New Xbox Series X Open-World Game Available for Free

August 29, 2026, 1:44pm

A new Xbox Series X open-world game is available for free on the Microsoft Store. And it’s free for all Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S users. In other words, a subscription to Xbox Game Pass is not required, unlike many free downloads made available on the pair of Xbox consoles at any given time. The game in question is a free-to-play game, so there are in-game microtransactions, but it is just for cosmetic items. To this end, the entire game can be played and enjoyed normally without spending a single penny.

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The game in question is an open-world post-apocalyptic third-person multiplayer game that blends together the looter shooter genre with the survival genre to decent effect. This game is Starry Studio’s Once Human, which debuted back in 2024, but only on PC. Now it’s on console, including Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Xbox fans seem to be enjoying it less than users on other platforms, though. To this end, on the Xbox Store, the new free game has a 3/5 star rating. Comparatively, it has a 3.8 out of 5 stars on the PlayStation Store, and on Steam it has its best rating, an 80% approval rating. It’s a somewhat well-documented fact, though, that games score lower on the Xbox Store compared to the PlayStation Store and Steam, so this isn’t too surprising. Meanwhile, these are solid ratings for a free-to-play game, which tend to score lower due to a reduced barrier to entry. This is how it’s fared with consumers. Its critical reception is pretty similar, though. To this end, it has a 71 on Metacritic.

Open-World Survival Game Meets Looter Shooter

For those just learning about the game, Once Human is a multiplayer game set in a strange world, where you must combine forces with other players, fight for survival, construct your sanctuary, and conquer terrifying aberrations to unravel the truth behind the apocalypse and discover what it means to be human.

According to various data and user reviews, Once Human can be beaten in about 30 to 40 hours; however, it’s very easy to dump 100 or even 200 hours into the game, like most open-world survival games, let alone ones that are also part looter shooter, which are also very grindy games.

“Great for a free game. UI is cluttered, but the gameplay is a fun, chill grind. PvP can be tough to get into for the first time, but very fun,” reads one of the aforementioned user reviews. Another adds: “Game is pretty fun. Clearing POI’s and questing is actually enjoyable, and there is zero pay-to-win in this game; everything is cosmetics only.”

If this new free-to-play Xbox game doesn’t tickle the fancy, there are other free options. To this end, a remake of an original Xbox game was released on Xbox Series X and made free for some.