Xbox Game Pass closed out October with a bang, and November is already off to a great start. The first-party drought is temporarily over, with Obsidian Entertainment’s Renaissance-era murder mystery RPG Pentiment on the way in the coming weeks. If you just want to turn your brain off, however, console owners will soon be able to get their hands on the most smooth-brained Steam hit of the year: Vampire Survivors. Here’s everything coming to the Microsoft subscription service in the first half of November:
November 1
The Legend of Tianding — (Cloud, Console, and PC)
The Walking Dead: A New Frontier – The Complete Season — (PC)
The Walking Dead: Michonne – The Complete Season — (PC)
November 3
Ghost Song — (Cloud, Console, and PC)
November 8
Football Manager 2023 — (PC)
Football Manager 2023 Console — (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Return to Monkey Island — (Cloud, Console, and PC)
November 10
Vampire Survivors — (Console)
November 15
Pentiment — (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Somerville — (Console and PC)
Vampire Survivors is a clever arcade-style bullet-hell game that took over Steam earlier this year due to its approachable premise and habit-forming gameplay loop. You choose a character, select a map, and then start killing mobs of monsters while choosing between a cavalcade of upgrades and power-ups as each match progresses. It only takes a minute of playing for the appeal to sink in, and then dozens more will go by in the blink of an eye. While it’s best described as an auto-battler roguelike, in actuality it’s 2022's best 8-bit meditation game. It was previously only available on the PC side of Game Pass, and has gained a ton of new content following the recent 1.0 release after nearly a year in Early Access.
It’s bookended by Return to Monkey Island, a nostalgic but confident return to the classic point-and-click adventure series, and two of the games I’m most excited about for the rest of the year. The first, Pentiment, is an open-ended adventure game with a medieval art-style about trying to solve a friend’s murder. The second, Somerville, is helmed by a co-founder of the studio behind Inside, one of the most beautiful, haunting, and evocative games of the last decade. Unlike that game, it’s not a cinematic puzzle platformer. Director Chris Olsen has previously said the gameplay is harder to pin down than that. What we do know is that it’s about a father trying to reunite with his family during an apocalyptical alien invasion and the presentation is moody and foreboding as hell.
As always, some games are also leaving the service this month. Here’s everything disappearing from Game Pass by November 15:
- Football Manager 2022 (PC)
- Football Manager 2022 Xbox Edition (Cloud, Console, and PC)
- Art of Rally (Cloud, Console, and PC)
- Fae Tactics (Cloud, Console, and PC)
- Next Space Rebel (Cloud, Console, and PC)
- One Step from Eden (Cloud, Console, and PC)
- Supraland (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Plenty of decent games, especially Art of Rally, but nothing major getting shifted out of the rotation so far this month. If you want a wild modern take on Mega Man Battle Network that combines deckbuilding with roguelike mechanics, definitely give One Step from Eden a try. It’s a perfect candidate for streaming to your phone.