The PlayStation Plus Essential game lineup for August 2026 could easily be confused for an October lineup, as it has two horror games: Dying Light 2: Stay Human and Signalis. Granted, they are two entirely different takes on the genre, but horror nonetheless. August is also special since it has a day-one game in the form of Big Walk, which is rather rare for this tier of PlayStation Plus.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Here’s an explainer on all three PlayStation Plus Essential games for August 2026. The three will be available from August 4th to August 31st.
3) Dying Light 2 Stay Human: Reloaded Edition
Dying Light 2 Stay Human is the sequel to the smash hit 2015 open-world zombie game. The title garnered a middling to solid critical reception and ended up with an average score of 76.
Dying Light 2, as that average score may imply, is a rather conflicted game. Parkouring around its dystopian world can be exciting because of its numerous abilities that give players numerous ways to get around. Narrowly escaping the terrifying Volatiles during the night can be exhilarating when it all comes together. However, the constant losses in momentum and layer of jank that often causes unintentional movements or ledge grabs means it isn’t as seamless as it should be.
Parkour is the best part about the game, too, as its many other systems don’t often have as high of upsides to counterbalance their downsides. Melee combat is functional and satisfyingly violent (although it pales in comparison to Dead Island 2’s gore) yet repetitive and plagued by spongy enemies and the aforementioned layer of jank. Shooting is also not much more than serviceable. Its story is painfully dull, carried by bland characters and sluggish pacing that constantly stops players in their tracks to listen to walkie-talkie chatter; a game with this much parkour should know to keep it moving.
Very little about Dying Light 2 is truly great with no caveat and demonstrates why focusing on quantity over quality can be rather damning. The inclusion of four-player co-op and mindless nature of it all give it a big boost, though, since sometimes jumping around an open-world zombie game is the kind of lowest common denominator experience that can be decent in short, low commitment bursts or with other people.
Dying Light 2 has gone through radical changes since its 2022 launch, and Techland is still actively supporting the game. For what is an absolute rarity for PlayStation Plus games, this version of Dying Light 2 comes with its paid expansion, Bloody Ties. Bloody Ties is similar to the base game in both good and bad ways, but it also brings a collection of replayable gauntlet challenges in its new gladiator arena. Dying Light: The Beast is not included here since it was spun off into its own game after initially being planned as DLC. Dying Light 2 also has numerous (and highly criticized) premium cosmetic and weapon packs, some of which are themed around other franchises like The Walking Dead, Payday, and Balatro.
Techland’s free support of Dying Light 2 almost rivals a multiplayer live-service game. Since launch, the studio has overhauled the nighttime to be darker and more hardcore like the first game, added guns as a weapon type, changed parkour to be more responsive (although better now, it didn’t fix everything), added the ability for PS4 saves to be imported into the PS5 version, streamlined the widely panned final boss, changed the gore effects to be significantly bloodier, implemented various limited-time events, developed a roguelike-esque mode called Tower Raid, given players a hardcore Nightmare mode, let players take pictures in photo mode, added New Game Plus, and opened up user-generated content in a mode called The Breach.
This exhaustive list doesn’t even fully capture what Techland has done with Dying Light 2, and the studio is not done yet, either. The most recent update is changing how the prologue works in order to get players into the game faster and make the onboarding a bit smoother, which is perfect for PlayStation Plus subscribers who are getting into it for the first time. The team has committed to (at least) five years of support, which is easy to believe since the first game, despite coming out in 2015, is still getting updates.
2) Signalis
Signalis is the 2022 horror game from developer rose-engine. It received great reviews, coming in at an average score of 82.
Of all the PS1-like horror games from the last few years — Tormented Souls, Crow Country, Fear the Spotlight, and Sorry, We’re Closed, to name a few — Signalis is the best of the lot. On the surface, it is a well-built survival horror game. Its item management systems and the relative fragility of its robotic protagonist make playing Signalis stressful. Gunplay is more empowering than an old Resident Evil installments, thanks to its more accurate cursor, but players are still kept at a disadvantage most times. Dark environments filled with screeching enemies make going back and forth and solving its various intuitive puzzles and hunting down its litany of keys even more foreboding. Tank controls are optional and there are no ink ribbon-like equivalents that limit saving — welcome choices that help modernize the game — but Signalis hits all the right notes for this style of retro survival horror game.
If Signalis had been just another scary throwback, then it would still be worth experiencing. But it goes above and beyond its nostalgic influences through its art design and narrative. Signalis is heavily inspired by Silent Hill with its demonic world that is equal parts dreamlike and haunting. Various fantastical sequences, flashes of gruesome images juxtaposed over normality, and the ethereal nature of its subdued story make it easy to wonder what exactly is and is not real. Regardless of the truth, its bold colors and anime aesthetic make every scene a sight to behold. It’s also a dense text that welcomes multiple runs so players can better analyze what’s being told and grants those curious enough with more rich layers to interpret. Said layers are what make Signalis a genre classic and a game that would likely have a Silent Hill-esque following if it had been released 25 years prior.
Signalis didn’t get much post-launch support. However, while it didn’t receive any paid DLC, rose-engine did release one noteworthy update. Making it so the flashlight and another gadget no longer sucked up a valuable inventory slot was the key feature of this patch, but it also let the player extend the inventory in the options menu and invert the Y-axis in the handful of first-person scenes.
1) Big Walk
Big Walk, a cooperative title about going on a hike, is the next game from Untitled Goose Game developer House House. It has not yet been reviewed, as it is one of Essential’s few day-one releases.
Big Walk‘s co-op qualities are in the vein of other games like Lethal Company, R.E.P.O., and Peak but without the horror of the first two titles. The comparison here is more broad and focused on the social and communicative aspects over the specific genre. Anywhere from two to 12 players can team up and solve puzzles on a natural map. Players have to talk to one another to solve various puzzles littered around. It’s like an escape room, but the room is the outdoors. Proximity chat and puzzles that require multiple people mean there’s no way to lone wolf it and miss out on the cooperative shenanigans that seem to be the lifeblood of this game.
The puzzles don’t change from run to run (aside from possibly changing to suit how many players are in a given match), so it won’t be endlessly replayable like many of its peers. However, it shouldn’t be a requirement for games like this to go on forever, and this twist may work in Big Walk’s favor.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
More Gaming
-
Courtesy of The Coalition -
Courtesy of Arrowhead Game Studios
