The 25 best games on Game Pass

Illustration: James Bareham/PolygonMicrosoft’s Game Pass subscription service is set for another great year in 2024, with over 450 games now available for console players and over 400 for PC players.The service has recently been bolstered with the addition of two huge Xbox Game Studios exclusives, Starfield and Forza Motorsport. Blockbuster titles are well represented with the likes of Assassin’s Creed, cult favorites like Lies of P have popped up, and Game Pass has continued its strong tradition of curating the best of the indie world with the likes of Cocoon and Jusant. That’s a lot of “free” video gaming to be done!With the sheer size and the bounty of choice it offers, Game Pass can be a bit overwhelming to digest. But we’re here to help. Here are the 25 PC and Xbox Game Pass games that you should be checking out if you subscribe to Microsoft’s flagship service.[Ed. note: This list was last updated on Sep. 25, 2024, adding Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess. It will be updated as new games come to the service.]Assassin’s Creed Origins Ubisoft Montreal/UbisoftAssassin’s Creed Origins has always been good — but it was only in hindsight, three years after its release, that I began to consider it great.It’s a phenomenal concoction of historical tourism, sci-fi storytelling, and open-ended combat. It also displays a confidence that the more recent Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla can only partially match. Whereas the two most recent entries embrace the insecure ethos of “content” that has so defined the last decade of open-world games, Origins is content to leave vast swaths of its world empty and to let things burn slowly, in ways both narrative and explorative. Its map unfurls over deserts, mountains, oases, and sun-swept cities slowly being buried in sand, all while its two central figures (Bayek and Aya) navigate one of video games’ most compelling romances.It’s not completely averse to daily challenges and cosmetic DLC packs. But it’s the rare open-world game that trusts my attention span. It understands that pastoral beauty and tragic storytelling, successfully interwoven, are worth more than any number of distractions its successors can throw at me. —Mike MahardyAssassin’s Creed Origins is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.The Case of the Golden Idol Color Gray Games/PlaystackAre we ready to call Color Gray Games’ The Case of the Golden Idol one of the greatest detective games of all time yet? Often compared to Return of the Obra Dinn, and not just for its historical setting, this fabulously intricate point-and-click mystery unravels a sinister conspiracy across 40 years as 12 apparent murders in the 18th century, centering on the titular golden idol, an object of power, intrigue, and maybe magic.The grimly hilarious and grotesque illustrations lay out crime scenes of great complexity in the game’s “exploring” phase, where you collect information and clues. In the “thinking” phase, you fill out details of the crime and the participants in a virtual notebook, but you’ll probably need to use a real notebook of your own to stay on top of the intricate logic puzzles within the cases, and the sophisticated echoes between them. A richly rewarding and atmospheric puzzle classic. —OWThe Case of the Golden Idol is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.Chants of Sennaar Rundisc/Focus EntertainmentThe beautiful Chants of Sennaar, by French micro-studio Rundisc, constructs a wonderfully satisfying puzzle game out of learning languages. As you ascend its mysterious tower, inspired by stories of the tower of Babel, you move through different cultures, each with its own architecture and language. You don’t understand what anyone is saying to begin with, but gradually piece together clues in your notebook, linking words to concepts via pictographs, and gradually learning each society’s language, as well as its customs and culture.The puzzles are very good — better, certainly, than the sometimes frustrating stealth sections — but what’s really rewarding about Chants of Sennaar is the feeling of peeling back the layers of understanding and connecting with new people and new ways of seeing the world. In its small way, this is a profound game about human connection. —Oli WelshChants of Sennaar is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.Cities: Skylines Colossal Order/Paradox InteractiveThere’s a reason Cities: Skylines is often held up by literal city planners as the pinnacle of the genre: It doesn’t fall into the trap most city-builders do of treating all its resources and systems as mere data points on a list, gaming by way of a spreadsheet. Cities: Skylines is the real deal, letting you get into the weeds of urban micromanagement and understanding how and why metropolises morph in response to the needs of their citizens. (It’s also proof that planned cities are a crime against humanity.) Cities: Skylines forces you to grapple with the beautiful, messy truth of what your citizens are: people. In other words, Eric Adams, please play Cities: Skylines! —Ari NotisCities: Skylines is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.Citizen Sleeper Jump Over the Age/Fellow TravellerCitizen Sleeper is a hyper-stylized tabletop-like RPG set in space. In a capitalist society, you find yourself stuck on a space station. You’ll need to manage your time, energy, and relationships to survive the collapse of the corporatocracy and the