Best Indie Games on Xbox Series X and S 2022
(Pocket-lint) – Independently published games are, in many ways, the lifeblood of the games industry – for every huge AAA version released by a giant company, there are hundreds of smaller games created by small teams and published in a much more discreet way.
Some of them are also absolutely hidden gems and allow you to experiment with more esoteric and interesting gameplay and story choices, or discover a completely unique art style. We’ve rounded up the best indie options you can play on the Xbox Series X or Series S.
What are the best indie games on Xbox Series X and S in 2022?
- Disco Elysee
- hollow knight
- underworld
- Outer Wildlands
- Sable
- The forgotten city
- Ori and the Will of the Wisps
- The gate of death
- OlliOlli World
- DokiDoki Literature Club
Disco Elysee
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A role-playing game that redefines what it means to manage your character’s internal monologue, Disco Elysium is a beast in its own right, with some of the sharpest and most heartbreaking writing we’ve come across in a very long time.
It has a charming, dark art style and puts you in the role of a failing cop trying to figure out a crime that could be much, much bigger than him, if he can only deal with his own urges and weaknesses. crazy.
hollow knight
Hollow Knight makes no secret of its influences, particularly a mix of Castlevania-style exploration with Dark Souls-style risk and reward, and the mix it delivers is pretty much a triumph. It has a huge map to explore and you will do it carefully and cautiously.
As you grow in power, you’ll meet a small group of fun characters, all living in an underworld of insects and animals, and you’ll slowly uncover the cause of an earth-choking corruption.
underworld
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One of the most successful roguelikes ever made, Hades tasks you with escaping the titular underworld no matter how many tries it takes. Each time you die, you’ll start over with new random powers to collect and a new set of random coins to go through.
The chemistry of these potential combinations is nothing short of amazing, and by the time you learn the ropes, you’ll repeatedly run through it just to see what kind of build you manage to put together next. It’s a rare gem of a game.
Outer Wildlands
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If you enjoy solving mysteries without having the solutions indicated with a map marker, Outer Wilds poses an exciting puzzle. It’s set in a small galaxy that’s eternally destined to collapse on itself, looping through the same end moments over and over again.
You can navigate around it decoding lost messages and finding out what’s happening on earth, to determine if you have any hope of stopping things. It’s a masterpiece best played with as little prescience as possible.
Sable
Sable is a sweet and charming coming-of-age story set in a desert world. You play as the main character and venture out to discover what your life’s calling might be, but the lessons he dispenses are so touching there’s hardly any pressure.
It has a breathtakingly beautiful art style, with pencil work and a hand-drawn look that makes it sing no matter what time of day you visit each region. You have to see it in motion to believe it, frankly.
The forgotten city
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Another great mystery game, The Forgotten City is also another time loop game, a very popular subgenre right now. You’re dropped off in a Roman city that’s under an apparent curse, and you must figure out who’s causing everything to go wrong every day.
You’ll meet sneaky and helpful characters while figuring out who’s lying about what, and piecing together one of its multiple endings is as rewarding as you could wish for.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
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A beautiful sequel to Ori and the Blind Forest, Will of the Wisps looks simply magical on Series S or X thanks to detailed environments and superb HDR. It’s a side-scrolling exploration game that has much tighter combat than its predecessor.
You play as Ori, a charming little creature whose movements are fast and fluid, even before unlocking a whole bunch of other ways to make things faster and easier as the game progresses. It looks and sounds sumptuous.
The gate of death
This delightful little game is a clever reimagining of the model established by older Legend of Zelda titles, with a series of dungeons to navigate and simple yet rewarding combat to master as you go. There’s also a wonderful art style to enjoy.
You play as a crow, tasked with ferrying dead souls to the afterlife, but when one soul refuses to be taken, you’re drawn into a massive contest between mysterious forces, none of which seem to have your interests at heart. .
OlliOlli World
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For something a little more relaxed, OlliOlli World is like playing a love letter to skateboarding, with all the culture it brings, from fashion to music and language. There is a wide range of levels to tackle and a deep set of skills to master over time.
The game looks amazing, with a new type of art for the series that really reinvents it and makes it easier to get into, and we love that amount of character customization you can control. It’s such a chill ride.
DokiDoki Literature Club Plus!
Our final pick is a truly awful experience, in a totally intentional and very successful way. This visual novel looks simple and wholesome, but you’ll quickly start noticing a few odd details. We won’t say too much, because the twists that DokiDoki Literature Club offers are legendary.
It’s a game that deserves the content warnings that have been added to it, so only play it if you’re okay with settling into a pretty heartbreaking story.
Learn more about this story
Every game on this list has been tested and played by our team to ensure it’s worthy of inclusion.
We’ve scoured their campaigns, spent hours in their multiplayer offerings, and carefully benchmarked them against direct competitors to ensure they represent the most satisfying and rewarding options on their platform.
With any roundup, however, it’s not possible to provide a list that works for every type of user. That’s why we rely on the experiences and opinions of the entire Pocket-lint team – as well as a thorough assessment of the areas above – in order to do our best in this regard.
What we always tend to avoid with these guides is unnecessary detail – we just want to provide an easy-to-understand summary that gives you an idea of what each game looks like.
Written by Max Freeman-Mills.
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