Up Next: The 9 games you should be playing on your Xbox in June 2022

The sun is shining and summer is here! What better way to react than huff, pull over your hoodie, and head back indoors for some June gaming. Don’t give in to your sunshine overlords –  follow the dark path!

To help with your sunshine rebellion, we have some spiffing looking games coming in June. For a month that’s usually bone-dry thanks to the presence of E3, it’s actually got some games to sit up and take notice of. Supermassive’s The Quarry is our pick of the bunch, but there’s also Spellforce III Reforced, Fall Guys, Sonic Origins and a whole bunch of Shadowrun to enjoy. 

So, get inside, avoid the flaming orb of doom, and mark your calendars for a solid month of gaming. 

Spellforce III Reforced

It’s been a dry year so far for hardcore RPG fans (at least, those who don’t fancy mastering Elden Ring). That’s about to change with Spellforce III Reforced, a console resprucing of the 2017 PC game, Spellforce III. 

There’s a sprawling narrative epic here, chainmail-linked to a real-time strategy game. Following the events of Spellforce II, with the Mage Wars quashed, things haven’t been so hunky dory. The world is in anarchy, and the only person with a plan is Rondar Locaine, a charismatic man who believes that only the second coming of Aonir, the father of all gods, will return everything to normal. We don’t know about you, but he’s flying all sorts of red flags.

You will be commanding one of three factions – orcs, elves or humans – zooming out of the battlefield to dominate your opponents. With its controls optimised for console, this might be one to book a couple of weeks off for. 

The Quarry

With each game, Supermassive Games are pushing in fantastic new directions. They are exploring how games can take the horror genre into thrilling spaces; they are blurring the lines between movies and games; and they are bringing some of our favourite actors over as they do it. Honestly, we were on board the moment they mentioned Ted Raimi, Lance Henriksen and David Arquette. There’s Justice Smith (Detective Pikachu) and Skyler Gisondo (Santa Clarita Diet) here too.

Supermassive’s latest game – The Quarry – takes them away from The Dark Pictures Anthology (Man of Medan, LIttle Hope, House of Ashes), but only really in name. Much of the spirit of that trilogy is present here. 

It’s the tale of nine teenage camp counsellors, staying at camp for one last day without children to look after or adults to tell them what to do. It’s the perfect cocktail for horror, with everything present: a remote location, no one around, and – likely – no phone signal. Let the giblets commence!

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout

This one needs little introduction. For the past three years, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout has been bringing the combined spirit of Takeshi’s Castle and Total Wipeout to PC and console around the world. But, as you may have realised, they have failed to do so on Xbox. That changes this month, with the belated release of Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. 

For the uninitiated, this is a sixty-player battle royale where you don’t shoot or fight other players (not unless you’re a wee griefer). Instead, your aim is to navigate an obstacle course where floors fall away, rubber mallets take a swing at you, and generally everything is intent on stopping you from finishing. Should you reach the end of a course then you move onto the next, aiming to be the last one standing. Think Squid Game, but in chicken suits.

We’re more than happy to arrive late to this particular party, and can’t wait to enjoy the anarchy.

Shadowrun Trilogy

It never shadowrains but it shadowpours. The last time Shadowrun graced our fine console was 2007, when an underrated FPS, borrowing liberally from Counterstrike, arrived on the 360. Things have gone quiet till today, as the Shadowrun Trilogy lands with a bang. Not only that, but Paradox Interactive are bringing all of them to Game Pass. 

They’re a bit of a mouthful: we’re getting Shadowrun Returns, Shadowrun: Hong Kong – Extended Edition, and Shadowrun: Dragonfall – Director’s Cut. They’re more respectful of the original tabletop franchise than the 360 release ever was, bringing cyberpunk strategy and storytelling, alongside fantastical powers and mysterious cults. To a subset of players, the Shadowrun Trilogy Day will feel like Christmas.

Sonic Origins

With every console generation, SEGA finds a new way of repackaging and reintroducing their favourite blue hedgehog’s first games. From XBLA re-releases to anniversary compendiums, these classic games get more reruns than Christmas episodes of Vicar of Dibley.

