In the battle between the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One, the PS4 was the clear winner not only in terms of exclusives but also features like native streaming, which Xbox lacked until 2022. Is that to say there were no exclusives? Absolutely not.
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There were a lot of great Xbox One exclusives that didn’t get recognition until many years after release or, in some cases, got fixed years later. To boot, the Xbox One X was the most powerful console of that generation, so many of the great third-party games played best on the One X.
2013: Killer Instinct
The Best Fighting Game Of The Generation
Killer Instinct (2013)
- Released
-
November 22, 2013
- Developer(s)
-
Double Helix Games
, Iron Galaxy - Publisher(s)
-
Microsoft Game Studios
- Multiplayer
-
Online Multiplayer
- ESRB
-
M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- OpenCritic Rating
-
Strong
Xbox has a history of groundbreaking fighting games within the launch window of its consoles. Back on the Xbox 360, Dead or Alive 4 was the first ever fighting game to have an avatar lobby system, and Killer Instinct on Xbox One was ten years ahead of the curb regarding online play.
With high-quality rollback netcode on launch day, Killer Instinct had the highest-quality fighting game netcode in the industry for nearly a decade. It made more popular fighting games like Street Fighter 5 seem like amateur hour with unwatchable online tournaments. Sadly, it wasn’t until the pandemic in 2020, when the wide fighting game community was forced to play online, that people discovered the true greatness of KI 2013.
2014: Halo: The Master Chief Collection
The Definitive Halo Experience
- Released
-
November 11, 2014
- Multiplayer
-
Online Multiplayer
, Local Multiplayer - ESRB
-
M for Mature: Violence, Blood and Gore, Language
- How Long To Beat
-
60 Hours
- X|S Optimized
-
Yes
- File Size Xbox Series
-
115 GB (November 2023)
- Metascore
-
85
- Platforms That Support Crossplay
-
PC, Xbox One & Xbox Series X|S
- Split Screen Orientation
-
Vertical Or Horizontal
- Cross-Platform Play
-
PC, Xbox One & Xbox Series X|S
Yes, Halo: The Master Chief Collection is a remaster of all the Original Xbox and 360 Halo titles, but it’s that damn good. At least now, anyway. Halo MCC had a notoriously bad launch, but years later, it was all fixed up, and with so many additions, there’s no denying it’s the ultimate Halo package.
The full-blown Halo 2 Anniversary edition is such an upgrade with incredible cutscenes by Blur Studio. Microsoft never even put the original Halo and Halo 2 on the Xbox Backward Compatibility Program because they knew virtually everyone would play MCC instead. This collection was that much of a replacement for the original titles.
2015: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The Climatic Finale
Most outlets gave The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Game of the Year in 2015, but it wasn’t a no-contest for the Xbox One system. You also had Rare Replay, a fantastic collection of old Rare titles, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, one of the best and most popular games in the series. Witcher 3 has the two main elements that make for an all-time great game.
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On its own, it’s an incredible action RPG with some of the best writing and characters in the genre, and that also applies to the stellar DLC packs. Two, the game was very influential in its genre, particularly with the presentation, making conversations look vastly better than anything that came before, laying the groundwork for future games like Baldur’s Gate 3.
2016: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
One Of The Most Overlooked Games Of The Generation
2016 had a lot of competition. You had plenty of great FPS games, like Doom 2016, Titanfall 2, and Overwatch. Plus, the Xbox One exclusive Quantum Break is an incredibly underrated Remedy game. However, the Game of the Year goes to the title most overlooked: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The sequel to the acclaimed Human Revolution, Mankind Divided, is just as good, with fantastic gameplay, level design, side quests, and writing.
Mary DeMarle, Game Award Best Narrative winner for Guardians of the Galaxy, does an incredible job handling Mankind Divided’s tough themes of discrimination, which could have easily come off as corny or forced. It really sucks the sequel for this game was cancelled, as Mankind Divided is one of the titles that leave you wanting more after completion.
2017: Prey
Another Game That Was One Of The Best Of The Era
Despite not winning a whole lot of actual game awards, the 2017 Prey is retroactively regarded as one of the greatest games of the generation. Developed by the now-defunct Arkane Austin, this Prey has nothing to do with the original 2006 title and is instead a spiritual successor to the System Shock games.
This was before the System Shock remake, so games of this type were very hard to come by, and Prey delivered 100 percent. The game’s intense and captivating the whole way through, but the incredibly hooking introduction sequence really stands out today as fresh and more old-school. Many horror games of that era really dragged out its opening, but Prey gets into it fast, and you just have to keep playing to figure out what’s going on.
2018: Red Dead Redemption 2
Rockstar Once Again Shows Why Their The Best There Is, The Best There Was, And The Best There Ever Will Be
Rockstar Games created some of the greatest titles in this industry, including Red Dead Redemption 2. The story alone is a masterpiece following the rise and fall of Arthur Morgan that’s captivating the entire time throughout this 100-hour Western epic. It’s one of the rare Rockstar titles you may want to play through multiple times due to the differences in the story between positive and negative honor.
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The open world map of Red Dead 2 is debatably the best crafted ever in a video game, with every area being so well-designed, and unlike Grand Theft Auto, exploration is heavily encouraged here, as you can find cool details or memos to read. The Xbox One X was the best console version and remains so due to the lack of a current-gen port.
2019: Resident Evil 2
Still The Best Modern Horror Remake
The game that kickstarted the triple-A horror remake trend was Resident Evil 2, and it still hasn’t been beaten. Even with RE3, RE4, Dead Space, and Silent Hill 2, none had the design philosophy of RE2 remake that explicitly improved everything about the original.
The level design was faithful but expanded upon, the big stalker enemy, Mr. X, was given a massive overhaul, the puzzles were far better, the story was better, and the dual campaign mechanic was better implemented. Despite it being a third-person horror game, RE2 remake felt the most similar to RE1 remake in what it did to elevate, improve, and expand RE2 as a whole. None of these other remakes feel that way, whether they’re too similar or fail to improve many aspects.
2020: Yakuza: Like A Dragon
The Game That Revitalized The Franchise
After Yakuza 0 and the first Kiwami, the franchise went downhill big time, at least in regard to gameplay. The incredibly action-packed combat of Yakuza 2 through Kiwami 1 was absolutely amazing, but when Yakuza 6 released with the Dragon Engine, it was all gone. Yakuza: Like A Dragon decided to go the turn-based RPG route, and after playing, you never want the franchise to go back.
In the triple-A RPG landscape, Yakuza 7 went back to basics, being very much old-school Dragon Quest but modernized for new audiences. It’s an absolute blast to play, plus the new storyline and characters were very welcome, with Ichiban, in particular, being a great new protagonist for this era of the series.
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