Fallout: New Vegas has endured in the cultural zeitgeist in a way that few other games have. Even within the Fallout fandom, it’s earned a prized position as a true classic of the RPG genre. That love is still reflected today, in goofy memes and fan art and enduring debates over which endgame is the right one. Even though the game has aged terribly in some respects — characters look rough, and not just from living in the apocalypse — it still persists as one of the high points of the Fallout franchise. The new Fallout TV series is set to premiere on Amazon, so there’s seldom been a better time to revisit New Vegas or play it for the first time.
Fallout: New Vegas opens with an exploration of the Mojave Wasteland, setting up some of the factions vying for control of this region of post-apocalyptic America. This game builds off the lore of the first two isometric RPGs, returning to the West Coast. The New California Republic, a democratic attempt at building back an old America, has expanded too far. Here, at the Hoover Dam, they struggle to hold on to territory. Caesar’s Legion, an army emulating the empire of old Rome, has met the NCR here in a clash of ideologies. New Vegas, a sparkling city of progress run by the mysterious Mr. House, dominates the skyline with its neon towers.
Unfortunately, the player character will need to work up to confronting these forces. The game begins with the Courier being waylaid by a smooth-talking group of goons. You awake in a friendly local doctor’s home, having miraculously survived being shot in the head and left in a shallow grave. You sort out matters in the small town of Goodsprings and then begin your trek into the Mojave.
Image: Obsidian Entertainment/Bethesda Softworks
New Vegas is built on the bones of Fallout 3, and the gameplay is honestly so-so. But the game is elevated by its fantastic writing. There are four possible paths the Courier can choose from: joining the NCR, allying with Mr. House, enlisting in Caesar’s Legion, or pursuing an independent Mojave. There’s a similar structure to Fallout 4, but I failed to connect with the various ideologies of the Commonwealth. They were a little too simplistic and flat. Fallout: New Vegas is anything but that.
The questions posed in New Vegas are much more interesting to me as a player. At first, the NCR appears to be the default good guy faction. But one companion, Cass, openly expresses skepticism of the government. She critiques their expansion with the memorable line: “Nobody’s dick is that long, not even Long Dick Johnson. And he had a fucking long dick, hence the name.” Hanging out with Boone, a stoic and surly sniper I meet in the mouth of a giant dinosaur tower, complicates things further. After enough time working together, he shares the trauma incurred by his time with the NCR.
Every companion in this game has opinions, and they’re interesting. New Vegas has a bunch of wildly interesting ideas, and it’s not shy about running with them. Lily Bowen is a giant nightkin super mutant who wears a giant sun hat and shades. Raul is a ghoul gunslinger who’s been press-ganged into service as a mechanic for a hostile state of super mutants. Arcade Gannon is a doctor and scientist who automatically joins your party if you have an intelligence of 3 or less, because he feels like someone needs to take care of you.
The NCR may be complicated, but Caesar’s Legion poses a serious threat — or opportunity, depending on your decisions — to the denizens of the Mojave. The player is introduced to the faction through Nipton, a sinful town sentenced to a gruesome ritual known as the Lottery. The encounter starts with a guy running at you, hysterically laughing and screaming that he won, he won! You quickly realize that his joy is closer to a wild hysteria, and something truly terrible has happened in Nipton.
Image: Obsidian Entertainment/Bethesda Softworks
Mr. House offers a potential third path, but as I quest around the Strip, I can’t help but realize how many impoverished communities have sprung up in its shadow. I can’t even get in — under penalty of being shot by a giant murder robot — unless I meet specific qualifications. Can I trust the reclusive master of the Strip and its casinos? Or is it worth forging a new path for the Mojave, with no masters or kings?
Each of these factions have interesting characters. Caesar is definitely a bad guy, and I have journeyed through his camp to blow him up in new and satisfying ways many times over the years. But it’s also worth talking philosophy with him, and learning more about the Legion and the sort of civilization they would establish. He’s not a mustache-twirling villain, but a satisfying antagonist to face and defeat.
This is all skimming the surface of what New Vegas has to offer. The cherry on top of this great RPG is a radio station that’s full of bangers, with a particular shoutout to Big Iron. But the game takes big swings, and the overall vision is able to balance both serious themes and some intense goofiness.
Similar open-world RPGs have quickly faded from conversation after their launch. Even a recent big RPG epic like Starfield has fallen off most of our radars. But Fallout: New Vegas fans are still making memes, arguing about the endgame variables, and sharing build tips to this day. It’s a clunky game in many respects, the characters don’t look great, and there’s the occasional glitch. I don’t care. Fallout: New Vegas is still the apple of my eye, and showcases how brilliant the setting can be.
Fallout: New Vegas is available to play on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Game Pass, and Windows PC via Steam and GOG.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is an incredible role-playing game experience, a gift for RPG fans and a wonderful introduction to the genre for newcomers. It’s got everything a good RPG needs: memorable characters, exciting, strategic battles, and a textured world to get lost in as your party goes questing across the map. It’s a showcase for just how good RPGs are when they really connect, and fortunately for us, there’s plenty more where that came from.
So, in the event that Baldur’s Gate 3 has inspired you to explore the genre further, here’s a list of games that similarly nail the RPG experience in ways that will leave you itching to get back to the character you’ve created — provided, of course, you didn’t immediately roll a new one to take into Baldur’s Gate 3 all over again.
If your favorite parts of Baldur’s Gate 3 were the turn-based combat, the character interactions, and the branching narratives, then Fire Emblem: Three Houses might scratch that itch. The actual gameplay itself doesn’t have a lot of story-defining choices, since you pick a set path in the first moments of the game. But that choice does grant three completely different ways the game can play out (and a fourth secret one), as well as variations in which characters come along with you and survive till the end. There’s also a lot of options for character interaction built into the game mechanics. Not only do you, the player, build a rapport with the characters, it’s literally part of the game to pair characters off in different interactions so they can build their bonds outside the battlefield and support each other while in combat. And yes, that means romances. So. Many. Romances. —Petrana Radulovic
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Image: Larian Studios
Where to play: Windows PC, Mac, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch
Larian Studios’ previous game is a natural next step for Baldur’s Gate 3 fans, as it’s about as close as you can possibly get to “more of the same” without waiting for a sequel. There’ll be some adjustment — as it’s not a D&D adaptation, the rules are different and combat here has a different set of quirks you’ll have to learn to navigate — but the transition is surprisingly seamless. Most importantly, Original Sin 2 has what Baldur’s Gate 3 nails in spades: a rock-solid focus on character and permissive design that encourages you to come up with oddball solutions and surrounds you with a cast of characters you’ll think of fondly. Shoutout to the homie, The Red Prince. —Joshua Rivera
Pillars of Eternity
Image: Obsidian Entertainment/Paradox Interactive
Where to play: Windows, Mac, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch
One of the first big attempts at a throwback to the Baldur’s Gate franchise is still one of the best. Pillars of Eternity tells a sprawling tale with a great hook — children are suddenly being born without souls — as a mystery meant to draw you into its strange fantasy world and characters. A little more old-school in its design, but with the option to crank down the difficulty if story is why you’re here, Pillars of Eternity’s biggest strength is in its elegant narrative, in which the answer posed by every quest intersects with at least two other equally interesting quests. It’s easy to lose an evening navigating the game’s tangled web of short stories, but what a tremendously satisfying way to get lost. —JR
If there’s one thing I enjoy more than Pillars of Eternity, it’s Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. Whereas the first game took place in an atmospheric if derivative take on a classic fantasy continent, Deadfire puts you in control of a customizable ship on the high seas. Along with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Spiritfarer, and the recent Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, Deadfire is proof that archipelagos make for perfect video game worlds: As you build your party of travelers, you’ll encounter vastly different factions, cultures, and ways of life, both linked and separated by the waves between them. Exploring the world of Deadfire feels at once like a singular journey and a collection of potent short stories, all connected by vivid writing and myriad chances to role-play. —Mike Mahardy
