Guide to October's Humble Choice Part One

As we all know, Humble Choice is a bundle that releases every month offering the buyer a choice between 12 games. Those that were not fortunate enough to be subscribed to Humble Bundle before the Choice update are now limited to either three or nine of the games, with the basic plan costing £10.99/$14.99 and the Premium £14.65/$19.99.

My wife and I thankfully are blessed to have been active subscribers for years and own the classic plan, allowing us to choose all of the 12 games. We are here to assist you with which ones you might want to pick up. Here is part one for the month of October!

Katana ZERO

Steam price: £11.39/$14.99
Overwhelmingly Positive (35,884; 98%)

Katana ZERO is a platformer with pixel graphics. The game works around an instant-death combat system, where you kill every enemy in one blow, while they do you the same kindness.

It's fast-paced and very action-heavy. The graphics are quite astounding, albeit we might be biased due to our adoration for these animation styles. Despite its pixel graphics, however, the game features a lot of gore and a very dark story with some intriguing things about it that we are excited to explore further. It does offer a lot of customisation options in the main menu, allowing you to tune the blood spray, bloom quality, bloom effects and much more.

Should you claim it?: Katana ZERO has a very precision- and memory-heavy gameplay, which I know might be a deterring factor for some, but acing a level feels very rewarding. The dark yet intriguing story is certainly something we enjoyed, and the game might be worth a claim simply to see how you might feel about this Overwhelmingly Positive title.

Amnesia: Rebirth

Steam price: £23.79/$29.99
Mostly Positive (4,911; 77%)

Amnesia: Rebirth is a horror exploration game released in 2020.

I'm not going to lie, we hadn’t played any of the Amnesia games previously - quite frankly, neither of us are big fans of horror games. However, Amnesia: Rebirth caught our attention pretty shortly into playing it simply because of the way the story is set.

It has a very unique mechanic, where your life is dictated by your character's fear, and it will increase when you see scary things or when you muck about too much in the dark. It also comes with an "Adventure Mode" that allows you to play the game more as a puzzle-oriented walking simulator which I think is fantastic.

Although it seems like most people are displeased while comparing it to other games in the franchise, we have had a lot of fun so far. in it. It isn't as scary as some other horror games we've played, but we were both fond of the atmospheric aspect of it. We’re quite excited to continue progressing this title further.

Should you claim it?: Being one of the most expensive choices of the month, and keeping with the theme of Halloween and Spooktober, I consider this one to be one of the better ones to claim. However, if you are into neither horror nor walking simulator games, passing on this one might be preferable if you have others in the bundle you wish to claim.

John Wick Hex

Steam price: £15.49/$19.99
Mixed (141; 69%)

John Wick Hex is an RTS with hexagonal grid movement. And although I would have preferred a simple grid style, I won't be complaining too much about it.

I think it's safe to say that we've all pretty much watched John Wick kick butt and absolutely adored it, even watched the movie several dozen times, so I don't have to introduce our Fortnite star- err, movie star.

Alright fine, that last one may just be me.

The gameplay was fun, and it did manage to mimic some of the feel of John Wick, pitting you against several enemies and allowing you to use several forms of takedowns to proceed. This can range from throwing your gun at the enemy to stun them, to physical takedowns, or shooting them. The story is also very John Wick: beat up a bunch of bad guys, complete your quest. It's told in interesting comic book-like cutscenes, and sometimes the characters will talk while you're beating up baddies.

The replay feature that's supposed to give you a cinematic of all of your butt kickery is clunky, as the camera moves badly. Other than that, however, I didn't have any further complaints about the game and am excited to continue my time with it.

Should you claim it?: John Wick feels like one of the weaker RTS titles out there, with the hexagonal grid feeling like a poor design choice. I definitely have enjoyed my time playing it. However, the game might not be worth it outside of a discount, so perhaps picking it up through the bundle if you enjoy RTS might be the best way to get the most bang for your buck.

