December is going to be a big month for Xbox Game Pass, chiefly because the flagship series' next installment, Halo Infinite, will drop on December 8. Of course, as a first-party Microsoft title, it'll be available day one for all Xbox Game Pass subscribers. While fans will have to wait a few more days to experience the campaign, players can currently enjoy Halo Infinite's multiplayer for free.
Other gamers, however, might be more interested in the upcoming Xbox Game Pass indie games. Beginning November 30, players can check out Mind Scanners, a sci-fi dystopian simulation game that's been compared to Papers, Please for its format. Because of this game's highly positive reputation so far, players should consider checking it out free with an Xbox Game Pass subscription.
What is Mind Scanners?
In Mind Scanners, players will assume the role of a Mind Scanner, a person who probes around another person's brain to test and look for signs of mental divergence by using treatment devices in an attempt to help them recover. Players work for The Structure, a megacity ruled by a corrupt government, which may sound a lot like many cyberpunk settings. Its goal is to weed out anyone that shows signs of mental divergence, and these machines essentially cure them of this trait by ridding the hosts of their entire personality. This way, The Structure can maintain control of its citizens.
As the protagonist, players are also controlled by The Structure, though in a different way. It's quarantined the PC's daughter, and the only way to get her back is the climb the ranks by being a successful Mind Scanner, meaning bending to The Structure's will. Or at least, that's what The Structure says will happen. On the other hand, players can also choose to actively rebel against the megacity.
Players can diagnose the NPCs through a series of tests, such as a Rorschach test. During the diagnosis, they'll need to choose from three options, and three correct answers consecutively are needed to progress through the corrupt treatment phases. At the end of a mind scan, this is where players must decide if the patient is "sane" or "insane," an abhorrent tactic used to deduce them down either a problematic or a model citizen. If players declare someone as "sane," it can result in negative consequences later on, though it may be more virtuous. However players choose to go about the haunting profession, Mind Scanners is rich with a variety of endings.
Treating patients in Mind Scanners also requires a surprising amount of strategy. Each treatment is only allotted 200 seconds, and each day the PC must pay up to The Structure as well or risk getting banished to the Outer Zone. This way, players must juggle the morality of spending money diagnosing patients (and the more humane ways cost extra) with the existential cost of time. It's sort of like an absurdist, cyberpunk Stardew Valley.
On Steam, Mind Scanners holds a "Very Positive" reputation from player reviews, where the story is complimented above all else. On Metacritic, it has a solid score of 75.
For fans who checked out and enjoyed the cyberpunk bar simulator VA-11 Hall-A (read as "Valhalla"), which is leaving November 30, they should keep the sci-fi simulation trend going with Mind Scanners as both discuss the dystopian politics of a bleak future presented with enticing pixel graphics.
Xbox Game Pass is available for PC and Xbox consoles.