Wasteland 3
Image: inXile Entertainment
Where to play: Windows, Mac, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
If you can stomach the hyper-goofiness of its post-apocalyptic storytelling, Wasteland 3 stands among the best that the CRPG genre has to offer. Its script and character writing leave a lot to be desired, but in terms of structure, Wasteland 3 is as open as they come: You pursue three major quest lines across a ruined Colorado, all the while building up your headquarters and recruiting a massive party of survivors. If inventory management and improving your team composition are your favorite aspects of CRPGs, Wasteland 3 is a dream. And while there are compelling story beats strewn throughout, it’s the mechanics and systems that make inXile’s 2020 release sing. —Mike Mahardy
After a dozen or so hours investing in your party in Baldur’s Gate 3, they start to feel like superheroes. Battles hinge on incredible (and very fun) stunts that can excite the storyteller in you narrating the whole fight. Marvel’s Midnight Suns is entirely built around that feeling, a strategy game where winning a battle largely depends on you figuring out the most dramatic move possible every turn. It’s also got a character creator for your original protagonist and lots of fun RPG-style conversations between said fights too, so the social butterflies among us won’t feel left out. Just don’t come looking for romance, which unfortunately is not part of the experience. —JR
Planescape: Torment
Image: Black Isle Studios/Interplay Productions
Where to play: Windows, Mac, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, iOS, Android
Going back to the original Baldur’s Gate games is a very different experience from Baldur’s Gate 3, as they come from an entirely different era in game design that may or may not speak to you in the same way. In spite of its similarity to those older games, Planescape: Torment, a sister title to the OG Baldur’s Gate games, is worth giving a shot. In it you play The Nameless One, a man with no memories in search of his identity and the reason he can’t seem to die. Taking place in Dungeons & Dragons’ Planescape setting — a sort of interdimensional halfway point in the multiverse, where anything could be a door to Someplace Else — Planescape: Torment is among the most bizarre, existential, and contemplative RPGs ever made. It’s a game where combat barely matters (seriously, just play on easy and put all your stats in Wisdom and Charisma), but deciding who The Nameless One becomes as he learns more about himself is everything. —JR
Torment: Tides of Numenera
Image: InXile Entertainment
Where to play: Windows, Mac, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Maybe you tried Planescape: Torment and found it too clunky. Or maybe you loved it and want more. In the way that Pillars of Eternity was a spiritual successor to the original Baldur’s Gate games, Torment: Tides of Numenera is a new attempt to recapture the magic of Planescape: Torment with more modern sensibilities. In this game, you play as the Last Castoff, a sort of rejected avatar for a being known as the Changing God, who has achieved immortality by hopscotching across bodies like yours. What’s up with that? What else has this Changing God done, and who else have they left in their wake? Tides of Numenera retains the focus of its inspiration, emphasizing role-play over combat, using the mystery of an immortal being and an indelible science fantasy setting to probe at troubled characters and ask big, sweeping questions about fate and existence. —JR
Dragon Age (all of ’em)
Image: BioWare/Electronic Arts
Where to play: Windows, Mac (for earlier entries), PlayStation 4 (Dragon Age: Inquisition), PlayStation 3, Xbox One(Dragon Age: Inquisition), Xbox 360
For over a decade, the RPG void left between Baldur’s Gate 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3 was filled by Dragon Age. Beginning with 2009’s Dragon Age: Origins, the Dragon Age games mixed dark fantasy with bright, snappy characters to create one of the most beloved fantasy RPGs in recent memory. Each game has a slightly different flavor — Origins is the closest to the “classic” RPG feel, where combat strategy is just as important as role-playing through an epic plot, while Dragon Age 2 focuses more on straightforward action and smaller character drama, and Dragon Age: Inquisition splits the difference with the most modern design of the three. Play all or one, in any order you choose. Each has its strengths, and all of them have at least one character destined to become your favorite. —JR
If you appreciate how a game will throw your best-laid plans out the window with one failed dice roll, then Disco Elysium is the obvious follow-up to Baldur’s Gate 3. Not only do your choices have the same level of impact, but both games embrace creative problem solving in the way only a good role-playing game can. Disco Elysium lets you talk your way out of (but usually into) trouble in some mind-bending ways. Although it’s a more modern setting than Baldur’s Gate 3, both games relish their moments of bleakness. Paladin-type role-players may struggle with the inner demons of Disco Elysium’s amnesiac main character, but he’s the hero for those who revel in messy choices. —Chelsea Stark
Shadowrun: Dragonfall
Image: Harebrained Schemes
Where to play: Windows, Mac, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android
Yeah, fantasy is cool and all, but what if you want a Baldur’s Gate 3-style adventure in a sick Blade Runner-ass setting? Shadowrun: Dragonfall is your answer. A relatively short and self-contained RPG set in Shadowrun’s totally rad, magic-but-also-cyberpunk universe, you play as a shadowrunner (a mercenary, but cooler) hired to join a crew for one big score. It goes sideways of course, and once you escape the chaos, there’s only one question on your mind: Who set you up and why? Perfect for anyone who wants to trade swords and spells for guns and cyberdecks (and also spells). What’s more, if you love it, there are two more games widely available (and optimized for consoles): Shadowrun Returns and Shadowrun: Hong Kong. —JR
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Image: BioWare/LucasArts
Where to play: Windows, Mac, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android
Another big appeal of RPGs is getting the chance to traipse around a very familiar setting and seeing what trouble you can get into. In Baldur’s Gate 3, that’s the Forgotten Realms of Dungeons & Dragons. But let’s say you wanted to do that in Star Wars — lucky for you, there’s Knights of the Old Republic. Made by BioWare, the folks behind Dragon Age, KOTOR (that’s what the cool kids call it) is set thousands of years before the prequel trilogy, at a time when both the Jedi and Sith were numerous and at war. This setting gives KOTOR a flavor that’s impossible to find in modern Star Wars, as one of the premier RPG developers was given free reign to define its own corner of the universe and infuse it with all the charm of its acclaimed role-playing games — and a killer mystery to boot. —JR
I spent the better part of my holiday break leaping from one real-time strategy game to another: a They Are Billions failed run here, a Command & Conquer: Red Alert skirmish there. I even dug up my physical copies of The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth and its sequel from my parents’ basement. The liminal space between 2023’s late releases and 2024’s January rush provided the perfect opportunity to zoom out (literally and figuratively) and enjoy the act of telling tiny little people where to go and what to do.
At a certain point, my nostalgia morphed into curiosity. Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition’s Steam news feed has been more active than those of many newer releases, and I finally decided to take a closer look. It turns out, developer Forgotten Empires and Xbox Game Studios have been releasing new DLC, updates, patches, challenges, and seasonal aesthetics on an almost weekly basis since the remaster’s 2019 release. This cadence, coupled with the fact that 26,000 people were playing the nearly 25-year-old RTS on Steam, convinced me to take a detour. (I played on Steam, but it’s also available via Game Pass.) And not only is Age of Empires 2 still pretty damn good — like many, I consider it one of the best RTS games of all time — it feels more vital than ever in 2024.
To start, there are now 37 total campaigns. This count ignores the dozen discrete historical battles, the tutorial missions revolving around William Wallace, and the eight remastered campaigns from the previous game. (Did I mention Forgotten Empires also remastered much of the first Age of Empires and released it as an expansion for the sequel?) If, like me, you prefer narrative campaigns and skirmishes against the AI in RTS games, then Age of Empires 2 is tantamount to a single-player gold mine.
Image: Forgotten Empires/Xbox Game Studios
While I always hesitate to consider a breadth of content a quality in and of itself, it’s both surreal and encouraging to see this manynew missions, cutscenes, and unique units in Age of Empires 2 this long after its initial release. Forgotten Empires’ remaster plays like a dream, with a bevy of quality-of-life improvements (I’m looking at you, farm queues) and enemy AI that actually knows how to exploit your weaknesses and bait you into vulnerable situations. Sure, pathfinding is still an albatross around Age of Empires 2’s neck — chasing one scout halfway across the map with an entire battalion of cavalry will never be fun — but it’s a much smalleralbatross these days. I can actually maneuver an entire army across a river ford without half of it doubling back to find another crossing.
