It’s been almost 5 years since the Xbox One came out and it’s been an up and down journey for the Xbox One so far, with the console finally gathering a bit of steam from the last two years or so. However, despite the rocky journey the console has gone through during this generation, there are a ton of games on the Xbox One that are worth playing, and a lot of them are really cheap.
Despite having fallen behind PlayStation in this generation, the Xbox One is still a good console with good games. Here are some of the best games you can play right now on the Xbox One just under $20:
Assassins Creed Syndicate
Assassins Creed Syndicate is not remembered as a good game, in fact, it’s hardly remembered. It’s not the game’s fault because the Assassins Creed franchise was going through a rough patch at the time of this game’s release. Ubisoft had to gain back the trust of its fans after the letdown that was the buggy Assassins Creed Unity.
Despite not being remembered that fondly, Ubisoft did well with this game as they took players to London this time. The multi-character model was still present as you could play as two characters, each had their own unique skill set and style of play. The story was okay, but the highlight was the gameplay and the map.
The map was huge and thankfully, you could roam around by riding carriages, which itself adds a nice twist to the game. If you’ve had reservations about getting any Assassins Creed game that was released during this dry period for Ubisoft, there’s no need to worry really. Assassins Creed Syndicate is a fun game that you can keep on playing even after you’ve beaten the story because it’s just that fun. You can get it for just under $15 from Amazon here.
Destiny 2
Destiny 2 had all the hype in the world before its release in September last year. The game was better in many ways from its predecessor but it was equally worse too. The game was decent for a few months until it ran out of steam and started facing immense criticism from its players.
Fast forward to now, the game has two additional DLC out now that have made the game significantly better and it also has a new expansion coming up in September which has players excited. However, before you wait or even consider buying DLC for Destiny 2, you need to play the base game first.
Even if you don’t have any plans for purchasing DLC, the base game is enjoyable and you’ll likely end up spending hundreds of hours in the game. Unlike Destiny 1, players can still access end-game content even after new DLC drops which means that you can still enjoy end-game activities such as the Weekly Nightfall Strike, The leviathan Raid etc. by just owning the base game.
Since it’s an online game, the player experience is even better if you play with others. Fortunately, Xbox has a built-in system, the “game hub” where you can easily find players to play with. Now that the base game is under $20, it’s very much worth it even if you decide to stick to just the base game. You can buy it from Amazon here.
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition
The original Gears of War, the one that kicked off the highly successful series is remastered on the Xbox One as players step back into the shoes of Marcus Fenix and experience the game again in 1080p at 60 FPS. The remaster is pretty well done and the game itself has a great story, one of the best exclusives Microsoft has at the moment.
If you’ve played the game in the past, there’s still something for you as the game comes with five new chapters in the single-player campaign. The multiplayer features 19 maps and six game modes including the traditional Team Deathmatch mode. Other modes such as King of the Hill are also there. Gears of War is a fantastic series and the first ever GoW has been arguably the best one so far. You can get the game from Amazon here.
Sunset Overdrive
Set in an apocalyptic environment, the game takes a different approach than your regular zombie/mutant apocalypse survival game. Sunset Overdrive gives players a lot of freedom of movement and it also takes a more colorful approach to the type of game it is.
Instead of a grim or dark setting, the game instead is filled with colors and the cartoon-like animated approach to the game’s characters and environment actually works for this game. The objective of the game is to fight off mutants that arose from an energy drink disaster and you do so by using powerful weapons which aren’t close to being realistic at all, but that’s the point!
The game’s so over the top sometimes but that’s what makes the game really good. Sunset Overdrive is one of the better Xbox exclusives to come out during a rough period for Xbox. You can pick this game up for under $10 from Amazon here.