FreeGameTips’s writing team and contributors vote to choose their preferred titles from the Microsoft platform.
The generation did not start well for Microsoft. An erratic presentation and a strategy that angered consumers caused the company to completely modify its roadmap. The change began with the replacement of the former leader of the Xbox division, Don Mattrick. His position was filled by Phil Spencer, a manager who has managed to find a new identity for the company. His was the decision to unify the Xbox platform under the Windows 10 ecosystem, a concept that will expand to other devices thanks to Project xCloud, his commitment to cloud gaming; also from the hand of Xbox Game Pass. Xbox Series X and streaming are the near future, but what about Xbox One?
The veteran machine of the Americans has evolved over time and has welcomed two new models. In addition to the Xbox One S, a more compact and slightly more powerful version of the original (which also features a fully digital model), the Xbox One X has been the most powerful console on the market for the past few years. The case of video games developers by Xbox Game Studios is peculiar, since unlike PlayStation 4 or Nintendo Switch, they publish all their products on PC, and from day 1 on the Xbox Game Pass service. Therefore, there is no video game totally exclusive to the console, but rather to the aforementioned Xbox ecosystem. Once the clarification was made, we gathered the votes of the editors and collaborators of FreeGameTips to make the list of the best Xbox One games.
Halo 5: Guardians
15. Quantum Break
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Remedy Entertainment has always designed video games with a unique approach. The Finnish studio has not only created and developed the Max Payne saga (the third installment is from Rockstar Games), but has also been able to offer experiences such as Alan Wake or its recent Control. In both cases, they make use of a Lynchian narrative that takes us to strange worlds full of mysteries, where the truth hides and the lines between fiction and reality are blurred until they almost disappear. After the publication of Alan Wake, the collaboration between Xbox Games Studios (then Microsoft Game Studios) and Remedy Entertainment was extended with a second game, Quantum Break.
Despite the fact that the reviews were not always positive, this title has infiltrated among the best games for the writing of FreeGameTips. The merit of Remedy was trying to integrate a television series into a video game, so that it narrated the events from the point of view of the villains. As it is, this sci-fi game features actors like Shawn Ashmore, Lance Reddick, Dominic Monaghan or Courtney Hope. The result is a product that tells the story of Jack Joyce, an ordinary young man who ends up in a mess of colossal dimensions. An accident in an experiment to travel in time causes the hecatomb and causes Jack to acquire powers to manipulate time. This translates into a third-person shooter with powers, a kind of starting point that has served as the basis for the playable system of Control, the most recent production of Remedy. Quantum Break is not a product without flaws, but throughout its main adventure it offers fresh ideas and a story that leaves no one indifferent.
14. State of Decay 2
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The world is cruel enough in its natural state, but when the zombie apocalypse looms over it, it only remains to try to survive. And it is that the very title of State of Decay 2 already clearly reflects the state in which the planet is, in absolute decline. The formula of the video game developed by Undead Labs is very continuous with respect to that of the first installment, as we pointed out in our Reviews. However, the work continues to offer good incentives to explore its open world, with survival mechanics that are intertwined with other elements more typical of RPG genre games.
In State of Decay 2 there is no storyline as such, but we are offered a great objective to fulfill: to destroy all the hearts of Plaga de Sangre. They are the places where the genesis of mutated zombies occurs, so they are very well defended. Now that the third installment has been announced, it may be a good time to relive the zombie disaster and learn some other techniques that allow you to survive in a devastated world.
13. Halo 5: Guardians
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343 Industries has not had it easy. After the publication of Halo Reach, Bungie decided to fly free and signed an agreement with Activision to develop its new intellectual property, Destiny. That freedom was corseted, because in the end they had to break that agreement to become a completely independent development studio. That, however, is another story. The one that interests us in this case is that of the developer who is in charge of the Halo saga, a study that has already tried it with the fourth installment and that did not succeed at all with Halo 5: Guardians. In our Halo Top 7 it came in sixth place, but that hasn’t stopped it from continuing to be a great game on the Xbox platform.
Halo 5: Guardians stands out for a campaign that is growing, although the plot is a bit lost in its final part. The large number of enemies that appear on the screen and some new features of this installment do not erase the fact that the artificial intelligence of rivals does not reach the quality that some previous installments starring the Master Chief treasured. The madness of Warzone and the competitive Arena complete a product that is not among the favorites of many players, but that was able to start its own path in the then new generation of consoles. It remains to be seen if Halo Infinite returns to the right path.
