Our list of recommended Xbox One games is an excellent survey of the finest games for the current iteration of Xbox. Many of these games are also included in Xbox Game Pass, so if you’re rocking an Xbox Series X or PC, you can use this as a checklist of games to play.
Here we are to honour the greatest Xbox One games, but there are so many more in the pipeline. These games span a wide variety of genres, and they include both Xbox-exclusive titles and standouts from other developers.
This collection has something for everyone, whether they want to finish up their backlog or try out some games they may have missed. If you’re ready to make the leap to the next generation, we’ve also compiled a list of the greatest Xbox Series X games available today, as well as the most anticipated titles coming out in the near future.
1: Final Fantasy 15
Despite the fact that Final Fantasy isn’t exactly a household brand when it comes to the Xbox One, we’re delighted to report that Final Fantasy 15 is among the best role-playing games of the year. To remarkable success, the game combines the wide settings of Western RPGs with Final Fantasy’s signature brand of over-the-top anime ridiculousness, creating a world modelled on the roads and byways of Middle America and populating it with dangerous monsters, enormous crystals, and potent magic.
Final Fantasy 15 can feel like a hodgepodge of concepts at times, but when you put everything together, the bizarre setting, the thrilling real-time fighting, and the lovely people who accompany you on your entire adventure, the whole is more than the sum of its parts. It improves to the point that it’s one of the best Final Fantasy games in a long time, and definitely worth the wait.
2: Cuphead
After several delays that may have caused some apathy, Cuphead finally arrived and is now widely considered one of the best Xbox One games of all time, particularly among shooter fans. Despite having a gorgeous visual style inspired by cartoons from the 1930s (such as Betty Boop films and Disney’s Silly Symphonies), the gameplay is more akin to games like Mega Man, Contra, Metal Slug, and Gunstar Heroes.
The levels may not be particularly large, but as you avoid enemy fire and memorise their patterns, you’ll quickly realise that difficulty, not scale, is what matters most. Everything presents a unique challenge to your skills and reactions, and it’s satisfying to triumph over them.
3: Rise of the Tomb Raider
The crowning achievement of Lara Croft’s relaunched trilogy, and a fantastic showcase for the Xbox One X. Playing this Tomb Raider sequel set in Siberia on Microsoft’s boosted system and a 4K display makes the treasure-hunting action look amazing, while it looks good even on the standard console.
Lara’s icy adventure features snappy Uncharted-style shootouts and platforming parts that give you more agency than PlayStation’s poster boy ever does, all while expanding on the core areas of the original game and making those Challenge Tombs more intriguing than ever.
Do most of the events in the story not make any sense at all? Sure. If you’re trudging through breathtakingly realistic snow on Xbox and jamming your pickaxe into a raging grizzly’s neck, you might overlook some glaring plot holes.
4: Devil May Cry 5
With Devil May Cry 5, Capcom has surpassed itself, taking the best elements of Ninja Theory’s brilliant DmC in terms of aesthetic and style and incorporating them into a game that harkens back to the series’ cherished, finger-blistering history with its combo-heavy action and cast of fan-favorite characters.
Each of our three heroes—the grizzled vet Nero, the wisecracking Dante, and the dashing newbie V—has his own unique, over-the-top fighting style that makes use of fantasy weapons (or animal companions, in V’s case) and approaches the game in vastly different ways.
The best way to sum up our thoughts on Devil May Cry 5 is this: “It looks better than ever, plays better than ever – it’s Devil May Cry better than ever.”
5: Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
A casual observer could assume that Konami removed the Hideo Kojima stamp of approval from Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain because of how dissimilar it is to the developer’s past efforts. It has the trademark Hideo Kojima quirks—weird humour, inventive mechanics, and conspiracies so outlandish they could only have been culled from the deepest recesses of the internet—but it’s also fundamentally a different kind of game.
With its new emphasis on expansive environments with different missions, this game not only serves as a humiliating masterclass for the rest of the world’s stealth-action makers, but also makes each player feel like the director of their own spy film.
What about the time you and your mute sharpshooter pal pulled off a high-stakes, miraculous heist? Indeed, you are alone responsible for that. When everything went to pot and you had to blow up C4 scattered throughout an enemy base before making your getaway in your very own chicken-mech, how did you feel? You designed it, thus credit goes to you.
It’s been argued for a long time that Hideo Kojima is more interested in imitating his favourite films than creating genuine games. MGS 5 disproves that; he wants you to verify the truth for yourself. In fact, we’d be happy to accommodate his request for an additional several hundred hours.
