The best Game Pass additions of 2022: September
September absolutely kept up the momentum for great Xbox Game Pass additions, with both quality and quantity and a range of genres — you could play Death Stranding and Disney Dreamlight Valley in the same month — for complete tonal whiplash. Here are some of the best September Xbox Game Pass additions…
September just didn’t slow down with Xbox Game Pass additions — the frequent arrival of more games does keep us busy updating our list of the best games on Game Pass — and so to condense things we’ve highlighted a few of the best and biggest games to join the service in September, ranging from day-one indie launches to the eventual arrival of long-awaited heavy-hitters. We’ll continue our breakdown of the best Game Pass additions in 2022, month by month — September brought us a great line-up, with Metal: Hellsinger, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Slime Rancher 2, and more!
Beacon Pines
Deceptively cute and light-hearted, Beacon Pines might have fooled us into thinking we were in for a wholesome summer adventure, but this notion is soon put to rest when Beacon Pines’ story takes off with countless twists and turns, morphing into a tale about community wrapped up in the conspiracies of the past. We play as Luka, who, together with his friends, sets out to uncover the truth behind the bizarre happenings in Beacon Pines. One aspect of the game which makes it so engaging is the fact that we also play as the reader of the book in which Luka’s story is playing out, using charms that Luka finds to alter the course of the tale before diving back in and picking up where we left off. For a game that looks as adorable as Beacon Pines, it does a good job of introducing an unsettling atmosphere and increasing tension. It’s a shorter game but packs a lot into that time, and was one of the best Game Pass surprises of September.
Beacon Pines is a cute and creepy adventure game. Sneak out late, make new friends, uncover hidden truths, and collect words that will change the course of fate!
Death Stranding
Sure, Death Stranding was added just for PC Game Pass, but it was still one of the most highly-anticipated additions of the year. Death Stranding launched as a PlayStation exclusive in 2019, but after a few hints from the PC Game Pass team, the excitement about its potential addition to the Game Pass library began to grow. Hideo Kojima’s action-adventure game follows Sam Bridges in an apocalyptic world bright to its knees by the Death Stranding. It’s an interesting mashup of genres and boasts an impressive cast and, following its initial announcement, it was one of those games which just kept raising more questions than it answered. A fair number of players seem to be divided on their opinion of this game, but it’s fair to say it was a big catch for PC Game Pass.
From legendary game creator Hideo Kojima comes an all-new, genre-defying experience. Sam Bridges must brave a world utterly transformed by the Death Stranding. Carrying the disconnected remnants of our future in his hands, he embarks on a journey to reconnect the shattered world one step at a time.
Disney Dreamlight Valley
In another complete change of pace, September also brought us life-sim Disney Dreamlight Valley. The game is still in Early Access — it’s set to launch in full as a free-to-play game in 2023 — but it has an impressive amount of content for a game that’s not completely finished. After an event known as the Forgetting caused the Valley’s inhabitants to lose their memories and scatter — and also covered the land in Night Thorns — we work to rebuild the Valley, recover its residents, and rid the land of Night Thorns once and for all. This means travelling to different realms to find favourite Disney and Pixar characters such as Moana and Anna and Elsa. There are all the aspects of a life-sim; making friends, cooking, fishing, gardening, decorating, and crafting, and there are also story quests to follow too. There is a fair bit of grinding involved, but Disney Dreamlight Valley is still an enjoyable experience and a great addition to the Xbox Game Pass library, especially considering it’ll get frequent content updates to keep players coming back for some time.
Explore a world filled with the magic of Disney as you discover rich stories and build the perfect neighborhood alongside Disney and Pixar heroes and villains in this new life-sim adventure game. Welcome to Disney Dreamlight Valley.
Metal: Hellsinger
Why not continue our veering all over the place with genres and talk next about rhythm-FPS Metal: Hellsinger, which offers less hanging out with Mickey Mouse and more demolishing demon hordes in Hell. As The Unknown, we fight through The Infernal Planes and its denizens to take on The Red Judge. Its launch into Xbox Game Pass opened the game up to a wider audience, offering more players the chance to try it out as well as those who might have been put off buying it at full price by the shorter length of the game, and served as yet more proof of the amount of variety available to players with an Xbox Game Pass membership.
