Welcome back, it’s September, so of course it’s time for the Humble Choice September 2023 Review.

Like always, I have played all of the titleson a Twitch stream for an hour a piece.  The account name is Kinglink underscore Reviews (Kinglink_Reviews) if you want to see the raw footage or want to join my stream next month.  Now I am ready to tell you what each game is like, how they play, and who will like it. 

So with 8 titles, there’s a lot to get through so let’s get started with what’s on the screen. 

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands.  More Borderlands with a different name.

If you’re a fan of the style of humor that Borderlands has.  The good news is that there’s a D&D-style game with all the same types of jokes, gunplay, and combat.  Tiny Tina is running a new campaign similar to Assault on Dragon Keep, and with two new characters to the franchise, played by Andy Sandberg and Wanda Sykes.  This is a new adventure to keep you occupied for many hours. 

On the other hand, if you didn’t like the humor in Pre-sequel or Borderlands 3, this is the same humor and it’s grating.  I’ll avoid the diatribe about how to set up a joke or parody for it to be funny.  In addition, the game is set up to be more like an RPG, with Random encounters, and a strange map system.  I don’t think this works with Borderlands’ style of combat, and that breaks what was one of the strongest things about the previous titles, the world and maps.  Also, the fact that you’re just using guns, instead of them trying to do something new or unique with the combat, is a bit disappointing.  Yes, Grenades are spells, but they’re still just using guns.

Pick this up if you loved Borderland 3 but want more D&D jokes, but the rapid-fire style of joke writing gets old fast, and I found it more tiresome than entertaining.  Also constantly bringing up references like Butt Stallion has gotten old previously, and now it is just stale. 

This version comes with all the DLC, including the season pass, but that season pass has earned quite a negative reputation on Steam. 

Deceive Inc. Multiplayer spy game. 

Deceive Inc.’s idea is that multiple groups of spies are trying to get access to a secret vault.  Players will go undercover to search for intel, hack into systems, and find the vault.  It’s a bit of a deduction game where you have to figure out who is a real person, as well as a combat game once you identify an enemy.  The NPCs act believably, I’ve even seen them start running out of nowhere, so it’s possible to mistake them for players.  The player base appears steady at about 300 active players at any time on Steam Charts.

However, at the end of the day, the game itself feels limited.  It’s just going around and hacking multiple locations, and hacking is holding X. There are gadgets and some good ideas, but overall there’s very little “Spying” or deception, and with everyone working towards that same goal, it’s a lot like a Battle Royale, with only one team or person winning, and a smaller lobby.  

Of course, there are also season passes and Microtransactions and the prices are out of whack.  10 dollars for a premium-only legendary skin or a battle pass?  Like a skin for characters, no one will see 99 percent of the time?   I also saw a few full black outfits on different players which probably has a competitive advantage as well. 

Pick this up if you want to play a multiplayer spy game, but there’s no deception here.  I’d go play Town of Salem or Throne of Lies.    The art style is ok but the gameplay just never got me that excited, though I was glad to win a gun battle.  Overall this left me feeling that it was lacking something.

The Forgotten City.  An amazing time loop narrative. 

A great narrative is what I look for in video games, and the idea of time loops if done well is always interesting.  The Forgotten City does both of those things extremely well.  The characters are interesting, the premise is unique, and the world is memorable and has a ton to explore.  Even playing this a second time now, I remember why I was so enamored with this title. 

On the other hand, The Forgotten City is a narrative game that revolves around learning about the world and the people.  While there is the ability to get a bow or a gun in the game. There’s not a lot of combat in the game.  This is more about solving puzzles than anything.   The writing is well done, but it mostly focuses on the people and how each character relates to others. 

Pick this up if you like a strong narrative or if the idea of time loops in a game interests you.  This is different from Outer Wilds, but it’s also in the same vein, and I enjoyed both titles for similar reasons.  What’s truly interesting here is this was made by three developers working on a Skyrim mod and they have delivered a unique experience that I think full teams still struggle with. 

