The best PS3 games that all PS Plus Premium users should try

if on June 23, 2022 in Europe will switch to the “PlayStation Plus” model, a great opportunity awaits you to catch up on several generations of the Sony console. If you sign up for the premium version for EUR 16.99 per month, you will have access to up to 340 PS3 games that are available via cloud streaming, or classics from the first Playstation, PS2 and PSP generation, which should be playable either via streaming or as a download.

Why only recommendations for PS3?

Unfortunately, as far as the first two generations of Playstation games are concerned, we have to say that in many cases they haven’t aged all that well. This isn’t meant to be a specific diss of the PSOne or the PS2 (which we have a lot of fond memories of), but actually applies to all early 3D games of this era, cross-platform.

From our point of view, this only changed noticeably with the Playstation 3, which brought out a whole series of classics that – despite the graphic advances in recent years – can still be played very well today. In the following we tell you which PS3 gems you should definitely try out via PlayStation Plus Premium. We are concentrating on games that have not been reissued in recent years or appeared on dozens of other platforms.

danger: Our recommendations are based on the list of US PS Plus titles (via Push Square), because the service went online there a week ago. According to Sony, however, there should be some differences between the libraries in the different regions. So it could be that games from the American PS Plus will not be available in Europe and vice versa.

Anyone who only knows the 2018 reboot of God of War for Playstation 4 (and since January 2022 for PC) has missed something. Because the various predecessors were also fantastically staged action fireworks for their respective time, some of which can still cause open mouths and astonished looks today.

The good news for all premium owners: The technically improved “God of War” collection with the first two parts is probably just as much a part of the new premium games library as God of War 3 from 2010 (but in the Remastered version (under review)) as well as the prequel God of War: Ascension (under review) from 2013. Be sure to play it if you like the PS4 “God of War”.

When Red Dead Redemption 2 came out in 2018, the hype was huge. When Rockstar Games, the studio behind GTA, releases a new game, it’s an event. Even more so when so much money and developer power is put into such an ambitious project. The open world hit is said to have sold more than 36 million times on all platforms.

The first part flew significantly more under the radar eight years earlier. It was released for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 at the time and is said to have “only” sold a little more than 7.5 million copies on the two consoles (which is still good, of course). in the Review of Red Dead Redemption Sebastian Stange summarized his enthusiasm at the time as follows:

“Story and atmosphere. These are the elements that really surprised and impressed me when testing Red Dead Redemption. I never imagined how captivating John Marston’s adventure would be. And I never imagined how atmospheric and beautiful a short ride through the desert, steppe and forests can be. For an open-world game, however, there is relatively little going on in Red Dead Redemption. I had to find my own fun there – rides to hunt, search for treasures or search for Side quests. If you want to be entertained non-stop and expect fireworks of action, you might be a little disappointed. Because every hectic scene is followed by quiet, reflective moments. The developers put the story before mere entertainment. You may not like it. “

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

Even before DmC: Devil May Cry and Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, the British studio Ninja Theory made a name for itself with the Playstation 3 titles Heavenly Sword (unfortunately not included) and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. The latter action-adventure is one of the highlights of the era and builds – how Black Myth: Wukong, which we recently introduced to you – on the legendary novella “Journey to the West” about the monkey king.

There was one in 2013 Port of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (under test) for the PC, but it was so loveless that we definitely recommend the PS3 version. Despite the technical hurdles, Felix was enthusiastic: “Anyone who expects crisp fights, demanding acrobatics and sophisticated gameplay has bought the wrong game with Enslaved: Here the characters, the melancholic atmosphere and the imaginative game world are in the foreground. That’s okay for me, I don’t expect excessive demands from every game , as long as the story and atmosphere fit. That’s why I played Enslaved in a relaxed manner, leaned back and without stress – that’s really nice.”

When you hear the name Insomniac Games, your first thoughts today might be Marvel’s Spider-Man, the sequel Miles Morales, or Ratchet & Clank’s final adventure: Rift Apart (and by extension, the entire series). Between 2006 and 2011, the Americans also released an exciting sci-fi shooter trilogy for the Playstation 3: Resistance could never quite reach the quality of Gears of War or Killzone in terms of action and technology, but it is because of the story still worth a look.

The bad news first: The first part, Fall of Man, and Resistance 2 from 2008 do not appear in the PS Plus Premium list. The good news: After all, you can catch up on the end of the series, i.e. Resistance 3. The plot about the earth ravaged by an alien virus builds on the predecessors, but you now play a new character with Joseph Capelli, and there are several years between the end of part 2 and the beginning of the finale. So you can also find it when you start part 3. Still, it’s a shame that Sony doesn’t offer the full trilogy right from the start. And before you ask, Killzone also only has PS4-era Shadow Fall and Shadow Fall – Intercept.