anarchy that follows. You’ll roll dice and make decisions to get paid and help those around you.Aside from its interesting setting, Citizen Sleeper features a vibrant cast of impactful characters, making each interaction memorable. It follows an excellent trend of table-top inspired games to encourage you to find your own objectives, and to revel in the story when things fall apart. It’s packed with tense decisions, great writing, and striking visuals. —RGCitizen Sleeper is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.Cocoon Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive via PolygonA mysteriously beautiful, exquisitely paced puzzle adventure from some of the minds behind Limbo and Inside, Cocoon shares those games’ wordless delivery and stark aesthetic. But it’s more abstract and contemplative, and perhaps even more involving. It’s a game of pocket universes, one inside another, inhabited by buglike techno-organic life-forms — including the player character, a scurrying little beetle-thing. The conceit is that you can step up out of one reality and move it around another on your back, in a gently glowing sphere that also interacts with the world around it, before diving back in — or swapping it for another entirely.Like so many puzzle adventures, it’s essentially a game of locks and keys, plus the occasional ingenious boss fight. But like the very best of them — Fez, for example, or Portal — Cocoon plays games with perception and reality that rewire your brain in pleasantly tortuous ways. —OWCocoon is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.Control Remedy Entertainment/505 GamesBefore Alan Wake 2, the Remedy Entertainment renaissance began in 2019 with this astonishingly confident and technically adept action-adventure set in a strange, modernist nightmare. Part spy thriller, part cubist horror, Control is a game about what happens when architecture turns against you. As Jesse Faden, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Control, you explore the confounding, bigger-on-the-inside Oldest House, the paranormal headquarters of the FBC, which is under attack from a malevolent force intent on corrupting reality itself.This is all pretty heady stuff, and Remedy delivers it with its usual cinematic eye, technical polish, and storytelling prowess. (The game is loaded with references that connect its universe to that of the Alan Wake games, if you want to join some dots.) In combat, Control is a pretty enjoyable third-person shooter, but the real fun is in the nonlinear exploration of the Oldest House’s impossible spaces. —OWControl is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.Crusader Kings 3 Paradox Interactive via PolygonImagine if Succession unfolded between the years 867 and 1453, in the throne rooms, banquet halls, and torchlit back corridors of European castles. Monarchs rise and fall, small-time fiefdoms become bona fide kingdoms, and nonmarital children exact revenge after decades of being shunned. Crusader Kings 3 is the story of the Roy family if we could pick any character, see them through to their death, and assume control of their orphaned heir — at which point, we can completely alter the course of the dynasty through petty gossip and underhanded murder attempts.In Paradox Interactive’s vast suite of grand strategy games with complex systems that give way to thrilling emergent storytelling, none have made me cackle with glee quite as much as Crusader Kings 3. In one playthrough, I wed my firstborn son to the daughter of a powerful neighboring king, only for said daughter to declare a holy war on me one decade later. In another, I strong-armed one of my vassals into remaining loyal, shortly before knighting his cousin and sworn rival; I didn’t want to be a jerk, but my characters were jerks. I was just following the script down the path of least resistance.Much like Succession, Crusader Kings 3 is at its best when tensions finally boil over between the emotionally stunted members of a dysfunctional family. Unlike Succession, though, Crusader Kings 3 never has to end. —MMCrusader Kings 3 is available via Game Pass on Windows PC and Xbox Series X.Death’s Door Acid Nerve/Devolver DigitalDeath’s Door is a cute little Soulslike game. You play as a raven who works as a kind of grim reaper for the bureaucratic arm of the afterlife. It’s your job to adventure in the world and claim the lives of a handful of bosses. The world of Death’s Door is charming, as are its characters, with excellent dungeons to explore and puzzles to solve. There are also giant enemies who will test both your skills and patience.Still, Death’s Door has a friendly air around it. It wants you to succeed, and does a nice job easing you along with easy-to-read enemy and boss patterns. It’s a great, challenging Game Pass game to cut your teeth on before venturing into even more difficult titles. —RGDeath’s Door is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.Diablo 4 Blizzard Entertainment via Sliver of Time/YouTubeA Diablo title getting “saved” by a game-changing patch is almost part of the expected narrative for Blizzard’s series of dark, frantic action RPGs now. Diablo 4 was neither as broken nor as interesting as Diablo 3 at launch, so the rescue job performed by the brilliant recent fourth season, Loot Reborn, is in its way all the more impressive. If you tried the game at launch and felt underwhelmed, it’s now well worth a second look — which couldn’t be easier, since it was the first major Activision