Monday, June 29, 2020
As the Xbox library continues to mature, we now have quite literally hundreds of amazing games worth playing on Microsoft's console platform. Whether you're a veteran or a newcomer looking for something to play, we've compiled a list of the biggest, brightest, and best games we've played since the Xbox One launched back in 2013.
Best Overall: Red Dead Redemption 2
Whether you have an Xbox One S or a 4K-powered Xbox One X, there is one quintessential experience you cannot live without on Microsoft's home console. Rockstar Games' reputation for unrelenting quality continues in Red Dead Redemption 2, which is an open-world adventure on a whole other level.
Unprecedented environmental detail, dynamic ecosystems, storytelling worthy of Hollywood, and uncannily realistic character presentation coalesces to make Red Dead Redemption 2 the ultimate Xbox One experience. Set in the closing days of the classic "Wild West" era, one of the region's last surviving criminal gangs attempts to rebuild their fortunes after a disastrous run-in with an increasingly powerful federal law system.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is first and foremost a story-driven game, where you'll guide Arthur Morgan and the Van der Lin Gang across a risky parade of daring heists, train robberies, and gang wars. Spanning five fictional US states across a wide variety of terrain, with all sorts of compelling missions and side objectives, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a must-have title for any library.
Pros:
- Engrossing story
- Great character acting
- Incredible visuals
- Huge amount of content
- Satisfying combat
Cons:
- Online systems aren't great
- The opening is a bit slow
Best Overall
Red Dead Redemption 2
A masterpiece.
The quintessential Xbox One masterpiece, Red Dead Redemption 2, sets the standard for gameplay, visuals, and storytelling.
Editor's Pick: The Outer Worlds
For our latest Editor's Pick, we're choosing The Outer Worlds, for dragging Bethesda's neglected Fallout formula into the modern era.
Built by Obsidian Entertainment, The Outer Worlds sports all of the same wit, charm, and consequences as Fallout New Vegas, against a backdrop of stunning sci-fi scenery and tight RPG shooting gameplay. The Outer Worlds is an absolute must-buy for RPG fans everywhere, especially those who miss the good ol' days of Fallout 3, New Vegas, and Mass Effect.
Pros:
- Gorgeous sci-fi worlds
- Satisfying and responsive combat
- Excellent character depth and writing
- Choices that actually matter
- Available in Xbox Game Pass
Cons:
- Companion A.I. isn't the best
- UI could use some improvements
Editor's Pick
The Outer Worlds
Most-exciting new IP in years
The Outer Worlds is a little rough around the edges similar to its ragtag crew of heroes, but it's not for lack of heart and soul. The Outer Worlds is a tremendous journey across an entire star system RPG fans can't miss.
$60 at Amazon (Physical) $10/mo at Xbox Game Pass (Digital)
Best RPG: The Witcher 3
The Witcher 3 held our "best overall" Xbox One game for years for a good reason, like Red Dead Redemption 2, it is a masterpiece in its own right. Built by CD Projekt RED, The Witcher 3 is unequivocally the best RPG on Xbox One today, by a fairly huge margin too. Set in a dark, medieval-inspired fairy tale land, The Witcher 3 follows Geralt of Rivia's attempts to track down his protege, Ciri. Along the way, Geralt gets caught up in all sorts of political intrigue, trading his supernatural hunting services for coin and information.
The Witcher 3 is packed with dozens of hours of content, which will push to well over 100 hours if you pick up the stellar expansion packs along with it. Exceptional methodical combat, stunning visuals, and harrowing monsters.
Pros:
- Stunning visuals
- Incredible writing and cinematics
- A massive cast of memorable characters
- Satisfying, violent combat
- Consequence-heavy story decisions
Cons:
- RPG progression systems lack depth
Best RPG
The Witcher 3
An essential RPG
The Witcher 3 is an excellent RPG full of romance, political intrigue, and of course, monster-slaying.
