Humble Bundle has done away with the random grab bags of old, where every month you would get random games that you may or may not own. Now, you can subscribe to one of three tiers; the upper two tiers cost either $14.99 or $19.99, and give you 3 or 9 (respectively) games to choose from a curated list of games that have opted to participate. No more duplicates, lots of choices, everyone wins, including the charities. This month, the chosen charity is Girls Inc. that advocates for strong female leadership and activities to ensure a well-rounded woman. There are twelve games for the month of January, and you can pick up to nine of them; best of luck choosing from the list. Middle-Earth: Shadow of War Standard Price: $49.99 Reviews: 82% of 24,031 Positive In Middle-Earth: Shadow of War you're getting more of what was seen in the previous game Shadow of Mordor, for better or worse. Solid graphics with gameplay that can get a bit repetitive, which is a shame since the Nemesis mechanic is so interesting in developing dynamic stories. There are level ups to be had in bundles, an open world to explore at your leisure and generally simplistic combat with flashy animations that will make anyone feel like a hero. The launch of this game was stymied by microtransactions that allowed players to bypass a tedious grind; it has since been removed, almost a year after the initial launch. You can build up your army to defeat the evil forces, capture outposts with strategy and strength, and do it all while comfortably wrapped in a Lord of the Rings flavor that likely has Tolkien spinning in his grave. Graveyard Keeper Standard Price: $19.99 Reviews: 81% of 9,588 Positive Manage a medieval graveyard, while facing many conundrums such as 'should I just toss this corpse in a river and save myself the trouble'. The humor is readily at hand in Graveyard Keeper, a pixelized crafting RPG that puts you in charge of the dead for a town. For better or worse. In the title, you can take on all sorts of quests and tasks for the villagers, turning yourself a tidy profit. There's also dungeons which you can explore to find alchemy ingredients, allowing you to poison the entire town and really turn a sum of gold. The plot falls very short at the end, and advertises DLC, so be forewarned if you're chasing the story. Two Point Hospital Standard Price: $34.99 Reviews: 89% of 10,461 Positive Design and manage a hospital with wacky diseases and even wackier cures. You can build and design rooms, set up treatment centers, and ensure that patients are getting care as quickly as your staff (and your management) will allow. The game ramps up the difficulty and starts adding a bit too much micromanagement with the temperature system, but it's still loads of fun. If you're looking for a management type of game, where your planning or lack thereof can make or break the bank, Two Point Hospital has a lot to offer for a relatively long time. Dirt Rally 2.0 Standard Price: $59.99 Reviews: 73% of 3,743 Positive Racing, but offroad and in the dirt. If you've never experienced rally racing, note that there isn't necessarily a clear path for you to drive; it's up to the driver and navigator to tear through dangerous courses at breakneck speeds. Small bumps can become big problems that wrap you around the nearest tree. It's pretty enough, but a massive amount of the negative reviews state that the microtransactions and DLCs nickel and dime consumers. The DLC's for this title currently sum to $151.63. Street Fighter V Standard Price: $19.99 Reviews: 58% of 11,460 Positive It's classic Street Fighter that's been updated to the new generation and made far more accessible for new entries to the franchise. All of the iconic characters are there, and the head to head battles are as intense as you'd like. The reviews are a bit concerning, as there are advertisements littered through the game, and allegedly half of the maps and characters are behind multiple paywalls. Other users state that there's simply no way to have a decent online match, as you're consistently matched against players with poor internet, despite what your settings are configured for. This title originally came out at full price of $59.99, but CAPCOM changed it when users became annoyed. Bad North: Jotunn Edition Standard Price: $14.99 Reviews: 87% of 1,738 Positive Bad North is a refreshing breath of fresh air, mixing genres that typically aren't seen together; rogue-lite and real-time strategy. It's a simple enough premise, where you need to defend your island paradise against the Viking invaders, leading your tribe on an exodus. With the shape of islands changing dramatically, it's a difficult objective to make proper usage of the terrain in each