Before we move ahead, do keep in mind that calling a game AA or AAA isn’t a measure of its popularity or quality so much as it is a measure of the scope of its production and its development budget, which means we might also talk about AA experiences made by companies that usually operate in the AAA sphere. With that out of the way, let’s dive right in.

DISCO ELYSIUM

You could call Disco Elysium a CRPG, and on paper, technically, you would be correct, but that would also be an incredibly reductive way to describe this masterpiece. From its surreal setting to its heavily flavoured and thematically dense writing, from its complete lack of combat to how bizarrely yet ingeniously it uses its RPG mechanics in conjunction with its storytelling, Disco Elysium is a singular game that’s unlike anything else out there.

Sunset Overdrive

Despite launching in 2014 as an Xbox One exclusive (eventually arriving for PC), Insomniac Games’ Sunset Overdrive is still a classic that deserves more recognition. Its humor may not be for everyone, but the bombastic style and presentation, over-the-top combat and fluid movement, which would go on to inspire Marvel’s Spider-Man, all combine seamlessly. Coupled with an open-world playground littered with stuff to do and a compelling story, it’s a shame that more people didn’t play it.

Prey

Arkane Austin is dragged for Redfall, rightfully given its quality, but also because of its previous effort, Prey. As a reboot of the Human Head Studios’ FPS, it’s an immersive sim with a unique sci-fi setting and moral consequences from the perspective of one Morgan Yu, stuck on the Talos 1 station. Unfortunately, despite its well-designed environments, nuanced gameplay and frighteningly intelligent Typhon enemies, it failed to really make an impact sales-wise. Nevertheless, it’s still one of the genre’s best.

The Evil Within 2

You have to give credit to Tango Gameworks. Following the reception to The Evil Within, it returned to the drawing board and crafted a sequel superior in almost every way. Better graphics, more memorable sequences and terrifying scares, vastly improved gameplay and a story continuation that made us care more about protagonist Sebastian Castellanos and his family. Of course, as the story goes, it saw underwhelming sales and faded into the background. On the bright side, at least the developer bounced back and saw massive success with Hi-Fi Rush.

Days Gone

Bend Studio’s Days Gone is an interesting case – it sold millions, but many never tried it out until it came to PC and was offered free on PlayStation Plus. Its critical reception also left much to be desired, especially considering the high bar of PlayStation exclusives. Those who gave it a chance found a compelling open-world zombie shooter with interesting activities and an intriguing protagonist (despite some horrendous writing in sections). Fans still lament what could have been following reports of a proposed sequel being canned.

Nex Machina

Nex Machina is the final hurrah to Housemarque’s arcade shoot ’em ups and bullet hell titles (or so we thought at the time). A twin-stick shooter that combined elements from Robotron and Smash TV, even bringing on original designer Eugene Jarvis as a creative consultant, it offered gorgeous voxel graphics and fast-paced, intense action. Critics may have embraced it, but the sales said otherwise, leading to Housemarque famously stating that “Arcade is dead.” Fortunately, it didn’t stray far from its roots when it delivered the acclaimed Returnal for PS5.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem

With all the high-profile exclusives on the GameCube, from Metroid Prime to The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, it’s a miracle that various third-party titles stood out. Silicon Knights’ Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem sadly wasn’t quite there, despite combining a long-running horror saga with multiple protagonists with an innovative Sanity system that messed with player perception in a fourth-wall-breaking fashion. Even with rave reviews for its story, mechanics and scares, it never received as much attention as the genre’s greats. Hopes for a sequel were buried long ago, but when it comes to compelling horror stories in video games, Eternal Darkness is still one of the greats.

Oxenfree

All these years later, and even with a sequel, the original Oxenfree remains as compelling and unique as ever. The story of Alex, who ventures to Edwards Island with her friends, alternates between teen drama and compelling supernatural mystery with incredibly well-written dialogue. Even better is the dynamic dialogue, allowing one to respond however they wish, leading to different results (and endings). Memorable stories come and go in the games industry, but Oxenfree’s deserves to be highlighted more.

