Another month in the books, and here we are with a new bundle of games in our Humble Monthly Subscription. This month also marks a year since I started using the service, and I believe that was fairly close to when the company started providing it. I know I missed a couple of months at the very beginning before deciding to see if it was worth the cost. I feel like over the course of the year I was able to check out a large variety of games, including titles that I wanted, some that were still expensive to buy otherwise, and some that I had never even heard of. Some were early access, some were full release, and some were AAA titles that I wouldn’t have expected to get at such a value. Some of the games made me wish I hadn’t bought them already (great titles I already owned have been included over the past year) and others made me glad that I never bought them for full price. Overall I feel that the service is a boon, being around the same price as a Netflix subscription for a handful of decent games each month. I always find at least one that is worth the $12/month entry fee, so any others are a bonus. I only started reviewing the bundles each month (my opinion on these titles that is) a few months back, but I’m sure some of you might think that it seems like I’m always bitching about some portion of the bundle (probably am) but I honestly feel like it’s worth the money. I always have gifts lying in wait for gamer friends, some I gift for no reason, and some I have others stashed for a rainy day. Games that I’m not interested in or already own go into this pile. Others get played and I share those experiences here, while commenting about owning such and such game or having no interest in another. I’m overly honest that way. Still, I would recommend this service because overall each game is pennies on the dollar compared to their MSRP, there are some neat surprises from time to time, and giving the extra loot away feels pretty good. Your mileage may vary.

Let’s get on with the games, shall we? The list this month:

Dirt Rally
Inside
This is the Police
Undertale
Metrico+
The Turing Test
GoNNER
Super Rude Bear Resurrection

Early unlocks for the month were Dirt Rally and Inside. I played both and have opinions. This is the Police, GoNNER and Super Rude Bear Resurrection were the titles that appealed to me this month, so I’ll be able to comment on them as well. I did not install Undertale, Metrico+ or The Turing Test as they all feel like games I wouldn’t enjoy, and I’d rather save those keys for friends. Speaking of which, if you check out the list at the bottom of this page you can check out the games that have been included in past bundles and if we’re friends and you see a game on there you might want, drop me a comment. If I have the key still I’ll send it your way.

Dirt: Rally

I hadn’t played a game in the Dirt series before. Apparently it dates back to the turn of the century, but I hadn’t really even noticed until the third game was out. At some point, Humble provided a free key for Dirt 3, which I redeemed but never played. Ditto for Dirt Showdown. Rally came out last year, and Dirt 4 is on the way this year. Apparently it’s a thing. I really wanted to like it too. The game ran great and looked beautiful. I enjoyed the fact that the career mode felt like playing Gran Turismo, where you start out with a shit car, make money, upgrade it, and eventually buy better cars and qualify for more difficult events. However, in Gran Turismo this is all done on asphalt. Rally racing appeals to me, I’ve watched events and one of my favorite cars of all time is a Rally car (WRX STi), but playing this game didn’t do it for me. I’ll be uninstalling this and I don’t think the predecessors will be getting much time out of me either.

Inside

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Inside took me completely by surprise. I had never heard of it, and it doesn’t look like my type of game. But it was gripping right from the start. A beautiful art style with great depth of field, yet still played on a 2D plane. It is very atmospheric, and there is no dialogue to the point I got in the game, so the story unfolds before you in a way that says it all without saying anything. I really enjoy this one and look forward to seeing more of it.

GoNNER

I have no idea why the title of this game is stylized the way it is, but I have no control over that now do I? A rogue-lite platforming shooter, it has a very strange art style and direction. It looks interesting enough in it’s minimalist way, but can sometimes become confusing. It appears that you can buy different upgrades between deaths, and though it wasn’t too challenging, it wasn’t something that I could see myself putting much time into.

This is the Police

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Another game I was on the fence about. Looking at the screens on Steam, I figured it could be a fun little management game. It’s heavily story driven to start off, with a comic book like introduction, and some dialogue decisions to make along the way. The meat and potatoes of the game seems to be managing which officers you send out to handle crimes. Depending on who you pick depends on the success rate, and it seems like even making the “best” choices still resulted in loss of life — civilians and officers mostly. Half the time the perps get away. The management aspects were sort of limited, but I honestly didn’t play it that far. Those of you into management games might have better luck and find more enjoyment in it, I should have passed.

Super Rude Bear Resurrection

SRBR seems like the type of game that has a story behind it. Perhaps there is an original version of this game somewhere and this is a sequel of sorts? Reboot? Remaster? In today’s age, who knows, and though it’s a simple Google search away I don’t really care. I like this game. I’m not huge on platformers anymore, but this feels like the sequel to Super Meat Boy in the best possible way. The game plays similarly enough, the familiar mechanics are there. The graphics are surprisingly good, and done in a way that feels good but still has that cartoon feel-good aspect. The words aren’t coming out so well because it’s late, but hopefully you catch my drift. If you like old school tough platformers, this one is for you.

Overall this was a fairly solid month. The early unlock for June is a game called Stellaris, which is made by the same guys as Crusader Kings. I have CK2, which was gifted to me at some point and I simply couldn’t get into it. A more intuitive tutorial might have been helpful. It looks pretty good nonetheless so I’ll be giving that a whirl soon enough. Until next month, it’s been swell.