus saw a scattering of small-scale indie games that could fit the bill, but since 2016, PlayStation has set a precedent for fans to expect bigger horror games during the Halloween season. Things started in 2016 with Resident Evil HD Remaster, the enhanced version of the classic 2002 game, and a title that's considered by many to be one of the finest Resident Evil games to date.
Then in 2017, one of the free PS Plus games for October was Amnesia Collection. The Amnesia games are often praised as some of the scariest video games ever made, and Amnesia Collection gives horror fans the chance to experience multiple games in the series. This includes the original Amnesia, its Justine standalone expansion, and its blood-soaked equel, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.
The horror game Halloween tradition continued in 2018 with Friday the 13th: The Game. Whereas Resident Evil HD Remaster and Amnesia Collection are strictly single-player experiences, Friday the 13th: The Game is an asymmetrical multiplayer horror game. In Friday the 13th: The Game, a group of human-controlled survivors have to work together to survive against the threat of Jason Voorhees, one of film's most iconic horror movie villains.
A year later, Sony gave away one of its best horror games and one of the most critically-acclaimed games ever made. The Last of Us Remastered is the PS4 version of the Last of Us, boasting sharper visuals and various other improvements. It also includes the Left Behind DLC, making it the most complete and definitive version of The Last of Us there is.
Then in 2020, Sony released Vampyr as the free PS Plus game for that year. For the uninitiated, Vampyr is an action-RPG developed by Dontnod Entertainment, the studio behind the original Life is Strange game. Vampyr received mixed reviews at launch, but it's still a notable horror game that was included in the PS Plus lineup for October of last year.
Sony has clearly established a pattern of releasing horror games as free PS Plus games, and so it's no surprise that fans were expecting one this year as well. Now, it must be said that Mortal Kombat X does have some horror roots through its DLC. There are horror movie guest fighters in Mortal Kombat X like Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th, the Xenomorph from Alien, Predator, and Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but it is still not explicitly a horror game.
Free PS Plus Games for October 2021
- Hell Let Loose (PS5)
- Mortal Kombat X (PS4)
- PGA Tour 2K21 (PS4)
Instead of a horror game, the free PS Plus games for October 2021 consist of first-person shooter Hell Let Loose, fighting game Mortal Kombat X, and golf game PGA Tour 2K21. Hell Let Loose being a brand new release does give it some added value, but there are many PS Plus subscribers who prefer single-player experiences, and none of the games that are a part of the October 2021 lineup really fit that bill.
This has led to a lot of complaints about the free PS Plus games online, with fans upset that Sony didn't really include anything for the single-player minded gamer and that none of the games are horror titles or fit the Halloween season. It will be interesting to see if Sony reacts to this feedback or all, though to know for sure fans will have to wait until October of 2022 and see what the lineup is at that point.
Free PS Plus Games for November 2021
Sony has not announced the free PS Plus games for November 2021 at the time of this writing, but there is some precedent for horror games to be part of the November lineup instead of October. This happened in the past when Telltale's The Walking Dead was a free PS Plus game and another time when Resident Evil 5 was given away for free, so horror fans who feel left out still have hope that November will bring something interesting to the table.
While Sony has not offered specifics when it comes to the free PS Plus games for November 2021 at the time of this writing, it has confirmed that the lineup will include three PlayStation VR titles. This will presumably be on top of the usual PS4 and PS5 games that fans get every month, so November 2021 should be a stacked month for PlayStation Plus subscribers regardless.
Fans will likely find out what the free PS Plus games for November 2021 are come the last Wednesday of the month, October 27.