112 Operator

Steam price: £19.49/$24.99
Very Positive (2,368; 87%)

112 Operator is a simulation game where you play as an emergency dispatcher in real cities, with tens of thousands to choose from.

112 Operator—and other variants of the game—were titles I always wanted to pick up and give a shot. This is a particular area of interest of mine, wishing to delve deeper into how it all works, and I think the games give good surface-level information of how stressful this job can be.

We were astonished when we launched the game and it offered us the option to play in our own city. We immediately jumped at the opportunity and were presented with the actual map of where we live. This was such an amazing experience; we knew where everything was happening, and loved the attention to detail on the most common names, with surnames we actually recognised - despite the misspelling on some of them.

Our worries lie in how many duties you can complete before starting to get repeated calls and learning them. Not an hour into the game, we got a repeated call, so we knew exactly how to respond. However, this same call did happen in two different saves, after I went to give the campaign mode a shot.

I do sincerely appreciate the care that went into the game. Something I found very interesting is that you are expected to read the loading screen tips to learn actual useful real-life information on how to deal with a crisis. You can tell that the developers were itching to use the game for educational purposes and I love that.

Should you claim it?: 112 Operator plays like any other simulation game, and I can only assume that over time the game will begin to grow monotonous. However, that's not to say that I don't have hope for the game. I did my first duty in easy mode, but found the normal difficulty to be much more enjoyable; I assume that the better I become at the game, the more delightful the later difficulties will become. If you enjoy simulation games, I think 112 Operator is unquestionably something you have to give an opportunity to.

Guts and Glory

Steam price: £11.39/$14.99
Very Positive (1,410; 81%)

Guts and Glory is a funny racing game very similar to 2010's classic Happy Wheels - now in 3D!

We weren’t fans of Happy Wheels when it came out and got its fame. Truth be told, neither of us are very big enthusiasts for guts and gore. It’s often used as a cover for humour and generally speaking, overly graphic games tend to ignore the other aspects, such as the gameplay.

However, Guts and Glory does everything Happy Wheels did, and we enjoyed our time with it fairly enough. Although this won’t end up being on either of our favourite games list, driving through the obstacle courses can be fun, with a lot of characters reminiscent of Happy Wheels. One thing that was a pleasant surprise from the game was its silly tracks, which we both sincerely enjoyed.

Should you claim it?: Unless you personally enjoyed Happy Wheels, we agreed that passing on this one might be ideal. It’s nothing against the game; it’s just that there are better ones to choose from. However, if this is your type of game, the levels are fun enough, and there’s even a Steam Workshop to install more from.

Ring of Pain

Steam price: £15.49/$19.99
Very Positive (1,867; 92%)

Ring of Pain is a roguelike dungeon-crawler card game that at first, I didn't have too much hope for.

The beginning didn't describe how the mechanics worked, so we were forced to do some tinkering and figure out exactly what we were supposed to do. This, however, wasn’t a bad thing - we quickly caught on with what the mechanics were and began breezing through the dungeons.

Every run is randomised, giving you several items to prepare you for your travels. On the first run, we tried being aggressive and fighting everything to get more souls to purchase everything, and although I do think we performed alright, we quickly died.

We met this character calling themselves Owl (though really, they can't lie to me, that's a chicken and I will die on this hill) that set a creepy vibe to the game, but nothing gory nor disgusting. Just more dark, cryptic themes to the game.

On our third run, we tried a complete stealth quick-attack based build relying on us not equipping too many items and just trying to run past everyone. It seems like the variety of builds in the game are quite diverse, and although I cannot vouch for their viability, it certainly was a delightful surprise.

After we finished our coward run (or rather died), we got unlockable cards. It was then that I figured out that there are a total of 292 cards. I truly do hope this bodes well for its replayability.

Should you claim it?: My wife and I both adore roguelike card games, and Ring of Pain definitely fit that description. We are very excited to continue playing it. If the concept sounds like something you’d enjoy, we agreed that this game is one of the best ones to claim.

And that’s it for part one! Stay tuned for the second part of the guide!