Xbox Game Pass Ultimate has close to 500 games to choose from, which can be a bit of a challenge. In this feature we list the top 10 best Xbox Game Pass games in October 2024 as rated by critics and users combined.
For the purpose of this feature we’re only including games that released on Xbox One or Series consoles, as there’s loads of incredible backwards compatible games that skew the list. While that’s quite neat, it also goes to show how poor (comparatively) the Xbox first party output has been since the Xbox 360 era. But that’s a discussion for another time.
To calculate this ranking we’ve taken the Metacritic score for the platform with the most reviews for each game in Game Pass, then taken the Xbox user score (as found on the US Xbox Store) and combined them into a top ten list. Enjoy!
10: Persona 3 Reload
Metascore: 87 | Player score: 4.7
Long maligned as the console with no JRPGs, Xbox has attempted to remedy this on various occasions (usually for short periods before subsequently giving up again). The latest effort led to us being treated to the release of Persona 3 Reload on day one via Game Pass, which was quite a coup at the time. It also helped that it was a fantastic remake of a pivotal game in the Persona series that has a fond place in many people’s hearts.
Similar to Dead Space (see below), this remake was a complete overhaul of the original which, if it was a person living in the UK, would now be old enough to drink, smoke and get married (not necessarily all together). It received a substantial visual overhaul in Unreal Engine 4, as well as newly voiced dialogue and many minor changes to make it feel at home in the latest generation of consoles. If you’re new to the series, this is a great entry point to this once-unique blend of JRPG and life sim.
9: Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition
Metascore: 89 | Player score: 4.6
Similar to the Ori games at face value, Hollow Knight finds its niche with its art style and the challenge it offers. A Metroidvania with stunning graphics and an engaging (and at times emotional) story centred around a dark and atmospheric world, it is rightly lauded for it’s extremely challenging yet engaging and rewarding gameplay. This version is the Voidheart Edition, bringing together 4 content packs in one unmissable package.
8: Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Metascore: 90 | Player score: 4.6
At a time when Xbox was really struggling for first party exclusives (that were any good), Ori and the Blind Forest landed and made waves with its striking graphics and slick execution of the Metroidvania genre. Will of the Wisps was more of the same, but with improvements across the board to controls, movement, combat, gameplay depth and some extremely high pressure chase sequences. If you love this type of game, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is an absolutely essential play as part of Game Pass.
7: COCOON
Metascore: 88 | Player score: 4.7
Cocoon was many people’s Game of the Year for 2023, so it’s a little surprising it’s not higher in this chart, but it’s in some great company. Hardly coming out of nowhere, Cocoon has some excellent pedigree behind it, being directed by the designer of both Limbo and Inside, which might explain why the puzzles are just so perfectly planned out here. Cocoon doesn’t share too much with those games, being much more of a (relatively) straightforward puzzler, with the prior games tending to lean into platforming and physics-based puzzles.
With the puzzles taking place across multiple worlds (each of which you can also carry around, into and out of other worlds – a technique required for most puzzle-solving in the game), Cocoon strikes the perfect balance between being difficult yet feeling achievable. So many times you’ll feel yourself reaching for a walkthrough when the solution will click and you’ll instead feel like a genius.
6: It Takes Two
Metascore: 88 | Player score: 4.7
Despite some of the highest user scores overall on the Xbox Store of any Game Pass game, It Takes Two experienced slightly colder critic reviews when compared to some of the other titles in this list. When it released back in 2021 it was criticised by some for the fact that the main storyline was essentially about a couple trying to avoid a divorce (presumably people would prefer it was about guns or drugs?), but all agreed on the fantastic gameplay – probably the best co-operative experience in a game since the original Halo.
Featuring a marriage counsellor in the form of a talking book who enjoys thrusting at the camera a little too much, It Takes Two likely resonates with players most because of its approachable characters and gameplay PLUS the continuation of an incredibly generous feature from EA and Hazelight, where you can invite a friend to play with you for free, regardless of whether they own the game or not.
