2024 was a year of metamorphosis for Xbox. The long-gestating acquisition of Activision Blizzard finally finished toward the end of last year, and in 2024, we saw the fallout of the biggest gaming company acquisition of all time. A year of high peaks and low valleys for Microsoft’s gaming brand followed.
Microsoft laid off thousands of game developers at different points this year. It shut down studios like Arkane Austin, Mighty Dog, and Roundhouse Studios, and sold off Hi-Fi Rush and its developer, Tango Gameworks, after attempting to shut them down. Xbox Game Pass confusingly split into several tiers, getting more expensive for those who want to play new games on the service day one. Xbox Game Studios Publishing’s Ara: History Untold and Towerborne were PC exclusives at launch this year, which alludes to a significant shift in Xbox’s strategy.
Microsoft also made the divisive decision to embrace the idea that any device could potentially be an Xbox if its games are playable on it through regular means or cloud gaming. It’s clear that Microsoft’s view of what Xbox is now has gone far beyond the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, and that notion has disturbed some of the most hardcore Xbox fans. While all of that is worth considering, don’t let it dissuade you from the fact that Xbox Game Pass had a fantastic year when it came to actual games.
Microsoft consistently delivered several high-quality first-party titles on the service this year from all three branches of Microsoft Gaming. Ninja Theory of Xbox Game Studios delivered Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, ZeniMax subsidiary MachineGames launched Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Activision brought Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 to Xbox Game Pass the day it came out. Add in all of the third-party developers who delivered high-quality Game Pass titles, and we have no shortage of Xbox games to recommend this year, even if some of them aren’t on console just yet.
Age of Mythology: Retold
Age of Mythology was always an underrated spinoff of Microsoft’s Age of Empires series, and it finally got its due with a remake for PC and Xbox Series X/S this year. Trading in the history-focused tendencies of Age of Empires for gods and myths, Age of Mythology offers a novel, fantastical spin on a well-established real-time strategy formula. Following in the footsteps of the Definitive Edition remakes of the Age of Empires games, Age of Mythology: Retold gave the classic a graphical overhaul, made a few gameplay tweaks, and added controller support across PC and console. If you’ve enjoyed an Age of Empires game before but never given this spinoff a shot, Age of Mythology: Retold is the best way to play this game on PC or console.
Ara: History Untold
Xbox published a competitor to Sid Meier’s Civilization series this year, giving Firaxis’ franchise a run for its money. Ara: History Untold is a 4X strategy game where players control a civilization for world history and shape how they evolve throughout history by exploring, gathering and managing resources, trading with other civilizations, or outright going to war with them. While it’s a lot to take in at first, Ara: History Untold features immense depth and gives players lots of control over how they want to manage the little minutiae of each part of their civilization. Ara: History Untold and Age of Mythology: Retold are reminders that Microsoft is still a force to be reckoned with in the PC strategy game space, as two of the year’s best in that genre were published by Xbox.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
The first Call of Duty game to come to Xbox Game Pass the day it released also happens to be the best Call of Duty game in years. From its bombastic single-player campaign to its tense zombies mode to its tried-and-true multiplayer offerings, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is firing on all cylinders. It’s extremely impressive from a pure production value, but Treyarch and all of the other Activision studios who worked on this game showed a deep understanding of why this series continues to resonate with so many people. Omnimovement feels like a real gameplay innovation for this typically risk-averse series, while new modes like Kill Order and other minor gameplay tweaks find smart ways to contextualize and push the series forward without really shaking up the foundation. Hopefully, future Call of Duty titles live up to the standard Black Ops 6 set.
Dungeons of Hinterberg
Of all the indie games to launch into Xbox Game Pass this year, Dungeons of Hinterberg was the best. The cel-shaded art style of this Persona-inspired action RPG is immediately eye-catching, but the story will truly make you stick around. It takes a fantastical premise about a woman coming to a remote mountain village to fight monsters in dungeons and transforms it into a relatable, emotional tale about how exploitative tourism impacts small towns. Dungeons of Hinterberg is one of Digital Trends’ top 10 games of 2024, so it should not surprise you that it’s also showing up here. It’s a hidden gem compared to all of the other games on this list, so Game Pass subscribers should definitely download this game and give it a shot if they haven’t already.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
MachineGames has a history of making great games about fighting Nazis, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle continued that trend. While it’s still a big-budget AAA action-adventure game, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle isn’t afraid to give players quieter moments to solve puzzles and explore. It also does a fantastic job of capturing the scrappy feel of films in its combat by leaning a bit into immersive sim elements. ZeniMax has had a rough year under Microsoft, shutting down developers and releasing divisive expansions for games like Starfield. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle served as a bright spot for this part of Xbox at the end of the year, demonstrating why companies like Microsoft should allow the studios they own to pursue bold creative visions, even if they’re working with a well-known IP.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is an immensely detailed, extremely hardcore simulator. Of all the games on this list, it’s probably the hardest to pick up, play, and get instant enjoyment from. For those who adore this style of sim game, though, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is the most comprehensive and robust flight sim to ever be released. It built on the strong foundation of 2020’s Microsoft Flight Simulator to create an experience that feels more expansive while still containing the wow factor of being able to fly over pretty much any part of the world. It’s the kind of niche game that thrives on Xbox Game Pass. I probably wouldn’t have played it normally, but I booted it up so I could fly over places where I’ve lived and see the world from a perspective I’ll never be able to.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
Ninja Theory’s long-awaited follow-up to Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice arrived this year and did not disappoint. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is the most stunning Unreal Engine 5 game to release on consoles yet, with utterly beautiful visuals and industry-leading motion capture. It’s a shorter, cinematic experience meant to be watched just as much as it is meant to be played, delivering one of the most visceral depictions of psychosis that we’ve seen in media. At the same time, Hellblade 2 feels a little more optimistic than its predecessor, as it’s more about Senua learning to live with her mental illness rather than constantly feel tormented by it. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 cements the series of one of Xbox’s hallmark franchises, and I can’t wait to see where Senua’s journey goes next.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
While it suffered from a buggy launch that made it difficult to love on day one, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a worthy successor to a cult classic PC survival shooter that inspired series like Metro. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is a difficult RPG shooter about fighting to survive in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, which is overrun in the game’s universe with deadly supernatural occurrences. The shooter does a great job of ratcheting up the level of intensity as you explore a desolated nuclear zone with limited ammo and the expectation that anything you encounter might kill you. If the Fallout TV show has gotten you back into that series of games this year and you’re now looking for something more hardcore, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is worth checking out, especially as GSC Game World fixes more bugs and keeps improving the game with updates.
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