10 Best Adventure Games on Xbox Series X|S (2024)

.Every video game genre has a solid fandom that keeps track of the best offerings. But adventure games remain unique for their incredible delivery of exploration, a touch of horror or combat action. Here are the 10 best adventure games on Xbox Series X|S for action-adventure lovers. 

10. Star Trek: Resurgence

The narrative-driven adventure video game title came to the gaming scene in 2023. The game is yet another addition to the Telltale Games staff-launched video game developer Dramatic Labs’ title list. The gameplay in Star Trek: Resurgence is set in the fictional world of Star Trek, where the U.S.S Resolute officers embark on a mission to block an unseen enemy from overwhelming everything in its wake. 

Playing as first Officer Rydek and Engineer Diaz, restore the ship to order after a disaster. Simultaneously, switch between the game’s narrative of diplomacy and exploring enemy territory. Eventually, the two main protagonists pick sides that will shape the game’s main storyline. But overall, you will be hitting the right notes with Star Trek: Resurgence’s exploration with shuttlecrafts and firefights, occasional puzzles, and deadly threats.

9. The Chant

In The Chant, a bizarre ritual goes wrong to trigger horrific terror on the spiritual island. It all begins on a calm weekend before a group chant awakens the Gloom’s horror. The Gloom feeds the island with horrific negative energy, slowly consuming the group members. Explore the island’s cosmic dread and interact with the retreat members. You will also meet recurring in-game characters who will help you unravel the island’s history and the cosmos’ secrets. All while fighting and surviving the prismatic creatures released from The Gloom, and only you can fight them. 

8. Close to the Sun

Storm in a Tea Cup released Close to the Sun in 2019, a horror-adventure title exclusively set in the colossal Helios in the late eighteen. The massive sea cruiser stands still in the waters as the relentless waves crash against the hull. Rose Archer is out to save her sister but sets aboard the vessel to make a freakish discovery. Silence and the stench of rotting flesh fill the grand halls, and a caution to quarantine is painted at the entrance. Guide Archer through the vessel to untangle the mystery beneath, solve puzzles, and overcome bizarre puzzles in your mission to find Ada. 

7. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

With Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Eidos Montreal crafted a compelling action-adventure tale that brings nothing less than electrifying gameplay. You control Peter Quill, better known as Star-Lord, the main protagonist, who guns down enemies with elemental weapons in different shooting modes. With his army of Guardians, Star-Lord leads the team through one chaotic explosion to another as they ride across the cosmos to prevent a complete meltdown of the galaxies. 

6. Beyond a Steel Sky

Revolution Software released Beyond a Steel Sky in 2020 to follow up on the prequel, Beneath a Steel Sky. The sci-fi adventure video game presents itself as a dramatic cyberpunk thriller where players immerse themselves in a fast-paced story in a dynamic world. Playing as Robert Foster in a far-future world, you are tasked with finding and bringing home a child who is abducted in a brutal nuclear war disaster. But the trail leads you to Union City, the megacity and the land’s utopia, where the residents are living their lives under altruistic technology. Explore the dynamic world, subverting their systems with unique hacks and solutions to emerging puzzles. 

5. Call of the Sea

Gamers who love an exploration of the South Pacific in the 1930s have the ideal way to experience the thrill in a first-person perspective. You play Norah, the game's main female protagonist, who is searching for her missing husband out of love. Norah follows the path of her husband’s expedition, only to end up on a forgotten island paradise with traces of lost civilization. Enjoy the stunning sights in the paradise island and solve puzzles as you progress through the calm land with no combat. 

4. Return to Monkey Island

Return to Monkey Island came with the unexpected return of Ron Gilbert, the creator who left after the first two entries of the Monkey Island series. It’s the series’ sixth installation that came to carry on the story of the legendary title, The Secret of Monkey Island. Players progress the story in epic point-and-click adventure gameplay by cracking the narrative-based puzzles. And for those who never let a Monkey Island franchise skip, you can banter with some old buddies along with new faces on the usual islands but under new, unsafe leadership. 

3. Astroneer

Astroneer graced the exploration video games list in 2019, and unsurprisingly, it ranks high among the 10 best adventure games on Xbox Series X|S in 2024. During the intergalactic discovery, the game makes you an astronaut, and you can only catch their exotic adventures. Explore the strange universe, build anything you imagine, uncover what each of the seven planets holds, and, most importantly, stay alive. 

2. Stray

Stray immerses you in a lonely adventure as a lone cat, lost and separated from your family. Leap across platforms, scale obstacles, and crack up paths as you interact with the rotten cyber city and murky environments. You will view the world with a cat’s eyes as you interact with the land playfully, but be ready to overcome unforeseen threats of droids and strange creatures. Solve puzzles to progress the narrative as your drone companion helps you through your adventure by translating other character languages, carrying your items, hacking technologies, and lighting your paths. 

1. Life is Strange: True Colors

Life is Strange: True Colors lives up to its title with the main protagonist’s strange powers. Alex Chan, who lived in foster care, has psychic empathy, which allows her to see how anyone around her feels, but at the cost of acquiring their emotions. Alex believes her power to be a colorful aura, but when she interacts with characters with intense emotions, she acquires a nova that can change the world around her. The nova allows Alex to reflect on the elements of the emotion, giving her a perspective on what caused the characters' aura and knowing how to comfort them.

So, what’s your take on our list of the 10 best adventure games on Xbox Series X|S? Let us know your thoughts here on our socials or down in the comments.