Earlier this morning, XBOX announced further restructuring with some major changes in addition to 268 layoffs at Halo Studios. Rare is part of Activision. Obsidian Entertainment is now a division of Bethesda and will be working wholly on Fallout titles and Grounded going forward. Activision will be creating a studio dedicated to making the next Halo game with no carryover from Halo Studios. Hellblade studio Ninja Theory is shuttering its doors. Playground Games is absorbing Turn 10 studio. Undead Labs, thankfully, has successfully bought itself out and will finish and release State of Decay 3. Arkane Studios is still working towards a resolution.
Apropos of nothing, here is a list of great indie games that, while not meeting the scope of AAA titles, might scratch the itch if you were to want to play an XBOX game and were, for whatever reason, wanting to avoid doing that.
Instead of Halo (Singleplayer), try ADACA
This sci-fi FPS is a solo-developed love letter to the golden days of Half-Life and the original Halo trilogy. Set on a mysterious planet, featuring gravity guns and laser weapons that’ll make your head explode, this narrative first-person shooter boasts a short but sweet five-hour campaign and an open-ended mode called Zone Patrol. There’s also a massive sandbox world to play in and a horde mode, not to mention dozens of different gun types. Give it a shot!
Instead of The Elder Scrolls, try Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon
It’s very difficult for independent studios to muster up a game with the same scope as a massive studio like Bethesda, but Polish studio Questline has made up for quantity with quality. This open-world action RPG is full to the brim with quests, memorable NPCs, branching storylines to follow, different classes, and a wide variety of spells and weapons to explore. Many have described it as “Indie Skyrim“, much smaller but following the game design of their earlier titles like Morrowind more closely. Skyrim fans looking for a sandbox fantasy world will certainly find what they’re looking for here.
Steam Page | PlayStation Store | Xbox Store | GOG
Instead of Forza Horizon, try Super Woden GP 2
Super Woden GP 2 may not, at first glance, look like it would stand up to the photo-realistic graphics beast that is the Forza Horizon series, but visuals are just a small piece of the puzzle. Combining arcade-style isometric racing with a thoroughly robust physics engine and a huge variety of customizable vehicles, Super Woden meets Forza where it counts. Another solo-developed love letter to a time long past in gaming, this title pays tribute to a plethora of arcade racers from the late 1990s and early 2000s. With its simulation focus, it may prove a great find for fans of the seemingly forgotten Forza Motorsport series, too. Get behind the wheel now!
Steam Page | Nintendo eShop | PlayStation Store | Xbox Store
Instead of Fable, try Kynseed
What if I told you that several of the very people who created Fable at Lionhead Studios all those years ago had created a new indie studio, and you can play their spiritual successor to Fable right now? While a little more on the cozy side than Fable, Kynseed follows its hybrid style as a fantasy life sim/RPG. The pixel aesthetics are reminiscent of Stardew Valley, and the game features a wide swath of systems from Fable such as farming, managing businesses, family dynasties, characters living full lives independently of you, housing customization, romance, and lots of quests. Kynseed has everything that Fable fans miss from the original games, including its trademark British humor, in spades.
Steam Page | GOG | Nintendo eShop | XBOX Store | PlayStation Store
Instead of Fallout 1 and 2, try ATOM RPG
While it’s not easy to find anything quite like the newer Bethesda Fallout games, there is thankfully a specific and high-quality “Indie Classic Fallout” game available right now. ATOM RPG is set in a Soviet post-apocalypse wasteland with an isometric camera. Fans of Fallout will find familiar stat, RPG, perk, and progression systems along with branching dialogue trees that impact the world. There’s a faction system, lots of quests, secrets to find, weapon crafting, and, most importantly, vastly different endings depending on your choices. Even if you’re a fan of the first-person shooter games in the franchise, if you’re willing to try an isometric turn-based game, ATOM RPG is the closest thing you’ll ever find to Fallout.
