Best PC Games from the Microsoft Store on Windows 10

Best Pc Games April
Best Pc Games April (Image credit: Windows Central)

After years of being, well, a joke, the Microsoft Store for Windows 10 has actually started to become a pretty respectable place for PC games. Thanks to Xbox Game Pass for PC, you can grab many of these titles as part of a low-cost monthly subscription, or purchase them outright with special discounts once they leave the library. Here are our picks for the best core PC games on the Windows 10 Microsoft Store as of April 2020. Microsoft also now has a separate dedicated Xbox app just for PC games, so you don't have to browse through the nightmare mixture of weird and broken abandonware in the main Microsoft Store. Cool!

Mutant Year Zero

<a href="https://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=kXQk6%2AivFEQ&mid=24542&u1=hawk-custom-tracking&murl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Fp%2Fmutant-year-zero-road-to-eden%2F9nmp9b9kmklf" data-link-merchant="microsoft.com""> Mutant Year Zero

Turn-based tactics

Mutant Year Zero is an excellent turn-based tactics title with an RPG slant. Set in an apocalyptic future, a group of mutants carves out an existence in a radioactive Swedish wasteland, based on a popular 80s tabletop RPG. With some great dialogue and writing, Mutant Year Zero is a slick and satisfying strategy RPG well-worth your time.

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The Microsoft Store has effectively been a bit of a joke for the longest time, but thanks to increased investment from Microsoft and Xbox Game Pass for PC, it's starting to become a respectable place to buy your games.

There's still not a massive amount of core games available on the Microsoft Store, but the ones that are there are must-own games that often come with cross-play or cross-buy capabilities with Xbox One. The Long Dark is a personal top-5 game of the gen, with some of the most panic-inducing thrills I've experienced in a game. The randomly-generated loot and threats keep you firmly on your frost-bitten toes as you navigate an increasingly harsh wilderness, and the story elements the studio recently introduced are top-tier.

Mutant Year Zero is another personal favorite. The setting is suitably apocalyptic but uniquely set in a distant future where the relics of the past have become the object of hearsay and conjecture. Some of the item descriptions are hilarious, as the apocalypse's future denizens try to figure out what basic household objects were for back in the golden era. The writing is killer, and the gameplay is satisfying, too, with huge potential as a franchise.

Jez Corden
Co-Managing Editor

Jez Corden is a Managing Editor at Windows Central, focusing primarily on all things Xbox and gaming. Jez is known for breaking exclusive news and analysis as relates to the Microsoft ecosystem while being powered by tea. Follow on Twitter @JezCorden and listen to his XB2 Podcast, all about, you guessed it, Xbox!