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In 2025, Game Pass is enjoying perhaps its best year ever, with great day-one releases on a monthly basis (if not weekly, or even within the same week) while the back-catalog offering continues to be very solid. This year, we’ve played and loved blockbuster role-playing games Avowed, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered as well as indie sensation Hollow Knight: Silksong, and much more besides.
Microsoft just keeps dropping brand-new, original games to enjoy, on top of maintaining an impressive back catalog that spans everything from the original Diablo and StarCraft to epic AAA fare like Assassin’s Creed, Grand Theft Auto 5, Fallout, and Halo. You’ll find many of the Polygon team’s favorite games from across the years here, including the likes of Inscryption and Balatro.
To help you sort through it all, we’ve put our heads together and curated this list of the 25 PC and Xbox Game Pass games that you should be checking out if you subscribe to Microsoft’s flagship service.
Our latest update to this list on Nov. 5 added 1000xResist, the cult indie sensation from 2024 that won a Peabody award for its sophisticated storytelling. Other recent additions that we’ve loved include bike racer Wheel World, co-op survival game Grounded 2, and lovable RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard. (The new Retro Classics collection is worth checking out, too.) We may add these in future updates — if Microsoft can just slow down for a second.
How we pick the best games on Game Pass
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. The Polygon staff plays a lot of video games, and everything in this list comes personally recommended by at least one of us. We determined what should be on our list of the best games on Game Pass by looking at the quality of each title, but also with an eye for breadth and variety — so you should find something on the list you’ll enjoy, no matter what genres of game you like, how much time you have, or what vibe you are after.
1000xResist
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC and Xbox Series X
As a pure narrative experience, 1000xResist — a 2024 release from indie developer Sunset Visitor — might be the best, most gripping, and most artfully composed game-as-story available on Game Pass. It’s a deep, nuanced sci-fi tale about Watcher, one of many clones of Iris, a survivor of an alien pandemic that all but wiped out humanity. Iris’ immunity to the disease has brought her close to godhood, but as Watcher and her sisters explore Iris’ memories, they realize she might have feet of clay.
Gameplay-wise, 1000xResist is very simple, closer to a visual novel than anything else. But the dialogue, character work, and sensitively handled, complex themes raise the bar for video game storytelling. A one-of-a-kind experience. —Oli Welsh
Read Yussef Cole’s full review of 1000xResist.
The Alters
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC and Xbox Series X
One of the great strengths of Game Pass is the frequency with which it serves up fascinating games from ambitious, mid-sized studios that you might not have thought to buy, but that can quickly take over your life. 11 Bit Studios’ The Alters is a perfect example. It’s an engrossing, thought-provoking, and gripping sci-fi adventure about cloning yourself to survive an inhospitable planet, and somehow keeping all your clones happy.
As you might expect from the studio that made the bleak city management game Frostpunk, The Alters is heavy on resource management and time management, agonizing moral quandaries, and enjoyably stressful scenarios. The gameplay loses a little steam in the game’s later stretches, but the story will compel you to keep you going until its roundly satisfying end. —OW
Read Austin Manchester’s full review of The Alters.
Avowed
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC and Xbox Series X
You can scarcely get a better demonstration of what Game Pass is all about than Obsidian Entertainment’s role-playing game Avowed. It’s the kind of game that used to fill release schedules: an original story and a competent, characterful take on a beloved genre, made by an experienced team, with a scope that’s just enough to feel satisfying, but not too much to overwhelm. But in 2025, games like this are rare, squeezed out by bloated mega-productions in well-known franchises.
Their savior comes in the form of Microsoft’s publishing model and its Game Pass offering, both of which are crying out for medium-sized hits to keep rolling. Avowed slots in perfectly, showcasing not just Obsidian’s well-known writing talent but also some of the most striking art and well-honed combat the studio has ever produced. It’s also just a fun place to be — until the next one comes along. —OW
Read Jay Castello’s full review of Avowed.
