Summary
Xbox Game Passis quite a bargain from Microsoft, as for a modest monthly fee, you can gain access to a huge library of video games, both old and new, including some from first-party studios that are Day One launches. Being presented with such a wide variety of games like a kid in a candy store, many might pique your interest, and you can now try them out when you otherwise wouldn’t have.
Of course, major games like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the Call of Duty series, Doom: The Dark Ages, and even Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 won’t need to do much convincing outside of Game Pass, yet there are still some titles you might be hesitant about trying that have the potential to take over your life.
One of the newer Game Pass launches, South of Midnight, was the overlooked gem of 2025. It’s an amazing narrative adventure set in the Deep South that explores the rich mythology and folklore of the region. If you’ve seen Ryan Coogler’sgenre-bending movieSinners, South of Midnight is a perfect follow-up.
You play as the young Hazel, who goes on a quest in search of her mother, swept away in their house during a hurricane, and she’ll meet more friendly creatures and also deal with evil mythological foes. The art style is influenced by stop-motion animation, the Southern Gothic environments are captivating, and it’s made by the developers of We Happy Few, demonstrating they understand both Americanand British cultures.
What South of Midnight nails about the American Deep South and its culture and folklore, Still Wakes the Deep achieves the same for Scottish culture, utilizing a fantastic voice cast of led by Alec Newman, who portrays the game’s protagonist, Caz McLeary. There’s even the option of completing the game entirely in Gaelic.
Still Wakes the Deep is an excellent survival horror made byThe Chinese Room, who have previously made lukewarm games like Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, so it’s understandable if you waited to see what this game had to offer. Turns out, it’sa pretty unnerving Lovecraftian horrorset on an oil rig, with suspenseful set pieces, a great story, and original body horror.
Justant is is fromDon’t Nod, the developer of Life is Strange, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, and Tell Me Why. But it’s nothing at all like these aforementioned choice-based, narrative-driven titles. Both art style and mechanics-wise, Jusant takes on a bold new direction.
The core gameplay in Jusant is scaling a tower that features multiple vibrant biomes, and it uses some innovative and detailed climbing physics, weather systems, traversal options, and a stamina meter. The experience is meant to be more relaxing rather than a stressful climb, especially with the soothing music and your cute little blue buddy called a ballast there to guide you along the journey.
Another impactful and incredible cultural game is Venba. It’s a narrative-driven cooking and puzzle game about the experience of Indian immigrants from Tamil Nadu settling into their new lifein Canada, utilizing sounds inspired by Tamil music and having you create delicious South Indian recipes. It’s also a moving story of family, culture, love, and loss.
Venba’s gameplay experience can be described as short, sweet, and emotional. The recipes you’ll be making have some puzzle elements involved in finding the missing ingredients, and then there’s also branching dialogue interactions with your family that shape the story.
As Dusk Falls was a highly stylistic interactive branching narrative game that used an illustrated, rotoscoping-inspired art style for the characters and animations, yet also featured a convincing voice castcomprised of a star-studded group. The narrative design might also be familiar because of Interior Night’s creative director, Caroline Marchal, who was formerly of Quantic Dream.
It’s a crime drama about a trio of robbers, the Holt Brothers, who hold a family hostage at a motel in Arizona while on the run from the authorities. If you’re a fan of movies of a similar influence, this game is a bit of From Dusk Till Dawn (minus the vampires), Fargo, and Hell or High Water. It’s also a decades-spanning narrative, the events beginning in 1998 and covering 30 years.
Hi-Fi Rush gives you an experience exactly as stated in the name. You have lots of hi-fi music and sounds, and the action-driven, rhythm-based gameplay entails a pure rush. The main protagonist, Chai, is also one of thebest new characters to grace gaming in the 2020s. He’s got a prosthetic arm courtesy of Vandelay Technologies, a guitar weapon, and is helped by a cute cat cleverly named 808.
Hi-Fi Rush can rightfully make you skeptical, as it’s from Tango Gameworks, a studio notable for crafting horror titles like The Evil Within and Ghostwire: Tokyo. But Hi-Fi Rush shows you thatthis developer can achieve greatness in multiple genres. As Chai, you’ll be taking on robot foes from Vandelay and having a blast attacking them to the beat.
Blue Prince is one of those unexpected titles that you might otherwise not want to risk purchasing based on your first impression of it. Doubly so if puzzle games aren’t your favorite, and it’s not at all clear what it’s about from the store page. Luckily, Game Pass is there for it to potentially win you over.
The game is set around a manor known as Mt. Holly, to which your character is the heir and must explore every room until you find the mysterious Room 46, with the hallways and rooms all shifting around and presenting new puzzle challenges. The game is played from a first-person perspective, and the art and story are like a cross between What Remains of Edith Finch, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, and The House of Da Vinci.
Like South of Midnight, As Dusk Falls, Jusant, and Venba, Pentiment is also a unique and special game that’s a wholly different direction for Avowed, The Outer Worlds, and Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian. In fact, had Obsidian not been mentioned as the developer, you probably would’ve never even guessed, as the art and UI design are 2D and based on illuminated manuscripts.
That’s because Pentiment takes place in the 16th century in the Bavarian Alps, where you play an illustrator of these texts named Andreas Maler, who’ll now turn into an investigator after a murder occurs at the Kiersau Abbey. It’s an RPG with investigative mechanics, impressively original art direction, and a branching dialogue system classic of Obsidian.
Cocoon is a puzzle game placing you in the shoes of an alien bug that gets transported to various new worlds within orbs, conceived by none other than the former lead game developer of Inside and Limbo, Jeppe Carlsen. Like Blue Prince, it’s a unique and originalXbox puzzle game adventure.
Cocoon’s art style is whimsical and colorful, a bit of Jusant and Ori, with some complex level and puzzle design that makes for a special experience that’s only further complemented by Cocoon’s intriguing world and lore. It’s also a game that brilliantly innovates the concept of worlds within worlds and how video games can utilize orbs as part of their gameplay.
Clair Obscur was an instant Game of the Year contender with its gripping story, epic visuals, incredible score, enemy variety, and creative turn-based gameplay, but that last part is precisely what might’ve held some back from playing it. If you aren’t sold on turn-based RPGs, then you might’ve given Clair Obscur a wide berth on Game Pass, especially considering it’s a debut from a newcomer studio.
But safe to say, many ended up buying the game after experiencing the pure masterful gameplay and storytelling from Sandfall Interactive, asClair Obscur has now sold over 3 million copies. The game has a fantasy setting influenced by Belle Époque France, where an antagonist known as The Paintress claims the souls of those aged the number she sets on a monolith. The world-building, characters, and art are simply magnificent.