map. Add into the mix some perks and traits that you can outfit your men with, allowing you to increase your power, and you have an aesthetically charming rogue-lite that will make you think before you act. Likely one of the safest bets of the lot. Trailmakers Standard Price: $24.99 Reviews: 84% of 2,123 Positive Note that the image used for Trailmakers in the Humble Choice is outdated; Trailmakers pushed 1.0 as of September 18, 2019. Beyond that, Trailmakers has a unique idea; build a vehicle, and explore the world; or, have a high-speed racde with them. Whether that vehicle is a boat, jet, car, buggy, helicopter, or anything else you can think of, it's plausible in Trailmakers. The vehicle assembly works much like Lego, to the point that even the pips look surprisingly similar, and it offers and encourages a wide variety of creativity. Older gamers might become a bit annoyed with its general lack of replayability, but younger fans will eat this title up. Unrailed! - Early Access Standard Price: $16.99 Reviews: 92% of 1,895 Positive An adorable indie title that mixes endless runner rogue-lite with cooperative mayhem. You work together in getting a train across a procedurally generated landscape. The train continues to move while you dash ahead and try to find the necessary resources to build the tracks and circumnavigate a wealth of obstacles in your way. It's currently unplayable in single-player, but it's in their road map for future builds. If you have some friends that also hold the Humble Choice, this is an obvious choice. If not, hopefully you have patience instead as everyone awaits single-player. Matchmaking currently produces mixed results. Whispers of a Machine Standard Price: $14.99 Reviews: 96% of 222 Positive Point & Click games are very much not dead, they just aren't as mainstream as they were back in the day of Monkey Island. Whispers of a Machine is one such Point & Click game that marries cyberpunk and nordic culture, as you play as the clever detective Vera unraveling a string of murders in what may end up her last case. If you're looking for a detective case to match wits with, Whispers of a Machine has a lot to offer intrepid puzzlers. The point & click interface rarely frustrates, which is a rarity in mystery-themed games, and the story is top-notch. Them's Fightin' Herds - Early Access Standard Price: $14.99 Reviews: 92% of 1,040 Positive If you're itching for a 2D fighter game, but Street Fighter V scared you away with in-game ads (and you're ok with horses knocking the crap out of each other) then Them's Fightin' Herds just might be your safest bet. It's a 2D fighter in 1V1 combat, where everyone plays as an adorable horse, unicorn, steer, or other bovine-like animals. There are various modes to explore from training to standard combat, and if nothing else the reviews make it seem promising. Brought about by a development team unironically called ManeSix, there is definitely a lingering flavor of a popular pony television show. The online community can get a little...weird. Mages of Mystralia Standard Price: $19.99 Reviews: 88% of 472 Positive It's difficult to get the feeling of unlimited magic right in video games; often, developers inevitably push lore to the side in favor of easily repeatable spells with specific effects, rather than allowing users to weave their own forms of magic. Mages if Mystralia try to get magic right, and they succeed more often than not in the action-adventure title. It's a title that favors thinking through what you're up against, and crafting your own magic to bypass obstacles, whether they're enemies or puzzles. Despite the few reviews that the title has, it offers solid gameplay worth experiencing, although the story can fall flat in some areas. The method of crafting your own spells encourages players to discover unique combinations that can unleash absolute havoc against enemies. GRIP: Combat Racing Standard Price: $29.99 Reviews: 89% of 1,691 Positive Blisteringly fast racing with combat in a sci-fi setting, GRIP will challenge your reflexes like most other games can't. Your heavily armed vehicles will blow each other into pieces in a fight to get to the finish line first, but getting blown up won't completely eliminate all chances you have of winning. This rings doubly true for AI, which will always catch up to you regardless of how clean your run is. There's a total of $42.84 worth of DLC's that aren't included in the Humble Choice. Many fans of the game recommend with the caveat that the game type isn't for everyone, noticeably that high speeds ultimately feel the same regardless of what the speedometer says. That sums all twelve games available for Humble Choice in January 2020; see you next month!