When it comes to a game that feels this good to play, I’ll take all of the missions I can get. I kicked off this particular stint with one Vlad Dracula (aka Vlad the Impaler) and his campaign to lead the Turks, Magyars, and Slavs against the Ottoman Empire. Each of the five missions in his storyline involve vastly different scenarios. The third, titled “The Breath of the Dragon,” is as challenging as it is thrilling, tasking me with capturing the central Wallachian city of Giurgiu before defending it from attack in every direction. Its placement on the banks of the Danube necessitates building up a naval presence and sailing to numerous small settlements working to supply the main Ottoman citadel of Darstor. When my Slavic forces finally entered Darstor, destroyed its fortifications, and demolished its castle, I almost had to step away to catch my breath.
Image: Forgotten Empires/Xbox Game Studios
My return to the 1999 classic begs the question: What about Age of Empires 4, the most recent entry in the series? I’ve been a fan of Relic Entertainment’s sequel since its 2021 release. That appreciation has only grown as the team refines and builds upon an already impressive foundation; I especially appreciate 4’s asymmetrical faction design, which makes playing the nomadic Mongols, for instance, feel vastly different than managing the complex dynasty system of China. Age of Empires 2’s civilizations, by comparison, feel much more uniform outside of their unique units.
But in its slick mechanics, its stunning art style, its wealth of creative missions, and its strong content cadence, Age of Empires 2 remains atop the pedestal it climbed almost 25 years ago. I haven’t even touched “The Mountain Royals” or “Return of Rome,” its newest expansions, as of this writing — but I absolutely plan to soon. The game’s ongoing health is proof that, given proper time and funding, a team can revitalize a classic in a medium known for its ephemeral works. I booted up Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition on the doorstep of 2024 in order to replay an enduring classic; I also found a vibrant modern game.
It’s been more than a decade since Crystal Dynamics, the developer best known for the Tomb Raider series, first introduced players to its reimagined take on Lara Croft. 2013’s Tomb Raider painted Lara as someone capable of adapting and overcoming nearly any situation while maintaining a level of emotional depth and self-awareness, a quality the game’s sequels would go on to further explore.
The original was an excellent game that I’ve completed on no fewer than three occasions, and while her most recent outing, 2018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider, has its merits, I still stand by 2015’s Rise of the Tomb Raider as the most engaging and interesting version of Lara Croft for how it emphasizes her vulnerability. The result is a story that combines all the hallmarks of what you’d expect from a great Tomb Raider game: suspenseful supernatural elements and a thrilling and romantic notion of archaeology, all tied together with an intriguing and surprisingly emotional story.
Image: Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix
Following the events of the first game, Lara is still traumatized by her trial by fire on the island of Yamatai and her father’s recent disappearance. Her quest to find her father and restore her family’s legacy leads her to the frigid peaks of Siberia and into the path of Trinity, a “Knights Templar meets military contractor” organization with a pseudo-religious goal of world domination. Unfortunately, this places Lara alone in the unique position to foil their plot, by saddling her with a truth that no one else will believe.
Lara fully understands the gravity of the situation, but never lets this inflate her ego. Instead, she’s more preoccupied with the specter of death that inevitably follows her attempts to do the right thing. Lara can never fully atone for how her choices led to the deaths of so many close to her in the past, regardless how well equipped or tough she is. This theme is so pervasive, it even echoes in Rise’s gameplay by presenting us with a Lara who needs to be more resourceful and cunning to overcome her environment.
Image: Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix
Rise of the Tomb Raider doesn’t quite elevate Lara to the level of apex predator we get in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but she’s clearly far more capable than she was in her first adventure. The result is a character in the midst of becoming the Lara Croft known to players around the world, a more confident and prepared protagonist who can still be humbled. This version of Lara shines when she’s on the back foot, and Rise of the Tomb Raider does everything it can to keep her off balance with a more capable foe and a relentlessly adversarial environment.
I’ll admit that on its standard difficulty, Rise of the Tomb Raider doesn’t present much of a challenge. Because of that, I consider Survivor Mode, the hardest difficulty, to be the definitive Tomb Raider experience. While you won’t succumb to starvation or dehydration, at this difficulty, the player’s health doesn’t regenerate, checkpoints are disabled, and foes are far more deadly. As if that wasn’t enough, by default, the game also will not highlight interactable items in the environment. While you can turn on the “Survival Instincts” at any time during your playthrough, dialing down the difficulty isn’t an option, which further reinforces that there’s no going back once the journey starts.
Image: Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix
This dialed-up difficulty has the benefit of making the game more immersive and forcing you to carefully consider and prepare for every encounter. A handful of bad guys normally wouldn’t be an issue, but when just a couple of bullets can put Lara in the ground, things get a little more tense. For an added challenge, I like to rely almost exclusively on stealth kills and Lara’s trusty bow during combat, resorting to firearms only when absolutely necessary.
Rise of the Tomb Raider still keeps some of the Metroidvania elements of its predecessor to guide you along its critical path, while the world feels more open and encourages exploration of its various regions. This is further reinforced by a more robust crafting system, which forces you to scrounge and hunt for many of the materials you need to upgrade your gear. The tomb puzzles hidden throughout the world aren’t quite as challenging as those found in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but still do a great job at shaking things up between scavenging and combat encounters.
2013’s Tomb Raider did a fantastic job of establishing Lara as a character, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider makes for a fitting capstone to the latest trilogy. But for me, Rise of the Tomb Raider was the peak of Crystal Dynamic’s trilogy. Beyond its challenging gameplay, Rise offers a robust and complex narrative that shows us that the personality archetype of badass archeologist doesn’t have to constantly revolve around snappy one-liners.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is available on Xbox Game Pass.
Throughout 2023, in honor of the magnificent Tears of the Kingdom, Polygon has been celebrating Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda series. It’s been fascinating. Perhaps no other video game series is so rewarding to revisit, or presents such wildly different, refracted visions of its core idea — which nevertheless remains consistent throughout.
Created by the great Shigeru Miyamoto in the 1980s as an expression of his childhood love of exploring without a map, Zelda has always held a revered position in gaming culture, although it never quite enjoyed popular success to match — not, that is, until its unlikely rebirth in 2017, thanks to the runaway success of the Nintendo Switch and the revolutionary design of Breath of the Wild.
The series’ strong traditions are balanced by an ingrained habit of hitting the reset button. Across 16 mainline entries, only a small handful (Majora’s Mask, Phantom Hourglass, Tears of the Kingdom) are true sequels, and even these delight in reinvention. The Zelda timeline is more a tangle of rumor and myth than an established canon, and its lore is constantly rewritten.
Ranking these brilliant, shapeshifting games is, in some ways, an absurd task. They’re all great (well, perhaps all but one); the top seven or so are masterpieces that could be arranged in just about any order. But it’s an interesting exercise in exploring a series of games that exist in a unique, echoing conversation with each other. In putting this ranking together, we paid at least as much attention to how fun the games are to play now as to their historical import.
A few points of order: Though they’re technically part of the main Zelda canon, we have excluded the multiplayer games Four Swords, Four Swords Adventures, and Tri Force Heroes. They’re difficult to play as their makers intended now, and honestly feel more like spinoffs (though Four Swords Adventures, in particular, absolutely rules). Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages, which were released as a pair, Pokémon-style, are counted as a single entry. And actual spinoffs like Link’s Crossbow Training or Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland are also excluded. The Zelda series is gloriously weird — but maybe not that weird.
16. Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link
Image: Nintendo
Original release: 1987, on NES Where to play now: Nintendo Switch Online
If the original The Legend of Zelda is the series at its most youthful, exuberant, and promising, Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link represents the games’ awkward teen years. Fittingly, the Link we play in Zelda 2 is 16 years old, fumbling his way through new gameplay territory, as Nintendo explores the lite role-playing mechanics from a side-scrolling perspective. Spread across overworld segments of dangerous exploration and equally harrowing side-scrolling dungeon crawling, Zelda 2 is a more challenging, more obtuse style of adventure.
