PlayStation Plus Deluxe Review – A Little Something for Everyone

Reviewed on PlayStation 5. Review Code provided by Sony.


Sony’s new tier-based membership service, PlayStation Plus, has a lot to offer, including a wide variety of well-liked titles, the return of cherished PS1 and PS2 classics, free trials of the newest releases, and fantastic value. The revamped subscription service is still worthwhile upgrading even though it has a few shortcomings.

The Deluxe Life

PlayStation Plus Extra, Deluxe, and Premium (depending on your region) the new subscription tiers have a lot to offer.

Source: Reddit user kabirsingh84

The Extra, Premium, and Deluxe versions of PlayStation Plus all provide access to a sizable library of PS4 and PS5 titles that may be downloaded and played. This is the main selling factor for the service. The quality of the games more than makes up for the fact that there aren’t as many “day one” releases as the Xbox Game Pass has come to be renowned for.

To get you started, check out some of the top PS5 games below: Spider-Man, Demons Souls, Returnal, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Ghost of Tsushima Direct Cut, and Guardians of the Galaxy by Marvel, Death Stranding Director’s Cut, and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

Numerous more outstanding PlayStation 4 and 5 games are also available for free download. We may list the following titles as some of the finest games ever made: Dead Cells, Desperados 3, DOOM, Fallout 76, Graveyard Keeper, inFAMOUS Second Son, KNACK, KNACK 2, Little Nightmares, LittleBigPlanet 3, MediEvil, and Wytchwood.

Yeah. It’s an exhaustive list of games, especially if you’re new to the PlayStation family. The value you get out of this is incredible and will make a majority of folks not even think twice before getting it.

Blast from the Past

Besides current and last gen games, PlayStation Plus Deluxe and Premium also offer classic games.

The PS1, PS2, and PSP Classics, on the other hand, aren’t nearly as interesting. Only a few classic PlayStation titles are included in the Deluxe tier and many of them have a niche appeal.

There aren’t many big names here, and while titles like Ape Escape, Tekken 2, Resident Evil: Director’s Cut, Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee, and Syphon Filter are beloved, they can’t quite make up for the lack of variety in the Classics section. In spite of the PlayStation Store’s previous offering of a plethora of PS1 games, only a few of these titles have been included in the PS Plus launch.

The absence of classic PS1 games like Spyro, Crash, and even MediEvil in their original form is noticeable. This could be due to contractual issues or rights issues.

There were reports of problems with games being region locked based on your region which meant you would get the PAL version of certain games which in cases looked and performed worse than their NTSC version. Sony did say towards the end of June that they do plan on releasing the NTSC version of games to PAL regions. I hope they give all regions the option to pick which version of the game you want to play because many games did have regional variations and it would be interesting to experience those.

Remasters

There is one section that I haven’t seen people talk about and that’s the Remaster section. So when you go under the Classic section in PS Plus Deluxe, you also get access to some great remasters.

Some of these games are Batman: Return to Arkham, The Bioshock Remastered Collection, Gravity Rush Remastered, TLOU 1, Uncharted Nathan Drake Collection, Borderlands The Handsome Collection, Mafia 1 Definitive Edition, Mafia 2 Definitive Edition, Crysis Remastered, and more.

Ideally, I would have loved these to be a part of the Extra tier (especially since some of these are/were part of the PS Plus Collection on the PS5) but I guess this is another way for them to try and push the Deluxe/Premium tier.

CELL-ing Itself Short

PlayStation Plus Premium is the highest tier that’s available in countries where PlayStation Now has been a thing. PlayStation Plus Premium gives users access to a bunch of PS3 classic titles via streaming. This is the big difference between PS Plus Premium and Deluxe as Deluxe is the variant in markets where they haven’t rolled out streaming yet.

This is a bummer because so many regions don’t get access to a massive collection of games with a lot of incredible games from that generation. This includes TES IV: Oblivion, Star Wars: The Force Unleased 1 and 2, God of War 1 and 2, inFamous 2, and Red Dead Redemption.

It would be nice to see these make it all the markets and not just in streaming but via a native version or emulation. Xbox has done incredibly well when it comes to back compatibility and breathing in new life into its older titles, so I hope PlayStation can do the same.

Trial and Error

The one feature that irks me about the Deluxe/Premium tier is Game Trials. Game Trials allow you to play a select few games up to a certain number of hours. For eg, Horizon: Forbidden West can be played up to 5 hours, same for Cyberpunk 2077.

This is nothing but a glorified demo being bundled into a higher tier and sold as a “feature”. In my opinion, IF they want to paywall demos, then they should let every PS Plus user have access to game trials. Demos have played a big part in the past in the world of video games before they slowly disappeared. If they really want to “sell” this feature, it needs to be more accessible and not marketed as an impressive feature to have on the highest tier.

Tough Pickings

The main selling point of PlayStation Plus Extra is that it grants you access to the whole catalog of PS4 and PS5 titles. In terms of fulfilling the promise of nostalgia, The Classics Catalog still has a long way to go.

Thanks to the brand-new PlayStation Plus subscription service, which has already shown to be a fantastic bargain, playing video games on a PlayStation might soon look quite different. There are some major hitters in its collection of Extra games, and there is space for future development and alteration.

But as it is, there is still a lot of work to be done. There are now just a few retro titles from the PS1, PS2, and PSP eras available on the PlayStation Network. Due to the current lack of material, the Deluxe tier is generally unsatisfactory in areas without cloud streaming, however, this is expected to change over time.

Verdict

If you’re a PlayStation console owner and you spend a lot of time playing games on your PS4 or PS5 then PlayStation Plus Extra is a no-brainer. For the cost of one AAA title, you get access to a massive library of games that will have more added to it. Not to mention, they plan on releasing games to this service on launch day as they’ve done with Stray.

Of course, if you like to own your games with physical copies that’s fine, but the value here is tremendous. More so if you’re just entering the world of PlayStation and have not experienced some of its greatest titles. And even though it started with some hiccups, it’s still a great start and I’m excited to see how this grows from here.

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