Humble Choice December 2023 - Now this is what I'm talking about.

I'm King link and I've just finished off the turkey from Thanksgiving so that means it's time for the humble Choice December 2023 review this month we have eight games and more so last month I forgot to mention that there was a 1 month DC Comic subscription apparently I wasn't alone in that because it's back this month and now it's in the list of games I just want to mention it because I probably will forget it later I've done an 8 hour straight stream checking these games out though honestly I didn't really need all that time I played over half of these titles previously many on Xbox game pass and now have a chance to take a second look and cover them in this series so let's get on with that right away starting with what's on the screen who told you that listen claudiana is protective as a mother should be but I know how your father raised Expeditions Rome exploring an ancient civilization through murder and dialogue trees Expeditions Rome takes the crpg genre and drops the player into the time period of ancient Rome meeting Julius Caesar in the first scenes players would take on the role of a man or a woman who quickly ascends to a powerful military position and then joins the war efforts while trying to solve their father's murder the writing here is good though it does use a lot of Roman terms so players might need to look those up for full comprehension however the story does seem interesting and the battles are strategic and suitably large the strategy RPG genre though is a mixed bag while Expeditions Rome does a great job of making it clear what each attack does it also sometimes feels unfair just due to how the genre uses random dice rolls or some of the stats in this game also the story has a lot of historical inaccuracies which won't upset the most fans but it feels odd because the game shows a lot of love for the period as well but that's also ignoring the pronunciation choices and the Tactical gameplay won't appeal to everyone as well pick this up if you like the original Fallout game but can do with less humor it's a strategy RPG where you get a large party cruise around talk to everyone wage war on an epic scale it might be a little bit of a niche with a heavy story and long gameplay but it's also perfect for those who like the genre [Music] midnight fight Express brawling through a lawless City midnight fight Express does a lot of things right the start of the game has a pumping beat the combat feels tight the levels are well laid out there are challenges for each level just a ton to do and the idea of fast-paced brawler can work on paper all of this is good and in game everything does feel polished the only problem is none of this really feels like it's coming together nothing is bad necessarily but there's just something that isn't as exciting as each of the parts individually and instead of a bad or a great game it's just average the music becomes repetitive before the first hour is up even with different stages having different Tunes the enemies change but not really enough there are upgrades but will take many levels to earn all of them and they don't change the game as none of them are actually required by the game and the only thing that the challenges unlock is Cosmetics that don't affect the Gameplay at least that's the story The industry's told us over and over again again nothing's really bad about about this but my excitement went down over the first hour just as it did the last time I played this in Game Pass pick this up if you want an interesting case study in how a game just fails to come together or just want to beat him up for just a short while sadly that's all this ends up being and it's a shame but I will say that with everything working here I'd be interested to see if the studio can turn it on with another title that meshes a bit better because the framework is here it's just you know something is missing I want to see Ka elix 2 a sequel to a game that I've forgotten elix 2 is going to appeal to a certain type of person and that person probably already owns it this is from the same company that made Gothic and risen the player that loves this studio their characters their convoluted story and the gameplay that's not made to be accessible is going to love this as well however this feels like a hard game to love as do most of the studi titles risen feels like a series that arrived about 5 years too late and just was a bit of a dated Relic and elix 2 has that same feeling for an action RPG there are interesting ideas but this isn't going to compete against Starfield or cyberpunk 2077 and feels more like a niche game even in the action RPG genre it's really hard to say what new fans the studio is going to be picking up in 2023 who haven't played one of these titles before For Worse the story here feels obtuse in that it expects the player to already have played and really studied the first game if you haven't the game will name drop a lot and while you might be able to pick up things through context this is a continuation of the story not intended for new players to be able integrate into the tail at least in my experience also there are bizarre things like a Billy Idol concert with him singing whiskey and pills for no reason that still boggles me though since that got muted on Twitch I'm not even going to attempt to show that here pick this up if you like the original elix it was in Humble Choice a while back so some fans will be here but this is for fans of that title already especially those that remember the story I barely remember playing it so probably not for [Music] me nobody Saves the World achievement hunting the game you know what's better than achievements lots of them and in quest form with multiple different characters and abilities that you have to use to complete the game you then tie the completion of those achievements into progression in the game so players are constantly pushed to beat more of the game's meta quests and while this all sounds like a sick fantasy of people who care too much about achievements which I do it's also how nobody Saves the World Works players will change their form to use different abilities and constantly switch what attacks they're using so they can beat these any quests in addition the game has an interesting and often funny story there's a lot to do in the game taking about 20 hours for me to beat and I was having a great time throughout still this is a very meta Quest and achievement style gameplay so players who want to focus on the large epic journey and get annoyed by achievements and games probably should steer clear that's most of what this game does the out style is a take it or leave it number and while I like it it did take a while for me to get comfortable with those empty eyes pick this up if I keep saying this but if you like metagaming this was an engaging title and I even picked it up my myself because I wanted to play the whole thing after seeing it on Game Pass but I'm also thrilled more people are going to get the chance to check this one out wa did you see that amazing what did I even do the gunk must be suppressing the plant life somehow the gunk creating a lush beautiful world out of slime pools the gunk has a beautiful moment where the player removes the last of the gunk in the area and the player flashes a green Spear and the world's florid comes back into view the moment plays again and again about every 5 minutes or so and each one feels up lifting the beauty being restored is never really lost on the player as they explore the massive world that surrounds them even if it is a guided path while there is combat this is almost a casual game with a great story and interesting locations to discover at the same time there's just enough combat to make this more active than most casual games as well as some platforming only a few moments have a real challenge but it's in this weird position the idea of cleaning up a world while investigating what caused a Calamity might not