Aces & Adventures.A narrative poker card game 

Aces & Adventures starts with players exploring a strange land.  The game is broken up into multiple adventures, each taking less than half an hour to play through, and appears to have an interconnected story.  There are 5 playable characters, several unlockables, and decks of thirty ability cards to take into each adventure.  The sound design deserves a special mention.  The narration is solid but there are great little touches that pulled me into the story. 

The gameplay though is very similar to poker.  You create hands in poker like two of a kind or a full house, with a normal deck of cards.  With the game being all fantasy-based, it’s odd to connect this to a typical card game, but after an hour this started to work, and there are a lot of clever abilities designed around the idea.   Still, it’s a narrative poker card game, that’s a strange pairing that might put off people.  Also, card games can tend to have some serious difficulty spikes so maybe I haven’t seen that yet.  However, I think the second character feels overpowered so far, which usually means I’m wrong and they’re the weakest. 

Pick this up if you enjoy card games.  The narrative is set with minor choices throughout the game, but the leveling means your deck of abilities can grow.  It’s a strange idea but I’m going to mention the audio again because it did a great job making the entire game come together and it kept me engaged long enough for me to see some of the unique depth of the poker-style combat.   I’ll probably return this weekend.

Patch Quest.  A rogue-lite focused on capturing monsters. 

Patch Quest has players exploring a large branching map, which has elements of Metroidvanias, Bullet-Hell Shooters, and rogue-lites, however, the map layout doesn’t appear to change.   Players can lasso and capture enemies to use their abilities as they explore the world.  This is supposed to be a decently difficult game focused on exploration. 

However in my first hour here, I didn’t find it that hard, I died only twice, both times due to my own mistake that likely won’t happen again.  The player is decently powerful and while there’s a lot to collect and the art is good, the gameplay is just easy enough so far that I’ve found myself a little bored, rather than engaged by the game. A lot of reviews talk about the difficulty and maybe I just need to play further.

Pick this up if you like Bullet-hell games.  There are also some interesting ideas with collectibles, and maybe some base building, but like I said I didn’t see too much as I was able to get decently far in my play-throughs.  The concept of capturing monsters to ride them and use their powers was pretty interesting though. 

Foretales. A narrative card game based on exploration and abilities. 

Foretales is a different type of card game.  This is a combination of resource management and a discovery or exploration game. Players have to navigate through a sea of cards.  Each mission has a specific story associated with it, usually with a couple of ways to complete the task.  Players will use character abilities, as well as items they find to achieve various goals, such as freeing their friend from a jail cell or trading for a necklace.  There’s also a combat system where players can negotiate around enemy encounters, rather than be forced to fight their way through the enemies every time. 

Foretales is a hard game to explain but for the right people, this will be great.  But at its heart, it’s a card game.  Also, the first two missions were well designed but the third mission I reached had a bit of a “Where do I go” vibe to it.  I’m sure certain cards had to be combined to get to the right location but it wasn’t clear how to.  There’s a hint system but it was vague enough that I could imagine the game may become a bit frustrating at times. 

Pick this up if you like Hand of Fate.  This is trying to be in that same vein, but it lacks a bit of that level of polish, but with the combat system being purely card-based, this also might win over some people who didn’t enjoy Hand of Fate battles.  The narrative design is solid here, and the entire game is an overarching story, with what feels like a few decisions based on time management as well, but also allows players to fail without a penalty. 

Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus? A family quiz night involving attempted murder.

Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus is about a woman whose Uncle Marcus has been poisoned, she has to try to find out who poisoned him in the family, but needs to figure it out based on learning about what happened in a recent family gathering.   This is all acted out over what appears to be Zoom calls, with an array of colorful characters, and a dysfunctional family that constantly seems to be fighting in a silly but enjoyable way.  It’s a lot like a trashy Soap Opera or Teen Drama.  But I like trashy Soap Operas and Teen Dramas. 

