Xbox Game Pass’s Newest Co-Op Game Has More Than Its Gimmick Lets On

adminMarch 22, 2025

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Xbox Game Pass is no stranger to co-op offerings in its ever-shifting catalog. 33 Immortals, though, is perhaps the most co-op forward a game can possibly be, especially within its action roguelike genre. As the name implies, 33 Immortals sees you join 32 other players to take on Hell and attempt to reign supreme over a penultimate raid-style boss.

Despite March bringing multiple fantastic roguelike options onto Xbox Game Pass, 33 Immortals is well worth a playthrough. Fortunately, this isn’t because of the co-op games’ oversized lobbies (which can often detract just as much as they add to the game). Instead, it has more to do with the tight gameplay, aesthetic, and co-op-focused design that brings no additional baggage to 33 Immortals‘ gameplay loop.

33 Immortals Has A Pretty Crazy Gimmick

Inspired By MMO Raiding

To say I was initially shocked when I learned about 33 Immortals‘ hook is an understatement. For the genre it inhabits, this 33-player lobby size is unheard of, and consequently, it raises many questions about how it functions and whether it actually works. To answer a host of concerns simply: the lobby size does work well, particularly in the way it encourages players to hunt in packs and survive together. It also builds the spectacle of the Ascension Battle, which sees the remaining players racing for a few pre-determined safe grounds to claw their way into the final boss fight.

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While the final boss fight also gains some spectacle points from the lobby size, it causes just as much frustration. The bosses are designed for 33 players. While dropping a few players is no big deal in the grand scheme of things, losing half the lobby is when the boss fight becomes less exciting and more like an exercise in futility. Even though those deaths are made more noticeable by the recency of the game’s launch, it never feels good to lose in a pure numbers sense, especially when it’s because of immortals I probably never encountered.

33 Immortals Has Fantastic Innovations Beyond Its Namesake

Fresh & Fun Co-op Focused Gameplay Systems

33 Immortals screenshot showing the sigil based coop powers.

Being among the most promising new games on Xbox Game Pass, it’s no surprise that 33 Immortals has more up its sleeve than its namesake. Much of the reason for this, though, does have to do with that fateful lobby size choice. Logically, if a game is being made as a large cooperative experience, then the co-op mechanics need to be strong; in the case of 33 Immortals, they are.

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A truly exciting foundation has been set for 33 Immortals‘ cooperative experience. Co-op attacks, class-specific, metered abilities, are both powerful and engaging to use, especially as they require allies positioning and interacting with spawned sigils to activate. Some of these attacks, like the Sword of Justice’s invulnerability shield, have the potential for some truly awe-inspiring plays if teamwork is being prioritized properly. It’s an exciting mechanic that, I hope, gets the attention needed to make it even more chaotic and rewarding as 33 Immortals continues to develop.

33 Immortals also boasts a charming visual design that depicts a version of Dante’s Inferno.

I also enjoy how the weapons embody their designated role with a little more specificity than is usual in this genre. The Sword of Justice has the potential to soak immense potential damage, while the Staff of Sloth can trivialize intense encounters with its powerful slow. The roles themselves, like the penultimate boss fights, show their MMO inspiration proudly, and, in its saturated genre, 33 Immortals is more distinct because of it. In a similar vein to another excellent, trend-breaking roguelike on Xbox Game Pass, 33 Immortals is striking new ground into a well-established genre.

This Co-op Roguelike Could Do Just Fine Without Its Massive Lobbies

The Gimmick Isn’t Direly Needed For 33 Immortals

I like a lot of things in 33 Immortals, but surprisingly, its lobby size is at the bottom of that list. The game’s biggest take-away from its pivotal choice is how it pushed the developers to make 33 Immortals with cooperative play center in mind. That cooperative play, though, doesn’t need 33 players to be engaging. Large-scale, mechanic-dense bosses can exist without 33 players. Cooperative attacks and specialized classes can similarly exist in such a context. The most rewarding cooperative experience you can have in 33 Immortals still ends up being a small group of friends.

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At the end of the day, though, I’m glad the choice was made. While I have concerns about the player base required to sustain such lobby sizes and the potential annoyances of match-abandoning due to player deaths, it certainly forced the game into a more distinct direction. Already, 33 Immortals has smaller lobby-size maps planned, which may become the most intense, agency-rich content yet. I just hope I won’t have to wade through countless unpredictable 33-player lobbies to get the resources needed to play that smaller content in 33 Immortals on Xbox Game Pass.