Ranking Every Xbox One Exclusive From Worst To Best

Rocky start. VERY respectable end.

Forza Horizon 4
Playground Games

It's not up for debate: Sony has unequivocally provided members of the PlayStation family more reasons to choose its hardware over Microsoft's.

But the latter hasn't gone out without a fight. It would have been so easy to give up, given that - in lieu of the total humiliation that followed the Xbox One's disastrous reveal - Microsoft's goose appeared cooked in 2013, but here we are, half a decade later, celebrating a comeback for the beleaguered console.

In fact, more so than its competitor, Microsoft has provided ample variety across its modest selection of system sellers, with the usual heavy-hitters - Halo, Gears, Forza - joined by fresher, less established ideas thanks to the work of Remedy and Insomniac with Quantum Break and Sunset Overdrive respectively. There have been missteps along the way, of course, with titles like ReCore and Sea of Thieves failing to achieve their potential, but unlike Sony, Microsoft's momentum seems only to be building as of late.

If Microsoft can keep the ball rolling into 2019 with new releases comparable in quality to Cuphead, Ori or Playground Games' terrific recent addition to the Forza Horizon franchise, it'll be nipping at Sony's heels in no time.

17. Crimson Dragon

Forza Horizon 4
Grounding Inc

Two critical mistakes doomed Crimson Dragon, spiritual successor to Sega's lauded Panzer Dragoon series, to commercial failure before it even launched alongside Microsoft's then shiny new Xbox One.

Not only was the on-rails shooter meant, as all launch titles are, to showcase the power of Microsoft's new hardware, but also prove Kinect's continued worth as a device fit for anything other than gimmicky, casual interactions.

Originally primed as an Xbox 360 title and repurposed as a One launch exclusive, Crimson Dragon's visuals failed to deliver - a fault only exacerbated by Crytek's gloriously detailed Ryse: Son of Rome - and its Kinect-only control scheme scrapped in favour of traditional gamepad controls.

The latter was functional at best and, coupled with its bland, repetitive mission structure, saw to Crimson Dragon's swift death.

Contributor
Contributor

Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.