Blizzard title to be added to Game Pass after the company was acquired by Microsoft.Loot Reborn essentially made the game much more forgiving and rewarding to play, with better, more usable loot dropping more often, and boosting your character in ways that are easy to feel and understand. The gameplay loop has been tightened, the crafting and customization have been clarified and deepened, and the revamped Helltides are hugely compelling and fun world events that bring players together. Beyond the new stuff, there’s just a colossal amount of game here to get stuck into, not to mention regular updates and a major expansion coming soon. It’s time to get involved. —OWDiablo 4 is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.Doom (2016) id Software/Bethesda Softworks2016’s Doom builds off of one of the oldest franchises in gaming history with speed, acrobatics, and an absolutely killer soundtrack. Doomguy moves extremely quickly, swapping between a variety of guns, grenades, melee attacks, and a giant chainsaw to blow up demons off of Mars. The game is bloody, metal as hell, and surprisingly funny. Doom makes you feel like a god, capable of clearing any hurdle the game could throw at you, and it doesn’t offer a single dull level in its lengthy campaign. —RGDoom (2016) is available via Game Pass on Xbox One and Xbox Series X.Fallout: New Vegas Obsidian Entertainment/Bethesda SoftworksIf you’re new to the Fallout universe, perhaps introduced to it by Prime Video’s hit TV show, and want to try the games, then Game Pass has you covered: The entire series is playable on Microsoft’s subscription service. But a tricky choice lies ahead: Where to start?There’s not much in the way of continuity to worry about, with most games starting from scratch to offer a new perspective on the setting. Fallout Tactics and 76 are genre-bending offshoots. Fallout 4 is the most up to date of the single-player RPGs, but few would argue it’s the best. The first two PC games, developed by Interplay and Black Isle, offer a dark, bleakly comic vision that never quite translated to their Bethesda-made sequels, but they’re also pretty old and clunky to play by modern standards.The answer has to be Fallout: New Vegas, a Fallout 3 spinoff made not by Bethesda but Obsidian Entertainment — a studio that can trace its lineage back to the Black Isle days, so it’s no surprise that it gets closer to that mischievous, outlaw tone. It’s a rough game, but an immensely charming one with personality to spare and superb writing. If you can look past its lack of polish, you’ll find one of the most engrossing role-playing games ever. —OWFallout: New Vegas is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.Forza Horizon 5 Playground Games/Xbox Game Studios via PolygonForza Horizon 5 is the latest racing game to land on Xbox and Game Pass. It’s a visual feast filled with some of the most realistic-looking cars you’ve ever seen. But anyone who loves any of these Forza games will tell you that the Horizon series is so much more than its graphics.Horizon 5 takes place in a fictionalized Mexico, and gives you the freedom to drive around a massive map in whatever car you want. You can drive a nice sports car while off-roading, or drive a hummer off a massive ramp. Forza Horizon 5 gives you the freedom and choice to drive how and where you want inside a legion of incredible cars. —RGForza Horizon 5 is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.Halo: The Master Chief Collection 343 Industries/Xbox Game StudiosThe Xbox brand might never have taken off without the Halo series, the first-person shooters that helped to popularize local competitive multiplayer on consoles before taking the party online after the launch of Xbox Live. The Master Chief Collection package includes multiple Halo games, all of which have been updated to keep them enjoyable for modern audiences.But what’s so striking about the collection is how many ways there are to play. You can go through the campaigns by yourself. If you want to play with a friend but don’t want to compete, there is co-op, allowing you to share the games’ stories with a partner, either online or through split-screen play. If you do want to compete, you can do it locally against up to three other players on the same TV, or take things online to challenge the wider community.These are some of the best first-person shooters ever released, and they’re worth revisiting and enjoying, no matter how you decide to play them. Sharing these games with my children through local co-op has been an amazing journey, and this package includes so many games, each of which is filled with different modes and options. It’s hard to imagine ever getting bored or uninstalling the collection once it’s on your hard drive.This is a part of gaming history that continues to feel relevant, and very much alive. —Ben KucheraHalo: The Master Chief Collection is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.Hi-Fi Rush Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks via PolygonRhythm games, for players who prefer to shoot, dodge, punch, and jump on their own time, can be a tough sell. But such is not the case with Hi-Fi Rush, the action game from Ghostwire: Tokyo developer Tango Gameworks. It provides an array of visual cues to help rhythmically challenged players, but crucially, it doesn’t require that protagonist Chai attacks according to the game’s metronome. Instead, its rhythm elements are an optional layer to interact with, offering score chasers