Free Playstation Plus Games for April: Dishonored, Killzone and More

By on April 2, 2015

Sony has announced this month’s lineup of free games for Playstation Plus members. Unlike in past months, these games won’t be free until April 6, when the Playstation Store updates. As is common, however, there’s a fine mix of genres, old classics and new arrivals, though the limited number of cross-buy offerings might prove disappointing to a few. Without further ado, here they are:

Tower of Guns (PS4, PS3)

Since the randomly generated, brutally difficult games of the roguelike genre starting hitting an all-time level of popularity a couple years ago, many indie developers have striven to translate those ideas into the first-person shooter mold. Most have failed, and none of accomplished a feat of success on the same plane as, say, The Binding of Isaac or Spelunky (both of which have gone free on PS Plus in the past). No matter, Tower of Guns is going to give it a try anyway. Instead of my trying to explain it further, here’s highly descriptive trailer:

Never Alone (PS4)

Never Alone

Here’s a game that’s actually more interesting for it’s origins and art than the gameplay they encompass. Never Alone was developed in conjunction with Cook Inlet Tribal Council, an organization that represents indigenous groups of Alaska, to accurately reflect the culture of the region. Education art might be a dull way to put it, but there it is. You can learn, you can platform, and you can do it all without freezing to death in the real Alaska.

Dishonored (PS3)

Dishonored Playstation Plus April

Here’s where I drew the term “classic” from in that opening paragraph, though the game is only three years old at this point. Dishonored is a stealth action-adventure in the gameplay style of Thief mixed with the visual creativity of Bioshock. The story isn’t nearly there, but the atmosphere works well alongside some rock-solid shooting, sneaking and power-driven mechanics.

Aaru’s Awakening (PS4, PS3)

Sporting a gorgeous hand-drawn art-style to rival that of the recent Rayman games, Aaru’s Awakening is a 2D platformer with a teleporting twist, wherein your wolf-like protagonists chucks a little beacon ahead of him, which he can thn teleport to on command. Frankly, it looks like a game though could start out strong but weaken after a couple hours of samey mechanics, but every once and a while a platformer of this lessened scale can surprise you.

Killzone Mercenary (PS Vita)

Killzone Mercenary PS Vita

The PS Vita sports a range of processing power of which very few games take advantage. Killzone Mercenary is one of the few that does, pumping that little device for all its worth and providing arguably the best AAA game on the system. It’s got some great online multiplayer modes as well, mirroring a similar ambition of its console big brothers.

MonsterBag (PS Vita)

A quick purview of the trailers associated with this game and I’ve come to one conclusion: nobody will know what it’s about until they play it. Apparently it’s a puzzle game, and puzzled I was as images of adorable creatures being impaled crossed my screen. At least there’s mystery in it.

That’ll do it for Playstation Plus in the month of April. If you want the official word, head over to the Playstation Blog post on the matter. Or you could just watch the conveniently placed video below, which highlights all five games available this month. And, if you serve the dark side of the force, you can check out the Games with Gold free April offerings for Xbox Live Gold members. For my money, Microsoft has the better line-up this month, spanning a far more impressive history of AAA cross-platform titles from the last generation.

About Trevor Ruben

Though I contribute to many online publications on a regular basis, including The Checkout, the crux of my writing lies in video games. When not writing, I'm often streaming a variety of games on Twitch.