I’m Kinglink and it’s my birthday month which can only mean it’s time for the Humble Choice August 2024 Review.

Oh boy, this is quite a month, we’ll be all over the place and you know, we finally have a month where all the headliners aren’t at the top of the list.  That’s a clue on how this will go. 

Let’s go through the rules.  I’ve played every game on stream, for at least an hour, mostly.  I can now tell you who will enjoy the game, what the game is like, and if you should check it out.  Afterward, we can rank them and talk about the entire bundle.  

But before we can talk about the sum of the parts… it’s time to talk about the parts.   Starting with. 

Sifu.  A martial arts masterpiece. 

Sifu has one of the best openings to a game, it’s just so perfectly paced and had me stunned as it ended.  But from there, Sifu’s tale of revenge begins with the player fighting his way through a warehouse, and a nightclub.  The entire experience is a high-octane fight, with a heavy focus on dodging and parrying attacks while returning strikes and blows.   Enemies seem fair to fight with even bosses playing by the same rules.

On the other hand, this is going to be challenging.  This is a game where you will die, and each death adds to your age, with a cap so you will eventually get too old and get a game over.  Sifu feels like it’s designed to be farmed a bit, rather than just beaten on a first attempt.  The first level is pretty reasonable, but because of the nature of the death counter and more aggressive enemies, the second level is going to be much harder.   There is an easier difficulty if you want to fight your way through without being forced to master the game. 

Pick this up if you like karate, kung fu, or any other martial art.  This is a high-octane game, with a unique style.  Yes, this is going to be extremely challenging, but it’s also not an unfair challenge from what I’ve seen so far.  As I mentioned you can go for the easier difficulty if it ever gets too much, and the style here is exceptional.  This instantly made me a believer. 

High On Life.  Please just shut up. 

I’m not going to try to be nice here. I previously played this title on Xbox Game Pass for a couple of hours. I disliked it, but now playing it again, I actually loathe it.  There is diarrhea of the mouth, nonstop jokes and while maybe something could be funny if there’s a build-up, joke, and punchline, here it’s all punchline and it’s like the comedian could not risk any joke failing that they just shotgun it at the player.  

The gameplay isn’t good, you can turn off some of the dialogue, but I quit the game, and that solved the problem a lot faster.  Nothing about this is funny, interesting, or worth playing.  I forgot exactly how bad this game was, and now that I played it again, I’m quite upset because I just did not have a single ounce of fun.  I would say this is the worst game I ever played, that is a personal opinion but not something I would say lightly.  It’s not hyperbole, it’s not a “notice me” declaration.  I literally would want to play anything else other than this game.   And if you don’t like the game, but think that’s too far, try having to play it a second time.

Not going to talk about who should play, You already know if you like this style of humor, and in this case, I disagree fully, but I’m glad you found something you enjoy.  I’m not going to talk about the creator, who … yeah that’s another story.  Not going to talk about anything else.   I’m upset I had to play this game and remember how bad it was the first time I tried it.  This experience has put me in a bad mood.  That’s all I can say.   Also this is actually what I did the minute I was done recording.

Gotham Knights.  Three Robins and a girl. 

Starting Gotham Knight, I was hoping for something that would be enjoyable, as I loved the entire Arkham series.  The opening of the game starts with Batman fighting Ra’s al Ghul in an epic fight before handing over the city to his four proteges, Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing, and Red Hood.  The game allows both single-player and co-op though it takes a while to get to the co-op gameplay.  The game is set up as a Game as a Service, with a ton of unnecessary resources, and level-based combat, though there aren’t microtransactions

While there aren’t microtransactions, this kind of proves microtransactions aren’t the problem.  Everything else has the same flaws, level-based enemies are stupid for a superhero brawler, or any action game.  The resources break immersion easily.  The gameplay flow is designed for co-op which harms the experience and story, and there are parts of the game where you just go out and grind.  

But a bigger problem is that the opening 20-minute fight is a cutscene.  There’s no gameplay for that time, and while the fight is epic, it’s with a character you don’t play as, and not introducing the characters you should be interested in.  People wanted to play as Batman, and even though this is co-op it’s almost like they were an afterthought.  Also, the combat has none of the fluidity that the Arkham series mastered, likely because it would be hard to do in co-op.  Oh and no Parries, because… animations are complicated in a networked system, that’s a guess, but I’m going to bet I’m spot on, I’ve personally been on a game that dealt with it. 

