3 short games for the holidays

With the holidays just around the corner, between visiting family, eating delicious food and unwrapping presents, there might be a minute or two to spare. Sure, you could while away that time with a video game, but which one?

We took a look at Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass for you and present three games that you can easily play while on vacation. That’s why you won’t find any recommendations here for a 100-hour adventure like Persona 5 Royal or strategy heavyweight Total War: Warhammer 3. Instead, we’ll focus on games that have their strength in brevity.

3 short but exciting games included in Xbox Game Pass

All three games can be found on both Xbox and PC Game Pass. Alternatively, the games can of course also be purchased outside the subscription service and in some cases for other platforms. So you’re not necessarily locked into Game Pass, but it obviously makes it a little easier to try something new while on vacation.

#1 Repentance

When you hear the name Obsidian Entertainment, you probably first think of RPGs like Fallout: New Vegas, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Pillars of Eternity or The Outer Worlds. However, the US studio also masters other genres and in 2022 this was proven with the survival game Grounded and the unusual adventure Pentiment.

The latter puts you in the shoes of the Nuremberg artist Andreas Maler at the time of the 16th century. He earns his living in an abbey in the imaginary Bavarian village of Tassing and soon becomes a detective: two criminal cases need to be solved. People of different social classes in the late Middle Ages have to be interviewed, countless pieces of evidence gathered, and important decisions made. The latter in particular are not always easy, as we also note in our test report, because you will never be able to make everyone involved happy.

You can play through the very text-heavy adventure, which doesn’t include any speech output, in about 10-15 hours. Only those who explore everything, want to see every dialogue, and think long and hard about decisions will need a few extra hours. However, repentance may very well be accomplished satisfactorily in a few quiet hours during the holidays.

#2 Nobody saves the world

Nobody Saves the World by DrinkBox Studios, the creators of Guacamelee, goes in a completely different direction from Pentiment. At first glance, this can also score with an unusual graphic style and a bizarre idea: you are nobody in the game. Someone who doesn’t actually have any special abilities and just exists.

But luckily, you and your nobody soon pick up a magic wand, and that’s where the real fun begins. From now on you can transform into different forms that have a direct influence on the gameplay. Like a mouse, you can squeeze through particularly narrow passages or, like a wizard, pull an army of wild animals out of your hat. Gradually you will learn new skills with shapes, which sometimes even have to be combined with each other.

If you can still do something with wacky humor, then you should give Nobody Saves the World a chance in Xbox Game Pass, alternatively even as a duo, because both online and couch co-op are supported. With a playing time of around 15 hours, the hike is not infinitely long, as we show in our test report.

#3 As dusk falls

Our third recommendation is a game that you can also play with the whole family during the holidays. As Dusk Falls is an interactive drama where you and seven other players regularly make decisions that affect the storyline.

But what is it about? Using an unusual graphic style, As Dusk Falls tells the story of two very different families whose paths crossed during a robbery in Arizona in 1998. From that moment on, the story accompanies the destinies of the various family members and also provides insights into the past of individual characters.

In addition to its exciting story staged with great voice actors, which we also praised extensively in our test, As Dusk Falls can also score as a cooperative game. On the one hand, only one player needs a copy of the game, while the others can still participate in the decisions using a special smartphone app: Voting is obviously very democratic, unless a previously defined right of veto is used .

With a playtime of around six to seven hours, As Dusk Falls doubles as good evening entertainment that can sometimes replace one or the other holiday classic. Provided there are no children present, because sometimes the story gets quite dark when topics such as suicide are addressed. However, the game warns about this and even allows you to skip individual chapters.

Any other advice?