On June 2021’s Humble Choice Bundle

I’ve said in the fairly recent past that I’m making an effort to cover more of the goings-on when it comes to Humble Bundle, the Humble Store, and, starting today, their monthly Humble Choice bundles. In the interest of transparency, this is due in part to Phenixx Gaming’s status as a Humble Partner. However, as you’ll know if you’ve read any of my Steam sale recommendation roundup articles, I’m also in the business of saving you money on games that might catch your eye whenever I have the opportunity.

Therefore, I intend to cover in some detail each game present in June 2021’s Humble Choice bundle. I also fully intend to turn this into a monthly tradition, since there will be a new Choice bundle on the first Tuesday of every month for the foreseeable future. At any rate, we’ve got a full dozen games to cover in this bundle, so I say we waste no more time and get right to it.

First up is the game that made me decide to start this tradition in the first place. The “headliner” of this month’s Humble Choice Bundle (so to speak) is the Platinum Edition of Sid Meier’s Civilization VI. As soon as I saw that this was included in the bundle, I knew I had to write about it just to have another chance to ramble about Civ for a bit.

This version of the game includes every piece of DLC you would get for purchasing the Digital Deluxe Edition of Civ 6, as well as both of its expansions, Rise & Fall and Gathering Storm. Sadly, the only thing the Platinum Edition will not grant you is the six DLC packs from the game’s first season pass, known as the New Frontier Pass. You’ll still have to purchase the New Frontier Pass separately if you want any of the content it added.

However, I would argue that the Platinum Edition on its own is still a heck of a lot of content to dive into. That’s especially true if you’re new to Civ VI or to the Civilization franchise as a whole. If you’re new to the game and/or the franchise, I would say that experiencing everything the Platinum Edition has to offer is a great way to figure out whether or not purchasing the New Frontier Pass would be worthwhile for you. Plus, you really can’t beat getting all that content for a price this low.

Moving on, the second game in this month’s Humble Choice Bundle is Secret Neighbor, developed by Hologryph and Eerie Guest Studios, and published by tinyBuild. I don’t know much about this game or the franchise from which it originates, so I’ll be relying heavily on information I can find about it on various storefronts. That will be the case for a number of games in this bundle with which I’m not yet familiar.

From my understanding, Secret Neighbor appears to be a multiplayer version of the original Hello Neighbor, the game where you inexplicably try to sneak into your unsettling neighbor’s house and see what he might have going on in there. Within the context of this title, you can either play as one of a group of ill-advised, unsupervised children who try and sneak into the titular Neighbor’s house for some reason or play as the Neighbor himself and attempt to prevent those meddling kids from sticking their noses in your business.

Again, I can’t really tell you all that much about Secret Neighbor, especially not from my own personal experiences with the game. However, I would imagine that if you’ve played and enjoyed the original Hello Neighbor, this title might be fun because it allows you to bring some friends along for the experience as well.

Next up is Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse, developed and published by Aspyr. This is another title about which I don’t currently know very much at all but fret not. As luck would have it, Alexx has already reviewed this title in the past, although he covered the Nintendo Switch version of it in his article. I can’t imagine that there would be all that many differences between the Switch and PC versions of Stubbs, so I think you’ll be well-informed if you check out that review. I know it seems like a cop-out, but that’s essentially all I can say about this game right now.

Moving right along, game number four in June 2021’s Humble Choice Bundle is the combination of Worms Rumble and its so-called Legends Pack DLC. Now, I haven’t yet played Worms Rumble specifically, but I have most certainly played my fair share of its predecessors.

As such, I think I can easily imagine how wacky and enjoyable playing Worms Rumble might be once I give it a shot. I suspect you might feel the same if you’re familiar with any of the mainline Worms titles (which excludes things like Worms Pinball and Worms Crazy Golf).

Next up is game number five in this bundle, Going Under, developed by Aggro Crab and published by Team17 Digital. I didn’t know much about this title before I read its description on the Steam store and let me just say, I’m quite glad I bothered to read that introductory paragraph. I say that because aside from Civilization VI, with which I’m already rather intimately familiar, Going Under might be the game out of this entire bundle that appeals to me the most.

According to that same initial description: Going Under is “a satirical dungeon crawler about exploring the cursed ruins of failed tech startups. As an unpaid intern in the dystopian city of Neo-Cascadia, you’ll wield office junk as weaponry as you make your way through the offbeat procedural dungeons beneath your company campus.” I don’t know about you, dear reader, but that sounds wonderful to me. I can’t help but wonder whether any of the bosses within those dungeons might make Office Space references.

Moving on from the concept of caffeinated fiends who believe you have their stapler, game number six is Panzer Paladin, developed and published by Tribute Games Inc. According to this title’s introductory spiel, its core gameplay loop will instruct players to “hop in the Paladin power armor, seize melee weapons from the demonic invaders, and give them a taste of their own medicine!” Now, in all honesty, the primary reason this game stood out to me before I looked further into it is that its title contains the word “paladin.”