Blue Prince
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC and Xbox Series X
The indie sensation of 2025 so far, Blue Prince is… how to describe it? An architectural roguelike puzzle mystery? It’s certainly a true original. As the inheritor of an eccentric uncle’s sprawling estate, your job is to explore it, room by room — only the layout of the mansion resets every day, and you choose which room to draft next, from a choice of three, each time you open a door.
The goal initially seems to be to try to reach the other side of the mansion without blocking yourself in, but if you think about Blue Prince in such logical terms, you won’t get far. This is a game about luck, following your nose, and solving the deeper riddles of each room, then figuring out how these riddles interact with each other, and then trying to master the layout. None of it will happen in the way you expect. Blue Prince is an abiding, compelling mystery that keeps drawing you deeper in, even after you’ve supposedly solved it. —OW
Read Jay Castello’s full review of Blue Prince.
Cities: Skylines
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X
There’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 Notis
Citizen Sleeper
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X
Citizen 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 tabletop-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. —Ryan Gilliam
Read Alexis Ong’s full review of Citizen Sleeper.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Where to play: Available via Game Pass on Windows PC and Xbox Series X
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has a ridiculous title, but the game is mostly sublime. A deeply French role-playing game that recalls the Final Fantasy games of the 2000s, it’s both very sincere and unafraid of its own silliness. Put that vibe together with a rewarding turn-based combat system, endearing characters, arresting art direction, and a moving, grandiose story, and you’ve got a game from smallish debut developer Sandfall Interactive that punches far above its weight.
In a steampunky world inspired by the Belle Époque, the very Paris-coded city of Lumiere is threatened by the Paintress, an ethereal entity who claims the lives of everyone of a certain age each year, then brings that age down by one. Now it’s the turn of the 33-year-olds, in their last year, to set off on a perilous expedition to stop this remorseless doomsday clock. It’s a morbidly clever setup for a richly satisfying fantasy adventure and a brilliant RPG. —OW
Read Isaiah Colbert’s full review of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Control
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X
Before 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. —OW
Read Dave Tach’s full review of Control.
Diablo 4
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X
A 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. —OW
Read Oli Welsh’s full impressions of Diablo 4 season 4: Loot Reborn.
Doom (2016)
Where to play: Game Pass on Xbox One and Xbox Series X
2016’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. —RG
Read Arthur Gies’ full review of Doom (2016).
Fallout: New Vegas
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X
If 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 Fallout 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. —OW
Read Cass Marshall’s full recommendation of Fallout: New Vegas.
Forza Horizon 5
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X
Forza Horizon 5 is 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.
The game 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. —RG
Read Owen S. Good’s full review of Forza Horizon 5.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X
The 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 Kuchera
Read Arthur Gies’ full review of Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
Hi-Fi Rush
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC and Xbox Series X
Rhythm 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. —Mike Mahardy
Read Diego Nicolás Argüello’s full review of Hi-Fi Rush.
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X
The very long-awaited sequel to the 2017 Metroidvania arrived amid a perfect storm of hype whipped up by an ardent community that had turned its consistent non-apperance for the previous several years into a meme. Developer Team Cherry played into this by virtually surprise-launching the game, turning it into a rare sensation; Microsoft securing a day-one release for Game Pass is surely the service’s biggest coup of 2025.
Fortunately, Silksong is a stunning work of craftsmanship that absolutely lives up to the moment in terms of its gorgeous artwork, perfect polish, vast scope, and meticulous design. It’s also fearsomely difficult, but players who push through the challenge — or make peace with it — are rewarded with an enveloping, mysterious world, and a bespoke, handcrafted experience that’s very rarely seen in games of this scope. —OW
Read Patricia Hernandez’s full review of Hollow Knight: Silksong.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC and Xbox Series X
Lots about this triumphant adventure starring everyone’s favorite action-archeologist is surprising — but not everything. Not surprising: that MachineGames, the Swedish studio known for the Wolfenstein series and formed by key Starbreeze personnel who worked on The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and The Darkness, should excel at Nazi-punching action and robustly entertaining licensed fare. In a sense, this is exactly what MachineGames has been training for.
