The PlayStation Plus Essential games for October 2025 aren’t as festive as the season might imply. It’s not a trio of spooky experiences meant to terrify players and get them ready for the Halloween season. However, the lineup is being headlined by one horror title, Alan Wake 2, which was also one of 2023’s most celebrated games. Remedy Entertainment’s highly acclaimed hit is also being joined by the gonzo comedy Goat Simulator 3 and mind-bending puzzler Cocoon. They could not be more different from one another, and this is a quality most PS Plus Essential lineups have.
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Here’s a breakdown of the three PlayStation Plus Essential games for October 2025, which will be available from October 7th to November 3rd for subscribers.
1) Alan Wake 2
Alan Wake 2 is the beloved and highly anticipated sequel to the 2010 cult classic action horror game. It garnered almost universal praise, averaging a score of 89.
And while its predecessor wasn’t as direct of a horror game, this 2023 follow-up doubles down on more horrific imagery and is a darker and more gruesome experience as a result. Players follow the titular Alan Wake as he spirals through his own ghoulish mental prison that warps as his sanity deteriorates. He’s only playable for about half of the campaign, though, as the other half has players controlling an FBI agent named Saga. Her portion plays like a procedural, X-Files-esque drama since she is piecing together a bizarre mystery, but there’s still enough tonal overlap between the two.
Despite primarily being a horror game, Alan Wake 2’s frights aren’t as well-orchestrated as many of its contemporaries. It relies heavily on sudden, full-screen jump scares right out of a 2002 viral email chain video that repeat so often to the point of pure tedium. More direct confrontations with real threats suffer as well since its sluggish controls often leave players open to cheap shots. Mobile enemies that zip around with supernatural speed make Alan’s and Saga’s clunkiness even more apparent (and frustrating).
Gameplay is not Alan Wake 2’s strong suit, meaning most of its acclaim comes from its offbeat Lynchian tone. Alan Wake 2 is a strange, strange game that uses a fair share of live-action bits and fourth-wall breaks to constantly throw the player (and Alan himself) off balance. It twists and turns and leads to some of the medium’s most memorable moments from the last few years, as shown by the viral musical that took center stage at the 2023 Game Awards. It may not always make sense, but it almost always takes big swings that are often worth admiring.
Alan Wake 2 evolved quite a bit after launch. It received a photo mode, PS5 Pro support, a wealth of accessibility features like infinite ammo and immortality, a Nightmare difficulty option, gameplay balance tweaks, more manual save slots, chapter select, the ability to turn down the aforementioned full-screen horror flashes, and a New Game Plus mode. It’s not just a typical New Game Plus, either, as it contains more story bits, a new ending, and additional manuscript pages to sift through.
Alan Wake 2 also has a season pass that has two premium expansions: The Lake House and Night Springs. The Lake House has players controlling Agent Estevez in a Control-adjacent side story, while Night Springs is a three-episode series starring three different protagonists, one of whom is Control’s heroine, Jesse Faden.
2) Cocoon
Cocoon is an esteemed puzzle game from Geometric Interactive, a studio started up by former Playdead (Limbo, Inside) employees. It received rave reviews and sits at an average score of 87.
Cocoon is only like Limbo and Inside in the sense of its high quality, impressive level of polish, and lovely art style, as it has little else in common with those other two more foreboding titles. Cocoon has players solving clever environmental puzzles by shifting in and out of worlds, which are represented through small orbs. Jumping in and out of orbs and thinking outside the box is key to success in Cocoon, and these victories are rewarding every time because of how smart they make the player feel. All of this is done with a minimalist presentation that is brilliantly designed enough to ever-so-gently guide players to the solutions without spoiling them or being too obvious. This leads to a beautifully managed difficulty curve — it’s never overwhelming and or too easy — and it all wraps up before it has a chance to grow stale.
Cocoon is a straightforward, complete, and smooth experience; an approach that didn’t open it up to much post-launch support. Unlike many modern games, it did not receive any major updates or paid DLC.
3) Goat Simulator 3
Goat Simulator 3 is a comedic open-world game that is a direct follow-up to the viral 2014 original. This sequel received decent reviews and settled on an average score of 72.
Like its predecessor, Goat Simulator 3 is one giant joke and lets players free in a sizable world full of eccentric non sequitur missions to complete that call on players to jump around, headbutt things, or just generally be a nuisance. It’s packed with references to games like P.T. and Wolfenstein 3D and is constantly serving up new stupid things to do and interact with. Not all of these lowbrow gags are funny, so some of these bits can grow weary. However, it’s not meant to be deep or introspective and is instead designed to be a barrage of goofy distractions, something that’s only bolstered when playing cooperatively.
Coffee Stain North supported Goat Simulator 3 in various ways after its February 2024 launch. It received a few free updates that added various cosmetics, some birthday events, and a handful of quality-of-life features like being able to save gear sets.
There are also four premium pieces of DLC, all of which are parodies in one form or another. One has goats with magical powers that spoof the Harry Potter universe, another contains superpowered goats that poke fun at comic book superheroes, while the pack from the deluxe edition has goats and callbacks to the original game. The fourth piece of DLC, however, is the most noteworthy since it is a more traditional expansion that houses an extra world, in addition to more cosmetics and playable goats. This beefier expansion mocks the multiverse craze that has swept across many forms of media over the last few years.
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