Humble Monthly: October 2019
What a mix of emotions this month’s Humble Monthly brings! Overall positivity wins out, but it’s a positivity for the future as this current month’s inclusions are overwhelmingly ‘Meh’.
Don’t get me wrong — if I didn’t already own Battletech, I’d be quite over the moon about that. Better still it isn’t just the base game, we’re getting the first major DLC otherwise included in the quite pricey season pass. A DLC piece I didn’t yet own, to boot. So there’s something this month for me. Woo! I wondered whether it might actually still be cheaper to pick-up the full season pass anyway if you wanted the final two inclusions, but this actually isn’t the case.
If you end up liking Battletech enough to want the final two DLCs (the last of which actually isn’t out yet) you will still find it cheaper to buy the two you need individually rather than everything again, so yay!
Anywho. Onwards to the headline titles, and we have three this time. All fairly big titles actually, but two in particular that have made me squee with excitement to get my hands on.
November Headline Titles
Spyro Reignited Trilogy
Holy moly. While Spyro Reignited has been around on PS4 for a little while now, it only came out on PC last month. And here we go.
I actually own this on the PS4 already — I bought it less on nostalgia and more on thinking it an excellent game to get my youngest boy (8) involved in gaming and learning controller skills and the art of patience and practice.
And for that it has been perfect. Fun and charming with challenges of both platforming and combat, without all the violence that it seems some of his friends are already allowed to play. My wife and I didn’t want our youngest to be left behind in gaming, so this was a great fit.
…And alright, maybe nostalgia played a small part in the selection of this specific title. I still remember very fondly playing it with my younger brother. :)
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
I have less of a personal attachment to Crash, my brother played this one farrrr more than I did. So while it isn’t one I’d likely have spent money on to get access to, if it’s going to come via Humble Monthly?
Heck yeah I’m in!
Spyro and Crash both make me pretty excited for next month’s bundle as the headliners. There is another too which might be of more interest to others, but eh.
Also, you might spot a bit of a theme here — all Activision published titles.
Call of Duty: WWII
I don’t own it already at least, I guess.
By this point there would be no real multiplayer presence left to speak of — June’s inclusion of the Call of Duty 4 standard edition would be what you want for that.
But this one does at least have a singleplayer campaign still. I’m told it’s fairly short, but as an inclusion in the Humble Monthly, maybe I’ll take a look at it at some point.
Revealed Titles
- Sonic Mania
- The Spiral Scouts
- Planet Alpha
- Override: Mech City Brawl
- Puss! (As in cat, not the oozy gross stuff)
- Avernum 3: Ruined World
Not too much to say about this list of inclusions, really.
By far the two with the most potential from this list for me are Planet Alpha an Avernum 3. Planet Alpha looks to be an adventure platformer, focusing at least as much if not more so on the visual spectacle of its environments and what is going on around you than demanding platform play.
Avernum 3 is an RPG from somewhat famous (insofar as niche RPG developers go) Spiderweb Software. (Not to be confused with Spiders, developers of Greedfall and Technomancer!)
Spiderweb Software is renowned for their open approach to their RPGs and I own one of their older series called Geneforge, which I really quite enjoyed. If you’re a fan of a more retro approach to CRPGs you might quite enjoy this.
…As for the others though… sigh. Sonic was at least as much a part of my childhood as Spyro, probably moreso. But I find it hard to raise any degree of excitement for anything in that franchise any more.
Override: Mech City Brawl seems like it could be interesting to be fair — but it also looks like it was built on the basis of needing quite a sizable playerbase to keep it going. A playerbase it could never hit without the big bucks publisher marketing spend. Still — you might find some joy in the days immediately following this bundle, or if not and you have gaming buddies locally, it does support local party play.
Puss struck me immediately as a meme game, and once I saw the testimonial comments were from Jackscepticeye and Markiplier, this was locked in. Spiral Scouts gave a NSFW warning on loading the game page in steam — but it appears to be largely language related. From a quick glance at the trailer, it’s a bit like you took the juvenile humour of a Borderlands game and then removed all last traces of restraint or wit. … Yep.
OK, so turned out I had a bit to say on this after all. There you go. Let’s hope next month’s reveal titles have a power to match the headliners! I’m also unable to stop myself from being somewhat interested in what the December bundle will bring for Christmas, too! :D
