Underrated Games on Xbox Game Pass

With the touch of the “A button,” Xbox Game Pass provides a massive library of renowned, notable, and even historic titles to its subscribers, spanning from small indie experiences to system-selling AAA exclusives, and everything in-between. However, even among the Xbox subscription service’s most notable titles, some excellent experiences, unfortunately, received low, unfair Metacritic scores. While this is not a comprehensive list of every underrated game on Xbox Game Pass, here are some egregious examples of games that deserve better Metascores and are available to download on Xbox Game Pass.

Fallout: New Vegas

While it might come as a shock to see a highly recognizable title like Fallout: New Vegas on an underrated games list, an examination of the game’s Metascore shows it clearly belongs in this article. Obsidian’s Fallout entry puts players in the role of a courier, who finds themselves at the center of a world-altering conspiracy when they are robbed, shot, and left for dead in the Mojave Desert, and features a talented voice cast that even includes Kris Kristofferson, Wayne Newton, and Matthew Perry (among others) holds an 84 critic score on Xbox 360, as well as an even lower 81 score on PS3. While these are respectable ratings for the average game, surprisingly, this mid-low 80s critic score rates the beloved 2010 RPG as the third worst Fallout game of all-time, only ahead of Fallout 76 and Fallout Shelter, at a standstill with the PC version of Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel spinoff, and trailing all four of the main series games.

Related: Underrated Games on PlayStation Plus

While speculation on which Fallout entry is “best” is better left to the series’ biggest aficionados, most rankings of Fallout games consistently see Fallout: New Vegas touted as being one of, if not the greatest Fallout game of all-time, yet its Metacritic Score clearly does not reflect this reality. For Xbox gamers who want to decide for themselves which Fallout game is king, Fallout: New Vegas is available on Game Pass and so are Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76.

The Walking Dead: Season Two

The 2012 Telltale interactive story game, The Walking Dead (or The Walking Dead: Season One), won the hearts of Walking Dead fans and series newcomers, who deeply admired the redemption story of Lee Everett, a convicted murderer that sets out to reunite a little girl, Clementine, with her missing family at the beginning of a worldwide zombie outbreak. While the first game picked up a variety of accolades and game of the year awards, its equally deserving sequel, The Walking Dead Season Two, did not. The episodic Clementine-centric story that introduced even more difficult player choices than the first game and had an even darker, more foreboding story than its predecessor simply failed to keep the attention of critics. In fact, the game does not even have a critic Metascore for Xbox One or Xbox 360, but its 7.9/10 user score for the Xbox One version does not do the second entry justice, thus making it undeniably underrated.

With The Walking Dead television series concluding later this year, now is as good a time as ever for Game Pass subscribers to experience the first two entries in Telltale’s The Walking Dead series, as Seasons One and Two are both available to immediately download on Xbox, as is the rest of Telltale’s Walking Dead catalog.

Weird West

To discuss a more recent entry, Weird West, released on March 31, 2022, the criminally underrated debut game from WolfEye Studios deserves far more recognition than it is currently getting. Weird West is an isometric, action RPG with elements of horror and mystery. It mixes the lawlessness of the old west with the terror and unpredictability of the occult/supernatural. The RPG features five playable characters: a gun-slinging Bounty Hunter, a meat-cleaver wielding Pigman, a Protector with archery and bear conjuration skills, a flesh-ripping Werewolf, and a magic-wielding Oneirist.

Through the episodic format of storytelling, players are given the chance to make highly consequential choices, hunt bounties, explore, and uncover the mystery of the Weird West. While its 81 Xbox One Metacritic score is not completely disrespectful, its PS4 counterpart only managed to receive a 73 Metascore, and frankly, neither of those ratings give the game its due. For Xbox fans of RPGs, Weird West is definitely worth visiting and is definitely one of Game Pass’s most under-the-radar titles.

Related: Best Indie Games on Xbox Game Pass

Wolfenstein: The New Order

Wolfenstein: The New Order, the 2014 first-person shooter reboot of the revered Wolfenstein series that helped to shape the FPS genre, is one of four Wolfenstein titles available for immediate download by Xbox Game Pass subscribers along with its sequel Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, and Wolfenstein: Youngblood. The story follows an American Army Ranger Captain, B.J. Blazkowicz, who awakens from a coma to find that Nazi Germany won World War II, and conquered the planet, leading the dual-wielding soldier on a path of rebellion and revenge.

Despite the fact that Wolfenstein: The New Order reinvigorated the Wolfenstein brand with its revamped Nazi killing, sci-fi storytelling, visceral violence, and blend of stealth and action, the game holds a ridiculously low 79 Metascore for Xbox One. While The New Order is consistently rated among the best Wolfenstein games of all-time by fans of the series, a 79 Metacritic rating ultimately ranks it among the middle of the pack in the franchise’s storied history. This fact undeniably shows Wolfenstein: The New Order deserves its place as one of Xbox Game Pass’s most underrated games.