Editorials
12 of the Best Horror Games to Try on Xbox Game Pass
Netflix’s subscription model has changed the landscape of TV and film, so it’s only logical that the video game world tries to follow suit. So far, Microsoft has been the most successful company to attempt it, putting together a strong library for Xbox Game Pass. But much like Netflix, it’s easy for good games to get lost in a huge pile of content.
So here are some of the horror highlights that Game Pass has to offer, both on PC and Xbox One.
Pathologic 2
This is the perfect type of game to try out on Xbox Game Pass. Ice Pick Lodge’s surrealist horror title defies easy description and won’t be for everyone, but if you’ve already got the service there’s no reason not to download it to see if it’s your cup of tea. The game casts you as a doctor trying to save a town from a mysterious disease as everything is going to hell around you. It’s bizarre, stressful, and possibly too real for the time we live in, but even with rough edges, it’s one of the most unique experiences you can find in the genre.
Blair Witch
Another game that seems perfect for the service, but for different reasons, is Bloober Team’s adaptation of Blair Witch. While Pathologic 2 feels like that weird indie movie you randomly watch and end up thinking about for weeks, Blair Witch is something that’s perfectly enjoyable, but will fade from memory afterward. While it never is as good as its source material, there’s enough there for you to give it a shot to see if it resonates with you, especially if you’re a fan of the films.
We Happy Few
Microsoft must have liked what they saw in We Happy Few, because they acquired Compulsion Games in 2018 and added the game to Game Pass. While the game was disappointing to many fans because it wasn’t the Bioshock-like experience many thought it would be from the trailer, the Prisoner-meets-Clockwork-Orange vibe of the game’s world is enough to help make up for the clunky crafting and survival mechanics.
A Plague Tale: Innocence
With the massive amount of good games that have come out in the last few years, it’s easy to miss some smaller titles like A Plague Tale, but with Game Pass, it’s only a click away. Set among in 1348 against the backdrop of the bubonic plague and the Spanish Inquisition, the game tells a heartfelt coming-of-age story with strong characters and an oppressive atmosphere. Again, it might hit a little too close to home in 2020, but it’s a powerful game that deserves to be played.
Frostpunk
Have you ever played SimCity and thought to yourself the game would be improved with “hope” and “discontent” meters? If so, Frostpunk is your game. Tasked with building a city during an icy apocalypse, players have to carefully manage their resources while making tricky moral decisions to keep their colony from dying out. Definitely not the most cheery game around, but this chilly city builder offers a unique experience that’s as stressful as it is addictive.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
If the many delays with this project led you to skipping it upon its release last year, now’s the perfect opportunity to correct that mistake through Game Pass. Koji Igarashi returns to the genre he helped make famous with a gorgeous game that accurately captures the spirit of his classic Castlevania title, Symphony of the Night. Exploring gothic castles while fighting all manner of creatures still holds the same appeal now as it did in 1997.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
Another one of Microsoft’s exciting studio acquisitions was Ninja Theory, especially following the release of Hellblade. Featuring highly polished visuals and excellent acting, Hellblade told the mentally harrowing tale of Senua’s descent into the underworld to save her dead lover from the goddess Hela. Though the game has a solid foundation, neither the combat nor the puzzles find interesting ways to evolve as the game goes on, but the story and atmosphere carry the game a long way.
Mortal Kombat X
If you’re like me, you’re not very good at fighting games and find little reason to own them because you get trounced anytime you try to play online. Fortunately, Xbox Game Pass gives you access to NetherRealm’s excellent Mortal Kombat X. Fighting game newbies like myself can try it out and have fun with the game’s over the top and entertaining story mode. The series as a whole has been on a roll in the past few iterations, so if you have any interest in Mortal Kombat, this is a great way to jump in and see what it’s been up to.