Pick this up if you have already played all three Arkham games recently or want to play something in co-op with a friend.  But playing this in single-player, just made me want to go play any of the Arkham series, even Knight.   But you know there’s at least a silver lining that I’ve heard from a few people.   “At least this isn’t Suicide Squad.”  Ugh. 

Blacktail.  A tale of Baba Yaga, maybe.

I’m taking a few guesses on this game, but with the story about a witch named Baba, and a character named Yaga, I feel like this is a safe bet.   This game reminded me a lot of Hellblade Senua’s Sacrifice, maybe a B-tier version of it, but there’s an interesting world and characters, with more of a focus on exploration than heavy combat so far.  There’s a lot more to do in the world with collectibles and upgrades and a bit more survival or crafting ideas though nothing too bad so far.   There’s also a morality system that feels more about the grayness of both sides than just pushing people to the side of the light.

There’s a weird design choice where if you continue the game, you don’t recover your life, so you can get stuck in a harder fight with only one hit point left.  That’s a bad situation.  The gameplay feels like you can be vastly overpowered so far, and for some reason, the first boss only had a quarter of his life bar filled.   

However, there is a bigger problem.  When I beat the first boss, I was on the evil path and the chest didn’t unlock.  I even quit back to the main menu, then beat him a second time and the chest remained closed.  That sucked a bit of the excitement out of the game.   Hopefully, it’s a one-time bug, but it’s not something I’m glad about. 

Pick this up if you like interesting stories or wonderful worlds.  I enjoyed exploring this game, and I kind of want to see where the story is going to go.  I want to find out if I’m right about Baba Yaga, and I have some guesses about other things as well.  I’m mostly upset about the glitch because up to that point, I was having a lovely time.

Astral Ascent.   Hades, Dead Cells… Together? 

Astral Ascent is shockingly good.  It feels like the developers took every important lesson from Hades and did something brand new with it.  So far there have been interesting characters, such as a capybara that you talk to, but the game appears to be more focused on the Zodiac, with supposedly at least 12 bosses.  There are also four playable characters, and I chose a brawler, but all the conversations seemed specific for that character, making me think there’s a ton of dialogue for each character.  Plus the Bosses even taunt the player in a way that just makes me ooze with excitement.

There’s a lot more I want to lovingly praise.  The controls are extremely tight and interesting, the enemies are great, and players feel like they get a lot of power but still can easily lose a run.  There’s just an excitement about thinking about what will come next or what you can build.   Oh, and there’s Couch co-op too.  

So far the game does feel a touch easy, though I’ve heard there’s harder ascension and I only just beat the first boss, which is usually when I think a rogue-lite is too easy and ends up smashing me in the second level.  In addition, the graphics are good, but I’ll be honest it is a bit minimalistic, even with great animations.  Also, the game can get a bit complex with everything going on, but that’s to be expected with a rogue-lite. 

Pick this up if you like Hades for its story, or Dead Cells for its 2d platforming gameplay.  This is seriously good. I’m sorry I missed this game initially because this is everything I’ve wanted.  I’m excited to go back and keep playing this.

Diluvian Ultra.  Probably got that wrong.  This is a beautiful and unique boomer shooter.

Diluvian Ultra has some great artwork, the opening is beautiful, and the gameplay is quite nice.  This is mostly a boomer shooter, but there’s an attempt at a story here, mostly though you’re going through the level and shooting everyone.  It’s more about the style, you have a bit of organic weaponry going on as well. 

The problem is there is some roughness here.  First off, the game forces you to buy the Guide upgrade, but the couple of times I used it, it just wigged out and went to the wrong place.  Kind of a bad problem when it just flies over a wall.   In addition, there’s a feeling that this is early access or something.  Like the game talks about chapters 2 or 3.. but they’re not out yet.  I’m not sure what’s going on here.   

There is a strange save system where once you hit a checkpoint you can continually revive there, and any damage done to enemies remains.  It’s nice for players who are overwhelmed, but I think it also removes a lot of the challenge of the game.   Also, there are quite a few platforming sections, most of them feel optional but they’re a little annoying when you need to work your way around a room with jumps.    Oh, and the game seems to support controllers, but without a dash button on the controller, the tutorial is impossible to complete.   