Steam Page | PlayStation Store | Nintendo eShop | Xbox Store
Instead of Fallout 3, 4, and New Vegas, try Chernobylite
I will preface this recommendation by saying that Chernobylite is much more serious in tone than Fallout, so don’t go in expecting a sarcastic satire of capitalism. This first-person shooter is set in a post-apocalyptic Chornobyl, complete with stealth, companions, factions, dialogue choices and consequences, scavenging, crafting, and multiple endings. You should note that Chernobylite has a huge focus on base-building that is very similar to Fallout 4, which I personally love but must acknowledge fans are split on. That said, Chernobylite offers a time loop mystery and lots of detective work, so I still encourage all fans of the franchise to give it a shot.
As a quick aside, if you’re looking for an alternative to Fallout 76, a game I quite enjoy, Chernobylite 2: Exclusion Zone is a multiplayer co-op-only game, albeit one with mixed reviews. I might recommend the extremely fun Sons of the Forest if you’re more interested in the base-building, survival, and radioactive mutants Bethesda’s game offers.
Steam Page | PlayStation Store | GOG | Nintendo eShop | XBOX Store
Instead of Minecraft, try Vintage Story
It is ambitious of me to try and recommend an alternative to the best-selling game of all time, but Vintage Story seems to have more than earned a slot on this list. Keep in mind before proceeding that this cube-based survival crafting game is still in Early Access, but has made promising progress and is fully stable. While very similar to Minecraft in appearance, Vintage Story boasts extremely difficult survival challenges with granular systems you will be forced to learn. Think of it this way: Minecraft is a building game with survival elements, while Vintage Story is a survival game with building elements. While in Early Access, you’ll have to download the client to your PC from their website, but after it hits 1.0, it’ll be available on Steam. Get your cube on now!
Download From Vintage Story Website
Instead of Sea of Thieves, try Windrose
Rare has spent the past 10 years tuning and refining Sea of Thieves, and it’s now a very solid multiplayer game with a lot to do. Despite that, a new competitor has arrived on the scene! With more realistic graphics and less cartoonish mayhem, Windrose is a PVE survival crafting game that takes place out on the open ocean during the Golden Age of Piracy. It’s got the procedurally generated islands, solo and co-op options, naval combat, customized ship building, and sword combat that you’d expect. Fair warning: it’s in Early Access, but reviews are great, and a lot of work has been done improving it already. There’s lots of guns and swords of all kinds to mess around with, and of course treasure to find, so grab your maps and look for that big red X!
Instead of Call of Duty (Singleplayer), try Trepang2
Trepang2 offers a tight 8-hour campaign with explosive, high-octane action in a classic first-person shooter. With bullet time, cinematic kills, superhuman agility, and smart enemy AI, Trepang2 will definitively deliver what fans miss from Call of Duty‘s early campaigns. In fact, several reviews call it the spiritual successor to F.E.A.R., which is no small compliment. Modern military aesthetics, a little sci-fi splash, and boom! Get to it.
Steam Page | PlayStation Store | Xbox Store | GOG
Instead of Call of Duty (Multiplayer), try Combat Master
I’ll be very upfront with you: there have been dozens of attempts to make indie Call of Duty, with well-reviewed games like Spectre Divide, Operation: Harsh Doorstep, Ironsight, Delta Force: Hawk Ops, ROSE, and Blood Strike being just a few among the bunch. All of their multiplayer servers are dead, with anywhere from 0-3 players online right now. Thankfully, Combat Master from Alfa Bravo Inc. has managed to stay alive, with a healthy, dedicated player base of over 1,000 Steam players daily on their online modes like Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Arms Race, and Search & Destroy. This fast-paced FPS mirrors COD’s gunplay and level design and has continual live service updates, just kicking off Season 5. And it’s free to play!
Steam Page | Apple App Store | Google Play Store
So there you are, for no particular reason. Did we miss any games you think should make the list? Let us know in the comments!
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