It’s been a pretty solid year for horror games, with releases such as Resident Evil Requiem, Reanimal, Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival, Silent Hill: Townfall, Silver Pines, and The Sinking City 2. Of course, Resident Evil Requiem is kind of putting this lineup on its back, but horror is an underserved genre to begin with. And it’s horror game season with Halloween one sleep away. To this end, Xbox Game Pass subscribers have been hooked up with two new day-one additions. One is a true horror game, but the other is a non-horror Halloween game for those who don’t prefer to be traumatized for fun.
Videos by ComicBook.com
As you may know, Microsoft recently added the following two games to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Xbox Game Pass Premium, and PC Game Pass: Mouthwashing and The Séance of Blake Manor. Both games have been on PC since 2024 and 2025, respectively, but this week both came to Xbox Series X. Upon release on Xbox Series X, both were added to the aforementioned three tiers of the Microsoft subscription service for the first time.
Mouthwashing
Mouthwashing was one of the best horror games of 2024. This is evidenced by its 88 on Metacritic and its 95% approval rating across nearly 25,000 user reviews on Steam. The latter nets it an “Overwhelmingly Positive” Steam User Review rating, the highest rating possible on the Valve platform. The horror game only costs $13 normally, so its inclusion isn’t saving Xbox Game Pass subscribers a ton of money, but it easily becomes one of the best horror games available via the Microsoft subscription service currently.
“Mouthwashing is a first-person horror game following the dying crew of a shipwrecked space freighter,” reads an official description of the game. “Who could have known what good ol’ Captain Curly was capable of? Guess he thought his crew dying alongside him was only right. But some men can’t even kill themselves properly. Maimed, limbless, and unable to speak, but alive, Curly is now at the mercy of the crew he has doomed to a slow death.”
The Séance of Blake Manor
The Séance of Blake Manor, by comparison, gives you the Halloween vibes without the horror. This isn’t to say the game isn’t scary. It’s just to say it’s more spooky than nightmare fuel.
As evidenced by its 89 on Metacritic, it is one of the best games of 2025. Not only did critics like it, but consumers did as well. To this end, it has a 94% approval rating across more than 3,000 user reviews.
“It is October 28th, 1897, and Private Investigator Declan Ward arrives at Blake Manor to find a missing woman,” reads an official description of the game. “What he finds is the Grand Séance and a group of mystics who have gathered from all corners of the world – waiting for All Hallow’s Eve, the night when the veil between worlds is thinnest. The night to tear down the barrier and speak to the dead.”
How long either of these games is going to be available via Xbox Game Pass, we do not know. And we do not know because Microsoft does not make this information public. Typically, games are added in 12-month or 24-month chunks of time, but not always. What we do know is that as long as each is available via the subscription service, subscribers can take advantage of an exclusive 20% discount to purchase the games in order to play them beyond their stay in the various Xbox Game Pass libraries. Meanwhile, if neither of these games tickles your fancy, there are plenty of other options.
More Gaming
-
Image Courtesy of Electronic Arts -
Courtesy of CD Projekt Red
