Microsoft’s previous-gen system overcame problems with cost, power, and online connectivity to become a powerful platform on which many of the best open-world games ever made may be played. Here, we’ve compiled a list of the 25 best Xbox One games, including the best shooters, puzzlers, adventures, and more, as ranked by IGN’s staff.
Top 5 Xbox Games in 2023
After much discussion, the entire IGN content team settled on these games as the greatest Xbox One has to offer.
1: The Outer Wilds
Even while Outer Wilds is technically a science fiction Game, it is imbued with a mysterious charm all its own. This hand-crafted solar system is stuffed to the gills with alluring breadcrumbs, fascinating plot hints, and some plain spectacular visuals that constantly draw you into one breathtaking moment after the next.
It’s a world demanding to be discovered, and the time loop concept at its heart does double duty by making exploration both perpetually enticing and terrifyingly tense. It might take a little time to acquire your bearings in space, but the journey to Outer Wilds is well worth it.
A “beautiful return to the clockwork solar system of Outer Wilds,” Echoes of the Eye may be purchased for $15 USD.
2: Yakuza: Like a Dragon
The Yakuza series has been perfected by Sega, but Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a completely new take on the genre. The series’ traditional beat ’em up action is reimagined as a turn-based role-playing game, and a new protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga, joins the cast.
Like a Dragon ups the ante on the insanity of the Yakuza genre by adding a cast of hilariously entertaining misfits to the mix, as well as funny side objectives like delivering formula to diaper-wearing gangsters.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon is both a comedy and a drama due to its central plot point involving betrayal. Other marginalised groups, such as immigrants and sex workers, are also addressed in the game.
Like a Dragon 8 will be the official name of the next mainstream instalment in the series, which is scheduled for release in 2024. Before that, on February 21, SEGA and RGG Studio will release Like a Dragon: Ishin!, a Yakuza samurai spin-off that was previously only available in Japan.
3: Ori And The Will of the Wisps
The bar set by Blind Forest in 2015 is raised even higher by Ori and the Will of the Wisps. There was already a solid framework in place, but Moon Studios used the intervening five years to flesh out a more vibrant setting, a robust set of moves with a renewed focus on battle, and a second helping of melancholy story.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a standout platformer for a number of reasons, including its inventive puzzles, its fast-paced platforming sections, and the touching moments that give the game’s characters room to grow and develop.
In 2020, IGN had a conversation with Moon Studios about the possibility of a new Ori game, however Microsoft is rumoured to no longer be cooperating with the studio due to a “tough relationship.” Together with Take-Private Two’s Division publishing label, the company is currently developing a brand new action-RPG.
4: Gears 5
Without the “of War” in the title, Gears 5 is still an excellent third-person cover shooter, but it no longer includes the “of War” in the subtitle. With the reappearance of the soldiers armed with chainsaws, the cliffhanger from Gears of War 4 may be resolved and the mystery of Kait Diaz’s background can be solved.
Gears 5’s narrative is touching, individual, and interesting, and the game’s multiplayer mode is as much fun as ever. In addition to the standard Versus and Horde modes, there is also a new and intriguing mode called Escape, in which a team of three must flee a battlefield before a poison cloud engulfs them and kills everyone. We can’t wait for Gears 6!
The Coalition, who created Gears, is employing Unreal Engine 5 for “several new projects.” The company is also working on an adult animated series for Netflix in addition to a Gears of War film.
5: Grand Theft Auto V / GTA Online
The massive, painstakingly detailed map in Grand Theft Auto V is remains the gold standard by which all other contemporary open-world experiences are measured. Not only is it massive, but it’s packed to the gills with excellent content, and I’m not just talking about the driving and shooting that make up its campaign or the countless side activities that could amount to a full game on their own.
It’s a city full of all the sights, sounds, and bustling activity you’d expect to find in a city full of humans, seedy underbelly and all. The game’s single-player campaign is a gripping crime epic that deftly conveys Rockstar’s satirical take on the American dream in the twenty-first century via three playable characters, and once you’ve completed that (after 30 or so hours), there are years’ worth of content to delve into in the multiplayer component, GTA Online.
With so much to do, explore, and play with, both solo and with friends, there is no question that GTA 5 remains the best Xbox One game ever. Grand Theft Auto Online offers unparalleled variety, from elaborate multi-phase heists to custom high-stakes racing to flying DeLoreans and Mad Max-style vehicular deathmatches.
Rockstar has announced there will be a Grand Theft Auto 6. A big GTA 6 leak appears to have confirmed that the game will take place in Vice City once again and include the series’ first female playable character in a Bonnie & Clyde-inspired adventure.