Best Competitive Shooter: Rainbow Six Siege
Cranking out its fourth year of free post-launch updates, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege's tactical shootouts continue to draw millions on Xbox One. It's growing roster of playable Operators define its hero-style gameplay, depicting elite counterterrorism forces for both offensive and defensive play. Backed by a lineup of ultra-competitive, destructible arenas, Rainbow Six Siege rewards strategy and resourcefulness over raw firepower. There's simply no other multiplayer shooter on the market that matches Ubisoft's tense, skill-driven battlefront.
With Operator and map knowledge essential, there's a sharp learning curve for new Siege recruits. However, upon grasping those underlying mechanics, map flow, and gadget synergies, Rainbow Six Siege's perfected formula comes to light.
Pros:
- Precise, smooth gunplay
- A diverse lineup of Operators and gadgets
- Competitive, refined multiplayer maps
- Free updates all year round
Cons:
- Sharp learning curve for new players
Best Competitive Shooter
Rainbow Six Siege
Relentless tactical shooting
Rainbow Six Siege is an aggressively strategic shooter from Ubisoft, taking place in claustrophobic urban levels complete with environmental destruction, tons of tactical gadgets, and an emphasis on team play.
Best Campaign Shooter: Prey
Prey is an incredible story-driven shooter from Arkane Studios, set aboard the Talos I space station. Set in an alternative world timeline, Prey follows the discovery of a mysterious alien species, and humanity's experiments on the creature's physics-bending abilities. As you might expect, things go south pretty quickly, and you find yourself as one of the station's remaining survivors.
With an emphasis on puzzle-solving, passive world-building narrative, and exploration, Prey is an underrated gem that fans of games like Dead Space and Bioshock must not miss.
Pros:
- Huge areas to explore
- Tons of playstyle customization
- Subversive story
- Satisfying combat mechanics
Cons:
- Frequent loading screens, particularly towards the end
Best Campaign Shooter
Prey
Atmospheric sci-fi shooting
Prey is an incredible (and underrated) atmospheric shooter that combines the best of Dead Space tension and Bioshock-like evocative world-building.
Best Co-Op: Monster Hunter World: Iceborne
Monster Hunter World is a massive action RPG with a ton of things to see, do, and kill, and the mammoth-esque Iceborne expansion makes it even better. As a hunter, your job is to study the game's diverse fantasy ecosystems and eliminate dangerous encroaching predators that threaten the balance. Various monsters, wyverns, and other gigantic creatures swarm through the game's varied locations, and you and up to three friends can take on a wide range of creatures of all shapes and sizes.
With dozens of weapon types for all sorts of playstyles, a load of armor types, upgrades, and on-going content updates, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is a leading co-op action game.
Pros:
- Exciting monster battles
- Piles of loot to obtain and craft
- Satisfying combat
Cons:
- Steep learning curve
- Needlessly complex connectivity systems
Best Co-Op
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne
Hunt monsters with your friends
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is an incredible co-op RPG where you and up to three friends can hunt down gigantic monsters and craft astonishing gear.
Best Racing: Forza Horizon 4
Forza Horizon has always been the racing game that everybody can enjoy, but for the fourth outing in the series, it kicked everything up a notch. It's the most ambitious entry yet with a vast shared world experience paired with weekly content updates to keep players engaged and entertained week in, week out.
It's a technical triumph, offering 4K HDR visuals on Xbox One X, a performance mode with a 60 FPS frame rate, and an almost entirely destructible environment. And thanks to Microsoft initiatives like Game Pass and Play Anywhere, Forza Horizon 4 is accessible to more players than ever before.
Pros:
- Massive open shared world gameplay
- One of the best looking games on any platform
- Constant content updates
Cons:
- Abundant loading screens
- Ranked multiplayer matchmaking is slow
Best Racing
Forza Horizon 4
Race in a stunning British-inspired landscape
Forza Horizon 4 is an essential racing game experience, taking place across a stunning re-imagining of British landscapes.
Best Open World: Assassin's Creed: Odyssey
Assassin's Creed: Odyssey perfects the franchise's push into deeper RPG territory, taking place within a staggeringly vast Ancient Greece open world. Full of noteworthy historical sites, piles of reasons to explore both overground and underwater, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey is one of Ubisoft's most impressive open-world games to date.