Pick this up if you love boomer shooters, this is a pretty solid entry. However, there are a lot of this genre out there.  The art here is particularly good, but that’s the high point, and the gameplay is solid but nothing that exciting.  The story too feels shoehorned in, and what’s sad is that it’s not.  The developer has posted his world-building and it’s quite good.  The problem is that the building was posted on Reddit, not in the actual game. 

Universe For Sale.  A dull visual novel. 

Universe For Sale sounds like a good concept.  The game is set on Jupiter, with all the characters having to hide from Acid Rain, there’s inventive character designs, and races. This honestly feels like it’s one of the most innovative attempts to build a world, and there are some interesting philosophy and thoughts involved in it.   The main character meets with a woman who is said to be able to shape universes. 

And after an hour I felt like I was falling asleep.  There’s no voice, and the text is boring, as innovative as the world-building was, there’s nothing that made me want to play on.   I feel like I’m missing something and it’s anything exciting or interesting enough to keep playing.   There’s nothing wrong, just nothing that interesting. 

Pick this up if you must have a visual novel with very light point-and-click puzzles.  But even so, I do think this isn’t that good. Still, I am willing to think I’m missing something, but I have no clue what that would be.  I’m just not enjoying this one as much as other games.  

This Means Warp.  FTL meets Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime.

If you immediately want me to say FTL here, yeah you’re on track.  You move around the ship and can control various systems, but there’s a lot more here.  First, this feels designed for multiplayer.  You do recruit AI Companions but also can do local or online multiplayer, which will probably become hectic.    There’s a bit more micromanagement of the ship itself here, which is very similar to Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, and it’s a good mix.  I was able to beat the second boss and that boss had an interesting mechanic as well, that I won’t spoil. 

On the other side, this does feel like it’s designed for multiple players, so playing single-player is fine, but I wondered if I was missing out a bit.  I still haven’t figured out most of the systems, and while the first run was ok, the second run seemed to be blessing me with every type of bonus so I was a lot more powerful.  You unlock more stuff as you level up throughout the game as well, so there’s probably a lot of progression that can be done through multiple runs. 

Pick this up if you like FTL.  Yeah, it’s FTL plus a few other things, but I think this is a little weaker than FTL, rather than a merging of two distinct styles.   Still, as a concept this is excellent, and if you can get a few people playing, this would be a total blast with a group, but even alone I think is worth checking out. 

And that’s what we have for the games of the Humble Choice this month

Speaking of which, that means it’s time for Is there any deal, and of course there is. Shockingly, this month there’s a megadeal from High On Life, this game has gone for 23 dollars at its lowest.  So you’re saving almost half. Except… ok so it’s bundled five times. 1 time is Fanatical, and most of these games have been in Build Your Own Bundles there.  Kind of disappointing, Humble.  

But High on Life was also in Ign Live at Home from June, only two months ago, and Spaced Out Bundle last year.   Both times at 30 dollars. A good deal, but it’s been bundled.

Speaking of, Gotham Knight was in the WB 100 Play the Legend Bundle at 15 dollars, and technically in the Turkey- Syria Earthquake relief bundle. Which went for 30 bucks.  I’m not going to fault the charity bundle, because that’s a different situation, but again come on Humble… 

The rest of these games have fluctuating prices though Astral Ascent, Sifu, and oddly Universe For Sale have good values here. 

Speaking of Universe For Sale and Astral Ascent came out in November of 2023, less than a year ago. Diluvian Ultra was released in September of 2023.   Technically Diluvian and Astral Ascent were coming out of Early access, but that’s frighteningly short, however, people want more recent games, that’s them. 

Or if you’re someone who wants big-budget AAA games, and all. . Well, Sifu, High on Life, and Gotham Knight kind of match that idea.  However, I have a different opinion on those games. 

I keep forgetting to mention this.  There’s a DC Infinite Trial membership here. 1 month.  If you don’t know you can pretty much read almost any comic DC has made with that.  Which is a pretty awesome choice.  However, if you use it, it’s a one-month trial so be careful  because they will try to charge your credit card potentially up to 120 dollars a year, which is fine if you want it, but if not. That’s a lot of money. 

