In what’s most definitely (not) the biggest Hades news of the week, the acclaimed game is coming to Game Pass. Not the long-awaited sequel, mind you, but the 2020 original. At least subscribers can catch up on the first game while waiting out the sequel’s Switch exclusivity window. Hades will be available for Game Pass Ultimate, PC, and Standard tiers.
This isn’t the roguelike’s first Game Pass rodeo. It was on Microsoft’s service from August 2021 to 2022. It returns this September 19, the same day Hades II launches on Switch 2 and Switch. The sequel also leaves early access then, jumping to version 1.0 on Windows and macOS. It will likely arrive on Xbox (and PlayStation) at some point, but developer Supergiant is mum for now.
Game Pass members who haven’t played the original still get a phenomenal title as part of their subscription. You play as Zagreus, a godborn lad just trying to get the @#$! out of the underworld. (Aren’t we all?) The dungeon crawler brought unexpected narrative depth to the genre, with well-developed characters and satisfying combat.
On September 17, the Game Pass Standard tier will get some Call of Duty love. Although perhaps “hate” would be a better term for the largely maligned CoD: Modern Warfare III (2023). To say the game wasn’t well-received would be an understatement. IGN scored it as “bad,” describing its single-player campaign as “shallow,” “dull” and “the worst Call of Duty single-player campaign I’ve played. Regardless, it arrives on the cheapest Game Pass tier after hitting the more expensive ones in mid-2024.
Meanwhile, on September 18, Game Pass Ultimate members can play Frostpunk 2 on console. The post-apocalyptic city-builder will be available on Xbox Series X/S and via cloud streaming. Game Pass Ultimate members could already play it on PC, where it probably makes more sense. City-builders and gamepads can be a match made in… Hades.
You can check out Microsoft’s blog post for this month’s complete list of arrivals and departures.
Will Shanklin
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