Xbox Game Pass, January 2022: The first wave of games of the month for subscribers

Xbox Game Pass, January 2022

The new year begins and we continue with the traditions, making the usual overview of the new titles added to the Xbox Game Pass catalog during the first wave of games in January 2022. A year full of surprises and evolutions for Microsoft services is expected, after a Game Pass that has already seen significant news in 2021, as we also reported in the special summary of the year just ended.

Already in These first days some interesting news has emerged: we talk about Rainbow Six Extraction available on Xbox Game Pass from day one, to begin with, while on a more general level, the next arrival of Ubisoft + on Xbox Series X | S and Xbox One is recorded .

The latter will not be integrated into Game Pass, but will still represent another possible option in terms of subscription: on the other hand, it is difficult to exclude possible evolutions and integrations with the service a priori. Microsoft, as we have previously seen also for EA Play.

We can already anticipate at least three other games planned after January: Nobody Saves the World, Windjammers 2 and the aforementioned Rainbow Six Extraction have already been announced at inside the catalog for this month, being part of the second wave of titles that we will talk about in the next episode of the column.

Gorogoa - Xbox, PC and Cloud, January 4th

Gorogoa is a game that uniquely blends drawing and puzzle Few games can boast such a close connection between artistic expression and gameplay structure like Gorogoa, not for nothing the fruit of the mind of a single author who is also the creator of the illustrations that give life to the game. Initially conceived as an interactive graphic novel, the project has evolved to become a real puzzle-style game, which required a rather long period of realization, as can be guessed from its structural complexity: Gorogoa is not complicated to understand, discovering in fact without particular tutorials or explanations, but the construction of the puzzles is truly remarkable, fitting perfectly with the wonderful illustrations by Jason Roberts from which it all started.

It is about manipulating images with elements arranged on a grid, exploring its meanders or interacting with the elements present, placing side by side and overlapping fragments of illustration. Finding connections and hidden objects, further scenarios open up dynamically, with the game telling a real story of growth, maturation and reflection on life, managing to fascinate, involve with enigmas and also narrate in a truly remarkable way. >

Olija - Xbox, PC and Cloud, January 4th

Olija has a rather particular pixelated 2D style. go unnoticed within the standard videogame market. Olija is one of them: it is a strictly 2D action adventure, which presents platform elements and puzzles to solve, centered on the adventures of Faraday, a castaway who finds himself trapped in the mysterious and fascinating land of Terraphage. The protagonist must face various challenges, avoiding threats and solving puzzles armed with a legendary harpoon, trying to find his way home together with other castaways, escaping from that strange place where he finds himself.

The setting is the atmospheres recall, under different aspects, great classics of the past such as Another World and Flashback, with the gameplay that takes up these titles by offering a particular mix of action, fighting, exploration and environmental puzzles of various kinds. Between swashbuckling and classic videogame adventure, Olija stages a story that will hardly leave you indifferent, so the advice is to download this game and embark on this bizarre adventure.

The Pedestrian - Xbox, PC and Cloud, January 4th

The Pedestrian is a particular puzzle platform based on signaling and puzzles Another puzzle with remarkable creativity and style is The Pedestrian, which joins Gorogoa by building a particularly rich and stimulating in this area in January. All built within road signs and various signs, the game sees us interpret a classic stylized "little man" struggling with decidedly intricate paths, which lead us to move from one sign to another, between displays or other signs at the interior of various settings. The structure is that of the sliding 2D platformer, but the construction of the levels constantly presents puzzles to be solved to find the steps to take to move forward from setting to setting, looking for a way out.

Il the result is a truly special experience, which places us in an unprecedented situation and exploiting a graphic style capable of mixing realistic 3D and 2D elements with great expressive capacity. The Pedestrian is a game that exudes style but is also a very creative puzzle, built on a masterful level design, which we really recommend to everyone.

