Yakuza Series
I feel like if you’re not already a Yakuza fan, you — like me — look at the series and go “it looks cool, but I don’t know if I can get into it this late in.”
Well, you’d be wrong, as Xbox Game Pass has the remasters of almost the entire series, as well as the remake of the first title and the Kiwami prequel titles.
The Yakuza series follows Kazuma Kiryu as he navigates the twists and turns of a life in organized crime. With some of the most eccentric and outlandish side content to accompany your super serious gangster business, the series has made a name for itself as an open world series quite unlike any other.
Alas, both Yakuza 6 (the final chapter of Kazuma’s story) and Yakuza: Like a Dragon haven’t made it onto the service just yet, but at least there are six already on there that you can play in the meantime.
A Plague Tale: Innocence
Xbox Game Pass Games You Can Play Right Now
A Plague Tale: Innocence is one of those games that crept up out of nowhere in 2019 and, despite some critical acclaim, still seemingly got overlooked by the mainstream audience.
Set in 1348 France during the Black Death, the game follows Amicia De Rune, the daughter of a knight and an alchemist as she tries to guide her younger brother, Hugo, to safety following an Inquisition invasion.
Not only does A Plague Tale have an enthralling narrative, but it looks truly beautiful… even when the rats show-up en masse.
The gameplay is basic, often focusing on navigating around swarms of rats, or finding a way around some Inquisition soldiers to get Amicia and Hugo to safety. It always remains engaging enough to push you through, though, and the whole experience comes in at around 10 hours, making it perfect for a quiet weekend.
Call of the Sea
Call of the Sea is one of the prettiest games I had the pleasure of playing in 2020. It doesn’t have AAA, photorealistic visuals, but instead a vibrant palette of pastel colors that bring a tropical island to life, whether you’re above or below the water.
The gameplay focuses on exploring the island your character — Norah — finds themselves on, solving puzzles to untangle its various secrets and get to the bottom of her own personal mystery. There’s a real challenge in solving these puzzles here, and almost every one of them does a great job of walking the tightrope between being too easy and impossibly difficult.
If you’re able to push through the punishing puzzles, you’ll be left to enjoy a wondrous adventure through a lush tropical island with a bit of a supernatural twist. A great game to play over a few evenings or a weekend.
Crosscode
Xbox Game Pass Games You Can Play Right Now
Crosscode is yet another game that managed to make its way onto Game Pass with very little mainstream fanfare. Yet, despite the muted celebrations, Crosscode was critically acclaimed and has been very well-received by players, too.
This 2D ARPG features a 16-bit SNES-style aesthetic, with fast-paced combat, engaging puzzle mechanics, and a futuristic sci-fi story. Given there aren’t a ton of classic RPGs like this on the Xbox right now, Crosscode is a great title for fans of the genre.
It takes the core concepts of an MMO and removes the monotonous grind by transforming it into a more linear, single-player experience. That may sound like both a compliment and a critique, but it’s certainly more the former than the latter.
Fallout 76
It’s difficult to ‘forget’ about Fallout, even when it’s a shakey MMO-style title like Fallout 76.The lore-packed world, the iconic soundtrack, the outlandish weapons, and all the mutated creatures you put down with them make the Fallout series one of the most immersive and best-realized renditions of a post-apocalyptic world.
Alas, Fallout 76 didn’t really deliver the goods when it released back in 2018. There were no NPC quests, the end game was lacking, and there were a ton of issues with players’ carry weight and stashes. All in all, despite my affinity for anything Fallout, even I struggled to have a good time in 76.
Since its launch, however, Fallout 76 has come on leaps and bounds. The new Wastelanders DLC adds NPC quests into the mix, solving one of the biggest issues players had with the game at launch. Stashes and carry weights have been resolved, and a lot of work has been done to iron out the bugs and ensure it’s a more stable experience all-round.
If you and your pals are looking for something new to dive into, give Fallout 76 a try. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much fun you can have in Appalachia with a couple of friends.
Journey to the Savage Planet
Xbox Game Pass Games You Can Play Right Now
Journey to the Savage Planet is a single-player (and completely co-op) adventure that sees you filling the role of the latest Kindred Aerospace recruit. Your first mission is to explore an uncharted planet in the universe AR Y-26. Deemed to be uninhabited by any form of intelligent life, your job is to catalog all flora, fauna, and anything of interest that you find on the planet’s surface.
