Best Game Pass Games to Play Right Now

I have driven in Forza on Xbox for years, so I went in expecting a polished racer and got something closer to a reason to keep the subscription. The open world is beautiful, and the racing underneath it is just as good, which is rarer than it sounds. You can jump in for twenty minutes, win a race, and feel like the evening was well spent. No series knowledge needed. The only catch is that it is still a driving game, so if cars do nothing for you, the pull will be weaker. For almost everyone else, it is the safest first download on the service.

I would not have picked this one up if I had to pay for it. A turn-based fantasy about a doomed expedition sounded like a gamble at full price, and Game Pass removed the gamble. Within the first few hours I understood the fuss. The battles are turn-based but you dodge and parry in real time, so you never get to zone out, and the art direction makes every area look like a painting you are allowed to walk around in. It does not have the broad pull of the racer above it, since it asks you to like RPGs at least a little. If that describes you, install it tonight.

I finished this one recently, and it was some of the most fun I have had playing games in a long time. I have watched the movies far too many times, and the game catches the feeling. The whip, the improvised brawls, the sense that every location is a set piece. It is first-person, mixing stealth, puzzles and exploring, so you rarely do one thing for long. You do not need to be a fan of the films to enjoy it. Stealth gets fiddly when a plan falls apart, but that is a small price.

Hades II is the game I start 'for one run' and look up from an hour later. A run through the underworld as Melinoë is short enough to fit a weeknight, and each death still earns you something, which is the part Supergiant gets right better than anyone. The combat is quick, the writing is warm, and the Greek mythology is played with enough affection that my history-loving side was never bored. Fourth place is about taste. Run-based games are not for everyone, and if repetition bothers you, the loop will wear thin.

I always finished the Call of Duty campaign before touching multiplayer, and DOOM: The Dark Ages is the sort of campaign that justifies the habit. You carry a shield you can throw and parry with, so you plant your feet and punish enemies instead of strafing in circles. It plays heavier than the DOOM games before it. The spectacle is the pitch, and it delivers from the first level. Story takes a back seat to noise, which suits some evenings and not others. The difficulty settings are adjustable enough that a tired Tuesday does not have to end in frustration.

I have a weak spot for indie games, because when they are done right you can feel how much the makers love the thing. Hollow Knight was already that, and Silksong might be the best indie game ever made. You play Hornet, climbing through the kingdom of Pharloom and learning every enemy's pattern the hard way. Expect to die often. Challenge that makes you think is fine by me, but parts of this will test your patience, and not everyone has the evenings to spare for that. That is the only reason it sits sixth.

History is the reason Ghost of Tsushima worked for me, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II scratches the same itch from a muddier angle. You play Henry in medieval Bohemia, and the game treats the setting as a place with rules rather than a fantasy backdrop. Sword fighting is deliberate, you need to eat and sleep, and the countryside rewards wandering. That density is also the warning. This is a slow, long RPG, and I know exactly how hard it is to find the evenings for it. If you have them, it is one of the richest worlds on the service.

Keep a notepad next to the sofa, because Blue Prince will not hold your hand. You wander a mansion whose rooms you draft yourself, one door at a time, and the layout reshuffles every day. The goal is Room 46, but the real pull is the pile of small mysteries you start jotting down early on. I ended up scribbling notes like it was homework, and enjoyed it more than I expected. A bad draw can sting, and the note-taking gets heavy. That is why it sits eighth. As a wildcard, though, nothing else here plays like it.

The part that grabbed me was Dondoko Island, which is basically Animal Crossing with a trash problem, and I say that as someone who plays plenty of Animal Crossing. Around it sits a huge JRPG. Ichiban and returning hero Kiryu head to Hawaii, the turn-based fights are goofy and satisfying, and the tone swings from heartfelt to absurd inside a single scene. It is enormous, and the story leans on earlier games, so newcomers will be catching up. Ninth place reflects that length and that baggage, not the quality.

I put Cyberpunk off for years, mostly because of the terrible launch. When I finally picked it up, all of that had long been fixed, and it turned out to be one of the best games ever. The world building is insane. Night City feels lived in, the open world reacts to you in ways that keep surprising you, and the storyline holds up well. It asks for a lot of evenings. It lands tenth because it is the newest arrival on the service and the biggest time sink on this list.