Long considered the black sheep of the Legend of Zelda games, The Adventure of Link was a harder, clumsier experiment for Nintendo. It was envisioned as an action game infused with role-playing game stats, and the end result feels like Nintendo’s designers copying others’ work (e.g., Dragon Quest, Kung-Fu Master) instead of flexing the company’s trademark originality. Zelda 2 is not a failed experiment, however. Nintendo clearly learned the right lessons from it, as well as influencing other games, including Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest, Faxanadu, and Shovel Knight. Even the worst Zelda games have their importance. —Michael McWhertor
15. Phantom Hourglass
Image: Nintendo
Original release: 2007, on Nintendo DS Where to play now: Unavailable — track down a used copy
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass represents a somewhat awkward era of Zelda. As a direct sequel to The Wind Waker, it had big shoes to fill, and wore them a little clumsily. Phantom Hourglass was the first mainline Zelda game to be released on the Nintendo DS family of handhelds and the first Zelda game to take advantage of the console’s touch controls. Overall, the controls fit in nicely with the Zelda formula and allow players to scribble on dungeon maps and tap to fight. However, the game suffers from uneven pacing while traveling on your customizable steamboat ship, or revisiting the Temple of the Ocean King, a dungeon that requires you to come back to it multiple times. Still, I’ll remember it for its willingness to try new gameplay and test the Zelda waters. —Ana Diaz
14. Twilight Princess
Image: Nintendo
Original release: 2006, on GameCube and Wii Where to play now: Unavailable — track down a used copy of Twilight Princess HD for Wii U
Link spends a pretty big chunk of time in wolf form in Twilight Princess, which you’d think would be a selling point (because he looks so darn cute), but it’s actually pretty weird. After all, Link can’t do all of the best parts of being Link when he’s a wolf: throwing a boomerang, say, or twirling his sword around in a circle while shouting “Hiyah!” Twilight Princess also introduces Midna, a helper character in the vein of Navi, but a lot more condescending. I find Midna’s snarky comments to be deeply satisfying, and the conclusion of her arc at the game’s end feels more fulfilling than most of Princess Zelda’s arcs. The Legend of Zelda series does not always allow its female side characters to have much to do, but by the end of Twilight Princess, it’s actually more Midna’s story than anyone else’s. —Maddy Myers
13. Oracle of Ages / Oracle of Seasons
Image: Nintendo
Original release: 2001, on Game Boy Color Where to play now: Nintendo Switch Online
In 2001, Nintendo lent the proverbial Zelda keys to Capcom. As it turns out, Capcom didn’t need them: It kicked down the door to one of gaming’s most hallowed series and made itself right at home. Billed as a double feature focused on time- and season-based puzzles, respectively, Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons are tight and sophisticated enough to have emerged from the offices of Nintendo itself. (Series creator Shigeru Miyamoto had big-picture production input, to be fair.)
Ages’ time-traveling puzzles are among the finest in the 2D Zelda pantheon, and Seasons’ more action-oriented approach makes it a fresh entry in the otherwise “left-brained” franchise. Director Hidemaro Fujibayashi would go on to direct a handful of later Zelda games (The Minish Cap, Skyward Sword, and — checks notes — Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom among them), but as far as “classic” Zelda goes, few entries capture the series on a grand scale like Capcom’s dark horse two-parter. —Mike Mahardy
12. Spirit Tracks
Image: Nintendo
Original release: 2009, on Nintendo DS Where to play now: Unavailable — track down a used copy
As follow-ups in this endlessly changeable series go, Spirit Tracks has one of the most straightforward, cut-and-paste premises: it’s Phantom Hourglass but with a train instead of a boat. Like its immediate predecessor, it leans hard on stylus control, course-plotting map traversal, and a style of adventure that’s breezily approachable until it suddenly isn’t, in the grim, stealthy, piecemeal ascent of its central tower dungeon.
If Spirit Tracks ultimately surpasses Phantom Hourglass, it’s because of its sheer, ebullient charm. The appeal of its steam-train playset is irresistable, and this is also the only game in the series in which Link and Zelda — the latter admittedly in ghost form — get to hang out for the whole thing. Zelda even gets to be semi-playable, by possessing clanking suits of armor, while the pair have an adorable, innocent chemistry. Choo choo! —Oli Welsh
11. The Legend of Zelda
Image: Nintendo
Original release: 1986, on NES Where to play now: Nintendo Switch Online
It’s the rare game that impresses me more with each passing year. But as trends come and go, genres flourish and stagnate, and open worlds continue to distance themselves from their late-2010s growing pains, The Legend of Zelda continually grows in my estimation. It’s opaque by today’s standards, replete as it is with hidden doorways and labyrinthine shifts from one screen to another. And given the choice, it’s fairly far down the list of “fun” Zelda games. But it stands as a progenitor of most of today’s best games, open-world or otherwise, and it took Nintendo 31 years to circle back to its elegant conceit of a sprawling, mysterious world worth exploring in Breath of the Wild. —M. Mahardy
10. Skyward Sword
Image: Nintendo
Original release: 2011, on Nintendo Wii Where to play now: Skyward Sword HD on Nintendo Switch
It’s time to reclaim perhaps the most consistently underrated game in the Legend of Zelda series. There are reasons Skyward Sword’s reputation has suffered. First, its original motion controls, while well implemented, are just not how anyone wants to play an epic adventure like this. Second, it has a ridiculously overwrought climax worthy of a Hideo Kojima game. Third, it arrived at just the point when the Zelda games’ Ocarina of Time-inspired design was starting to show its age.
Skyward Sword ended up being a swan song for that era of Zelda — but what a swan song. It’s a dense and satisfying game, expertly designed, with intricate, cleverly conceived dungeons that rank alongside the very best in the series’ history. And it also has a soaring, romantic spirit. Skyward Sword is perhaps the purest expression of Zelda’s high-fantasy aesthetic — and the only time the series fully owned up to being a love story. —OW
9. A Link Between Worlds
Image: Nintendo
Original release: 2013, on Nintendo 3DS Where to play now: Boxed 3DS edition is still in print
I always found A Link Between Worlds to be a special game because of the way it iterates on the classic Zelda theme of traversing parallel worlds. Instead of using a mirror to flip between worlds, this game allows Link to transform into a 2D painting, in which form he can walk along walls and into the glittering crevices of Hyrule and its counterpart, Lorule.
For me, Lorule is one of the more interesting versions of Zelda’s classic Dark World. It isn’t just a barren wasteland filled with monsters; it’s also the home of kind and heroic people who want a better way of life. The game plays well, with perhaps the best-integrated touch controls in a Zelda game. On top of all that, it features an unconventional weapon rental system that allows you to explore wherever you want early on. The game’s title nods to the revered A Link to the Past,and it certainly doesn’t fail to live up to its namesake. —AD
8. The Minish Cap
Image: Nintendo
Original release: 2004, on Game Boy Advance Where to play now: Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack
The Minish Cap is a hidden gem of the Zelda series. Developed by Capcom, this Zelda game follows Link after he meets a talking hat named Ezlo that grants him the power to shrink to the size of a pea. Exploring as a tiny hero literally changes our perspective on Hyrule and allows the developers to conjure up a sensorial and vivid world where you’ll fight Vaati and dodge the deathly plop of raindrops.
Similarly to The Wind Waker, The Minish Cap leans into a cartoony charm; you’ll meet zany sword instructors and talk to cows chewing cud. This game also contains one of the Legend of Zelda’s goofiest items, a magical cane that turns objects upside down. Combine these charms with some great dungeon design, and you have the makings of a fantastic Zelda game. It might not usually be counted among the Zelda greats, but The Minish Cap finds its brilliance in the tiny details. —AD
7. Link’s Awakening
Image: Grezzo/Nintendo
Original release: 1993, on Game Boy Where to play now: Choose between its 1998 DX form for Game Boy Color on Nintendo Switch Online or the modernized 2019 Nintendo Switch remake
This was the first-ever Zelda game I played, so all of the references to other games flew over my head, as well as the very obvious signposting about how the story would end. I felt confused, as so many players do, about why the name “Zelda” was in the title (I did think maybe the owl was named Zelda). And yet — although I experienced the classic Zelda tropes and mechanics in the dreamlike setting of Koholint Island, rather than in the larger and more defined kingdom of Hyrule — their magic captivated me completely. Like many others on this list, Link’s Awakening is a weird Zelda game, and it’s proof that being weird and silly is just as much a part of the patchwork of “being a Zelda game” as environmental puzzles or a magic sword wielded by an eternally reincarnating hero. —M. Myers
6. The Wind Waker
Image: Nintendo
Original release: 2002, on GameCube Where to play now: Unavailable — track down a used copy of The Wind Waker HD for Wii U
The Wind Waker oozes a charm and sense of character that distinguishes it from other Zelda games and makes it a series great. It dared to take the Legend of Zelda in a bold new visual direction with its wonderfully expressive, cartoony graphics, and introduced one of my favorite Zelda casts. Tetra is an inspired take on the role of Zelda: an adventurous and capable pirate captain who helps Link along his journey. This Link, too, is one of my favorite Links, with his comic book expressions and bumbling antics.
