PS+ Shows Signs of Life With April’s Undead Free Games

Since the release of the latest round of video game consoles, Sony’s PS+ program has been on top of things with their monthly free games offerings. Some months are less impressive than others – in fact, this April might be considered one the “weaker” of those months – but those subtle dips and rises in quality matter less when the output remains consistent, modern, and appealing.  It also matters less when their “rival” baseline subscription service has been stagnant in terms of free releases for a while now; however, instead of easing up, they’re attempting to compete with the higher tiers of subscription services on the market.

This month on PlayStation Plus also has something of a theme with overtones of zombies, undead, and morbid occultism, so it’s not to difficult to feel at least a little hyped about this batch, though it might not be as satisfying for those who prefer variety in their titles. Let’s take a closer look at the games, but before we do, be sure to Grab a Year Subscription to PlayStation Plus on Amazon.

PS5

Oddworld: Soulstorm

Since the release of the first title in the late-‘90s, the Oddworld franchise has sustained an eager niche fanbase, one further rejuvenated by the 2014 release of the “New ‘n Tasty!” remake of the original. It took the better part of a decade to get there, but the creative team at Oddworld Inhabitants have decided to self-publish and self-develop the remake’s sequel, Soulstorm, which follows suit and remakes-slash-reimagines the original “sequel” released in 1998, Abe’s Exxodus.

The sequel follows very shortly after the events of the original Oddworld, which places humanoid protagonist Abe in a position where he discovers that he’s destined – by higher powers – to save his fellow Mudokon from the clutches of Rupture Farms and their scheme to turn them into the newest food source. Immersive, richly detailed 2.5D platform level design finds the character maneuvering between platforms to corral his buddies, and while critics and players have thus far found the newly-released sequel to be lacking in platform-game originality, the essence of the world isn’t to be denied.

PS4

Days Gone

Between the refinement of video gaming’s advances in immersion and the real-world situation the human population has been going through since the beginning of 2020, the zombie subgenre of video games have inherently become just a little more “real” than beforehand. Days Gone came out nearly a year before COVID, but its themes of survival amid a crippling pandemic ended up being more meaningful than the folks at Sony probably could’ve banked on. Granted, the pandemic in their open-world game led to packs of wild, cannibalistic Freakers, but the haunting themes are still there.

Players gain control of a real badass, a motorcycle-riding bounty hunter named Deacon St. John who’s more than equipped to deal with a zombie-infested Wild West atmosphere not at all unlike the setting in the tv show Walking Dead. Along with a few technical issues and overuse of the setting, Deacon isn’t a strong enough protagonist presence for critics to be completely sold on Days Gone.  However, most players embrace the execution of the intense survivalist atmosphere, the motorcycle controls, and the ferocity of this brand of zombies enough to get lost in the eerie open world, something of a hybrid between the rebooted Tomb Raider and The Last of Us.

Zombie Army 4: Dead War

Following a trend set by other shooter and open-world games, the Sniper Elite series decided to essentially duplicate its game design philosophies into the realm of zombies with Nazi Zombie Army. While it looks and plays the same as the base Sniper Elite game, it stands alone and adopts the storyline that Hitler unleashed zombie forces at the end of World War II – not unlike the plot of the movie Overlord released a few years later – and that elite forces would need to clear out the new threat. This eventually resulted in an escalation of occult storytelling capped off with the remastered Zombie Army Trilogy.

Despite the series reaching a natural end, Zombie Army 4 follows up in the period after World War II, where the zombie armies remain in Germany and continue to push back Allied forces, and Hitler might not be as out of picture as once thought. Players can batch together in groups of four and tackle the undead forces, and while there’s plenty of criticism levied at the game’s outlandish setup and limited freshness in the genre, many have noted that the squad experience still sinks its teeth into plenty of enjoyment.