Devil May Cry 5
Speaking of series that have come back with a vengeance, Capcom revitalized the Devil May Cry series with the fifth entry after an attempted reboot six years earlier. Devil May Cry 5 brought back the original Dante in all his glory, with new and old characters rounding out an interesting story told in its signature over-the-top style. If you held off from trying out this excellent action title because of worries about replay value, Game Pass gives you a perfect opportunity to dive in.
Remnant: From the Ashes
If you and your friends are looking for something to play together during this era of social distancing, Remnant is a great option. The quick pitch is that it’s Dark Souls with guns and Diablo-style loot mechanics. Set in a post-apocalypse where the world has been overrun by an evil race called The Root, the game changes up the Souls formula by randomizing enemy layouts, even changing the boss you encounter from playthrough to playthrough. The lore isn’t as much of a hook as it is in the Souls series, but the shooting mechanics are top notch and always satisfying.
The Surge 2
Speaking of Souls-like games, the first The Surge game was one I bounced off of pretty quickly. The combat was solid, but the environments were very dull and lifeless, giving me no reason to keep progressing. Luckily developer Deck13 learned their lessons and the followup improves on it in every way. While the original was set in a rather bland factory run amok, this one features a whole city overrun by cyborgs of all variety. The combat can seem overwhelming at first, but the rush of chopping off an opponent’s arm with a well-timed strike to acquire their shiny new weapon never gets old.
Alien: Isolation
The Alien franchise has a long and storied history in video games. While most try to capture the action-packed spirit of Aliens, Alien: Isolation reaches for the tension and horror that made the first one an instant classic. Stalked by the iconic Xenomorph, players control Amanda Ripley as she tries to escape from the doomed Sevastapol Station. Isolation manages to perfectly capture the look, feel, and mood of the franchise, creating a truly authentic Alien experience.
Have you tried out Xbox Game Pass? If so, feel free to leave your recommendations below!
Comics
‘Spider-Noir’ Comic Changes Explained: How the TV Series Reinvents Marvel’s Darkest Spider-Man
A little while back, I wrote an article chronicling the Hellraiser franchise’s affinity for Film Noir and touched on how that genre has, historically, always been connected to horror.
This connection can be observed in everything from the cannibalistic serial killers of Frank Miller’s Sin City to the disturbing criminal plots fueling neo-noir thrillers like Stuart Gordon’s underrated King of the Ants. That’s why it came as no surprise when I finally sat down to watch all eight episodes of Prime Video’s recently released Spider-Noir series and was confronted with plenty of classic horror tropes.
What did come as a surprise, however, was how showrunners Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot approached these horror elements when compared to the 2009 comic book that the show is based on. From the heavily altered rogue’s gallery to an equally terrifying yet completely different origin story for Nicolas Cage’s take on the webslinger, there are plenty of changes here that I feel might be of interest to genre fans.
With that in mind, I’d like to invite readers to take a closer look at all the adjustments that Spider-Noir made to the story in order to bring this incarnation of Spider-Man to life in all of its monochromatic glory (unless you watched the True-Hue color version of the show, in which case you’ll be treated to a surprisingly comic-booky palette that you don’t usually see on television).
The Dark Origins of Marvel’s Spider-Man Noir
Our first order of business should be to examine the origins of the Noir comics themselves. Originally published as part of the Marvel Noir alternate universe that reimagined several characters as hard-boiled crime-fighters, Spider-Man Noir became the most successful book in the entire run. This highly politicized story about Peter Parker coming to terms with the capitalist evils of the Great Depression seemed to have struck a nerve with audiences looking for a darker take on the wall-crawler, which is likely why we’d soon see several sequel stories as well as a video game adaptation of the character in 2010’s underrated Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.
Of course, it wasn’t just Spider-Man’s darker disposition that made this version of the character a hit, as 1930s New York City was depicted as being much more hostile than what we generally see in the standard Marvel Universe. From Peter’s powers coming from an Eldritch Spider God that spawns man-eating arachnids to Vulture being an ex-Freak-Show Gimp with a taste for human flesh, you can definitely understand why this Web-Head isn’t pulling his punches.