12. Halo Wars 2
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Ensemble Studios was a developer specializing in strategy games, nothing more and nothing less than the creators of Age of Empires. After years in business and with an enviable background within the genre (they also worked on Star Wars: Galactic Battleground), it is strange that it was precisely Halo Wars the title that took them to the grave. Even before the development was complete, Microsoft communicated to employees its irrevocable decision to close the study. This did not prevent the original Bungie saga from re-embracing the genre of real-time strategy, as they commissioned The Creative Assembly (Total War, Alien Isolation) to develop Halo Wars 2.
James Cutter is the captain of the Spirit of Fire, the same character that we already saw in the first Halo Wars. Almost three decades have passed since the events that occurred in the first installment, but the crew has not aged a single year, since they have remained in a cryo-sleep state throughout this period. Suddenly, an alarm signal prompts the AI to wake them up and soon after the war picks up again. It is a totally original story framed in the Halo universe, to which we must add a very well done adaptation of its controls. Saving some imbalances in the difficulty and the simplification of the management of certain resources, we are faced with a product that must be taken into account.
11. Gears of War 4
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There are certain parallels between the situation at 343 Industries and The Coalition. Both studios were chosen with the intention that their teams would take responsibility for very important sagas for the platform, but they had to face the challenges of replacing the respective creator studios, Bungie and Epic Games. When the Fortnite company sold the brand to Microsoft, Rod Fergussson, who had worked as a producer on the series from the beginning, made the decision to join the Redmond team to guide the studio in this process. The then called Black Tusk Studios began to think about Gears of War 4, but it was not easy, since like 343 Industries, they had to establish the parameters to take their respective sagas to the future.
Rod Fergusson himself argued that for Gears 4 they wanted to recover the most classic elements, those that define the saga as a saga. In a way, they were newbies to the series, so they preferred not to risk experiments. The production of The Coalition contained the most characteristic ingredients of the saga, although the main protagonist was no longer Marcus Phoenix, but his son James Dominic, alias JD. At the controls, it is a video game that feels very Gears of War, with a campaign to match, although the robot enemies are not at the level of the rest of Gears enemies. Of course, multiplayer is not lacking, another of the main pillars of the saga.
10. Rare Replay
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In 1985, Rareware was born in England after changing its name due to the company’s financial problems. Their fate would be closely linked to Nintendo, a company with which they created some of the most successful titles in the history of Great N. Battletoads, Donkey Kong Country, Goldeneye 007, Perfect Dark, Banjo & Kazooie or Killer Instinct are just some of the productions that Rare created during his stint at Nintendo. After the acquisition by Microsoft, some licenses owned by the Kyotoians stayed at home, but others turned to the Xbox platform. Since then, proposals such as Viva Piñata, Kameo: Elements of Power, Sea of Thieves or the future Everwild have marked the current stage of the company. Rare Replay is a product that compiles 30 great games from yesterday and more recent times, a perfect opportunity to relive some of Rare’s most outstanding works.
9. Sunset Overdrive
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Insomniac Games, a studio traditionally tied to the PlayStation brand, wanted to create an intellectual property that it could keep as its own. Spyro The Dragon, Ratchet and Clank or Resistance were sagas that belonged to the companies that had produced the games, so the studio wanted to own some franchises. They first signed an agreement with Electronic Arts to publish Fuse, but more successful was Sunset Overdrive, a video game developed under the Xbox Game Studios umbrella. Its adventurous approach, together with a sandbox-like world design, make this work a very fresh proposal, with a platform touch and a very vertical development.
The citizens of Sunset City are passionate about the Overcharge drink, but in 2027, with the coronavirus already overcome, the new pandemic is caused by this concoction. Apparently, inside there is the odd substance that transforms those who consume it into monstrous beings. But our protagonist is safe, because he has been one of the few who has refused to taste the drink. The young man, whom we can customize, joins other factions of survivors to survive this new apocalypse. Humor, speed and action go hand in hand in a production that is very worthwhile. In addition, some of the ideas have served to build the world of Marvel’s Spider-Man.
8. Forza Motorsport 7
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The Forza brand has two different aspects, the one focused on simulation and the one that points towards arcade gameplay. Each of them is developed by a different study, Turn 10 in the case of Forza Motorsport and Playground Games in the case of Forza Horizon. Both are crucial products within Microsoft’s strategy, a fact that is not by chance. In addition to the traditional importance of driving games in a console catalog, their quality is beyond doubt. Forza Motorsport 7 has deservedly crept into the Top 15 Xbox One exclusives, as it is the culmination of the saga on the console. If Forza 5 and 6, the previous two installments released on Microsoft’s current-generation system, have already made their mark, the seventh chapter offers even more improvements.