something to aspire to. For everyone else, the game’s vibrant world, rock n’ roll storytelling, and entrancing traversal stand well enough on their own. It’s a cathartic triumph of a game. —MMHi-Fi Rush is available via Game Pass on Windows PC and Xbox Series X.Jusant Don’t NodJusant is a wonderfully chill rock-climbing adventure from Don’t Nod, the French studio that created Life is Strange. Unlike that dramatic, dialogue-heavy series, Jusant is a near-wordless game of exploration, but that doesn’t mean it has no story. A nameless young protagonist scales a huge tower of rock in the middle of a parched desert. People used to live there when a sea raged below, but they’ve now dispersed. Accompanied by a cute little water blob creature, our climber uncovers the secrets of this civilization and gradually brings life back to the tower as they ascend.To go with its gorgeously desolate art and relaxing vibes, Jusant is absorbing as a pure traversal game, with a simple but satisfyingly tactile climbing system. The pad triggers represent hand grips, so you squeeze out a soothing, see-saw rhythm as you plot your course up, up, always up. A game to clear the head. —OWJusant is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess CapcomA true original from a big publisher of a kind that’s vanishingly rare these days, Kunitsu-Gami sees Capcom taking a break from Street Fighter, Monster Hunter, and Resident Evil to let is hair down and party like it’s the mid-2000s — the height of the PlayStation 2’s golden era when Japanese publishers felt they could make a video game out of literally anything. In this case, it’s a combination of ritual Shinto dance, tower defence tactics, gruesome traditional folklore, and straightforward hack-and-slash action.And what a bewitching combination it is. The game sees you guide a swordsman as he protects a priestess who is dancing to cleanse a cursed hillside; you rescue and recruit villagers, turning them into military units, then battle waves of extraordinarily drawn monsters. Kunitsu-Gami sacrifices scale for focus; it’s a game that makes a virtue out of tight constraints, creating tension and satisfying gameplay loops out of its claustrophobically small stages, spooky day-night cycle, and simple strategic options. One of the great unsung gems of 2024. —OWKunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.Octopath Traveler 2 Acquire, Square Enix/Square Enix via PolygonSquare Enix’s HD-2D engine gorgeously and evocatively updates the classic pixelated look and cute character designs of 16-bit role-playing games, and it’s been used for new retro titles like Triangle Strategy and for remakes like Live A Live and the forthcoming Dragon Quest 3. The best of the lot, though, is Octopath Traveler 2, 2023’s retro RPG sequel. Both Octopath Traveler games are on Game Pass, but the second game is marginally better, and we’d recommend starting there. While it shares its structure with the 2018 original — eight disparate protagonists come together and explore individual storylines that are only loosely linked — Octopath Traveler 2 is a completely free-standing narrative, so you don’t need to know anything going in. It’s a more compelling and tightly organized suite of stories in a richer world than the first game’s, hiding some surprisingly dark themes and moments within its classical medieval fantasy setting.What both games have in common is an absolute peach of a turn-based battle system based around “breaking” enemies by targeting their elemental weaknesses, then using boost points to supercharge attacks and maximize damage against broken enemies. It’s got a hugely satisfying rhythm to it, and ramifications that tie neatly into party composition, equipment choice, and more. It’s a streamlined, beautifully balanced RPG design that can take its place alongside the ’90s greats. —OWOctopath Traveler 2 is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.Pentiment Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game StudiosPentiment is the most immediately striking and recognizable game on this list. Inspired by the art of classic manuscripts, Pentiment sucks you into its beautifully designed version of 16th-century Europe, when books were still being written by hand in monasteries.You play as Andreas, a young artist looking to make his fortune in an ever-changing world. And as you explore a small village and the grounds surrounding it, and go to work drawing magnificent pictures in custom manuscripts, you’ll meet new people and further flesh out Andreas’ personality and background.The story will take you through murder, scandal, and a variety of other dramatic events in Andreas’ life. But the plot is secondary to the game’s incredible style and dialogue. —RGPentiment is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.PowerWash Simulator FuturLab/Square EnixPowerWash Simulator is the perfect game to sit on your couch and space off to. As the name suggests, you’re a professional power washer, and your job is to use your washing tools to obliterate grease, grime, and goop off of vehicles, buildings, and even entire playgrounds.There are some minor upgrade and currency systems, but PowerWash Simulator mostly takes a minimalistic approach — you power wash stuff, no more, no less. Sure, you can take special jobs where you wash something wild like a Mars rover, but it’s really just about making things clean. And while it might sound like boring yard work, it’s actually quite meditative.Blasting the black film off