15 best Xbox Game Pass games to play in 2024: AAA blockbusters to indie hits

Gears of War set the template for third person shooters in the previous console generation. If you’ve played a recent shooter that features a cover mechanic, it all started there. You can currently play the entire series on Xbox Game Pass.

Made specifically for the Xbox One, Gears of War 4 is a graphically stunning action game that sees you raining down hot lead on a swarm of alien nasties. There’s nothing particularly new to see here, but we challenge you to show us a better example of the genre.

Imagine if the next Zelda game was turned into a 2D platformer and given a dark fantasy twist. The result might look something like Hollow Knight. We’ve had our fair share of Metroidvanias (essentially platformer-RPG hybrids) in recent years, but none of them is as richly detailed or beautiful to behold as Hollow Knight.

Despite being an indie game, there’s a sense of cohesiveness and depth to its insectoid world that smacks of the major leagues. This Voidheart Edition also includes four additional DLC levels, making an already vast adventure even bigger.

Quite possibly the best open-world racing game ever committed to code, Forza Horizon 5 is about as essential as Game Pass games get. Taking place in a stunningly recreated Mexico, you’ll race all manner of supercars and battle-hardened off-roaders in deserts, lush jungles, famous cities and on beaches. Oh, and there’s a volcano, too. This country has it all.

Still one of the best looking games on Xbox and extremely well supported with updates and DLC add-ons, this is an automotive playground of the highest order.

Halo is probably Xbox’s most successful original franchise, spawning a host of mainline games and spinoffs, and more recently a live action TV show. The vast majority of the games are on Xbox Game Pass and while we were tempted to pick Halo Infinite - the most recent entry that goes open-world with its ambitious campaign - for this list, we thought we’d cheat a bit and instead go for The Master Chief Collection, which brings together some of the very best FPS games ever made in one collection, each of them looking and playing better than ever.

We had to be patient but Diablo IV has finally come to Game Pass, and its singular brand of dungeon crawling in the darkness is very welcome. Blizzard’s open-world action RPG is fantastic turn-your-brain-off fun, whether you’re playing through the campaign alone or with friends, letting you craft the perfect build for your playstyle so all the demon-slaying feels that bit more personal.

In typical Diablo fashion, it’s all driven by a moreish loot system, and with the promise of regular new seasons and events, there’s enough here to keep you entertained for hundreds of hours.

BioWare’s beloved sci-fi RPG trilogy has never looked or played better than it does here. This is the best way to experience the entire saga, whether it's your first outing as Commander Sherpard or your fifteenth.

All three Mass Effect games have been remastered in 4K with HDR support, with enhanced performance and upgraded visuals across the board. Gameplay has been noticeably improved too, particularly in the case of the first game, which has some rough edges in 2024. If you’ve never played the Mass Effect games then you have no excuse now, and if you’re itching to revisit them, Mass Effect Legendary Edition and Game Pass make it gloriously easy to do so.

The majority of the Like a Dragon (formerly known as Yakuza) series is on Game Pass, and they’re all pretty great, but if you don’t have the time to catch up on whole lot, 2020’s Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a great jumping on point as it debuts a brand new protagonist and does away with the original series’ brawler combat, reimagining Yakuza as a turn-based RPG.

Ichiban Kasuga is one of the best characters in years and Yakuza: Like a Dragon is the perfect introduction to the series’s bizarre blend of serious crime drama and wacky humour. By the time you’re done with this (it’s a big one), there’s a good chance this year’s excellent sequel, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth will have arrived on Game Pass.

Think old-school Zelda, but you’re a cute little fox. That’s the easiest way to describe Tunic, but it’s also doing this ingenious indie gem a disservice. While clearly inspired by Nintendo’s legendary series - there are dungeons, bombs, treasure chests and monsters to whack with a sword - Tunic is a lot more hands-off, trusting the player to learn its intricacies and solve its many puzzles without much guidance.

There is a retro-styled in-game manual, but in a brilliant twist, it’s only partly legible and you have to find the pages to fill it within the world. The thinking person’s Zelda, then, might be a better description for Tunic.

The original Dead Space is rightly regarded as a classic of the survival horror genre, and this gorgeous ground-up remake loses none of the 2008 game’s claustrophobic scare factor. In fact, the overhauled visuals and 3D audio only make exploring the alien-infested USG Ishimura even more pant-wettingly creepy. And slicing said aliens apart with Dead Space’s iconic Plasma Cutter weapon is even more satisfying. The original and its sequels are also on Game Pass, so those brave enough can marathon the whole series.

Xbox isn’t known for its platformers, but it just so happens to have one of the best ones in recent years in Psychonauts 2, the long-awaited sequel to cult classic Psychonauts. Once again you play as Raz, an acrobatic young psychic who can dive into the minds of his friends and enemies.

While not quite as polished as a Mario game, Psychonauts 2 has some of the most inventive level design we’ve ever seen in a game, and isn’t afraid to tackle some emotionally heavy themes. Even if you never played the original (which is also on Game Pass), Psychonauts 2 is a must-play.

Made by a team known for its survival horror games, Hi-Fi Rush, with its Saturday morning cartoon aesthetic and endearingly goofy characters, was a bit of a shock when it was announced and launched at the same time back at the beginning of 2023. Over a year on it’s still one of the best things Xbox has put out in years, an ingenious action game in which everything in the world, from enemies and combat to your own movement, is synced to the beat of the music. This one has since come to PS5 too, but Game Pass remains the obvious place to play it if you can.

This remarkably clever puzzle-platformer will frequently blow - and possibly break - your mind. In it you play as a little bug creature that can carry entire worlds contained in orbs on its back. To progress, you jump in and out of these worlds, manipulating them to solve puzzles. As a completely worldless game there’s no real narrative to speak of, but that only makes Cocoon’s mysterious alien world even more interesting to explore, as you try to work out what it all means.

The minimalism extends to the controls, with the game only ever asking you to use one button to master its systems. An impossibly elegant miniature masterpiece.

Made by RPG specialists Obsidian (one of the many studios now owned by Microsoft), Pentiment is a decidedly leftfield effort that might never have seen the light of day if not for Game Pass. We’re very glad it did.

Pentiment is a narrative adventure set in 16th century Germany. You play as a journeyman artist-turned-detective tasked with solving a murder. Every frame looks like a page from a medieval manuscript, and while it’s true you don’t actually do much more than read dialogue, the strength of the writing and complex themes make Pentiment feel like you’re playing a great historical novel. Don’t miss it.

You’ve never played anything quite like Sea of Thieves. Perhaps best described as an online pirate-’em-up, this joyful multiplayer game asks you to form a crew and take to the high seas in search of booty and adventure.

Sea of Thieves's world has an intoxicating larger-than-life feel to it, with stunning water physics and a range of diversions that has grown dramatically since launch. Even if you tried the game early in its life and came away unimpressed, we urge you to try it again.

Prey is the kind of deeply intelligent first person action game we don’t see too much of any more. It is an immersive simulator in the vein of Deus Ex and Dishonored, where there are always several alternatives to going in all guns blasting.

Add in a delightfully spooky enemy that can literally morph into any everyday shape, and a memorable space station setting that can be traversed from without as well as within, and you have yourself another cruelly overlooked masterpiece given a fresh lease of life through Xbox Live Game Pass.