For now, this driving title adds a dynamic weather system for the first time, so that during races, the asphalt and the drivers will suffer the ravages of the rain. The impressive level of detail of the vehicles, as well as the cycle of day and night, the progression of the driver, the Forza Driver’s Club mode or the improved trajectory mode make Forza Motorsport 7 the ideal choice for lovers of the genre. Meanwhile, Turn 10 Studios is already working on Forza Motorsport 8 for Xbox Series X and PC.
7. Halo: The Master Chief Collection
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We already said that the task of 343 Industries had not been exactly light when they took control of such an iconic saga as Halo. After developing Halo 4 and Halo: Anniversary on Xbox 360, Microsoft requested a remastering of the main titles in the series. Initially, they planned to release it exclusively for Xbox One, as Don Mattrick’s strategy still prevailed. Although this compilation did not arrive in time for the launch of the console, players did not have to wait too long to relive the story of the Master Chief. A year later, in November 2014, Microsoft Game Stuios published Halo: The Master Chief Collection, a first version that included Halo Combat Anniversay, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3, and Halo 4.
Unfortunately, as we pointed out in our Reviews, the adaptation was not without its problems, especially in its multiplayer aspect. In addition, to be a compilation, important absences were detected. They were neither Halo Reach nor Halo 3: ODST, something that was solved afterwards. In a generation in which video games mutate through updates, Halo: The Master Chief Collection has not stopped patching itself over the years. Its adaptation to PC has also led to new changes being added to the Xbox One version. Today it is a highly recommended product. So it is not surprising that it is among the best Xbox One titles. They already were on their respective consoles of origin.
6. Killer Instinct
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Double Helix Games, a company that had developed titles such as Matrix: The Path of Neo or Silent Hill: Homecoming, was the developer selected to bring back one of Rare’s most successful sagas, Killer Instinct. The British studio’s fighting franchise was born on arcade machines and adapted to systems such as the SNES or the Game Boy. Along with Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, he earned his place in the hearts of beat’em up fans, a fact that Microsoft could not miss when it bought Rare. For the Xbox One version, Redmond experienced a different model. They published a playable demo for everyone, but to unlock all the contents of the first season, the interested party had to pay approximately 20 euros.
As it is a seasonal product, the analyzes that were published only reflected the state of the video game at its launch. Therefore, as the years have passed, the title has been updated with new features in the form of characters, game modes, etc. In fact, Double Helix Games ceased to be the developer responsible for the project when it was acquired by Amazon and dispersed among its studios. From that moment on, Iron Galaxy took over the project. The legacy of yesteryear is palpable throughout, not just for the gameplay mechanics, but also for its powerful soundtrack and striking graphic style. It is true that the generation has been truly fruitful in the genre, but Killer Instinct remains one of the most remarkable titles not only of Xbox One, but of the current generation.
5. Sea of Thieves
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The project that has occupied Rare’s daily life during this generation of consoles has not been a platform game or a shooter, nothing classics like Banjo & Kazooie or Perfect Dark. English developers have worked on an online video game that has always sowed some mistrust among the company’s followers. All new intellectual property carries certain risks, and that Rare is not a company that has put aside the new sagas (Kameo: Elements of Power, Kinect Sports or Viva Piñata are some of the new products they designed). With Sea of Thieves, the premise is to embark on a boat adventure, preferably accompanied by a good crew.
Sea of Thieves is not a video game that conveys the interest of the players through a plot thread, since its narrative focuses more on the emergent and the experience of each user. Navigating waters full of pirates is synonymous with different situations, moments in which a marine creature or an enemy ship attacks the boat (sometimes at the same time) and the crew members have to coordinate to avoid ending up on the bottom of the boat. sea. It is true that Rare had problems when it came to providing content at first, but the video game has become an unexpected success, especially when it is available on Xbox Game Pass. Its main merit is having managed to build mechanics that invite collaboration and camaraderie.
4. Titanfall
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The departure of Vince Zampella and Jason West from Infinity Ward led to the founding of Respawn Entertainment, a studio that began life with a game that collects the learning of all those years in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare studio. The result is Titanfall, a first installment that was launched before Electronic Arts acquired the company, although it was the North American company that was responsible for launching this risky bet. And it was risky for several reasons: first, because it was released exclusively for Xbox One and PC, so that PlayStation 4 users were left without trying this electrifying proposal of first-person action; On the other hand, it is worth highlighting its status as an exclusively online title, since it did not include any type of single-player campaign. This changed with the sequel, which to the surprise of many, offered one of the best campaigns of the generation (but it also came out on the rest of the platforms, so it is not at the top).