of a colorful slide provided me with one of the biggest serotonin bursts I’ve gotten from any piece of media in years. It’s a delightful, peaceful game that never fails to relax me after a long week. —RGPowerWash Simulator is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.Slay the SpireIn Slay the Spire, I play as one of three unique characters, in order to fight my way through a randomly generated map filled with battles, treasure chests, and RPG-like encounters. Combat is similar to that of a turn-based RPG, but instead of selecting attacks and spells from a menu, I draw cards from each character’s specific pool of cards. These cards allow me to attack, defend, cast spells, or use special abilities. Each character has their own set of cards, making their play styles radically different.I also learned to buck my expectations for the kinds of decks I should build. The key to deck-building games is constructing a thematic deck where each card complements the others. In card games like Magic: The Gathering, this is easy enough to do, since you do all your planning before a match — not in the moment, like in Slay the Spire. Since I’m given a random set of cards to build a deck from at the end of each encounter, I can’t go into any run with a certain deck-building goal in mind. I have to quickly decide on long-term deck designs based on what cards are available to me after a battle. The trick with Slay the Spire is to think more creatively and proactively than the typical card game requires. —Jeff RamosSlay the Spire is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.Stardew Valley ConcernedApe/ChucklefishStardew Valley is quaint, but in the best way possible. You start the game by inheriting a farm from your grandfather, and you then move to a sleepy town to take over the diminishing acres. For the next 10, 20, 50, 100-plus hours, you work to turn that farm into a modern utopia.This is easily the most relaxing game on Game Pass. All you do is plant seeds, care for animals, mine some rocks, and befriend the villagers. There’s plenty of drama to be had — with the Wal-Mart-like JojaMart and an army of slimes trying to stop you from mining — but at the end of the day, you’re still going to pass out in your farmhouse and get ready to plant more strawberries the next morning. —RGStardew Valley is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge Tribute Games/Dotemu/NickelodeonTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is already a classic Turtles brawler. If you could’ve overheard a bunch of kids talking about their dream TMNT game while playing the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade cabinet at a local pizza bar in 1989, or Turtles in Time in 1991, this is the Turtles game they’d be imagining.But over 30 years later, Shredder’s Revenge implements some features that distinguish it from the days of the coin operated arcade. There’s a world map, side-quests, new heroes, experience points, and online matchmaking that help modernize the throwback trappings. Shredder’s Revenge manages to balance itself nicely between the world of retro and revamp.With only 16 “episodes,” it’s the perfect Game Pass game to jump into with some pals at a sleepover — as long as there’s pizza, of course. —RGTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.Vampire Survivors PoncleVampire Survivors wants you to “become the bullet hell.”The only control you have over the game is what character you select, what items you choose during your run, and where your character moves. Depending on your weapons of choice, knives, whips, flames, magic bolts, bibles, or holy water fly out of your character in every direction, decimating hordes or pixelated movie monsters, earning you cash for your next adventure.Though extremely simple on its face, Vampire Survivors is one of the best games of 2022. It perfectly walks the line between peaceful and stressful, requiring the perfect amount of attention for success. It also facilitates growth through skill and through roguelite progression, ensuring that each run is a bit different from your last. —RGVampire Survivors is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.Yakuza: Like a Dragon Ryu ga Gotoku Studio/SegaWith Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth arriving on Jan. 26, here’s a perfect opportunity to catch up on the exploits of protagonist Ichiban Kasuga in his previous adventure. Although it’s the seventh mainline title in the Yakuza series, Like a Dragon is also an effective reboot, and a great jumping-on point. It’s got a new, charmingly earnest star in Ichi, and makes a counterintuitive but very successful shift in gameplay style from real-time brawling to turn-based RPG. (With its subtitle, this game also marked the start of a branding shift for the series in the West from the Yakuza title to Like a Dragon, a translation of its Japanese title, Ryu ga Gotoku.)Like its predecessors, Like a Dragon is a curiously compelling mix of playable crime soap opera, palatably sleazy lifestyle sim, absurdist minigame compilation, and impeccably detailed virtual tourism. But thanks to Ichi and the gameplay changes, it has a refreshing feel that better harmonizes all those wildly disparate tones, and better encompasses the game’s sprawling scope. Before you set off for Hawaii and the apparently even more over-the-top excesses of Infinite Wealth, it’s well worth making this stop in Yokohama. —OWYakuza: Like a Dragon is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.