The game moved me emotionally in ways that no other Zelda game has, and I still think about Link’s big send-off, as he waves his tiny arms goodbye to his granny. All this, and it’s thoroughly enjoyable to play. Flourishes like the adaptive soundtrack that plays stringed instruments as Link hits his enemies only add to its zippy combat. This game — from its snot-nosed kids to its timeless art style — is endlessly endearing. To me, its ingredients make for the perfect elixir of a Zelda game. —AD
5. Ocarina of Time
Image: Nintendo
Original release: 1998, on Nintendo 64 Where to play now: Choose between the original version on Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, or the Ocarina of Time 3D remaster on 3DS (boxed edition still in print)
Just as Twilight Princess is secretly Midna’s game, Ocarina of Time is secretly Zelda’s game — or perhaps it belongs to Sheik. It may not be the best Zelda game by modern standards, but Ocarina of Time set a benchmark by which all subsequent entries have been measured, particularly when it comes to storytelling and world-building. It offers up the illusion of an open-world Hyrule, planting the seeds for a garden that would bloom in Breath of the Wild. And it’s the game with a time-travel story that splintered the entire series into disparate arcs — perhaps the most important linchpin in the greater Ganondorf saga. And it still holds up after all these years. Too bad its best version is relegated to the Nintendo 3DS — at least, for now. —M. Myers
4. Breath of the Wild
Image: Nintendo
Original release: 2017, on Nintendo Switch and Wii U Where to play now: Nintendo Switch
Breath of the Wildrepresents the most consequential overhaul the Zelda series has had since it moved into 3D with Ocarina of Time; in fact, it might be the most consequential ever, bravely scrapping most of the design hallmarks of a revered game series. Nintendo was seeking to modernize Zelda, but also to cut through 30 years of accumulated tradition, all the way back to the untamed adventure of the very first game.
It hardly needs to be said what a success it was: Breath of the Wild catapulted the Zelda series to a new level of popularity and challenged the assumptions of a lot of open-world and role-playing game design in a way that the rest of the industry is still digesting. It’s a dynamic, organic, thrillingly pure adventure, and the only reason it doesn’t top this list is because of what followed. —OW
3. A Link to the Past
Image: Nintendo
Original release: 1991, on SNES Where to play now: Nintendo Switch Online
Writing entries for this ranked list has me thinking about just what it is that makes a Zelda game great, and I think it’s the moment of realization. A Link to the Past serves up delicious moments of realization over and over and over again. You figure out that a cracked wall can be blown open to reveal a hidden passageway — oooh! You get a brand-new tool and you realize exactly how you need to use it — aha! You suddenly figure out the trick to a boss fight — take that! And then you realize that you have not even come close — not even close — to seeing all of the discoveries on offer here. A Link to the Past delivers on the pure dopamine rush of discovery, forcing a grin onto your face at every new revelation. It just feels good. —M. Myers
2. Majora’s Mask
Image: Nintendo via Polygon
Original release: 2000, on Nintendo 64 Where to play now: Choose between the original version on Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, or the Majora’s Mask 3D remaster on 3DS (boxed edition still in print)
As we’re talking about a series so centered on music, allow me a metaphor: Whereas Ocarina of Time’s time travel was classical in its approach (elegant, balletic, and nimble), Majora’s Mask’s time loop was more reminiscent of jazz: fractured, messy, and challenging, but revelatory all the same. Arriving two decades before the time-loop craze comprising Outer Wilds, Deathloop, and 12 Minutes, Majora’s Mask puts Link in a three-day cycle that unwinds and respools in a strange dream world replete with characters contemplating the impending apocalypse. Compared to most games in the series, Majora largely revolves around side quests, which are largely predicated on the collection of masks. Said quests reset themselves every time Link travels back to the dawn of the first day, (hopefully) armed with the necessary knowledge to bolster his collection and save a life or two in the process.
Majora was the feverish answer to a confounding question: “How do we follow the resounding success of Ocarina of Time and also bridge the gap between the Nintendo 64 and the GameCube?” No one could have predicted the answer: a melancholy, tick-tock ballet of thwarted dreams and desperate lives in the face of the apocalypse, the most intimate and personal Zelda has ever been. It remains the strangest and darkest entry in the series, and I doubt we’ll ever see anything like it again. —M. Mahardy
1. Tears of the Kingdom
Image: Nintendo
Original release: 2023, on Nintendo Switch Where to play now: Nintendo Switch
Every Zelda game has built upon the foundations of the games before it, with even the characters in its world acknowledging the myths of yore. No one believes more in the concept of predicting the future based on the past than the developers of Zelda — as well as Princess Zelda herself, who opens Tears of the Kingdom by guiding Link through a series of historical underground murals.
And yet even Princess Zelda in her wisdom couldn’t possibly have predicted how incredible and miraculous her story would become. Tears of the Kingdom is a reflection of this continued promise: You may imagine you understand — based on the history of Zelda games — how ambitious and creative and world-warping a Zelda game could be. And yet that very world will still surprise you. Tears of the Kingdom still surprises me. It’s a gift that I can’t believe we all got.—M. Myers
It’s been one of those strange, busy years where any of Polygon’s top 10 games of the year could have made the No. 1 slot. Heck, you could expand that outward to include the top 20. There was a wealth of great games throughout the year, making it impossible to keep up with everything — even here at Polygon, where many of our jobs are to keep up with video games. That’s why we’ve created this list of 10 games you might have missed, all from indie studios. They cover a bunch of different genres, from a goofy multiplayer game to an inventory management roguelike.
Like with Polygon’s list of the top 50 games of the year, there are plenty of fantastic games that slipped through the cracks. Think we’ve missed any extra-special indies from the past year? Drop your favorites in the comments.
Bread & Fred
Image: SandCastles Studio/Apogee Entertainment
Developer: SandCastles Studio Where to play: Windows PC
Bread & Fred is a game you’re going to want to play with a friend. (Only one of you needs a copy of the game, thanks to Steam’s Remote Play Together.) You’ll play as two penguins tied together on a short rope, tasked with climbing a snowy mountain. It’s hard! The rope is very short, meaning there’s little wiggle room. Communication is key to timing each jump precisely — or you might fall down the mountain once again with a splat. So yes, Bread & Fred is hard, but it’s not impossible. Better yet, its challenge is pretty hilarious when playing with a friend you’re comfortable shouting at — or with. The animations have a slapstick element, making the already silly premise even funnier. —Nicole Carpenter
American Arcadia
Image: Out of the Blue Games/Raw Fury
Developer: Out of the Blue Games Where to play: Windows PC
Trevor, an office drone, wakes up one morning and learns his bosses are conspiring to kill him — and also that his entire life is built on a lie. American Arcadia is set in a ’70s-inspired metropolis called Arcadia, but something’s up with Arcadia: It’s a Truman Show-type widespread deception designed to trick thousands of people into living guilelessly for the entertainment of others. But that’s not American Arcadia’s only trick. One minute you’re bouncing across platforms like any other side-scrolling platformer. The next, you’re solving puzzles from a first-person perspective. Video games don’t often deploy multiple perspectives. Here, the shift is jarring but effective; it puts you on edge — kind of, one imagines, like learning the truth about Arcadia. —Ari Notis
El Paso, Elsewhere
Image: Strange Scaffold
Developer: Strange Scaffold Where to play: Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
If you can’t get enough of Max Payne, you won’t want to miss El Paso, Elsewhere. When vampires and werewolves arrive in a mysterious, supernatural motel, vampire hunter James Savage takes them head-on. What you get is a third-person shooter that revels in PlayStation-era graphics and explosive gameplay, with a narrative that sets the stakes especially high. You see, Savage’s ex is a vampire that’s about to perform a ritual — in that El Paso motel — to end the world. Within the mayhem of El Paso, Elsewhere, there’s a beautiful story about addiction and heartbreak that grounds the game’s physical demons within its metaphorical ones.