If Titanfall deserves to be on this list, it is not only because of the international awards it won before its launch. It is because his proposal is as fun as it is fresh, with several approaches within the action that fit perfectly into the same mold. The pilots move freely, with a dizzying pace marked by the possibility of running and jumping off the walls, climbing, shooting and dodging, all without the game giving us a second of respite. Titanfall is one of the most rewarding experiences of the genre, although its continuity as a saga is currently in question. Apex Legends and Star Wars mark the agenda of Respawn Entertainment. Who knows, maybe in the future.
3. Gears 5
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If with Gears 4 The Coalition focused all its efforts on reproducing the classic Gears of War experience, the goal with Gears 5 was to go one step further. Rob Fergusson, responsible for the brand until its recent departure, explained that in the fifth installment they wanted to introduce new features in the formula. Everything takes a learning process, especially when a new studio has to take over a renowned saga with several successful installments behind it. Said and done. The new chapter of the series has managed to meet that goal, as Gears of War continues to feel, but introducing weighty novelties that mark a point of evolution within the saga.
The main campaign, whose first two acts are among the best the series has ever produced, combines action, stealth and cooperation mechanics, in contrast to the monotony of Gears of War’s longstanding waves. For its part, the game presents for the first time a more open world, allowing you to choose between the main missions and the secondary tasks. The story, however, stumbles in the final part, as it returns to conservatism, something that tarnishes the final result. But Gears 5 is not only a campaign starring Kait Díaz, it also offers very interesting multiplayer modes. The renewed Horde 4.0 mode is the most complete to date, while Escape is a breath of fresh air, as we are invited to collaborate to avoid the enemy. Without being perfect, Gears 5 marks the way forward. It only remains to exploit the most suitable elements.
2. Ori and the Will of the Wisps
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His excellent first part could not appear on this list because Ori and the Blind Forest has not only been present on Xbox One and PC, but also on Nintendo Switch. This is not the case with the sequel, which for the moment remains in the Microsoft ecosystem, since the developer has stated that the work of adapting to the Kyoto machine would not be easy at all. Anyway, Ori and the Will of the Wisps has not reached the second position of the top only because it is a sequel to, but because it improves almost everything seen in the first game of the saga. Moon Studio is an independent developer that has collaborated with Xbox Game Studios to convey its vision, that of a beautiful video game that uses a delicate narrative and a platform style and action of the highest quality.
Despite the initial performance problems, the sequel to Ori has managed to win over players with a formula that follows the foundations of the original, but is expanded with a more open world and with the possibility of living the story through the eyes of other characters. Nor has its status as a demanding product been neglected, since moving between platforms will not be an easy task: precision and timing are essential values. In the plot aspect, Moon Studio’s work begins just after the events narrated in the first part. Ori and Ku live peacefully in the forest, but darkness once again looms over the world and the paths of both characters diverge. It is up to us that the gloom dissipates again to give way to light.
1. Forza Horizon 4
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Forza Horizon 4 is a car game that does not require being a fan of cars, an unusual fact that further reinforces the value of one of the best video games that this generation of consoles has given us. Anyone can enjoy their hooligan and overflowing experience, of the beautiful places that we will visit, this time located in the United Kingdom.
Playground Games, a studio that has become the property of Xbox Game Studios, already started from excellence with Forza Horizon 2 and Forza Horizon 3, but the fourth installment introduced a very remarkable novelty, the seasons of the year. Thus the things, the same environment can change radically depending on the time in which you circulate with the car. This, of course, directly affects driving. Burning your wheels on a dry surface is not the same as burning on a rainy or snow-covered road. All this is combined with dynamic climate changes, non-racing vehicles and other meteorological phenomena such as fog, storm or wind. In short, it adds multiple variables that are mixed to offer differentiated experiences in an open world context.
That the Playground Games production embraces the arcade playable style does not mean that the driving of its more than 450 vehicles is the same as each other. In fact, each of the cars has its own peculiarities and specific characteristics, which is why not all of them work the same on specific tracks. In the end, it becomes a personal experience that changes perspective based on the many factors happening at the same time. The merit of Forza Horizon 4 is that the mere contemplation produces moments of catharsis, always seasoned by its spectacular soundtrack, which includes songs from especially varied genres.
Its infinite possibilities, the volume of content, its online aspect and the option to create circuits and routes, all contribute to Forza Horizon 4 being no longer the best Xbox One game, but also one of the best driving titles to be have never done. Plus, those who own an Xbox One X can enjoy even more impressive graphics. It is not to say little, because the game is already spectacular on the base console. An essential that you can not miss. This car (wasn’t it a train?) You have to take it yes or yes.