As you embark on your mission, you’ll start to realize that all is not as it seems on the planet, and what started out as a research mission quickly turns into a quest for anwers.
To do so, you’ll need to venture off the beaten path, use different gadgets you acquire to help you reach previously unreachable areas, and, of course, solve some puzzles along the way.
It’s very Metroidvania in its layout and format, with proximity doors blocking off the treasures inside whenever you get close, or various rails you can’t ride until you get the required gizmo.
Traversal feels great, the world is simply beautiful and always has a secret or surprise around every corner, and there’s plenty of humor to keep your chuckling away throughout the duration of the game.
You may have missed it the first time around, but if you’re looking for something a little different, or need a game to play with a friend, be sure to give Journey to the Savage Planet a download.
My Time at Portia
My Time at Portia is pretty unique when it comes to its premise and gameplay on Xbox Game Pass. It’s a life sim where you move into the town of Portia to set up a workshop. You’ll interact with and talk to the few citizens, building items using relics you find around the world to help better the town’s society.
Outside of that, you can fight monsters, develop your own farm, raise livestock, visit abandoned ruins, collect relics and minerals, and so much more. You can date your favorite character, and even have your own pet.
It’s a laidback, chilled experience with a colorful world and varied cast of characters to keep the social side of things interesting. If you’re looking for something entirely different to the rest of the Xbox Game Pass library, My Time at Portia is certainly one such game.
Night in the Woods
Xbox Game Pass Games You Can Play Right Now
One of my all-time favorite indie experiences, Night in the Woods isn’t your traditional game. There’s not really a set objective you’re driving towards throughout, instead focusing on the day-to-day life of Mae, an anthropomorphic cat who dropped out of college and returned to her hometown.
During the days that follow, Mae reconnects with some of her old friends, wrestles with depression and other big philosophical questions, and gets up to some mischief. It’s the way in which developer Infinite Fall makes these greatly contrasting moments fit together so naturally.
There’s something that everyone can relate to in Night in the Woods, regardless of whether you went to college, or moved far, far away from your hometown. Mae, despite being a cat, feels wholly human, as do the rest of the eccentric and lovable cast.
Its writing is excellent, with characters feeling fleshed-out and the conversations they have being genuinely interesting and engaging.
Night in the Woods is definitely a story-driven experience, but it’s one with plenty of twists and turns that you’ll continue to push through even when the gameplay isn’t grabbing you.
Outer Wilds
The indie gems are the best finds on Xbox Game Pass, so let me throw another one at you. Outer Wilds is your very own space exploration adventure, as you navigate a galaxy of unique planets and solve a mystery that spans it.
As the newest member of the Outer Wilds Ventures space program, you’ll blast off from your home planet and explore the various others in its system. Each planet is wholly unique, with their own mechanics you’ll need to figure out in order to solve the overarching mystery.
But you’ve only got about 22 minutes before the solar system’s sun goes supernova, eviscerating everything with it… including you.
And then you wake up on your home planet again, with another 22 minutes to explore and solve the supernova sun mystery before it happens all over again. All of your progress from the last 22 minute loop is recorded, so you can use these clues to push further through the story each time. It’s Groundhog Day meets No Man’s Sky… just on a smaller scale.
I could bang on for hours talking about Outer Wilds, and still not do it justice. It’s a game you need to experience for yourself, and for the admission fee of $0, you have no reason not to.
Oxenfree
Xbox Game Pass Games You Can Play Right Now
We’ve all got up to some shenanigans with friends at one point or another in our lives. Oxenfree is a tale about doing exactly that, and things taking a turn for the supernatural when they accidentally open up a ghostly rift on an island in the middle of the night during a camping trip. Fun!
Oxenfree isn’t action-focused. Instead, the crux of the experience here comes in talking with the other characters, solving some fairly rudimentary puzzles, and developing your relationships with all of the characters as you go.
It takes everything from campy 1980’s teen horror movies, and blends it with fantastic writing to make for a believable, supernatural tale. It’s got ample replay value (as your decisions impact the ending you get), and is well worth playing again five years after its original release if it’s been a while.
Published: Feb 24, 2021 10:54 am