Yes, I made a Max Payne comparison — and you’ll see that a lot when reading about El Paso, Elsewhere — but the game is something wholly itself. It’s not to be missed. —NC
A Highland Song
Image: inkle
Developer: inkle Where to play: Nintendo Switch, Windows PC
A Highland Song is one of those 2023 latecomers, sneaking into this year’s release calendar on Dec. 5. From the creators of 80 Days and Heaven’s Vault, it’s not a game to be missed. The stylized art style perfectly renders the Scottish Highlands, where Moira is exploring in order to get to the sea. It’s one of those games, like A Short Hike, where the journey is much more important than the destination. Set to music from Scottish folk artists TALISK and Fourth Moon, A Highland Song has so many lovely, warming moments, even when you’re sheltered up in a cave to escape the cold. —NC
MyHouse
Image: Veddge
Developer: Veddge Where to play: Windows PC
MyHouse.wad is a pretty boring Doom mod. I’m no game designer, and I’m hesitant to repeat a tired line about modern art, but come on: I could have made this! The map is just a typical suburban split-level home. There’s nothing to do but scurry around polygonal furniture, look at tacky domestic art, and shoot some generic Doom enemies. I suspect — if I’m being honest — its elevated reputation stems from its tragic backstory.
A Doomworld user named Veddge released MyHouse.wad on the site’s forum back in March. Veddge was clear from the beginning that MyHouse wasn’t his mod; he’d just polished it up. The original version belonged to Veddge’s childhood friend Tom, who had recently passed away. To honor his pal, he decided to touch up the map into operable shape and share the file with some hardcore Doom nerds — the sort of folks who might appreciate this amateur but lovingly made map.
I appreciate the good intentions. I just can’t understand why anybody would find this normal house all that interesting. I mean sure, the rooms keep moving. And sometimes there’s no way out. And other times I wake up in an empty hospital. But this is just a normal, boring Doom mod. There’s nothing to see here.
Unless none of this is true. —Chris Plante
Videoverse
Image: Kinmoku
Developer: Kinmoku Where to play: Mac, Linux, Windows PC
Videoverse is a game for those of us nostalgic for the early internet and its intimate communities. When I was a kid, I spent my free time digging into niches on Neopets and talking to strangers about shared interests in AOL chat rooms. I made friends in forums, creating an online world sometimes more enticing than my own real life. Videoverse is all of those things on a fictional forum dedicated to a dying MMO, and it perfectly captures the drama and sadness of letting go. All at once, Videoverse has recreated the frivolous, beautiful, dramatic, and profound ways technology has influenced my life, and maybe yours, too. —NC
A Space for the Unbound
Image: Mojiken/Toge Productions
Developer: Mojiken Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
Set in rural Indonesia, A Space for the Unbound is a slice-of-life story of high school sweethearts Atma and Raya, who have a bucket list to fulfill. While A Space for the Unbound is an intimate look into a teenage relationship in ’90s Indonesia, it’s also the backdrop for a larger supernatural power that’s threatening reality — the end of the world. That framing makes for an interesting dichotomy between the scope of the stories: everyday moments paired with otherworldly drama. It’s one of those games that’s so earnest that’s it’s easy to overlook any flaws or bugs while captured by the stakes of the world and its characters. A bonus for pixel art fans: The game is gorgeous! —NC
Tape to Tape
Image: Excellent Rectangle/Null Games
Developer: Excellent Rectangle Where to play: Windows PC
A hockey game, but make it roguelite! Tape to Tape is in early access, so it hasn’t had its full release just yet. But what it is now is very fun: a game about building a hockey team by hiring players and managing the team. Play in games, of course, with different — not actual hockey-legal — abilities, upgrades, and bribes. Tape to Tape screams ’90s Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey, but a lot more wacky. As in other roguelites, losing is fine: It’s an opportunity to upgrade your tools of the trade and get further next time.
Grab some hockey fans in your life for online multiplayer (with Remote Play Together) or on split screen. —NC
Moonring
Image: Fluttermind
Developer: Fluttermind Where to play: Windows PC
Don’t let the old-school visuals fool you: Moonring is one of 2023’s richest video game experiences. Created by Dene Carter, a co-creator of the iconic RPG Fable, the colorful adventure gives players the expansive freedom popularized by games of the 1980s — when graphics played second fiddle to creativity and scope. Trade with unsavory types. Partner with questionable cults. Converse with practically everyone.
Perhaps most importantly for our readers, this Ultima-inspired roguelike is free. Like, free free. At that price, Carter may get his wish of introducing the old ways of game design to new audiences. “I hope Moonring recaptures some of the spirit of those days for you,” Carter writes on the Moonring Steam page. “For those who did not, I hope that the more modern conveniences you find in this game allow you to catch a glimpse of what we did 40 years ago.” —CP
Backpack Hero
Image: Jaspel/Different Tales, IndieArk
Developer: Jaspel Where to play: Nintendo Switch, Mac, Windows PC
When I can’t sleep, I consider the mysteries of the universe. Like, who came up with the whiskey sour? “Whiskey is amazing, but what if we added raw egg whites?” Backpack Hero’s creators took a similarly audacious approach with the classic dungeon crawler, splicing the genre with the Tetris-like inventory management popularized by Resident Evil 4. Much like the foamy cocktail, the results are delicious.
Generally, I’m hesitant to list back-of-the-box bullet points, but I’m tickled by how big the creators have made a game about backpack organization: There are over 800 items and 100 enemies, you can play as five different heroes, and the dungeons are procedurally generated within a overworld map the player constructs. Like its hero mouse, Backpack Hero punches way above its weight class. And it will keep you up at night, because there’s always time for one more run. —CP
Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription service is having another banner year in 2023, with over 450 games now available for console players and over 400 for PC players.
The service has recently been bolstered with the addition of two huge Xbox Game Studios exclusives, Starfieldand Forza Motorsport, while Cities: Skylines 2 is a big-deal day one addition for the PC crowd. Atlus’ JRPG classics Persona 4 Goldenand Persona 3 Portable made their debut on Xbox consoles earlier in the year, and Tango Gameworks’ surprise release Hi-Fi Rushtold a cathartic rock ’n’ roll story with clever mechanics. Blockbuster titles are well represented with the likes of Assassin’s Creed and Hitman, cult favorites like Lies of P popped up, and Game Pass has continued its strong tradition of curating the best of the indie world with the likes of Cocoon. Even Grand Theft Auto 5 — and its extremely popular online mode — has returned to the service once more. That’s a lot of “free” video gaming to be done!
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. Here are the 25 PC and Xbox Game Pass games that you should be checking out if you subscribe to Microsoft’s flagship service.
[Ed. note: This list was last updated on Oct. 24, 2023, adding Cocoon, Lies of P, and Party Animals. It will be updated as new games come to the service.]
Assassin’s Creed Origins
Image: Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft
Assassin’s Creed Originshas always been good — but it was only in hindsight, three years after its release, that I began to consider it great.
It’s a phenomenal concoction of historical tourism, sci-fi storytelling, and open-ended combat. It also displays a confidence that the more recent Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla can only partially match. Whereas the two most recent entries embrace the insecure ethos of “content” that has so defined the last decade of open-world games, Origins is content to leave vast swaths of its world empty and to let things burn slowly, in ways both narrative and explorative. Its map unfurls over deserts, mountains, oases, and sun-swept cities slowly being buried in sand, all while its two central figures (Bayek and Aya) navigate one of video games’ most compelling romances.