With that said, there’s limited gameplay, mostly choosing between two or three options.  It appears the story needs to be played multiple times to learn all the evidence and figure out who committed the crime, and while it’s well acted, it’s a bit limited in what it can do with everything focused on Zoom calls, likely because it was filmed during the pandemic.  While the concept is good, this will likely only take people a few hours to see everything.   However, I will say that the game does allow players to skip scenes, which is very much appreciated.

Pick this up if you enjoyed Five Dates, or at least saw the promise in it.  This is a better game, and with the story and concept, it’s more interesting, but it’s by the same company.  However the production values here are a bit higher and the story has me more entertained, also there are a few recognizable actors here..  This is also a bit like Late Shift, or most of the FMV games that Wales Interactive puts out.  I did finish one playthrough but need at least a couple more to uncover the truth. 

Also just a heads up, there’s a decent amount of swearing in this game, and bad behavior, it is a mature soap opera after all. So this is definitely for mature audiences.   

Autonauts vs Piratebots.  An Autonauts sequel now with combat. 

Autonauts was a game where you programmed robots with simple Scratch-based AI to do simple tasks and automate your base.  Autonauts vs. Piratebots appears to be the sequel, now with combat and enemies.  Truthfully, just like the first game, I haven’t gotten through the tutorial yet, but so far it feels like the same experience.  This will add combat eventually but it takes a while to get a base built and start seeing the differences between the games. 

I’m a huge fan of Zachtronics games, as I’ve said a few times and I love programming.  So Autonauts should be up my alley.  But there’s something about how the programming is done in a monkey-see, monkey-do pattern that feels like it takes far longer than I want.  I probably could type in instructions far quicker than showing them, but that’s not allowed.  In addition, this is a sequel that builds on the original, and with this game so automation-focused, it’s going to appeal more towards a programming mindset instead of a survival mindset. 

Pick this up if you liked the first game but want combat.  At least that’s what I’m assuming.  So far this feels like a better version of the original, but that was already in Humble Choice, so if you have that, check that one out and then consider this one based on your opinions on that one. 

And that’s the eight games this month. 

Before we get into my opinions, let’s take a peek at Is There Any Deal, and the answer is yes, there is a deal.  Tiny Tina’s price is a little deceptive though, because that’s the complete package, but even the base game has never been below 16 dollars, so that’s a pretty solid price.  

Aces and Adventure, Foretales, and Deceive Inc. hover around the 12-dollar mark, so that’s not bad if those are the games you want.  

Autonauts vs. Piratebots and Patch Quest have been bundled before, but only in a few of Fantical buy three game type deals which are bundles, but kind of different. Though Patch Quest was available last month in their Platinum Collection for August which is a little close. 

As for the bundle, I’m mixed on this one.  Tiny Tina is a big game, but I don’t see myself returning to it, at least not until I play through Borderlands, and even then I’d probably only do that with friends who were passionate about it.   Deceive Inc. isn’t dead for a multiplayer game, but I’m struggling to get any excitement for it, and the microtransactions… I just hate that’s where the industry is. 

Still, there are a few good narrative games.  Forgotten City is great.  Like I said I’ve already played through it, and am even considering another playthrough to remember the small pieces of the story.   Aces and Adventures have impressed me so far, and they also have released two challenge updates in the last three months, including what they call a Slay-The-Spire-inspired mode, which looks pretty interesting for fans.  And Foretales has an interesting design, and if there’s any issue with that title, it’s that it’s in a month with another narrative-based card game, which for people who like that type of game, isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just got a touch over shadowed

Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus though is also coming out at the same time Wales Interactive has a bundle called Tales from Wales Interactive.  Clever name, and for 10 bucks you get 6 games in that same style.  Again not a huge negative but if you’re specifically looking for that genre, that’s probably a better deal.  That ends in a couple of weeks though. 

With that said, let’s take a look at the tier list and this month.  As always we separate the games worth the Full Bundle price, Strong Contenders, Average titles, and Misses.  And I’m torn on a lot of games this month, but I don’t think I can honestly say anything deserves a miss so we’ll just skip that tier.