Still, it is surprising how well an Indy game works in first person, and it’s surprising how uncompromised the game’s vision seems to be (considering the general fate of licensed games). Most importantly, the game itself is a constant surprise; it’s not quite the linear action-fest you expect it to be, instead being filled with excellent puzzles, stealth, immersive-sim influences, and quiet, contemplative walking-simulator moments. Arguably a better Indiana Jones experience than the last movie — or two. —OW
Read Diego Nicolás Argüello’s full review of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
Inscryption
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X
Polygon’s favorite game of 2021, Inscryption is a wonderfully creepy and sly creation that continuously plays with your expectations. It starts out as a roguelite card game, played within a shack you can’t escape: this horror-inflected, escape-room setting then gives way to other genres, graphical styles, and modes of play you definitely won’t be expecting. There’s even a whole layer of Inscryption that takes place outside the game, in an ARG-style puzzle and all the conversation around it that delves deep into the game’s mysterious lore. Developer Daniel Mullins just keeps peeling back the layers, and each reveal is an unsettling delight.
If you’ve managed to avoid Inscryption spoilers over the past three years, we recommend you leave it there and don’t read any deeper on the game. Just go straight to your Game Pass library and download it. It’s an unforgettable, one-of-a-kind experience. —OW
Read Jenna Stoeber’s full, spoiler-free review of Inscryption.
Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC and Xbox Series X
One of the gems that helped define the Game Pass service in its first couple of years was 2019’s Lonely Mountains: Downhill, a perfect little time-attack game about riding a mountain bike down forested slopes. It’s the sort of unassuming but deep game that makes a great addition to a subscription catalog; it has chill vibes and is simple to pick up, but the steep skill curve has the power to take over your life completely. I think it was probably my most-played Game Pass game in 2019 and 2020.
Five years later comes a sequel that applies an almost exactly similar formula to skiing. Once again, Snow Riders offers gloriously tactile controls. The rasping skid of ski across powder is just as satisfying as that of rubber across gravel as you speed down the switchbacks, although there are some tricky new control dynamics to get your head around. Once again, it’s all about living with the crashes and refining your technique through instant restarts. Once again, the developers at Megagon Industries are among the few to understand that extreme sports can be as much about enjoying peace and quiet in beautiful, natural surroundings as they are about pulse-pounding excitement. A brilliant arcade palate cleanser. —OW
Read Chris Plante’s full impressions of Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders.
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC and Xbox Series X
Somehow, Atlus’ Persona series has graduated from a cultish niche to a popular phenomenon; with Final Fantasy angling toward AAA action, Persona’s turn-based battles and emotive anime storytelling have defined the classical Japanese RPG style for a new generation of players. Atlus built on this development in 2024 with a bold, original fantasy epic told using the Persona framework: Metaphor: ReFantazio.
A sweeping allegory about politics and power, with a cast that includes a fairy and a valiant anthropomorphic bat guy, Metaphor is somehow both vast and focused. Like all Atlus games, it’s got an extremely tight battle system, absolutely wild enemy designs, and deep personal relationships between your party members to explore on a daily calendar. It sometimes looks as though you’re playing it on a PS2, but that just fits the overall vibe. A modern classic. —OW
Read Chelsea Stark’s full review of Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Octopath Traveler 2
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X
Square 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 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. —OW
Read Jay Castello’s full review of Octopath Traveler 2.
Pentiment
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X
Pentiment 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. —RG
Read Jay Castello’s full review of Pentiment.
Slay the Spire
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X
In 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 Ramos
Read Jeff’s full review of Slay the Spire.
Stardew Valley
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X
Stardew 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. —RG
Read Carli Velocci’s full review of Stardew Valley.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X
Teenage 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. —RG
Read Nicole Carpenter’s full review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge.
Vampire Survivors
Where to play: Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X
Vampire 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. —RG
Read Justin McElroy’s full review of Vampire Survivors.
