Skip to main content

April’s free Xbox Games With Gold include ‘The Witness’ and ‘Dead Space 2’

Xbox - April 2018 Games with Gold

As the new game releases start to ease up a little bit next month, you might be left without anything to play on your Xbox One. But fear not, as April’s free Games With Gold has something for nearly every player, even if you prefer to play video games based on bad animated sequels.

For the entire month of April, The Witness will be free to download on Xbox One. Developed by Braid‘s Jonathan Blow, the exploration and puzzle game is cerebral without being stressful. Normally priced at $40, it’s one of the best deals we’ve seen through Games With Gold to date.

From April 16 through May 15, Xbox One owners can also grab Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. Released in 2015, the game is set in London during the Industrial Revolution and features two playable protagonists, the Frye siblings. An underrated gem, Syndicate was a huge improvement over Unity, which released in a broken state a year earlier. Syndicate doesn’t use the role-playing combat style seen in Origins, but its reaction-focused gameplay is still a ton of fun.

Xbox 360 owners should keep their expectations a little bit more in check for April. From the beginning of the month until April 15, you will be able to pick up Cars 2. The action-racing game features characters from the film such as Lightning McQueen and Mater, as well as over-the-top stunts. Though the film wasn’t particularly well-received, the game actually received decent reviews when it launched in 2011.

From April 16 through the end of the month, Xbox 360 players can also download Dead Space 2. The horrifying second installment from defunct developer Visceral is often seen as the series’ high point. The third game was more action-focused and the franchise was effectively put on ice after its release.

As always, the Xbox 360 games available through Games With Gold in April will also be playable on Xbox One through backward compatibility.

If you’re looking for something brand new to play on Xbox One, you might want to check out Rare’s pirate adventure Sea of Thieves. The open-world online game can be played with up to three other friends and uses a “shared world” similar to Destiny 2 or The Division.

Editors' Recommendations

Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
Xbox Game Pass loses some horror greats, but gains a kid-friendly racing game
A custom car built drives around Lego 2K Drive.

We've learned what games will come to Xbox Game Pass over the first half of this April, and leading the batch is Lego 2K Drive, a Lego racing game that's a solid alternative to the Forza Horizon games that are also available on Microsoft's subscription service.

Lego 2K Drive was released in May 2023 and is an enjoyable racing game where players can build their own Lego vehicles and race throughout several open worlds. It found the middle ground between the likes of Mario Kart and Forza Horizon and thrives in that space, even if the microtransactions can be a little aggressive for a game aimed at children. Playground Games has not yet confirmed if another Forza Horizon game is in the works at this time, so Xbox fans can play this game to fill that void until a new one is announced.

Read more
Watching Invincible Season 2? Pick up this free game on the Epic Games Store
Atom Eve flies in Invincible Presents: Atom Eve.

The second half of Invincible season 2 is airing weekly on Amazon Prime right now, and one of the new free games on the Epic Games Store perfectly complements it. Between now and March 28, you can get Invincible Presents: Atom Eve for free on the Epic Game Store.

Invincible Presents: Atom Eve was released last November and is a visual novel RPG hybrid following the titular superhero. Drawing from both the comics and TV show, it tells her coming-of-age story, interspersing a lot of story-changing player choices and turn-based RPG battles along the way. Invincible is an IP ripe for video game adaptation, yet very few titles based on it exist. Considering that this is one of the only Invincible games made available on PC and that you snag it for free just for having an Epic account, it's well worth picking up.

Read more
Xbox Game Pass gets its first Activision Blizzard game very soon
xbox game pass march games diablo 4 iv

Microsoft unveiled the batch of titles coming to its gaming subscription service throughout the back half of March. Quite a few awesome titles are making their way to the service, but by far, the most notable addition is Diablo IV, the first Activision Blizzard game being made available on Xbox Game Pass.

Diablo IV was released in June 2023, just a few months before Microsoft completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. It's the latest entry in a long-running isometric RPG series, and it retains the same engaging dungeon design, deep progression systems, and captivating loot loop that makes games in this franchise special. People have been wondering when Activision Blizzard games would arrive on Xbox Game Pass in the months since the acquisition process was completed, and Diablo IV was finally confirmed to be coming to the service on March 28 last month.

Read more