Following the events of Assassin's Creed: Origins, Odyssey follows a young Animus researcher who dives back into Ancient Greece to piece together more puzzles from the game's overarching sci-fi story. Odyssey features full naval combat systems, playstyle tailoring through RPG mechanics, and a vast world full of unique animals to hunt, locations to plunder, and of course, baddies to assassinate.
Pros:
- Gargantuan open world
- Some of the best Xbox One X visuals to date
- Satisfying melee combat
Cons:
- Can feel a tad repetitive at times
Best Open World
Assassins Creed: Odyssey
Adventure in Ancient Greece
Assassin's Creed: Odyssey is an essential open-world title, taking place in a colossal recreation of ancient Greece.
Best Stealth: Desperados III
Desperados III came virtually out of nowhere, reviving a decades-dormant stealth game with a tactical, Wild West-edge.
Desperados III puts you in command of a small party of miscreants in the Old West. Revolving around a tale of revenge and fortune-seeking, you'll fight your way through various highly-detailed locales with an isometric view, setting up ambushes that make OK Corral seem pedestrian.
Desperados III was a true surprise for me, with a great plot, great visuals, and great characters that keep you engaged throughout.
Pros:
- Rich, detailed environments
- Rewarding, real-time tactical gameplay
- Hugely satisfying
- Surprisingly good plot
Cons:
- Can be tough for newcomers
Best Stealth
Desperados III
Old West assassination
Desperados III revives the classic real-time tactics stealth genre in a big way, set in a gorgeous re-imagining of the Wild West.
Best Action Adventure: NieR: Automata
NieR: Automata is one of the most unique and complex games ever, combining enticing and addicting gameplay with a deep, philosophical narrative into one cohesive experience. Its world is as intriguing as it is beautiful, and its themes will make you consider topics that have baffled some of humanity's greatest minds for generations.
Its complexity and depth may be a deterrent if you simply want to sit back and relax while you game, but if you want a story that will challenge you to think critically, there's no better game on the Xbox One.
Pros:
- Challenging narrative full of twists
- Incredible soundtrack
- Explosive combat
Cons:
- A lot of backtracking and re-used areas
Best Action Adventure
NieR: Automata
Become as Gods
NieR: Automata is an award-winning hack n' slash action game with some light RPG elements, set in the ruins of apocalyptic earth. Mysterious robots have taken over the planet, and the remnants of humanity send advanced androids in attempts to retake Earth.
Best Horror: Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 2 is a legendary 90s horror game, completely remade for the current generation. Resident Evil 2's 2019 remake proves that the original had a timeless formula, set in a city-wide zombie outbreak that tears into the locals, mutating humans and animals alike (and even some plants).
Resident Evil 2 follows rookie cop Leon, and local Claire, searching for her brother, caught up in a massive bio-engineering disaster. Solve the puzzles in the iconic museum-turned-police station, evade the hulking Mr. X, and scavenge for supplies in zombie-infested sewers. This is a must-buy title for horror fans.
Pros:
- Stunning, horrific visuals
- Terrifying atmosphere
- Satisfying gunplay
Cons:
- Voice acting hasn't evolved since the 90s
- Missing a few areas from the original, where's my giant moth at?
Best Horror
Resident Evil 2
The best is back
The Resident Evil franchise suffered a bit of a lull for a while but returned with spine-chilling gusto on the backs of Resident Evil 7 and the Resident Evil 2 remake. Resident Evil 2 proves the original classic from the 90s had a timeless formula.
Best Survival: The Long Dark
The Long Dark is a stunning survival simulator from Hinterland Games, set in the icy climbs of Canada. Following a plane crash, you find yourself stranded in the Canadian wilds. A mysterious meteorological disaster has thrown the climate into chaos, driving local wildlife into an unnaturally aggressive frenzy.
In The Long Dark, you'll scavenge supplies, fashion weapons, and ultimately survive, managing your hunger, third, and of course, temperature.