Embr - Xbox, PC and Cloud, January 6th

Embr, a game scene in the middle of a fire It wouldn't be a batch of Xbox Game Pass games without its inevitable crazy multiplayer title and in this case the category fits perfectly Embr, a bizarre first-person action game by by Muse Games. In the game we find ourselves wearing the fireproof (makeshift) suit of an improvised firefighter struggling with various fires in different environments, with the need to tame and extinguish the flames together with other players, possibly earning something in addition to gratitude. of people saved. We start with a poor water pistol and advance until we unlock more and more powerful and effective equipment to keep fires at bay, cooperating with other players in a real team action to try to maximize the effectiveness of the interventions. br>
While flames are extinguished and people in danger are saved, they also try to earn bonuses and money to invest in improving the equipment, thus progressively becoming a first-rate fire-extinguishing machine. The various scenarios then propose variations, game situations and themed threats based on the context, to never rest assured.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition - Xbox and PC (Game Pass Ultimate and EA Play) , January 6

The main art of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition Probably the most important game of this release of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate comes from EA Play and is Mass Effect Legendary Edition, a complete, revised and corrected version of the original trilogy of science fiction RPGs from BioWare and EA.

It is a real sci-fi epic, which has fascinated millions of players since the launch of the original on Xbox 360 and PC, building one of the most successful brands of the last generations of consoles, symbol of an era in which the productions of this type, that is large-caliber RPG but with a rather structured system according to the classic stylistic features, were still able to capture the attention of a huge audience, instead of being relegated to niche titles, as well as a BioWare still in top form compared to the most recent developments.

While we await the future of the series with the new Mass Effect in development, this collection brings the original trilogy to its best form, including all additional content released for the various chapters. In case you have already played the titles at the time, it may be worth giving a review to the trilogy with the improved graphics and perhaps recovering those DLCs that were lost, but if you have never had the opportunity to play before, the download is mandatory. as well as total immersion in the universe of Shepard and his companions.

Here is the review of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition.

Outer Wilds - Xbox, PC and Cloud, January 6th

Outer Wilds, the strange atmosphere of the game immediately shines through the images By popular demand, Outer Wilds also returns to the Xbox Game Pass catalog, after it was removed a few months ago. It is, quite simply, one of the most brilliant games of recent years, in terms of structure, narration and construction of the world. Awarded as one of the best indies of 2019 and beyond, Outer Wilds derives from a particular idea, centered on cyclical and progressive iterations of a world always placed on the verge of destruction.

History puts us in the shoes of an astronaut exploring alien planets, just before a nearby supernova explodes. From this moment, the gaming experience becomes a loop, in which we find ourselves continuously reliving the twenty minutes before the explosion of the star, but each time with different events staged. The discoveries made in each experience remain even in the following ones and this allows to progress in the investigations, fragment by fragment, trying to discover the causes of the cataclysm, the secrets of the previous inhabitants of the planet and possibly how to escape the total destruction of the world.

Spelunky 2 - Xbox and PC, January 13

Spelunky 2, a screenshot of the game All the features that made the first Spelunky into a true indie masterpiece are found, enhanced, in Spelunky 2, and this is enough to understand the extent of this game coming to Xbox Game Pass. At the base of the project, on the other hand, there is always the brilliant Derek Yu, who set the second chapter as a direct continuation of the concept of the predecessor but also its exponential enrichment in various directions, so much so that it required a production of higher profile than the original, with the involvement of Blitworks in the development.

As you can understand better by reading our review of Spelunky 2, also in this case we are dealing with an action platform with puzzle and roguelike elements , with the levels set according to a procedural generation which, however, is perfectly set to build very demanding but also satisfying challenges, through what seems to be a sort of magic formula found by Yu and his companions. Again there are many more different environments, as well as enemies and traps of various types, as well as a particular physics applied to elements of the scenario such as liquids and more, able to further enrich the experience. Also present is the cooperative and competitive online multiplayer.

The Anacrusis - Xbox and PC (Game Preview), January 13

The Anacrusis, the strange retro futuristic sci-fi style is evident in this image The absolute debut on Xbox Game Pass at this round concerns The Anacrusis, a strange but author title, considering that it comes from the mind of Chet Faliszek, or the ex-Valve who is one of the main creators of Portal and Left 4 Dead. On the other hand, this new title is also based on a concept similar to that of the famous horror FPS, proposing a team composed of four characters (Nessa, Guion, Liu and Lance), each characterized by their own specific abilities, but in this case destined to clash against hordes of aliens, trying to survive and reach the conclusion of the various levels. So the tradition of but with some interesting variations and a distinctly different style returns, which recovers the stylistic features of the sci-fi genre of the 50-60s but filtered through a decidedly humorous vision, as a sort of parody of the classics of the genre. In all this, we find ourselves having to manage huge invasions of alien monsters that behave differently depending on their type, requiring the coordinated action of the various characters with their specific abilities. A particular application of artificial intelligence is also expected in the behavior of the various alien races and in the construction of challenges.

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