It’s not completely averse to daily challenges and cosmetic DLC packs. But it’s the rare open-world game that trusts my attention span. It understands that pastoral beauty and tragic storytelling, successfully interwoven, are worth more than any number of distractions its successors can throw at me. —Mike Mahardy
Assassin’s Creed Origins is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Chicory: A Colorful Tale
Image: Greg Lobanov/Finji
Chicory: A Colorful Tale tells the story of a small dog who accidentally inherits a magical paintbrush. As you travel around the black-and-white open world, you use your new paint powers to bring color back to the environments. Everything is your canvas, and you can color it all to both solve puzzles and customize the setting to your liking.
The gameplay of Chicory is cute and relatively simple, even as you unlock new powers. But the reason it made it to the No. 2 slot on Polygon’s 2021 Game of the Year list is the story it tells about the destructive powers of self-doubt — the way it cruelly infects even the greatest artists out there.
Chicory is a game that’s not about coloring in the lines or even making something beautiful. It’s about making something — painting something, in this case — that you are proud of, that makes you happy. And if that creation also brings joy to those around you? Hey, that’s great too. —Ryan Gilliam
Chicory: A Colorful Tale is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Cities: Skylines
Image: Colossal Order/Paradox Interactive
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
Cities Skylines is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Citizen Sleeper
Image: Jump Over the Age/Fellow Traveller
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 table-top 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
Citizen Sleeper is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Cocoon
Image: Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive via Polygon
A mysteriously beautiful, exquisitely paced puzzle adventure from some of the minds behind Limbo and Inside, Cocoonshares those games’ wordless delivery and stark aesthetic. But it’s more abstract and contemplative, and perhaps even more involving. It’s a game of pocket universes, one inside another, inhabited by buglike techno-organic life-forms — including the player character, a scurrying little beetle-thing. The conceit is that you can step up out of one reality and move it around another on your back, in a gently glowing sphere that also interacts with the world around it, before diving back in — or swapping it for another entirely.
Like so many puzzle adventures, it’s essentially a game of locks and keys, plus the occasional ingenious boss fight. But like the very best of them — Fez, for example, or Portal — Cocoon plays games with perception and reality that rewire your brain in pleasantly tortuous ways. —Oli Welsh
Cocoon is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Crusader Kings 3
Image: Paradox Interactive via Polygon
Imagine if Succession unfolded between the years 867 and 1453, in the throne rooms, banquet halls, and torchlit back corridors of European castles. Monarchs rise and fall, small-time fiefdoms become bona fide kingdoms, and nonmarital children exact revenge after decades of being shunned. Crusader Kings 3is the story of the Roy family if we could pick any character, see them through to their death, and assume control of their orphaned heir — at which point, we can completely alter the course of the dynasty through petty gossip and underhanded murder attempts.
In Paradox Interactive’s vast suite of grand strategy games with complex systems that give way to thrilling emergent storytelling, none have made me cackle with glee quite as much as Crusader Kings 3. In one playthrough, I wed my firstborn son to the daughter of a powerful neighboring king, only for said daughter to declare a holy war on me one decade later. In another, I strong-armed one of my vassals into remaining loyal, shortly before knighting his cousin and sworn rival; I didn’t want to be a jerk, but my characters were jerks. I was just following the script down the path of least resistance.
Much like Succession, Crusader Kings 3 is at its best when tensions finally boil over between the emotionally stunted members of a dysfunctional family. Unlike Succession, though, Crusader Kings 3 never has to end. —Mike Mahardy
Crusader Kings 3 is available via Game Pass on Windows PC and Xbox Series X.
Death’s Door
Image: Acid Nerve/Devolver Digital
Death’s Door is a cute little Soulslike game. You play as a raven who works as a kind of grim reaper for the bureaucratic arm of the afterlife. It’s your job to adventure in the world and claim the lives of a handful of bosses. The world of Death’s Door is charming, as are its characters, with excellent dungeons to explore and puzzles to solve. There are also giant enemies who will test both your skills and patience.
Still, Death’s Door has a friendly air around it. It wants you to succeed, and does a nice job easing you along with easy-to-read enemy and boss patterns. It’s a great, challenging Game Pass game to cut your teeth on before venturing into even more difficult titles. —Ryan Gilliam
Death’s Door is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Doom (2016)
Image: id Software/Bethesda Softworks
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. —Ryan Gilliam
Doom (2016) is available via Game Pass on Xbox One and Xbox Series X.
Forza Horizon 5
Image: Playground Games/Xbox Game Studios via Polygon
Forza Horizon 5 is the latest racing game to land on Xbox and Game Pass. It’s 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.
Horizon 5 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. —Ryan Gilliam
Forza Horizon 5 is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Grand Theft Auto 5
Image: Rockstar North/Rockstar Games
Grand Theft Auto 5 is one of the most celebrated games of the last decade. In that time, it has appeared on three different generations of consoles, seen numerous graphical improvements, and gotten new modes, like its sweeping first-person alteration.
The main story focuses on three criminals from three very different backgrounds bumbling their way through numerous heists in the city of Los Santos — a fictional version of Southern California. And in order to tell the stories of Michael, Franklin, and Trevor, the game implements a feature that allows you to swap between the protagonists at will, offering a new perspective on the city and letting you play multiple roles per heist.
Grand Theft Auto games usually live long past their time, but GTA 5 has remained especially relevant due to GTA Online, the sprawling MMO-like experience that Rockstar Games created inside the world of San Andreas. It’s the massive GTA 5 sandbox — plus a little extra — without any of the constraints found in the story mode.
The parts of GTA 5 that annoy — such as the more misguided aspects of its American commentary, or the occasional tailing mission — are distant memories compared to the chaos you can cause every five minutes. If futzing around a semi-realistic metropolitan area is something you really enjoy, it’s hard to imagine anything on this list entertaining you for as long as Grand Theft Auto 5 will. —Ryan Gilliam
Grand Theft Auto 5 is available via Game Pass on Xbox One and Xbox Series X.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Image: 343 Industries/Xbox Game Studios
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
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker
Image: Blackbird Interactive/Focus Entertainment
Hardspace: Shipbreaker is another game poking fun at corporate greed and its general indifference toward the working class — seen in other excellent building games like Satisfactory. But Hardspace takes it further than just tongue-in-cheek poking by asking: What happens when the workers have had enough? Hardspace: Shipbreaker’s pro-union message is a delightful backdrop for an incredibly deep and stress-filled puzzle game.
As a Shipbreaker, your job is to break apart and recycle small spaceships. With your handy welding tools and futuristic gravity tethers, you’re able to carefully carve up these once-great hulks and repurpose them for the future. Sometimes that means throwing all the metal plates into the furnace to be melted down, and other times you’ll need to comb through the skeletons, grab salvageable items, and extract them still intact.
As you improve your skills, the game will test you with harder and larger ships. Suddenly, you’ll have to start worrying about the active nuclear reactors that are still in these vehicles, or pressurized cabins that explode if you open them in the wrong order.
And all of this danger circles Hardspace: Shipbreaker back to the conversation it starts at the very beginning. Hardspace is a game about focus, and how taking your eye off the ball for even a second can end in explosive death, or worse: a career spent toiling under forces that couldn’t care less about you. —Ryan Gilliam
Hardspace: Shipbreaker is available via Game Pass on Windows PC and Xbox Series X.
Hi-Fi Rush
Image: Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon
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
Hi-Fi Rush is available via Game Pass on Windows PC and Xbox Series X.
Hitman World of Assassination
Image: IO Interactive
Hitman, Hitman 2, and Hitman 3 are some of the best sandbox puzzle games ever made. As Agent 47, you’ll climb buildings, sneak around parties, and murder spies and debutantes with all manner of tools. Hitman World of Assassination includes the campaigns from all three of the games in IO Interactive’s recent World of Assassination trilogy, giving you more than a dozen maps to play on. Just last week, it also added Freelancer mode, which functions like a roguelike as Agent 47 kills his way through four major crime syndicates, fleshing out his safehouse as he goes.