5: Stardew Valley
Metascore: 89 | Player score: 4.7
A labour of love from Eric Barone (also known as Concerned Ape), Stardew Valley has been a one-man project from start to finish, aiming to essentially bring the best bits of the Harvest Moon / Story of Seasons series through to the modern day (albeit with retro graphics), while fixing the issues that became more commonplace in those games as the series developed. The game has been incredibly well supported, with a co-operative multiplayer mode added as well as a plethora of new features as time has passed. If you have a soft spot for Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing, particularly the older versions, you’ll feel right at home here and it truly is a must play.
4: Resident Evil 2 (Remake)
Metascore: 91 | Player score: 4.6
Resident Evil 2 is quite rightly held as one of the best horror games of all time, if not the best in general. The 2019 remake which was upgraded to Series X|S from Xbox One in 2022 is a masterful overhaul of this much-loved classic, crafted from the ground up for modern audiences while retaining everything that makes the Resident Evil series (and RE2 in particular) so renowned. Improvements have been made to resource management, enemy AI, checkpointing, replayability and elsewhere.
Without a doubt the key change (and a very brave one) is the move from the fixed camera angles to an over-the-shoulder, third person view that players of modern Resident Evil games will be well used to. It’s a good decision, ensuring the game feels modern, while the mechanics underneath mean it’s still without a doubt a Resident Evil game.
3: Dead Space (2023)
Metascore: 89 | Player Score: 4.7
If we’d kept the backwards compatible games in this ranking, the original Dead Space would actually feature above this remake, but only just. A triumphant revival for the series that showed EA that there is still a huge appetite for the IP, this version adds in voiced dialogue for protagonist Isaac, improvements to the weaker missions of the original (while faithfully recreating the standout segments), tonnes of quality of life improvements from the Dead Space sequels, and generally modernises a game that is now over 15 years old.
2: INSIDE
Metascore: 93 | Player score: 4.7
This is a special one. I have such fond memories of playing Inside, essentially the successor to the iconic Limbo. Set in a very strange dystopian world, Inside is equal parts platformer and puzzler, with at times extremely unsettling undercurrents that keep you on edge throughout. We’ve already had Cocoon feature highly in this list and Inside absolutely nails the same feeling of tricky puzzles that don’t leave you frustrated.
While I would argue Limbo had more of a profound impact just due to being the first, it actually scored less well on both the Metascore and player score metrics (90 and 4.3 respectively, if you’re interested). Inside iterated and improved on all fronts, and still stands up today as one of the best games ever released on Xbox One.
UPDATE: As of December 16th 2024, Forza Horizon 4 has been delisted from the Xbox Store and is no longer playable as part of Game Pass. Stay tuned for a new version of this article in 2025.
1: Forza Horizon 4
Metascore: 92 | Player score: 4.8
The best rated first party Xbox game in ages and the only one in the top 10, Forza Horizon 4’s chosen location of the UK struck a chord with the community, while it also felt like the culmination of everything Playground Games had been working on with this series: cutting edge graphics, flawless social and multiplayer features, satisfying yet engaging handling on the vehicles and a single player experience that keeps you coming back for more.
The seasonal elements to the gameplay serve to mark Forza Horizon 4 apart from the other games in the series, though it should be said that Forza Horizon 5 also has a 92 Metascore, but is let down badly by poor user reviews as a result (primarily) of a bad launch experience. Forza Horizon 4 is also still a mainstay in the Xbox Most Played charts, even after six years and a sequel (currently P22 in the UK, with FH5 at P12).
There are, for sure, some incredible games in this list. The eagle eyed will have noticed that there's only one first party game (Forza Horizon 4, depending on your view of Ori), and the vast majority of them are pretty old now, with remakes also taking three of the ten slots. That is definitely symptomatic of an issue with Game Pass at the moment, but we will look at that in more detail another time. For now, let's celebrate that we can play these iconic games all in one place, and look forward to a bright future with a stacked release line-up for Game Pass to come.
Note: As mentioned, for the purpose of this exercise Xbox 360 (or older) games have been excluded. In reality, they would make up six of the top ten. In the interest of providing more relevant and useful content, I’ve focused on more recent titles. We will, however, be looking at a top ten including backwards compatible games in the lens of what this tells us about the quality of Game Pass as a service, so stay tuned for that coming soon. Where games were tied for total score, the user score was used as a tie-breaker in the first instance, then editorial discretion if they remained tied following that. Data captured October 21st 2024.