Humble Bundle has done away with the random grab bags of old, where every month you would get random games that you may or may not own. Now, you can subscribe to one of three tiers; the upper two tiers cost either $14.99 or $19.99, and give you 3 or 9 (respectively) games to choose from a curated list of games that have opted to participate. No more duplicates, lots of choices, everyone wins, including the charities. This month, the chosen charity is Girls Inc. that advocates for strong female leadership and activities to ensure a well-rounded woman. There are twelve games for the month of January, and you can pick up to nine of them; best of luck choosing from the list. Middle-Earth: Shadow of War Standard Price: $49.99 Reviews: 82% of 24,031 Positive In Middle-Earth: Shadow of War you're getting more of what was seen in the previous game Shadow of Mordor, for better or worse. Solid graphics with gameplay that can get a bit repetitive, which is a shame since the Nemesis mechanic is so interesting in developing dynamic stories. There are level ups to be had in bundles, an open world to explore at your leisure and generally simplistic combat with flashy animations that will make anyone feel like a hero. The launch of this game was stymied by microtransactions that allowed players to bypass a tedious grind; it has since been removed, almost a year after the initial launch. You can build up your army to defeat the evil forces, capture outposts with strategy and strength, and do it all while comfortably wrapped in a Lord of the Rings flavor that likely has Tolkien spinning in his grave. Graveyard Keeper Standard Price: $19.99 Reviews: 81% of 9,588 Positive Manage a medieval graveyard, while facing many conundrums such as 'should I just toss this corpse in a river and save myself the trouble'. The humor is readily at hand in Graveyard Keeper, a pixelized crafting RPG that puts you in charge of the dead for a town. For better or worse. In the title, you can take on all sorts of quests and tasks for the villagers, turning yourself a tidy profit. There's also dungeons which you can explore to find alchemy ingredients, allowing you to poison the entire town and really turn a sum of gold. The plot falls very short at the end, and advertises DLC, so be forewarned if you're chasing the story. Two Point Hospital Standard Price: $34.99 Reviews: 89% of 10,461 Positive Design and manage a hospital with wacky diseases and even wackier cures. You can build and design rooms, set up treatment centers, and ensure that patients are getting care as quickly as your staff (and your management) will allow. The game ramps up the difficulty and starts adding a bit too much micromanagement with the temperature system, but it's still loads of fun. If you're looking for a management type of game, where your planning or lack thereof can make or break the bank, Two Point Hospital has a lot to offer for a relatively long time. Dirt Rally 2.0 Standard Price: $59.99 Reviews: 73% of 3,743 Positive Racing, but offroad and in the dirt. If you've never experienced rally racing, note that there isn't necessarily a clear path for you to drive; it's up to the driver and navigator to tear through dangerous courses at breakneck speeds. Small bumps can become big problems that wrap you around the nearest tree. It's pretty enough, but a massive amount of the negative reviews state that the microtransactions and DLCs nickel and dime consumers. The DLC's for this title currently sum to $151.63. Street Fighter V Standard Price: $19.99 Reviews: 58% of 11,460 Positive It's classic Street Fighter that's been updated to the new generation and made far more accessible for new entries to the franchise. All of the iconic characters are there, and the head to head battles are as intense as you'd like. The reviews are a bit concerning, as there are advertisements littered through the game, and allegedly half of the maps and characters are behind multiple paywalls. Other users state that there's simply no way to have a decent online match, as you're consistently matched against players with poor internet, despite what your settings are configured for. This title originally came out at full price of $59.99, but CAPCOM changed it when users became annoyed. Bad North: Jotunn Edition Standard Price: $14.99 Reviews: 87% of 1,738 Positive Bad North is a refreshing breath of fresh air, mixing genres that typically aren't seen together; rogue-lite and real-time strategy. It's a simple enough premise, where you need to defend your island paradise against the Viking invaders, leading your tribe on an exodus. With the shape of islands changing dramatically, it's a difficult objective to make proper usage of the terrain in each