The best Xbox One games (August 2018)
The Xbox One might not have the same selection of exclusives as the PlayStation 4 or Nintendo Switch, but Microsoft’s console still has a huge library of games worth playing. With a strong lineup of shooters and racing games, fans of those genres needn’t look any further, and there’s also a number of great platformers you aren’t going to find on other consoles. We know the Xbox One isn’t exactly known for its exclusives but the handful it does have are definitely worth checking out and there’s still a ton of other great titles to indulge in.
Whether you’re looking for a lengthy single-player game with a great story or an online world to get lost in with friends, there is something for you. From Rise of the Tomb Raider to Rocket League, these are our picks for the best Xbox One games.
Action
Epic Games certainly didn’t invent the cover-based third-person shooter, but the developer’s 2006 game Gears of War turned it into a worldwide phenomenon. The original three games and prequel Judgment are playable on Xbox One through backward compatibility, and the first game as also remastered as Gears of War: Ultimate Edition for the system. If you’re looking for the latest Gears of War experience on Xbox One, Gears of War 4 has you covered with a gripping and horror-focused campaign that harkens back to Epic’s earlier work, as well as a well-balanced competitive multiplayer mode that sees the series at its very best.
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The launch of Diablo III is infamous. Hotly anticipated, the game was hit with awful server issues and serious gameplay flaws that simply sucked out the fun, like a real-money auction house. Thankfully, Blizzard revamped the game through a number of patches and one full-blown expansion. Then, it released the game on console with support for up to four players in co-op. The result is a fiendishly entertaining, supercharged action-RPG that’s a blast to play with buddies on a couch or online. While other RPGs have a better story or better graphics, Diablo III is pure stress relief. Sit down, obliterate some demons, and watch your numbers shoot into the stratosphere.
Read our full Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition review
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Taking inspiration from Bloodborne, the studio’s PlayStation 4 exclusive, Dark Souls III speeds up the Souls series’ distinctive tough-as-nails combat, without sacrificing what made fans fall in love with the franchise in the first place.
Though Dark Souls III continues the series’ legendary difficulty, even the most menacing foes can be dispatched through a mixture of practice and patience. The loop of killing enemies, trading in their souls to upgrade your character, and venturing back into the unknown will keep you glued to your console for hours at a time. If you ever get really frustrated, you can always summon a stranger to join in on all the fun.
It’s unlikely that we’ll be seeing another game in the Dark Souls series from From Software and mastermind Hidetaka Miyazaki, but we couldn’t be happier with Dark Souls III as a conclusion to the series. It’s the work of a genius who has only further refined his art over time, and a shining example of how to make a franchise successful without sacrificing the more “hardcore” gameplay elements.
Read our full Dark Souls III review
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Hideo Kojima is one of the few big-budget auteurs in the games industry. After more than twenty years and a feud with publisher Konami, Kojima’s final game, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, is hell of a note to end on, as MGSV refines the series’ signature stealth gameplay to near perfection, while expanding the setting from confined military bases to an open world.
The Metal Gear series has a long and winding plot, but newcomers will find MGS V relatively easy to slide into, as Kojima has jettisoned much of the mythology in favor of a more straightforward revenge tale. Nine years after the events of the prequel Ground Zeroes, in which the mercenary crew led by protagonist Snake was destroyed by the mysterious organization Cipher, Snake awakens from a coma, missing an arm and under threat from assassins. After a harrowing escape from the hospital he’s been sleeping in (a nightmarish opening that shows off Kojima’s directing chops), Snake joins up with his old comrades to rebuild their mercenary army and take revenge on Cipher.
Although story has always been the main draw for Metal Gear, MGS V eschews lengthy cutscenes and monologues, instead focusing on open world gameplay that provides the player with countless ways to approach any mission. Tranquilizers, sniper rifles, shotguns, a remote-controlled robot arm; all this and more is available, giving the game an endless sense of replay value. After completing a mission using a stealthy, nonlethal approach, one may feel the urge to replay the same mission, marching into an enemy outpost with a machine gun and a rocket launcher, burning the whole thing to the ground. Few games encourage experimentation like MGSV. Some questionable narrative choices aside, MGSV is a powerful ending to one of gaming’s most important franchises, setting a new bar for open-world gameplay.
Read our Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain hands on
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The most commercially successful video game – or media product – of all time, Grand Theft Auto V deserves its popularity. The open-world criminal action game builds on what Rockstar Games has been doing well for decades, with a staggering number of side activities to complete and locations to visit.
Its three-protagonist main story is both emotional and hilarious, with the psychopathic Trevor often stealing the show with his violent and over-the-top outbursts. It only gets better when you enter Grand Theft Auto Online, which allows you to gain influence in Los Santos and show the world why you deserve respect. Despite being nearly five years old, the game continues to get new content updates, and we anticipate it will live on for at least another five years.
Read our full Grand Theft Auto V review
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IO Interactive’s Hitman: Absolution was criticized for relying too heavily on linear environments, and the developer implemented this feedback in a major way for the rebooted 2016 Hitman. Several massive environments are yours to explore and experiment with, and there are dozens of ways to take down each of Agent 47’s targets. If you want to shoot a guy in the head in plain site, you’re free to do so, but you can also blow him up with an explosive golf ball while you watch from a safe distance. Continual updates adding new targets and missions followed the game’s initial episodic release, and the studio is currently working on a sequel.
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A stunningly well-realized version of auteur director Yoko Taro’s vision, Nier: Automata is a depressing and existential action game that avoids many of the narrative traps associated with android stories. There are no questions regarding what it means to be human, but rather what it means to be yourself, and the struggle of protagonists 2B and 9S to come to terms with reality makes for some of the most emotional moments we’ve ever experienced in a game. With PlatinumGames handling the combat, it’s also a flashy and tight action game complete with twin-stick shooter segments to break up the monotony.
Read our full Nier: Automata review
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Sometimes games don’t have to be anything other than fun, and Insomniac Games demonstrated that perfectly with the Xbox One exclusive Sunset Overdrive. Mixing the goofy third-person shooting of the studio’s Ratchet & Clank series with the navigation of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater or Jet Grind Radio, Sunset Overdrive constantly has you on the move in order to build up your combo and take out more enemies.
Its silly anti-corporate story is certainly derivative, but it packs in plenty of hilarious characters and self-aware moments, and once you’ve completed the main story, it’s an absolute blast to just soar around the city and find all the secrets you can.
Read our full Sunset Overdrive review
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Published at Sun, 02 Sep 2018 15:00:55 +0000
