I go through phases with the Xbox. Sometimes months will pass, and I don't even touch it. Other times, I get on a roll and play almost daily/nightly.
With Game Pass, there's always something to check out. I can't remember the last game I bought, but I am downloading games on a regular basis. Most recently, and I can't remember why, I downloaded Jedi Knight: Fallen Order, a Star Wars game, of all things. I am not a SW fan, but I think I downloaded it on a whim.
When I started it, it became clear that it was my kind of game. Action/adventure, lots of exploration (Tomb Raider and Division style), leveling up (rougelike style), and pretty decent storyline and cutscenes. I liked it so much that I am excited that the sequel is coming out this year... but on Series S/X only. May be upgrade time. :/
After I beat JK:FO, I searched Game Pass for games similar. Of course, there were the TR games, of which I started Rise of the TR again. And as great as that game is, it's not like a book for me, where I can reread it. For some reason, replaying a game doesn't have the same feel for me. Even though I didn't remember much of the first 30 minutes of ROTTR, for whatever reason, I didn't feel compelled to continue.
One game GP suggested was called Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. I knew nothing about it, thought it may have been a fighting game, which aren't my scene. I fired it up and found it quite interesting. Aside from a few disclaimers (portrayal of mental illness, be careful; game save data deletion if character dies), there was no intro aside from production credits.
Senua starts on a canoe and makes it to shore and from there, it's walking and running. My first impressions were that it was gorgeous (so beautiful), the character of Senua was so detailed and visually appealing, and the game itself was super linear. There was exploration, but only in places that the game allowed you to explore. It took a minute to realize exactly what I was supposed to do: move forward, look around, examine monoliths, watch the story. Puzzles started appearing in the form of locked doors and visual clues, and a little further in, combat started.
Over the next few nights, I put in earbuds and listened to the incredible atmosphere and voice acting. The story was dark and disturbing and I couldn't help but feel for Senua and her trauma. As the game progressed, there were some pretty scary scenes and environments, and lots of long cutscenes.
Most interesting was once I finished the game last night, I did a deeper dive into the making of it and the story, etc. It was such an engrossing experience that I had a hard time with following and understanding the story, especially from the beginning. Thank goodness for YouTube and recap videos.
In the meantime, this game was released in 2018 or so and a sequel is coming out this year. And with my Xbox functioning, but seemingly on the fritz (the optical drive keeps auto ejecting), a new console may be on the horizon.
This is all without even mentioning HiFi Rush, another great game that came out earlier this year on GP. Fun, beautiful, sounds incredible, but designed for Series S/X and, though it runs on the Xbox One X, it is streamed, which, on WiFi, is only a so-so experience. Yet another reason to upgrade.
What's next on the list now that Hellblade is finished? Unsure. Will update later.