There’s a coupon for Saturnalia and another for High On Knife the DLC for High on Life, I’m just going to mention it for completeness.

I think we’ll just move to the tier list because.  Yeah, I have a lot to talk about here.   As always we have misses, Average titles, Strong Contenders, and games I think that are worth the full bundle price. I’m going to be a little stronger on the personal opinions this month, but I think it’s clear I have some very strong opinions. 

Let’s get started with the Misses. 

High on Life, I was clear before, I get no enjoyment out of this game, some people will and you know… I don’t care, I already played some of this once, and I’m pissed I had to play it twice.   It’s a comedy game, I didn’t find it funny the first time, and I found it worse the second. 

Speaking of games I didn’t enjoy, Universe for Sale.  this might be more enjoyable for someone else, but I almost fell asleep, that’s a bad sign for any game, but this one just is boring.   I know there are a few reviews from people who like it, but this is a good world, a bad story. 

So let’s take a quick look at this tier list so far, you already know what’s here.  But let’s pretend it’s special. 

So next up we have Gotham Knights.   I can’t get over the fact I just want to play a different game.  There are three… wait, no there are FOUR great titles in this franchise that deserve your time.  I forgot about Arkham Origin which is also better.  I can only imagine playing this if you have a friend who you need to play a Batman game with but … there are so many co-op games out there, try those.

And then there’s Diluvian Ultra, yeah I still didn’t look up how to say that.  It’s a good boomer shooter but this is the average tier… and ultimately, it’s an average game.  Granted this does go for 9.99 normally, and I guess I would forgive a bit more for a budget title like that, but ultimately I think I’d rather play another boomer shooter, even though these graphics are great. 

And halfway through the list, we have four titles already, here they are. 

Next up, This Means Warp.  I enjoyed this quite a bit. I  probably won’t return but if a friend wanted to, I could be talked into this again.  It’s a good rogue-lite, based on a fantastic title in FTL, and has co-op which only makes it better.  There’s an overwhelming feeling from the game, but when you’re stomping an enemy, it’s fun.  Oh, and I haven’t mentioned spacing enemies either, which is probably my favorite part.

That’s followed by Blacktale.  Ok listen, I’m going off the assumption I’m the only person to have that glitch.  Maybe restarting the game and beating the boss again would mean I could go on with this story, and I was having a good time.  The morality system was pretty binary, but I also liked that the game’s “evil” wasn’t over the top, but just a darker path line, and it felt more organic that way.  I’m very tempted by this title. 

And this is how we look before the final tier.  Next up we have the games worth the full bundle price.  Yeah, there’s a headliner left.

Which is where we’ll start. here.  Sifu.   I like this game a lot, it’s inventive, it’s clever, it’s got a unique battle system and solid gameplay.  It is very challenging which is probably the one reason it doesn’t click with me more, but so is Elden Ring, Dark Souls, and a ton of other games, and you know what, if I put in more time I’d probably get better at it.

This leads us to the game of the month, and yeah, it’s Astral Ascent.  I LOVE this game, this is the most excited I’ve been about a Humble Choice addition in a long time.  Yes, I probably like Yakuza more, but I already own all of those.  This is a surprise in my humble choice, and I’m thrilled to give it more time.  I want to get done with this so I can go do that. 

And that’s what I have for this month’s bundle.  Here’s the final tier list if you have skipped the entire video and wound up here, also please watch the video because analytics and stupid things like that. 

Also, I usually talk about one bundle that I would recommend in place or in addition to the Humble Choice, this month it’s the Lego bundle.  I love Lego games as an adult, but they’re also great with kids, if you somehow don’t have many of them, this list is excellent, I didn’t realize I had most of these but that’s why my daughter now has an amazing collection of her own.  

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed this month, I oddly did enjoy myself, even though the lows were low.  Astral Ascent… I’m hoping it can deliver on what I’ve seen so far, because it would be amazing to play something even close to Hades or Dark Cells, and I’m glad people will get a chance with this choice. 

You know the rest, like subscribe, ring the bell, and so on.  Throw me a comment, and feel free to write out a three-page dissertation on why High on Life can only be understood by someone with a high IQ because I totally will read that…  I will say I feel a little bitchy when I rip that game, but I oddly don’t feel bad about that.  Again, if you don’t understand, try playing it a second time. 

See you next time.