13 Must-Play Open-World Games On PlayStation Plus In 2026: Death Stranding, Star Wars Outlaws, and More

Some games you finish in a weekend. Open-world games are different. You dip in for "just one quest" and lose a Saturday. That's the genre's whole pitch, and the PS Plus Game Catalog is sitting on a pile of them.

Star Wars Outlaws is the newest one on the list, which is what got me writing this in the first place. But if you've been ignoring your subscription, here's what's actually waiting for you.

Star Wars Outlaws

You play Kay Vess, a scoundrel trying to pull off the biggest heist in the outer rim while three crime syndicates try to put a bounty on her head. It's basically the Star Wars game people have been asking for since forever. The kind where you can sit in a cantina, play Sabacc, get into a fistfight, then steal a speeder and ride into a dust storm.

It's Ubisoft doing what Ubisoft does best when they're not phoning it in, which is building a believable open world stuffed with side stuff. The space combat is light and arcadey rather than full sim, and Nix, your little alien companion, is genuinely useful in stealth sections.

Grand Theft Auto V

I don't really need to sell you on GTA V. It's been out for over a decade and it's still topping charts. The three-protagonist structure (Michael, Trevor, Franklin) was a clever way to keep things fresh, and Los Santos is still one of the densest open cities in any game.

If you somehow haven't played it, the heist missions alone are worth the entry. And with GTA 6 still a way off, this is the closest you're going to get to that Rockstar magic.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Possibly the most detailed open world ever made. Horses have unique behaviours. NPCs remember if you robbed them. Your beard grows in real time.

You're Arthur Morgan, a tired outlaw riding with a gang that's slowly falling apart. It's slower than GTA, more deliberate, and the story hits harder than almost anything else in gaming. If you want the open-world game that's most likely to make you feel something, this is it.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk had a famously rough launch, but the version on PS Plus today is a completely different game. Night City is huge, neon-soaked, and full of side stories that often outshine the main one.

You can build V as a hacker, a samurai-sword-wielding melee monster, or a pure gunslinger. Keanu Reeves as Johnny Silverhand is genuinely one of the better video game performances in recent memory. The Phantom Liberty expansion isn't included in the base catalog version, but the main game alone is 60+ hours of dense, weird sci-fi.

Ghost Of Tsushima: Director's Cut

This is the closest a game has come to feeling like a samurai movie you're playing. Sucker Punch nailed the sword combat. Stand-offs let you cut down multiple enemies in seconds if you read the timing right.

The Iki Island expansion is included in the Director's Cut, which is essentially a whole second campaign. Feudal Japan has rarely looked this good in a game, and there's a Kurosawa Mode that turns the whole thing black and white if you really want to commit.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2

Insomniac's third Spider-Man game lets you swing as both Peter Parker and Miles Morales across a New York that's now twice as big. The web wings make traversal genuinely faster than just swinging.

Venom is the main threat here, and Peter's symbiote arc is the emotional spine of the story. Combat is fluid, the city is gorgeous on PS5, and the side missions actually feel handcrafted rather than copy-pasted.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered

Robotic dinosaurs in a post-apocalyptic Earth where nature has taken back the planet. Sounds like a pitch that shouldn't work, but Guerrilla pulled it off.

Aloy is one of the better PlayStation protagonists, and the bow-and-arrow combat against giant machine beasts still feels unique. The remaster brings the visuals up to PS5 standards, so it actually looks like a 2024 game instead of a 2017 one.

Death Stranding Director's Cut

The most divisive game on this list. Hideo Kojima made a game where you're a delivery man named Sam Bridges (Norman Reedus) reconnecting a broken America one package at a time.

It's slow. It's strange. Inventory weight actually matters because you'll trip over rocks if you overpack. But there's something hypnotic about it, and the cast (Mads Mikkelsen, Lea Seydoux, Lindsay Wagner) is stacked. Either you'll bounce off it in an hour or sink 80 hours in.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla

The longest Assassin's Creed game ever made, for better and worse. You play Eivor, a Viking raider invading 9th century England, and the game lets you build up a settlement, raid monasteries, and dual-wield axes.

It's huge. Maybe too huge. But if you've got time to burn and you like the loop of "see icon on map, go to icon, get loot," Valhalla scratches that itch better than most.

Fallout 4

Bethesda's post-apocalyptic Boston. The shooting is way better than Fallout 3 or New Vegas, the settlement-building is either a great feature or a complete waste of time depending on who you ask, and Dogmeat is the best companion in gaming.

With the Amazon Prime Video Fallout show bringing fresh eyes to the franchise, this is a decent time to jump in if you've never tried one.

Far Cry 6

You're Dani Rojas leading a revolution on Yara, a fictional Caribbean island ruled by a dictator played by Giancarlo Esposito (Gus Fring from Breaking Bad). The Resolver weapons (a CD launcher, a nail gun, a flame-thrower made from scrap) are the highlight.

It's classic Far Cry: liberate outposts, climb radio towers (sort of), watch out for the wildlife. Nothing groundbreaking, but a reliable time.

Hogwarts Legacy

The Harry Potter open-world game people had been asking about for years. You attend Hogwarts as a fifth-year student in the late 1800s, learn spells, brew potions, ride a broom, and uncover an ancient magic mystery.

The castle is the star. It feels like the Hogwarts from the films and books, with moving staircases, talking portraits, and hidden rooms. If you've got any nostalgia for the wizarding world, you'll get a lot out of this.

Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Don't let the turn-based combat throw you off. This is one of the most genuinely funny games made in years. Ichiban Kasuga is the lead, and his story takes you from Yokohama to Honolulu.

Side activities include karaoke, darts, food delivery, a full Pokemon-style monster collection mini-game called Sujimon, and a Crazy Eats restaurant management mode. You'll spend more time on the side stuff than the main story, and that's the point.

Where To Start

If you've never played open-world games much, start with Ghost of Tsushima or Spider-Man 2. They're tight, focused, and not overwhelming.

If you want the biggest, most lose-yourself-in-it experience, Red Dead Redemption 2 or Cyberpunk 2077.

And if you just want chaos? GTA V. Always GTA V.