Jusant

In this era of climbing games, where many emphasize the difficulty and frustration that comes from falling down on all that you’ve ever known, DON’T NOD’s Jusant hits differently. Despite its post-environmental disaster world, it offers a relaxing and meditative vibe as you scale a mysterious rock and attempt to piece together the history of its residents. With responsive controls and interesting platforming challenges that never get frustrating, Jusant is a remarkably chilled-out time.

Stories Untold

You probably heard of No Code for their work on the upcoming Silent Hill: Townfall, but horror adventure Stories Untold remains their most memorable work. It’s a surreal experience, seemingly starting as a series of standalone episodes before connecting incredibly. With unorthodox mechanics, including the player playing someone playing an old-school PC adventure game, Stories Untold is unlike anything else out there.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky

Falcom’s Kiseki series has always been considered an RPG series with a lower budget, but it made for it with strong characters and writing. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky exemplified this best, introducing us to a fantasy world with airships and magic (but in a more grounded fashion). As Estelle Bright, players embark on a journey to become a full-fledged bracer, joined by Joshua and encountering all kinds of characters and occurrences along the way. Despite a slow start, the first game offers an amazingly realized world, a solid battle system with challenging fights, and an incredible soundtrack that’s still memorable

Mad Max

Another post-apocalyptic open-world title that didn’t quite land with several critics, Mad Max was still a strong adaptation of the source material. Players scoured the wasteland, engaging in vehicular battles while scavenging for parts, but ventured on foot to interact with various survivors and infiltrate strongholds for some solid beat ’em up action. Despite how monotonous the environments could get, it was still worth checking out for fans.

CrossCode

With its 16-bit style visuals and addictive hack-and-slash combat, CrossCode is already one of the best action RPGs few have ever played. However, it also offers a massive world with dozens of hours of gameplay, a great story that plays with established MMO tropes, and one of the more well-written protagonists out there. Coupled with a fantastic soundtrack, it’s a wonder that CrossCode doesn’t have more players.

Tacoma

Gone Home from Fullbright understandably isn’t for everyone, but Tacoma, a sci-fi title focused on rewinding and reviewing conversations in an abandoned space station, is definitely worth checking out. The conversations in question occur via Augmented Reality, leading to the exploration of different spaces at different times of the recording to piece together what happened. It’s an engrossing mystery and a solid adventure title that deserves more attention.

Vanquish

While everyone talks about Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising and NieR: Automata, PlatinumGames’ Vanquish is nearly forgotten. It’s a shame because despite the corny story and voice acting, it offered a new take on cover-based shooting, with rocket-powered sliding encouraging one to reposition quickly. Slow-mo allowed for more precise shooting while memorable boss fights and scenarios added some style to the proceedings.

As Dusk Falls

Yes, it ends on a cliffhanger, and some parts could have been better, but as a narrative title about two families inspired by the likes of Fargo, As Dusk Falls is an intriguing adventure from INTERIOR/NIGHT. Players make decisions at different moments, causing the plot to branch extensively, and every little choice and QTE has an impact. With solid acting and writing, its story is begging for a continuation and an expansion of the unique presentation.

Alex’s arrival comes in the wake of the new VOID Riders DLC which adds new challenges, gear and the new V.O.I.D. biome. Areas like Sunshine Valley and Cloverbrook have also seen some changes while a new tractor beam mechanic is also available for extending tricks. This is the first of two paid expansions with the second slated to arrive in Fall 2022.

Roll7 is also working on Rollerdrome, a third-person shooter/skating title for PS4, PS5 and PC. It’s out on August 16th and sees players gunning down foes in skating arenas, performing tricks to restore their ammo. For more details, head here.

Bastion

Bastion offers New Game Plus, which is fairly straightforward – any Spirits that you’ve unlocked will carry over along with all weapons, levels, Fragments and upgrades. Some Vigils, along with Proving Grounds completion, are lost, but you can start out with a lot of your previous progress intact. It’s the story that’s most intriguing – if you choose the Restoration ending in your first playthrough, the narrator Rucks will have moments of deja vu, like all of this has happened before. You also gain access to the Stranger’s Dream, a level with waves of foes which also provides more details on Rucks’ and the world of Caeldonia before The Calamity.

