PS Plus November Hands Out Dead Island 2, Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered and Monster Train 2 From November 3
By CriticalPixel ·
Sony just stacked November's PlayStation Plus Monthly Games with a zombie RPG, three Lara Croft adventures and a deckbuilder that rides a train through Hell. According to the PlayStation Blog, Dead Island 2, Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered and Monster Train 2 can be claimed from Tuesday, November 3, and they stay available through Monday, November 30. Wario64 posted the lineup on X as the PS+ Essential November list, and the replies started rolling in fast. The anchor of the month is Dead Island 2, a big, loud, gory release from April 2024 that makes the whole lineup feel heavier than a typical filler month. Two of the three games also run on PS4. Here is what you actually get, where it falls short and how players are reacting.
What is in the November lineup
Dead Island 2 comes on PS5 and PS4, and Sony pitches it as a trip to HELL-A, a Los Angeles overrun by mutated zombies with an endless appetite for humans. It is a visceral RPG built around brutal melee combat, with a big pile of inventive weapons for slicing, smashing and tearing through hordes, plus quests and eccentric survivors along the way. You can play alone or bring friends into online three-player co-op, which is the way this kind of game works best. The Steam page lists Dambuster Studios as the developer and Deep Silver as the publisher, and puts the original release on April 22, 2024. So this is a game that has been out for about two and a half years, which is a sensible age for a subscription drop.
Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered, also on PS5 and PS4, is the sneaky heavyweight of the month. It bundles the Darkness Trilogy: Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, Tomb Raider: Chronicles and Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. You can play with the original polygonal models or swap to the remastered graphics at any time, which is the kind of toggle a nostalgia pack should offer. Counting by games, that is three adventures for the price of one slot, and Angel of Darkness remains the oddball of the three, which makes it a fun curiosity rather than a chore. If you skipped the earlier remaster bundles, this is the easiest way to see where Lara's classic era wrapped up.
Monster Train 2 is the PS5 only entry, and it is a single player deckbuilding roguelite. You command clans formed from a makeshift alliance of former angels and demons, aiming to oust the Titans who have seized control of Heaven. Your trains push through Hell, Heaven and the Abyss, and you pick from five brand new clans, each with its own strengths and playstyle. Combat plays out across three vertical levels, so you are defending several floors against dangerous new enemies while recruiting units and upgrading cards. It is a very different flavor from the other two games, and for roguelite fans it might end up being the one that eats the most hours. PS4 owners do not get this one, so they come away with two of the three.
The fine print: dates, platforms and the October window
Everything is playable from Tuesday, November 3, to Monday, November 30, according to the PlayStation Blog. That means there is only a short overlap problem to watch: the October lineup of F1 25, Hunt: Showdown 1896 and Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 can only be added until Monday, November 2. If you have been meaning to grab those, do it before the November batch lands, because the window closes the day before the new games go live. As always with PS Plus monthly games, you keep access only while your subscription is active, so this is a rental in practice and not a purchase. Sony attached no price to any of this in the post, so there is nothing to compare here beyond what you already pay for the tier.
How players are taking it
The reaction under Wario64's post leans positive with a grumbling edge, and it is only a sample of replies, not a poll. One player called Dead Island 2 on Essential a great deal and told people to turn the brain off and smash zombies. Another joked that a hacker who stole their PSN account gave it back after seeing these games. Someone else shrugged that Sony is playing it safe with games everyone knows and loves, but that people already own or play them. A different reply asked whether Dead Island 2 was already in the PS Plus Extra catalog, and I could not confirm that from the sources I opened, so treat it as a question and not a fact. Overall that is a good-natured crowd that likes the names and wishes for more surprise.
The CriticalPixel take
This is a strong month by name recognition and by raw game count, and I will say so plainly. A full Dead Island 2 plus a three game Tomb Raider pack is more weight than the tier usually carries, and Monster Train 2 gives the roguelite crowd a reason to log in. The complaint about safe picks is fair, because nothing here is new, surprising or a day one release. Locking a pick to PS5 only while the other two cover PS4 is a small annoyance that leaves some subscribers with a thinner month. The four week claim window is the same old pressure tactic, and I would still like Sony to be louder about how long monthly games stay claimable.
Mark November 3 on the calendar, claim the October trio by November 2 and make room on the drive for a lot of zombie guts. If you only have time for one, Dead Island 2 is the pick for friends in co-op, Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered is the pick for nostalgia, and Monster Train 2 is the pick for people who lose entire weekends to one more run. Full details sit on the PlayStation Blog, and the thread on X shows where the community landed on day one.
Sources
PlayStation Blog: PlayStation Plus Monthly Games for November