The Hitman series may be about violence and murder, but it manages to stay lighthearted and fun with its wild physics and silly scenarios. It’s the perfect series to goof around in if you feel like being stealthy, or just want to see what happens when you drop a giant chandelier on a crowd of snobby jerks. —Ryan Gilliam
Hitman Trilogy is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Lies of P
Image: Neowiz
One of 2023’s most delightful surprises, Lies of P is a Soulslike starring a noticeably hot Pinocchio, of all things, from relatively unheralded Korean developer Neowiz. It turns out to be one of the most original and interesting takes on the genre from outside FromSoftware — although more so in its strong storytelling and themes than its gameplay, which is heavily influenced by Sekiro and Bloodborne in its aggressive, rhythmic focus on parry-and-thrust.
As Pinocchio lies and battles his way around a crumbling Belle Epoque town that’s been overrun by its servant class of automatons, Lies of P’s grim tale bends to the player’s choices in ways that convince and intrigue. This works particularly well with Pinocchio’s dual nature as a half-human half-puppet who can be modified with gameplay-altering tools; Lies of P presents an illusory society that you can tinker with and change, just as it tries to manipulate you. —Oli Welsh
Lies of P is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Image: BioWare/Electronic Arts
The Mass Effect franchise was gigantic for the Xbox 360 era, but it didn’t transfer to future platforms well — purchasing and downloading the entire story became confusing and expensive when moving to the Xbox One and Xbox Series X. But 2021’s Legendary Editionfinally made the entire Mass Effect trilogy accessible in one package.
The story follows Commander Shepard, a futuristic military hero, who’s tasked with gathering a collection of alien misfits for a variety of missions. Each game is wonderfully crafted, with stand-alone stories and breakout characters that don’t rely on the series’ wider narrative. As a trilogy, the games build on each other with meaningful choices that carry over to the next entry, giving weight to your choices.
The Legendary Edition is the way to experience Mass Effect, and it’s a must-play whether you’re on your first run to save the galaxy or your fifth. —Ryan Gilliam
Mass Effect Legendary Edition is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X, but only for those that have Game Pass Ultimate.
Party Animals
Image: Recreate Games/Source Technology
Look, it’s not rocket science. Sometimes you just want some truly dumb, violent nonsense to play with your friends, and fulfilling that need is just as important for a well-rounded subscription service like Game Pass as serving up expansive RPGs and intriguing indies. Party Animals is a multiplayer party brawler about cute critters knocking the stuffing out of each other. That’s it. It’s not Smash Bros., and nor does it pretend to be; it’s more like an aggressively cute Gang Beasts, or a Fall Guys that’s just about fighting. It’s a little slow, but that just makes it easier to revel in its soft-bellied slapstick. Turn your brain off and enjoy. —Oli Welsh
Party Animals is available via Game Pass on Xbox One and Xbox Series X.
Pentiment
Image: Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios
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. —Ryan Gilliam
Pentiment is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Persona 4 Golden
Image: Atlus via Polygon
Persona 4 Golden follows a boy who goes to stay with his uncle and cousin in a small Japanese town. But almost immediately after his arrival, a serial killer starts murdering civilians, all of which have an unknown thread connecting them.
As with all Persona games, Persona 4 Golden allows you to play out your time in school, improving your character’s social stats and friendships before diving into dungeons to help further the plot. But the cast of characters in Persona 4 Golden is unlike any other in the series, offering some of the most memorable party members in any RPG.
Now on Xbox, Persona 4 Golden looks wonderful and plays beautifully. It’s a smart turn-based RPG that’s loaded with conversations to be had and mysteries to solve. —Ryan Gilliam
Persona 4 Golden is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
PowerWash Simulator
Image: FuturLab/Square Enix
PowerWash Simulator is the perfect game to sit on your couch and space off to. As the name suggests, you’re a professional power washer, and your job is to use your washing tools to obliterate grease, grime, and goop off of vehicles, buildings, and even entire playgrounds.
There are some minor upgrade and currency systems, but PowerWash Simulator mostly takes a minimalistic approach — you power wash stuff, no more, no less. Sure, you can take special jobs where you wash something wild like a Mars rover, but it’s really just about making things clean. And while it might sound like boring yard work, it’s actually quite meditative.
Blasting the black film off of a colorful slide provided me with one of the biggest serotonin bursts I’ve gotten from any piece of media in years. It’s a delightful, peaceful game that never fails to relax me after a long week. —Ryan Gilliam
PowerWash Simulator is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Slay the Spire
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
Slay the Spire is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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. —Ryan Gilliam
Stardew Valley is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
Image: Tribute Games/Dotemu
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revengeis 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. —Ryan Gilliam
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Special Edition
Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks
The Elder Scrolls 5, better known as just Skyrim, is a classic. And while you can play it on almost any console or device known to humankind at this point, it’s still worth playing on Game Pass if you’ve never given it a chance, or are just craving another journey in its sprawling world.
Like most Bethesda RPGs, Skyrim is a first-person game with a giant, living world. There are dungeons to crawl, stories to uncover, and a variety of guilds to join. But you can also go off the beaten path and discover your own fun in Skyrim — it rewards you for being curious. It’s the kind of Game Pass game that you can play for hundreds of hours and never get bored. —Ryan Gilliam
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Special Edition is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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. —Ryan Gilliam
Vampire Survivors is available via Game Pass on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Halloween is nearly upon us, and what better way to prepare for the spookiest holiday of the year than to dive deep into the best stories the horror genre has to offer?
We’ve pulled together a list of some of the best short horror games to play with only a few days left before Halloween. Whether you’re looking for a chilling psychological horror experience or frantic splatter-core nightmare, these are some of the best games to play this season.
If you like folk horror movies like The Wicker Man and Enys Men, you’ll love Helltown. Developed by Nicolas Lamarche and Gabriel Bolduc Dufour, Helltown follows the story of a postman assigned to deliver packages to a secluded rural neighborhood called Little Vale. After their first day on the job, things quicky take a sinister turn as disturbing visions manifest into an insidious plot rife with demonic cultists and unspeakable horrors. An open-world horror exploration game, Helltown offers multiple endings and collectibles and is the perfect game for those who enjoy sinking into the unknown.
Fans of slow-burn psychological horror with oppressive atmospheres and an emphasis on strong sound design should definitely check out No one lives under the lighthouse. Much like Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse, starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, this game puts players in the role of a lighthouse keeper who assumes stewardship of a small island off the coast of the United States after the former keeper deserts their post. Unlike that aforementioned movie, you’re all alone; with no one else to keep you company as you tend the light of the tower and conduct chores around the island. Or are you?
In this experimental first-person horror game, players assume the role of a sled dog musher hired by a mysterious scientist to safely escort him across the frozen plains of the arctic to a remote research facility. Along the way, the pair encounter increasingly strange and disturbing phenomenon that calls into question the scientist’s motivations, if not the entire expedition as a whole. Can the scientist be trusted, and what’s up with all these strange visions?
In this role-playing horror game (see the title?), you are Liana, a young girl recovering from a life-saving operation. Upon returning home, she awakes one morning expecting to meet her mother, only to instead be greeted by what appears to be a mannequin-like figure resembling her mother. What’s going on here? As the week wears on, Liana will have to unravel the mystery behind her peculiar situation before time runs out.
The second game from Jamie Gavin, a Galway-based game developer who works under the pseudonym “Enigma Studio ‘’ alongside composer Karl Barnes, Mothered is the middle entry in a loose trilogy of games set to conclude this year with November’s Echostasis. If you enjoyed this one, you should definitely check out Mothered: Home — the “DLC sequel” is even available to play for free via the Haunted PS1 “Spectral Mall” Demo Disc.
Benedetto “Ben” Cocuzza is a game developer known for unique low-poly survival horror games inspired by ’80s VHS aesthetics and classic slasher horror movies. Taking cues from The Texas ChainSaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes, Stay Out of the House is a stealth game where players assume the role of a young woman kidnapped while on a road trip with her boyfriend across the border of Oklahoma. In order to escape, players will have to sneak their way through the maze-like interior of a masked madman’s dilapidated house without alerting either him or his deranged family members.
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