map. Add into the mix some perks and traits that you can outfit your men with, allowing you to increase your power, and you have an aesthetically charming rogue-lite that will make you think before you act. Likely one of the safest bets of the lot. Trailmakers Standard Price: $24.99 Reviews: 84% of 2,123 Positive Note that the image used for Trailmakers in the Humble Choice is outdated; Trailmakers pushed 1.0 as of September 18, 2019. Beyond that, Trailmakers has a unique idea; build a vehicle, and explore the world; or, have a high-speed racde with them. Whether that vehicle is a boat, jet, car, buggy, helicopter, or anything else you can think of, it's plausible in Trailmakers. The vehicle assembly works much like Lego, to the point that even the pips look surprisingly similar, and it offers and encourages a wide variety of creativity. Older gamers might become a bit annoyed with its general lack of replayability, but younger fans will eat this title up. Unrailed! - Early Access Standard Price: $16.99 Reviews: 92% of 1,895 Positive An adorable indie title that mixes endless runner rogue-lite with cooperative mayhem. You work together in getting a train across a procedurally generated landscape. The train continues to move while you dash ahead and try to find the necessary resources to build the tracks and circumnavigate a wealth of obstacles in your way. It's currently unplayable in single-player, but it's in their road map for future builds. If you have some friends that also hold the Humble Choice, this is an obvious choice. If not, hopefully you have patience instead as everyone awaits single-player. Matchmaking currently produces mixed results. Whispers of a Machine Standard Price: $14.99 Reviews: 96% of 222 Positive Point & Click games are very much not dead, they just aren't as mainstream as they were back in the day of Monkey Island. Whispers of a Machine is one such Point & Click game that marries cyberpunk and nordic culture, as you play as the clever detective Vera unraveling a string of murders in what may end up her last case. If you're looking for a detective case to match wits with, Whispers of a Machine has a lot to offer intrepid puzzlers. The point & click interface rarely frustrates, which is a rarity in mystery-themed games, and the story is top-notch. Them's Fightin' Herds - Early Access Standard Price: $14.99 Reviews: 92% of 1,040 Positive If you're itching for a 2D fighter game, but Street Fighter V scared you away with in-game ads (and you're ok with horses knocking the crap out of each other) then Them's Fightin' Herds just might be your safest bet. It's a 2D fighter in 1V1 combat, where everyone plays as an adorable horse, unicorn, steer, or other bovine-like animals. There are various modes to explore from training to standard combat, and if nothing else the reviews make it seem promising. Brought about by a development team unironically called ManeSix, there is definitely a lingering flavor of a popular pony television show. The online community can get a little...weird. Mages of Mystralia Standard Price: $19.99 Reviews: 88% of 472 Positive It's difficult to get the feeling of unlimited magic right in video games; often, developers inevitably push lore to the side in favor of easily repeatable spells with specific effects, rather than allowing users to weave their own forms of magic. Mages if Mystralia try to get magic right, and they succeed more often than not in the action-adventure title. It's a title that favors thinking through what you're up against, and crafting your own magic to bypass obstacles, whether they're enemies or puzzles. Despite the few reviews that the title has, it offers solid gameplay worth experiencing, although the story can fall flat in some areas. The method of crafting your own spells encourages players to discover unique combinations that can unleash absolute havoc against enemies. GRIP: Combat Racing Standard Price: $29.99 Reviews: 89% of 1,691 Positive Blisteringly fast racing with combat in a sci-fi setting, GRIP will challenge your reflexes like most other games can't. Your heavily armed vehicles will blow each other into pieces in a fight to get to the finish line first, but getting blown up won't completely eliminate all chances you have of winning. This rings doubly true for AI, which will always catch up to you regardless of how clean your run is. There's a total of $42.84 worth of DLC's that aren't included in the Humble Choice. Many fans of the game recommend with the caveat that the game type isn't for everyone, noticeably that high speeds ultimately feel the same regardless of what the speedometer says. That sums all twelve games available for Humble Choice in January 2020; see you next month!
