10 best games that are worth buying the Xbox Game Pass for

Xbox Game Pass is the biggest video game subscription service from Microsoft and the service allows its users to access a variety of games available from different game publishers. Xbox Game Pass is available for console, PC, and cloud gaming, and can even provide the desired experience for Android and iOS devices.

Despite having access to millions of games from different genres, this does not mean that all of those games are the best that Microsoft's subscription service has. Here are the ten best games that the Xbox Game Pass offers.

Note: This article reflects the writer's opinions.

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10 games that every Xbox Game Pass subscriber should play at least once

1) Forza Horizon 5

Forza Horizon 5 is a racing video game from 2021 developed by Playground Games and published by Xbox Game Studios, and is currently one of the best-looking video games found in the Microsoft store.

The game takes place in a fictional representation of Mexico and, despite it being a racing game, Forza Horizon 5 has some incredible open-world aspects to it, allowing players to roam around, complete quests, and explore with a car of their choice.

Forza Horizon 5 became a commercial success with over 1.2 million players from all over the world buying the Premium Edition before the game was even released, making it the biggest launch for an Xbox Game Studios game ever.

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2) Outer Wilds

Outer Wilds is a 2019 action-adventure published by Annapurna Interactive. The game was first available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows, with the game then being re-released for new-gen consoles in 2022. Currently, a Nintendo Switch version is in the making.

Outer Wilds is a game about a space explorer who is stuck in a time loop. Interestingly, the star of the solar system he is in is becoming a supernova and, every time the star explodes, the player goes back 22 minutes before the star explodes. The game encourages exploration and uncovering the secrets of an extinct race.

Outer Wilds received "generally favorable" reviews, according to Metacritic, and was listed as one of the best games of 2019 by several publications. The game also featured on many of the "best games of the decade" lists.

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3) Doom Eternal

Doom Eternal is a first-person shooter game published by Bethesda Softworks and is the fifth main game in the Doom series. The game was released back in 2020 and is a solid sequel to the 2016 game.

Doom Eternal follows the story of Doom Slayer, who is on a mission to defeat demons and stop the alien Maykr's plan to destroy Earth. The game offers a single-player campaign as well as a fun multiplayer mode called the Battlemode, where players can choose to either play as a Doom Slayer or demons, and battle it out either the Doom Slayer defeats the demons, or vice versa.

Doom Eternal received favorable reviews and was praised for its intense combat, soundtrack, level design, and improvements over its predecessors.

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4) Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley is an indie simulation game developed by Eric "Concerned Ape" Barone. The game was first released for Windows back in 2016 and has now spread across different platforms, including Android and iOS devices. Interestingly, Eric Barone spent over 4 years developing the game by himself and used it as an exercise to improve his game development and design skills.

Stardew Valley is heavily inspired by the Harvest Moon series developed by Yasuhiro Wada. Stardew Valley is an open-ended simulation game where players can take up many activities like farming, mining, fishing, and cooking, with the player even able to marry other NPCs. The game can also be played in multiplayer mode, allowing up to four players to play online together.

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5) Minecraft

Minecraft is an iconic sandbox video game developed by Mojang Studios and was released back in 2011. The game was created by Markus Persson in the Java programming language and was first made available to the public in 2009. Ever since the game was released on several different platforms, it has sold over 238 million copies and is now the best-selling video game of all time.

Minecraft (as its name suggests) is a game about mining and crafting. Players spawn in a blocky, virtually infinite world with enough resources to craft tools to extract raw materials, build structures, and make simple machines.

The game offers two modes, a Survival mode where the player has a health and hunger bar, and has to fight different kinds of hostile mobs to survive. The other is the Creative mode where the player has no health or hunger bar, and hostile mobs do not attack the player.

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6) Halo Infinite

Halo Infinite is a first-person shooter game published by Xbox Game Studios in 2021. The game is the sixth main entry in the Halo series and the third in the Reclaimer Saga. The game was supposed to be released in November 2020, but was delayed to coincide with the franchise's 20th anniversary.

Like previous Halo games, this game follows the story of Master Chief, a towering super soldier who was raised and trained from childhood for combat. The campaign mode takes place in a semi-open world, where players must defeat aliens and capture bases that later act as fast-travel points. In the multiplayer mode, players can go up against each other in either a Deathmatch or Capture The Flag mode.

The game also features several new abilities for players, such as the Grappleshot, which lets Master Chief traverse terrain faster and can also be used in combat to pull himself towards enemies. Other than that, the game has a number of different weapons and vehicles from the previous Halo series, like the Warthog.

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7) Inside

Inside is a 2.5D puzzle platformer published and developed by Playdead. The game was first released back in 2016 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows. Inside is a successor to Playdead's 2010 game Limbo, which features similar 2.5D gameplay.

Inside is about an unamed boy who explores a dark, surreal, and monochromatic environment with only some color on the player themselves and a few portions of the environment. At some point in the game, the boy gains the ability to control bodies to complete puzzles. Players can also find hidden rooms with glowing orbs inside them, and if all the orbs are disabled during the playthrough, the game unlocks a secret ending.

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8) Rainbow Six: Siege

Rainbow Six: Siege is an online first-person tactical shooter developed by Ubisoft and was released back in 2015 for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The game was also released for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S in 2020.

Although Rainbow Six: Siege has no campaign, there are a series of small missions known as "situations", which can be played solo. The game focuses more on multiplayer, environmental destruction, and cooperation amongst players. In multiplayer, the player can choose between different operators and each of the different operators have different weapons and gadgets.

Despite the game being hugely praised for its destructive environment, focus on teamwork, and the tension it builds during rounds, the game was subjected to criticism because of the game's microtransactions and lack of content.

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9) It Takes Two

Yet another entertaining title available in the Xbox Game Pass, It Takes Two is an action adventure game published by EA. The game was released in 2021 for Windows, Xbox, and PlayStation consoles. The game was developed by Hazelight Studios, the same team behind A Way Out, another popular multiplayer game. Unlike A Way Out, the game does not have a single-player option and can only be played either online or local multiplayer with two players.

It Takes Two sold more than a million copies in the first month of its release, and more than 7 million copies have been sold as of July 2022. Interestingly, this title also won the Game of the Year award at the Game Awards 2021.

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10) Among Us

Among Us is a multiplayer strategy/deduction game developed by Innersloth back in 2018. The game was first released on iOS and Android and then on Windows later that year. The game was inspired by a local party game called Mafia (also known as Werewolf), where the group had to work collectively to find out who the mafia (or the werewolf) was.

Despite the fact that Among Us was released in 2018, the game only spiked in popularity in the middle of 2020 when various famous Twitch streamers and YouTubers began playing it. The game became more popular as memes and videos on YouTube about Among Us received more than 4 billion views by September 2020.