Metal: Hellsinger (Xbox Series X|S & PC)
Slay to the rhythm of metal and vengeance on an infernal journey through the eight Hells. Make them fear the beat. Metal: Hellsinger is a rhythm FPS bursting with demons, badass weapons, and heavy metal music.
Slime Rancher 2
Slime Rancher 2 launched into Xbox Game Pass in September too — like Disney Dreamlight Valley, it launched into Early Access, but it too offers a surprising wealth of content even with the promise of the full game yet to come. It sees Beatrix LeBeau heading to Rainbow Island on a new adventure, and, on one level, it’s a great sequel in that it really is more of what people loved about the first Slime Rancher, only with more new slimes and a new mystery, as well as a beautiful new world. With the original being such a favourite with its players, it was great to see the Slime Rancher sequel join Xbox Game Pass on day one.
Continue the adventures of Beatrix LeBeau as she journeys across the Slime Sea to Rainbow Island, a land brimming with ancient mysteries, and bursting with wiggly, new slimes to wrangle in this sequel to the smash-hit, Slime Rancher.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey joined Xbox Game Pass in September, offering proof that the service can also deliver when it comes to bigger titles. Ubisoft’s action-RPG offers a massive amount of content, too, and while the more recent Assassin’s Creed games like Odyssey can feel a little bloated, the focus on Greek mythology and life in Ancient Greece nevertheless kept Odyssey feeling richly fleshed-out and engaging. Everything in Odyssey is on the larger side of things: the map is massive, the story spans countless cities, characters, and large-scale clashes between Sparta and Athens, and our decisions throughout the game impact the world on a grand scale.
Write your own epic odyssey and become a legendary Spartan hero. Forge your destiny in a world on the brink of tearing itself apart. Influence how history unfolds in an ever-changing world shaped by your choices.
Deathloop
Deathloop started life as a PS5 exclusive in 2021 before moving on over to Xbox and Xbox Game Pass a year later. The FPS focuses on the island of Blackreef, which is stuck in a timeloop — assassin Colt can only escape by taking out eight targets before the end of the day, meaning you need to learn everything you can about the island and its inhabitants to have a chance of succeeding. To make things even more chaotic, there’s a rival assassin on the island too, whose only target is Colt. Given that the game has managed to rack up over 90,000 players on TrueAchievements alone in the three months since it joined Xbox Game Pass, it’d seem this was another big win for Game Pass in September.
DEATHLOOP is a next-gen FPS from Arkane Lyon, the award-winning studio behind Dishonored. In DEATHLOOP, two rival assassins are trapped in a mysterious timeloop on the island of Blackreef, doomed to repeat the same day for eternity. As Colt, the only chance for escape is to end the cycle by assassinating eight key targets before the day resets. Learn from each cycle – try new paths, gather intel, and find new weapons and abilities. Do whatever it takes to break the loop.
Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Which Remastered
September’s Tokyo Game Show 2022 Xbox stream brought us a wave of Xbox Game Pass news, including the announcement that not only was beloved JRPG Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Remastered coming to Xbox, it was also heading straight into Game Pass — a fantastic score for the service. The game has long been lauded for its animation, story, and gameplay, and arriving on Game Pass allowed it to be experienced by even more players. All in all, a fitting end to this list of some of September’s best Xbox Game Pass additions!
Ni no Kuni Wrath of the White Witch™ Remastered
Journey back to the other world in Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Remastered. LEVEL-5’s classic tale returns better than ever, with improved graphics and performance. Join Oliver as he embarks on an adventure through a world inhabited by new friends and ferocious foes alike in the hopes of bringing back his mother after a tragic incident.
We’ll carry on a breakdown of the best Game Pass drops for each month of 2022 — were any of these your favourite September 2022 Game Pass additions, or is there another game you think should be on here too? Let us know in the comments, and we hope to see you next time!
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