Pros:
- Vast open-world survival
- Well-balanced systems and mechanics
- Tons of locations to explore, and hazards to overcome
Cons:
- Performance isn't always the best
- Visuals look a bit dated
Best Survival
The Long Dark
Long, cold winter
The Long Dark is an incredible survival game set in northern Canada. A meteorological disaster causes your plane to crash in the wilderness, sending temperatures plummeting and driving the local wildlife insane. Your only aims are to scavenge, craft, and survive.
Best Platformer: Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a beautiful, hand-painted platformer set in a magical forest world. Guiding the cat-like creature, Ori, you'll embark on a quest to save your friends and home from a seeping corruption.
With tight, acrobatic platforming, upgraded combat, Ori and the Will of the Wisps stuns with its haunting music, atmospheric locations, and challenging gameplay.
Pros:
- Intense platforming action
- Beautiful worlds
- Moving narrative
Cons:
- Honestly, nothing really
Best Platformer
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
An stunning, emotional showcase
Ori and the Will of the Wisps is an industry-leading action platformer, with incredible hand-painted visuals and satisfying acrobatic combat. You play as a magical cat-like creature called Ori, on a quest to save the forest from corruption.
Best Puzzle: Inside
Inside is a haunting puzzle platformer from Playdead, expanding on the concepts pioneered in the studio's previous title, Limbo. In Inside, you control a young boy through a monochromatic dystopian hellscape, with Lynchian industrial overtones and a grisly authoritarian undercurrent.
Throughout the game, you'll be called upon to solve various logic puzzles that test your brains, and occasionally your reactions. The protagonist is being pursued by the game's mysterious authority, whose true nature slowly reveals itself as you march through this evocative title.
Pros:
- Gorgeous presentation and sound
- Unnerving silent narrative
- Challenging, satisfying puzzle action
Cons:
- No replayability
Best Puzzle
Inside
Dystopian puzzling
Inside comes from the creators of Limbo, with a similarly stylish side-scrolling puzzle adventure, set in an equally sobering setting. Guide a young boy on his escape from a dystopian regime, and discover the horrors of this dark world's society.
Best Strategy: Mutant Year Zero
Mutant Year Zero is a turn-based strategy game with RPG elements. In Mutant Year Zero, you control a small team of mutants in defense of the last free human civilization in a distant post-apocalypse. All remnants of our world are in ruin, pieced together by speculation and rumors by the last surviving humans.
With grid-style turn-based tactical combat, Mutant Year Zero is an excellent take on XCOM-style gameplay conventions, with lots of unique areas to explore.
Pros:
- Satisfying and strategic combat
- Intriguing apocalyptic world
- Fun narrative and storytelling
Cons:
- Performance can be iffy at times
Best Strategy
Mutant Year Zero
A quirky post-apocalypse
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is an apocalyptic turn-based strategy game, where you aim to protect the last free human colony from various apocalyptic threats. Oh, you play as a team of mutants, by the way, including a giant duck and a boar man. For reasons.
Best Simulation: Surviving Mars
Surviving Mars is an addictive simulation game, set on the Red Planet. In Surviving Mars, it's up to you to set up your very own space colony, including all the problems therein. Your colonists need oxygen, food, water, and shelter from the violent hazards that exist on Mars.
In Surviving Mars, you'll grow your colony from a single small dome into a sprawling exoplanet city, complete with drone workers, and eventually, terraforming facilities.
Pros:
- Addictive, satisfying simulation mechanics
- Gorgeous, well-optimized visuals
- Great balance between simulation and strategy
Cons:
- Late-stage gameplay isn't as engaging as it could be
Best Simulation
Surviving Mars
Become Matt Damon, sorta
Surviving Mars is an addictive sci-fi simulator where players are tasked with the colonization of the titular Red Planet. Expand, manage oxygen levels, food, and water, while navigating dangerous hazards.
Best Graphic Adventure: Life is Strange
Life is Strange is an evocative graphic adventure game set in a fictional Pacific North Western town in the US. Max Caulfield is an art student with a focus on photography, who ends up with a mysterious power.
