Science fiction games transport you to strange alien worlds, the future, or the past, space, or Earth. The possibilities are endless for science fiction. Xbox and PC Game Pass have a lot of great science fiction games on offer. Some will have you hooked for hours on end, and others that offer smaller, more focused experiences.
The Outer Worldsis a first-person, role-playing game set in an alternate science fiction galaxy all about corporations, greed, and plunder. You create a character, establish an identity, explore strange worlds, interact with odd, quirky characters, and battle your way through enemies.
The game is primarily a first-person shooter with stealth mechanics, but it also has dialogue choices. The game and its charactersare shaped around your choicesand personality. There are moments of drama, with plenty of comedy, some horror, and more. The Outer Worlds is a detailed, inviting sci-fi experience.
The Outer Worlds might not be everyone’s cup of tea. Here’sour review.
9Citizen Sleeper
InCitizen Sleeper, you play as a person whose memories have been lost. You awaken aboard a space station, your unknown past and history catching up with you. There, you must make a new life for yourself, earning money from odd jobs, making friends and acquaintances, and plotting a way off the station.
Citizen Sleeper is a top-down role-playing game with dice and stat-based mechanics. Its gameplay is not for everyone, but the story and the characters are well-realized, with twists and turns, shocks and surprises, as well as drama and emotion. How the story progresses and ends is up to you.
Not sure if Citizen Sleeper is for you? Here’sour review of the game.
Set on a space station,Preyis a horror-driven science fiction game in which anything you see could potentially be the death of you. There’s an unusual, alien shapeshifter species aboard the space station, killing everything in sight, hiding in plain sight, and inciting terror while it does it.
Prey is a first-person shooter letting you use science fiction weapons and powers to battle creepy alien enemies. Adownloadable packadded a rogue-like mode to the experience, focusing in on the survival aspects and reimagining what the game could be. Prey is creepy, atmospheric, and it boasts a cool sci-fi setting.
Star Warshas always dabbled the line between science fiction and fantasy. InStar Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, you play as Cal Kestis, a Jedi who survived the events of Order 66 and is now trying to live in the Empire without revealing his true Jedi identity.
Jedi: Fallen Order is a third person, action-adventure game. you’re able to build and customize your own lightsaber, battle stormtroopers and alien creatures, explore the galaxy, and interact with a plethora of Star Wars characters and settings. The game also allows you to use the force; pushing, propelling, jumping, wall running, and more.
Want to know if this is for you? Check outour review of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
Trapped on an island within a repeating, twenty-four-hour time loop, you play as Colt, determined to regain your memories and take down the loop, and the people responsible for it.Deathloopis a first-person shooter with stealth mechanics, in which you must uncover clues and secrets to take down key enemies.
The goal is simple: within a one-day cycle, kill everyone and end the loop. Each area of the game has its own style and vibe, which changes throughout the day.Each character has a unique personality, and there are fun, cooky, science fiction weapons and concepts to wrap your head around, too.
Deathloop is one ofArkane’s best games. Still not convinced?Here’s our review.
No Man’s Skylaunched to a mixed reception. What the game promised was not always evident in its initial form. Over time, patches and downloadable content have since fleshed out and expanded the game, making it one of the most open, depth-filled science fiction games available.
In it, you create a character, enter a vast galaxy of possibilities, and do just about whatever you want. You can build a home or an outpost, explore space in a ship, mine for resources, battle enemies, or discover the secrets at the center of the galaxy.
Starfieldis a role-playing game set in a far-future version of our own galaxy. You can create a ship, gather a crew, work as a bounty hunter or a miner, build an outpost, explore the galaxy, or uncover its mysteries. Starfield allows for many possibilities.
It’s primarily a role-playing game with action elements,choice-based conversations that impact characters and the story, building and customization galore, and much, much more. Its science fiction aesthetic strives for realism and believability, for the most part. Starfield is not for everyone.
When the USG Ishimura goes silent, a repair crew is sent to investigate and fix the mining vessel inDead Space. On arrival, they find most of the crew dead or missing and a horde of horrendous monsters infesting the malfunctioning ship.
You play as a mechanic,Isaac Clarke, and you must navigate the third-person horror game, uncover the origins of the nightmare, battle demonic monsters, and escape with your life and sanity intact. Dead Space is a horror-focused science fiction game with plenty of atmosphere, thrills, and action to boot.
Dead Space might be too scary for some.Our reviewis not.
2Halo (Series)
The flagship of the Xbox brand isHalo. Halo is an epic, action-driven, first-person shooter series set in a science fiction world. You play primarily as Master Chief, a super soldier trained as a child to be the best of the best.
The Halo series features a vast world of different characters, locations, alien species, and a lot of lore and history. There arebooks that accompany the series, delving further into the science fiction side of it. The games themselves are first-person shooters with narratives and multiplayer components, allowing vehicular combat too.
1Mass Effect (Series)
The three mainlineMass Effectgames tell an epic, science fiction, space opera story. You play as Commander Shepard, the first human spectre, tasked with saving the galaxy from an impending attack from an ancient, all-powerful alien race known as the Reapers.
The games are role-playing ones, so you create a character, make choices, choose your own path, and the game shapes its narrative around you. It has diverse worlds, plenty of lore to sink your teeth into, great action, dialogue, and depth-filled characters. Everything you could possibly want from a science fiction experience.