Layers of Fear

Though not the most innovative horror game by any means, Bloober Team’s Layers of Fear was significant. Following the studio’s failure with Basement Crawl, Layers of Fear presented a complete shift with its mature storyline and macabre atmosphere. As such, the game showcased Unity’s power in twisted settings with excellent fidelity, creating disturbing sights at a decent clip.

Night School Studio is prepping for the launch of its next game Afterparty later this month. However, its first game Oxenfree has hit a new milestone. Studio founder and co-creative director Sean Merkel confirmed on Twitter that it had sold over one million copies.

Furthermore, the game’s inclusion in Xbox Game Pass has helped its install base. Counting Game Pass and giveaways together, the title has seen over three million installs till date. Not bad, especially since Oxenfree is an indie game and Night School’s debut venture.

As for Afterparty, it’s out on October 29th for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch. It focuses on Milo and Lola who end up in Hell after dying before their graduation. In order to escape, they must challenge the Devil to a drinking contest. With numerous characters to interact with and choices to make, it should be as involving as Oxenfree. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.

https://twitter.com/seankrankel/status/1181752554503340033

In this feature, we’re going to take a look at what we feel have been the fifteen best adventure games so far this generation. Given how many of these there are to choose from, missing out on a few great ones was unavoidable on our part, so if one (or some) of your favourites got left out, let us know in your comments. With that out of the way, let’s get this started.

DETROIT: BECOME HUMAN

Adventure games are largely the domain of indie developers or studios with smaller budgets, but not exclusively so- David Cage and his team at Quantic Dreams have been making masterful adventure titles for several years now. And with Detroit: Become Human, they truly hit the ball out of the park. With a story that was meaningfully branching, choices and consequences that truly made the player stop of think, and excellent setting, and some of the best visuals we’ve ever seen in any video game, Detroit: Become Human ranks among the best of the best of this genre.

After Xbox Live director of programming Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb teased games coming to Xbox Game Pass in March, starting with Rise of the Tomb Raider, we now have the full slate of other titles in-bound. According to Xbox Wire, these games are Sea of Thieves, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Resident Evil Revelations 2, The Final Station, Euro Fishing, Sonic CD, Oxenfree and Super Lucky’s Tale.

To be fair, Sea of Thieves was already known beforehand when Microsoft announced that Xbox One exclusives would be launching on the same day for Game Pass as retail. The other titles don’t look all that bad, especially Oxenfree, Sonic CD and Resident Evil Revelations 2.

Among other Xbox One exclusives coming to the service are future titles in the Halo, Gears of War and Forza franchises, State of Decay 2, Crackdown 3 and much more. The service is currently available for $9.99 per month and features 100 available titles for playing at any given time.

Night School Studio’s Oxenfree is currently available on GOG for free. If you head on over to the site right now, you can download Oxenfree and own the complete game, no strings attached. The offer is valid only until about 8 AM PST, December 21st so hurry up.

Oxenfree first released for PC and Xbox One in January 2016. It’s a side-scrolling adventure game with a well written cast of characters and unique dialogue system that spurs you to make choices in real-time. The game was acclaimed for its story-telling, aesthetic and ominous dark tones. It’s also available for iOS, PS4, Android and Switch. Even with its short length, it’s still an exceptional release.

GOG is also hosting its annual Winter sale with discounts on titles like Planescape: Tides of Numenera, Hollow Knight, Cuphead, The Witcher 3: Game of the Year Edition and much more. More sales like Steam’s Winter Sale will likely be going live this week so stay tuned for more details.

Though October’s Games With Gold for Xbox Live Gold subscribers may not be as impressive as PlayStation Plus, there are still some pretty good games to check out.

First person adventure title Gone Home will be available on October 1st till 31st and if you’ve played Fullbright’s latest title Tacoma, you’ll have some idea what to expect. The overall story is mysterious and definitely worth experiencing once.

Those who seek something with more puzzles can check out The Turing Test which will be available from October 16th till November 15th. Oxenfree, which was available in September’s Games With Gold, will be available till October 15th.

As for Xbox 360 players, there’s Rayman 3 HD which will be available from October 1st to 15th and represents the limbless wonder’s leap into third person platforming. Medal of Honor: Airborne will be available from October 16th till 31st.

What are your thoughts on October’s Games With Gold? Let us know in the comments.