Not gonna lie, Humble Choice posts are probably the most fun ones to make out there second only to my review, although I must say that nobody seems to care about them. At least not on my blog, but regardless of the numbers behind it, I like writing these posts and I’m thinking of changing things up a little bit by talking more about the games I like and less about the games I don’t like. Also, as always, I was inspired by Naithin to make these posts, so check him out while you’re here. I’m sure he’s got his post on this month’s Choice out soon as well!
This month’s Choice features a whole lot of great titles that I’m really interested in, especially as most of them have been on my wishlist. I haven’t seen any interesting titles here that I wasn’t aware of already but in essence, it’s great. I’m gonna grab it. Since Neon Abyss, Not For Broadcast, Röki, West of Dead, Orwell: Ignorance is Strength, and Heaven’s Vault are pretty much on the same level, as far as “ranking” is concerned, I won’t rank these titles. Those are the titles I’m looking forward to while most of the other titles are… They exist. Let’s phrase it like that.
First up, there are two roguelikes here that I’m super excited about – Atomicrops and Neon Abyss. Neon Abyss basically takes the customization of Noita and fits it into the bullet-hell formula of games like Enter the Gungeon and what you get looks quite fun. I’ve seen some videos here and there but haven’t spoiled myself too much. It’s pretty much up my alley, from what I can tell, and hence, I’m looking forward to it… Also, it’s another Cyberpunk-themed game, so hey why not? Meanwhile, Atomicrops lets you farm, harvest, marry and explore your way to victory in an action-packed roguelike x farming sim kind of way. There are bosses, different plants, weapons, love interests, and lots of bullets. I’ve seen my friend MuddChi play it a while ago but it looked so bizarre and unique… I didn’t understand anything but I loved it all the more so! Really looking forward to this as well, especially as it’s another game published by Raw Fury who are known for publishing great games.
Not For Broadcast is a Simulation game along the lines of Papers, Please and Beholder. You have your tasks of rolling ads, bleeping the swears, choosing angles, cutting together footage, and many more things… and well, you can either do it as the higher-ups want you to… or you don’t. It’s interesting and sounds fun but again, I think it’s best enjoyed when you haven’t seen much of it, so keep the spoilers low and just get to playing, eh? Meanwhile, West of Dead is a grim and gritty stylised cover-based roguelike-shooter set in the world of Purgatory! You use your cover tactically and have to outgun your enemies in unknown procedurally generating hunting grounds. The aesthetic looks lovely, the idea is amazing, and I’m just a sucker for anything related to the underworld, undead, or the dead.
Röki is an atmospheric Indie Adventure game where you explore an uncharted world of hidden legends and forgotten monsters. You collect curiosities, solve puzzles, discover new locations and uncover a tale of tragic loss. From what I’ve heard it gets rather emotional, so… I’m looking forward to that? GRIS already had me hooked and I’d imagine that Röki is in a similar vein. At last, there’s also Heaven’s Vault which is an archaeological narrative adventure where you uncover history in an ancient space nebula. There are hieroglyphic language puzzles in a vast, open-world environment and mysteries to uncover. You can make choices and glide to other moons and explore a whole bunch. It’s made by inkle Ltd, who were also behind 80 DAYS, which I liked quite a bit, so… this one’s going to be quite interesting!
I said “at last” earlier but there’s also technically six other titles. One of those is Orwell: Ignorance is Strength… It’s probably a good title but as I haven’t played Orwell yet (the first game I mean… which I own as well…), I don’t know yet how well it is executed and stuff. From what I gathered both games are political sims where your choices influence the world as you play as a surveillance system or surveillance AI or something along those lines. Now, political sims are quite cool but sadly also quite hit or miss. I’ll probably write about this one eventually once I’ve played through Orwell. Before that, I’ll obviously have to start up both of these games and make up my own mind about them.
Framed Collection, Fort Triumph, and Swag and Sorcery didn’t quite pique my interest. The latter there looks kind of like a mobile game I’ve played ages ago, so I’m not entirely sure how to feel about that. I’ll take a look eventually, possibly, but I don’t have high expectations overall. Narita Boy looks really intriguing, to be honest, but the VHS filter there is already hurting my eyes and it’s just the screenshots that I’m looking at. I’ll try it out probably but I really hope that it has a setting to remove that filter in specific as I can’t deal with it at all. Oh, and if you like Golf, there’s also PGA Tour 2k21 in here… No clue. Never cared. I’ll give this away for sure, alongside some of these other titles.
Overall, this bundle is great, though. Sure, there are always titles that you may not be interested in but I really love interesting concepts added as twists to established formulas. Neon Abyss, West of Dead, and Atomicrops do that really well from what I know as they add new mechanics to the roguelike formula, something that I absolutely love, as I’ve mentioned before. Meanwhile, Röki, Heaven’s Vault, Not For Broadcast and even Orwell (Maybe? Possibly?) will be interesting narrative experiences, and I love those as well as many of you may know.
Are you gonna grab any of these games for yourself or are you gonna pause this month? Are there any titles here that you haven’t heard of yet or potentially titles that you’ve been looking forward to? Let me know!
Cheers!
This post was first published on Indiecator by Dan Indiecator aka MagiWasTaken. If you like what you see here and want to see more, you can check me out on Twitch and YouTube as well. If you find this post on a website other than Indiecator.org, please write an e-mail to me. Thank you!
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