Starting at the bottom of the Average tier.  Deceive Inc.  I’m sure people will enjoy this title, I just don’t know why.  It has all the issues a battle royale has, without the massive number of players, it also really lacks an idea about deception other than moving around like an NPC. Someone explain it to me and others in the comments, I’m sure this has fans and I just don’t get this one. 

Next up is Autonauts vs. Piratebots, I’m surprised by this being as low due to being an “automation game” but I just don’t feel the pull towards it and what I find strange is this is the type of genre I expect to just go crazy for.  Maybe it’s a programming game not for programmers, but again, check the original game, and if you like that, this will be right up your alley. 

Then we have Patch Quest.  Another title that I fear might need a few hours to get decently difficult or that I’m missing something.  The art is really good, I just don’t feel a desire to collect a bunch of plants or monsters here.  There are additional harder difficulties, but I don’t think my main issue is the challenge, more just not getting hooked into the game design.   Though I will say I’m probably missing something on this one.  My tier list, my ranking though.   And there is Co-op mode, so maybe it’s that? 

Finally for the Average titles, Fore Tales.  This is teetering on the border, but that last mission where I was struggling to figure out how to advance the story, even with the hint system, gave me flashbacks to a lot of bad game design.  Still, if you’re thinking about this and Aces and Adventures combined that would probably push both games up to worth the full bundle price. 

And this is what we look like after half the games. Like I said, this is my tier list, my opinions, but also none of these games are terrible, just not amazing either. 

With that said let’s look at the Strong Contenders.  We’ll start with the bottom of the list, Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus.  This is a guilty pleasure, it’s that bitchy throw your drink in someone’s face and make a scene type of writing that I eat up, as long as you don’t call it reality tv…. And sometimes then.  It’s a good concept, and I will be returning to see more just to see all the pieces of the story and the way the game delivers it.

Middle of the Strong Contenders is Tiny Tina’s Wonderland.  If you like this game, it’s worth the full bundle. But man, I really didn’t enjoy this game, and maybe I was not in the best mood, but the jokes are so painful, and after so many Borderlands games telling this style of joke, maybe it’s gotten to be too much.   Still, with friends, this would get a decent bump. 

And the top of the Strong Contenders list. Aces and Adventures.  This is a strong title, I enjoyed the narrative elements to tell the stories, and the card battles clicked for me about 30 minutes in.  Where this belongs is going to be dependent on how the rest of the game is, but after unlocking the second character she feels very powerful, so I’m itching to get back to this one.  

And this is what we have after three tiers.  Yeah, I guess there’s no surprise left, so let’s finish this off. 

The Forgotten City is the game of the month.  I highly recommend this one, it’s an impressive title, and like I said, I’m probably going to just replay it for the story.  There’s something special about the writing.  The story is an interesting one, and there’s a lot to discover throughout the experience.  It’s not the longest tile, but it’s one I enjoyed a lot and was happy to finally get a copy on Steam this month. 

And that’s what I have.  Now I did mention earlier but I’ll call it out again.  The Tales from Wales Interactive is currently on Humble so if you just want FMV games that’s a decent deal at 10 bucks, but it is a specialized genre. 

With that said, we come to the end of the video, my friends.  I could lie and tell you I’ll have a video out soon, but I’ll be honest, I’ll probably take a bit of a step back outside of the Humble Choice videos at least for a short while, I’m enjoying playing games for myself, Lost Judgement has been really good.  I do have an idea for a video, but I have some other pursuits I might try to tackle this month of a Retro variety. 

However, if you enjoyed this video and want to see what comes out next month, consider subscribing.  Ring that bell if you want to be the first one to see my video next time.   Liking, commenting, and sharing the video always helps, and don’t worry, this isn’t the end of the channel, I still have that sick enjoyment of the hell week of putting out a Humble Choice video so I’ll be back in about 28 days.  

See you next time.