Xbox Game Pass: 10 Hidden Gems You Must Play

Ever since P.T. took the world by storm, first-person environmental horror games have been coming and going faster than most can keep track. Some have managed to rise above others, Outlast and Alien: Isolation are two for instance - Both of which are available on Game Pass, albeit Outlast already has one foot out the door.

Layers of Fear is another that stands above the rest. It's not action packed, instead letting the subtle and demented deterioration of the world around you tell the story.

You play as a psychologically ill painter, who has returned home to create his "magnum opus." As you start to learn more and more about the painter, you start to learn how disturbed his life has been. And yes, you're going to run into generic horror tropes as you play, like jump scares and creepy children's dolls.

However, Layers of Fear does such a good job of creating a rising sense of dread and tension as the world around you distorts and becomes a place of nightmares that it's easy to look past the tropes.