Unfortunately, this alternate universe was a little too popular for its own good, with each subsequent sequel/adaptation further diluting the political anger and classic horror influences that fueled the original comic-book run in order to appeal to a wider audience. Spider-Man Noir was nearly unrecognizable once we got to the Spider-Verse crossover that turned the character into a household name, though this would at least lead to an interesting adaptation in 2018.
The Classic Horror Influences Hidden Throughout Spider-Noir
Jack Huston as Sandman in ‘Spider-Noir’
When Phil Lord and Chris Miller finally translated Spider-Man Noir to the big screen, with Nicolas Cage bringing the character to life in an unexpected case of pitch-perfect casting, he was still mostly relegated to comic relief as his nazi-punching antics and over-the-top edginess were played for laughs. However, while this version of the character had little to do with the comics that spawned him, Spider-Noir’s newfound popularity eventually resulted in the announcement of a darker live-action spin-off – a spin-off that I was cautiously optimistic about.
While the showrunners ultimately decided to go in a completely different direction than the 2009 comic, the new team of writers appeared to understand Noir as a genre in ways that even the folks at Marvel Noir couldn’t quite grasp. That’s likely why 2026’s Spider-Noir boasts plenty of horror elements, just not in ways we’ve seen them before.
The series is obviously borrowing tropes and aesthetics from period-accurate monster movies, with Universal’s 1930s output being a particularly big influence. From the re-imagining of Sandman and Tombstone as tragic figures to The Spider even being operated on by a mad scientist with hilariously antiquated techniques, this bizarre collection of super-powered freaks could have easily shown up in a classic creature feature.
The scares aren’t all retro, however, as the showrunners also injected plenty of body-horror into the mix during their attempt at unifying the origin stories for all these larger-than-life characters. Hell, the Spider himself is now revealed to have gained his powers after being bitten by a half-mutated Man-Spider during World War I, and the aforementioned mad scientist keeps a disturbing collection of failed experiments in her basement, proving that not all of her patients were lucky enough to simply gain superpowers after being experimented on.
Nicolas Cage Reinvents Spider-Man Noir for Television
Ben Reilly/Spiderman (Nicolas Cage) in SPIDER-NOIR
Photo: Aaron Epstein/Prime
© Amazon Content Services LLC
I also really appreciate how Cage insists on depicting Ben Reilly as an arachnid trapped inside of a human body, with his uncanny physical performance and classic Hollywood impressions keeping your eyes glued to the screen while also providing some of the show’s funniest moments.
I still think it’s a shame that the character is no longer politically motivated, and I miss the detail about Uncle Ben having been cannibalized by Vulture after his social activism ruffled too many feathers, but at least this time our protagonist actually feels like someone who could have been written by Raymond Chandler if he were a fan of Superheroes.
In fact, the writers nailed the snappy back-and-forth that Noir authors like Dashiel Hammett used to refer to as the “riposte”, and it’s fun to see supervillains being depicted as horrific movie monsters instead of specialized henchmen – with The Spider feeling like just as much of a Freak Show attraction as the rest of them. Purists might be put off by the lack of reverence for the source material, but I think that’s a small price to pay when even the show’s most clichéd moments intentionally harken back to the golden age of Hollywood.
That’s why I’d argue that Amazon’s Spider-Noir isn’t really an adaptation, but rather an equally valid take on the same premise that inspired Marvel back in 2009. And in a world filled with recycled storylines that only serve to advertise future releases, I’d rather have two completely different visions of the same character than a straight-up retelling of the same handful of ideas.
At the end of the day, there’s enough space inside this comic fan’s heart for both man-eating Vultures and a Cronenberg-inspired Man-Spider. And if you’re also a fan of nostalgic creature features with comic book flair, I’d highly recommend this street-level superhero story with a spooky twist.
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