I’m sure most of our readers know I’m usually an avid World of Warcraft player, so that explains why my eyes perked up at the mention of my main character class outside of the venerable MMORPG. In the context of Panzer Paladin, however, it does not appear that you’ll be condemning enemies via your command of the Holy Light. Rather, you’ll be doing so with a gigantic mech suit, which can be equipped with various types of swords and stuff. This newer concept is just as cool as far as I’m concerned.

The seventh game in this month’s Humble Choice Bundle is known as Milky Way Prince: The Vampire Star. Now, folks, I’m not sure I’m qualified to say much about this one. For one thing, it’s a Visual Novel; specifically, one about “an abusive relationship, idealization, and intimacy”. I don’t play Visual Novels often, except for one that I absolutely adore. I think that alone renders me unable to intelligently cover this title, I’m afraid. However, if you enjoy Visual Novels, I see no harm in giving this one a try.

Game number eight in this bundle is known as Desolate. This is, unsurprisingly, another case of a game about which I really don’t know much. However, this game is also another that one of my colleagues, Mike, has reviewed in the past. Just from reading Mike’s in-depth coverage of this title, I must say it definitely strikes me as interesting, provided I can get a group of allies together to play alongside me.

For instance, Mike notes in his article that “you’ll have to manage your hunger, thirst, sanity, and temperature levels.” He goes on to add that if you should fail in this endeavor for any length of time, you’ll underperform in combat due to hunger or perhaps even be in for some jumpscares if you don’t keep your sanity levels in check. Thus, it seems quite important to bring along all the resources you can carry, just because you can’t really know if or when you’ll need them.

We’re nearly done folks! Game number nine in the current Humble Choice Bundle is Ikenfell, developed by Happy Ray Games and published by Humble Games. From my understanding, Ikenfell is a title whose plot centers around a school that teaches magic of some description. Don’t just take my somewhat intelligent word for it though. If you want to know quite a bit more about Ikenfell than I can currently tell you, it would behoove you to check out Alexx’s review of its Nintendo Switch version.

Alexx notes in his article on this particular title that it “plays a lot like the Paper Mario franchise. You explore the world, solving puzzles, following along the story, and fighting enemies.” So, in short, if you’re a fan of pretty much any game in the aforementioned Paper Mario series, I think it’s entirely within the realm of possibility that you’ll greatly enjoy Ikenfell.

Next up is a title known as Paw Paw Paw, developed by Simpleton and published by GrabTheGames. This title, according to what I can find about it on the Steam store, is about a once-peaceful kingdom of anthropomorphic animals which was thrown into chaos when its king decreed that all citizens must wear pants. In light of that, you play as a resistance militia of sorts that calls itself (wait for it) “the Antipants.”

Silly premise aside, this title looks like it actually might be quite fun. I haven’t seen much of it in action yet aside from a few screenshots, but it appears as though there are different playable character classes that have different abilities when it comes to combat. That could potentially be enough to keep things fresh, if you get tired of playing one class, you can always just switch to another. I’m afraid that, for the moment, I’ve said essentially all I can say about Paw Paw Paw, however.

Up next, we’ve got a title by the name of Effie, developed and published by Inverge Studios. This title professes to be a “3D action-adventure game that combines classic elements from the genre, such as combat, platforming, and puzzles, with the exploration of an expanded world.” Its plot centers around the quest of a man named Galand, who was cursed with premature old age by a witch. Players must aid Galand in this quest and ultimately recover his stolen youth.

I must say, this title is yet another within this bundle that has caught my eye based on its premise and its graphical fidelity. Of course, I won’t know much more about it than that until I actually fire it up and give it a whirl, but I do actually find myself inclined to do exactly that when I’ve got the time. That’s definitely a point in the game’s favor as far as I’m concerned.

At long last, we’ve reached the final game in June 2021’s Humble Choice Bundle. Known as Disjunction, this one is unique because it’s the only title out of this dozen that cannot be redeemed on Steam. Instead, should you select this game as one of your choices from this bundle, you’ll have to redeem your key on GOG. Whether you do that on the main GOG website or via their launcher, GOG Galaxy, is up to you.

From what little I’ve seen of its gameplay so far, Disjunction strikes me as a sort of futuristic, almost cyberpunk version of Hotline Miami, if that makes any sense. The art style seems very similar, as do the various processes by which you can go about terminating any enemies bold or foolish enough to stand in your way. I say “futuristic” because the game is quick to tell you it takes place in a future version of New York City, as you work to unravel a mystery that could change the fate of that particular landmark city.

There you have it, my friends! I apologize for the fact that I really don’t know all that much about many of the games present in this month’s Humble Choice Bundle, but I suppose that’s just the way things go sometimes. In case you’re wondering, June 2021’s Humble Choice Bundle will remain available until Tuesday, July 6th, 2021 at approximately 10am Pacific Time. If you intend to get anything from this bundle, do feel free to share which games you chose in this article’s comments!