This time round, the message is slightly different with Sonic Origins. We’re getting a digital remaster of these classics, and some of the Sonic Mania dev’s versions of the ports are included, rather than the slower, hokier ones that have found themselves in modern collections. There’s something of an improvement this time. 

What are you getting? It’s the full Megadrive collection, including Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2 and 3, as well as Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic CD. We will admit to being slightly disappointed that the same old games keep getting wheeled out – some Sonic Adventures (particularly from the GBA), Sonic Racers and games from the handheld devices might have been nice – but we won’t get our tails in a twist.

MADiSON

What do you get if you cross Saw with Drag Me To Hell? The answer is MADiSON, and it’s absolutely as jolly as the comparison implies. 

Here’s the pitch: imagine waking up in a strange room with blood all over you. It seems that you have arrived midway through a gory ritual, and a demon called MADiSON is forcing you to finish it off. You’re going to be doing more than drawing some pentagrams and lighting the odd candle, as this demon wants you to perform horrendous, murderous acts against your better nature. Oh, goodie: it’s Manhunt all over again!

But checking screenshots and trailers, MADiSON finds some beauty in the gloom. This is an extravagantly gorgeous game, and it has a knack for immersion. With only your Polaroid camera as a defence, you are going to be navigating some terrifying situations while choking back the urge to run. Perfect date-night fodder.

Silt

We’re going to continue the lazy comparisons with Silt, which is the product of Abzu hooking up with Limbo. It’s beautiful, and we’re head-over-flipper for it. 

This is an underwater narrative adventure where you play a diver who has a handy ability to mindmeld onto marine animals. Chained to the floor? Hop into the mind of a barracuda and chomp through that chain. Silt takes this puzzling approach to adventuring, where obstacles are overcome by the sea life that swim about them. 

This is the debut from developers Spiral Circus Games, and you wouldn’t know it from the trailers. There’s abundant confidence here, as they create fantastic moments like sunken factories, a Moby-Dick-like whale, and encounters with ancient creatures. 

Souldiers

Talking of immaculate indies, we’d like to set you up with Souldiers. It’s a pixel-art Metroidvania, but don’t let that put you off. This truly sumptuous-looking action-platformer is how I imagined games might look when I was eight-years old, sitting in front of my SNES. It looks like a 16-Bit game that’s sold its soul to MADiSON’s devil in return for the best possible artwork. 

There’s a game there too. The emphasis is on flowing, dynamic combat, with combos that segue directly from one to the other. It’s a multi-layered world that demands exploration, with more secrets than you can shake a stick at, and plenty of hard-as-nails bosses waiting beyond them. 

While none of that is particularly new, we’re sold on how sublimely Souldiers seems to be pulling it off. 

Fobia – St. Dinfna Hotel

Considering that this is the month where The Quarry and MADiSON are also soiling our adult-nappies, you would be forgiven for thinking that June is the new October. There’s a lot of well-crafted horror on the slate this month, and publishers are clearly taking our advice to ignore the sun and stay in the dark. 

The clumsily titled Fobia – St. Dinfna Hotel takes place almost entirely in an abandoned hotel that clearly isn’t four-star. Blood, soot and tentacles sprawl along its walls, and the current residents are horrific beasties that would make H.R. Giger cough into his coffee. 

We’re interested in this one not only because it looks like care and money has been chucked at it, but because it’s taking the first-person shooter approach to survival horror. If you’ve been missing the joys of F.E.A.R., this one may well be for you.

Not a bad batch of games coming to Xbox in June 2022, we think you’ll agree. There’s also the prospect of some E3-replacing showcases over June, too, so expect to have a much better understanding of the gaming landscape. 

As for July, well, it’s never been the most fantastic month for gaming. But there are still a few games worth a callout: F1 2022, KLONOA Phantasy Reverie Series and Capcom Arcade: 2nd Series will be here to soundtrack your summer. 

For now though, enjoy the horrors of June, and we’ll see you next month!