In a community filled with horrible secrets, Life is Strange's unique time-bending game mechanic that allows you to experience different branches of your story decisions in real-time. Max teams up with her rebellious childhood friend, Chloe, in an attempt to figure out what ties together a missing girl, the town's shady characters, and a devastating supernatural storm.
Pros:
- A gripping, emotional story
- Unique time-travel mechanics
Cons:
- Visuals and animations aren't the best
Best Graphic Adventure
Life is Strange
Twin Peaks for your Xbox
Life is Strange is a hit story-driven episodic adventure game. Controlling Max Caulfield, you'll guide her through a small-town murder mystery with a dash of time-traveling supernatural intrigue.
Best Fighting: Killer Instinct
Killer Instinct is an incredible combo-heavy fighting game from Iron Galaxy and Microsoft, based on the 90s games of the same name. The game has a couple of dozen fighters for all sorts of playstyles, with iconic combo-breaking tactical layers on top of relatively accessible fighting gameplay.
Pros:
- Great netcode and server infrastructure
- Fun, accessible combat with tons to master
- A cast of quirky characters for various playstyles
- Piles of cosmetics to unlock
Cons:
- Story content isn't well-executed
Best Fighting
Killer Instinct
C-c-c-combo breaker
Killer Instinct is a unique combo-heavy free-to-play fighting game from Microsoft. With over two-dozen varied combatants, tons of cosmetics to unlock, great netcode, and plenty of solo content, Killer Instinct is still easily the best fighting game on Xbox One.
Best Sports: Rocket League
Rocket League is what happens when you combine soccer and jet-powered RC racers in confined sci-fi stages. In Rocket League, your goal is to bash the ball into the opposing team's net, scoring points on the way to victory. Heavily physics-based, Rocket League rewards those who take the care to master its nuances. The best players are those that master the game's more advanced moves, gliding through the air and wall riding.
With tons of free updates, cross-platform play, and lots to unlock, Rocket League has kept millions hooked for years.
Pros:
- Smooth performance
- Lots of arenas and gameplay modes
- Short gameplay rounds
- Cross-platform play
Cons:
- Matchmaking algorithms aren't great at making competitive matches
Best Sports
Rocket League
Soccer, rockets, and racing
What happens when you combine rocket-powered sports cars with soccer? You get Rocket League. Dash across a wide range of neon-washed stages and game modes in this high-octane sports game that is addictive as it is fun.
Best for Kids: Minecraft
Minecraft is a legendary crafting and building game from Mojang and Microsoft. Set it infinitely procedurally generated random worlds, comprised of various types of landscape environments, Minecraft encourages its players to do anything they like. Build gigantic structures, set up farms, tame animals, protect villagers, or explore the Hellish Nether, Minecraft is a game that keeps on giving, extensible with mods and free updates.
Pros:
- Endless creativity
- Large free content updates every few months
- Full cross-platform support for multiplayer
Cons:
- Dedicated "Realms" servers are expensive to rent
- Promised visual upgrade packs have been delayed
Best for Kids
Minecraft
Best kids game ever
Not just the best kids game on Xbox One, but very possibly the best kids game of all time. Minecraft (Bedrock Edition) can bring together games from phones, tablets, VR, Nintendo Switch, PC, and Xbox, all inside a single game for some digital Lego survival goodness.
Bottom line
Red Dead Redemption 2 retains the top spot for its majesty, vision, and cover-to-cover excellence. Few games have begun to approach what Rockstar has achieved with Red Dead Redemption 2, which is ultimately the example by which all other open-world action games should follow.
Credits — The team that worked on this guide
Jez Corden is a full-time writer for Windows Central, focusing on Xbox, Surface, and Windows PC. He spends the vast majority of his time gaming or writing about gaming, with a mission to provide gamers in the Microsoft ecosystem the best and most up-to-date info possible.
Matt Brown is a staff writer at Mobile Nations for Windows Central. Following years of professional consumer technology and gaming coverage, he's focused on the world of Xbox and Windows PCs. You can follow him on Twitter @mattjbrown.
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