appeal to everyone but this is a unique title in that respect pick this up if you like what you're seeing this is just an odd game to gauge but I enjoyed myself and fully played through this title on Game Pass it took me 6 hours and while five of them were really great the last hour dragged on just a little bit but it still has an interesting tale and I will applaud that there's a lot said in the story without being shoved in the player's face the pale Beyond sailing into the Frozen South to find a mysterious wreck the pale Beyond starts with an interview with the main character trying to join the interviewer's crew as a first mate the game is played in a slow story based style where players have to make choices but also those questions will make the player think a bit about their characters backstory the game says that the decisions will change the crew their opinions of players and their morale there are also several resources that players will have to balance between food fire and the aformentioned morale the game moves at a Brisk Pace but there's probably a lot more to discover after that first hour at the same time this does seem to be very story heavy I'm not sure how much each of my decisions will matter and the game pretty much forces most of the important choices in the first hour it's just likely to be holding the player's hand but as usual the game claims choices will matter and the question as always is how much it seems that the game play is more about staying alive than necessarily changing the ending but that's also where the challenge will lie pick this up if you like a story based game parts of me were thinking about Return of the oberen due to the language and having the experience set on a ship but that's more of a puzzle game and this is more of a narrative still something is intriguing about the story so far so it's possible I'll be playing much much [Applause] more last cor BBS the final new title from zachtronics last call BBS came out last year it was a bit of a surprise being announced as zonic final release while they did release a soliter collection after this this is more of a collection of games that never got made there are seven unique titles here and they range from a game where you lay out metal for a chip a game where you automate a kitchen and a game where you build gun models Which is far more interesting than it should be but ultimately this is a zachtronics game and it's all the same negatives as always it's a game built for programmers or a logical mindset and while I absolutely love that it's not going to appeal to most players there's a good amount of content but a few games feel a little short mostly the guned models for me or at least the legally distinct giant Mecca models whatever you want to call them I just want hundreds of them to play with also this feels like prototypes the studio made but never built for a full game it's not a huge negative but it does feel a little bit like leftovers pick this up if you enjoy zachtronics titles I keep saying that and this is absolutely another one for the zachtronics pile I adore this company I said goodbye to them when this game came out and looking at this once more gives me a lot of nostalgia I would highly recommend checking this out if you ever enjoyed any of their games and I know of their new company coincidence I can't wait to see what happens with them from space a multiplayer twin stick shooter from space appears to be geared towards four player combat where players are looking around a map lowering the infest level and probably at some point clear the map and move on to the next there's a story mode and a new horde mode though the story mostly just has missions that take you to locations so different combat activities are going to occur there are also six classes in the game with six more available in DLC nothing stands out here but there are a lot of issues that do seem to come up the early guns lack an enjoyable feedback loop but even once you get an Uzi or an AK-47 you're just doing more damage but it does feel like you've firing into bullet sponges the AI is horrible at times such as when an enemy stood above me and wouldn't attempt to walk down the stairs big fruits don't even turn their Shields as you strafe around them and there's no self-preservation from the friendlies following you so you have to manage traps not just for you but one of the dumbest AIS I've ever seen in a game pick this up if you you know just play Warframe Deep Rock Galactic risk of rain 2 Diablo 4 or honestly just anything else this one really isn't worth your time and the community is pretty dead on Steam trouts having only 20 players at Peak before for the humble choice and that's probably spoton there's just nothing that exciting here and that's what I have again I will mention a fre month of DC infinite but at least one person I talked to already had some problem activating that still it'd be good if you're interested in reading the history of the DC Comic characters like always we'll take a visit to is there any deal and of course there is there are quite a few here that are good value I will mention Gunk is listed as na or zero but is $24 on the steam store right now elix 2 and the pale Beyond have never been cheaper than 12 bucks all thep except from from space are currently more than 12 and most games hover around the $ 11 or $10 so not a bad deal the only repackage this game is from space but yeah I'll also say I have played most of these with Game Pass owning as well as beating a couple this is actually a really solid bundle the gunk nobody Saves the World and last call BBS are games I'm glad that are here even when I didn't enjoy the game it's still a good addition except for well one title with that though you know I'm just going to move as quickly ahead to the tier list this month and talk about that we have four categories ories games worth the full bundle price strong contenders average titles and misses a reminder this is personal opinion not meant to be about the price of the game but more the value of the experience and with that said we have one title in that last category our miss this month is still playing on the screen it is from space this is a game that just feels like an afterthought both in development and inclusion I'd love to do a deep dive with the team and find out what they were aiming for but honestly this just isn't good enough for the average tier we have two titles midnight fight Express is uis I really wish I had more time and I could explain more but this is a game whose excitement really wears off very fast and there's not much left after that I feel like this game got a lot of mileage out of being a free download on Game Pass at launch the other game in the average tier is elix 2 this does seem functional but there's so much here that feels dated so even if you are interested this does feel like it requires the first title to fully appreciate it so try that one first and you should know if you want more and this is how the tier list looks after half the tiers not bad five games left let's move on to the two games in the strongest contenders the First Title Here is the gunk I enjoyed myself with this title but I barely talked about it after it it's not a strong recommendation to others but when I saw it in the humble choice I thought oh I enjoyed that game and that's pretty much a good summary of it the other title in the strong contenders is the pale Beyond I enjoy the storytelling here but I'm sure a playthrough or two will be enough of this game it's a different experience but isn't going to really stand out too much on its own so it is one of the few games in recent months that feels different and that's a good thing and that leaves us with three titles in a tier list that looks like this so we'll just continue onwards the bottom of the full bundle personal opinion but come on one more zachtronics game and listen I promise soliter collection won't be up here if and when it is on humble but zachtronics is still my favorite company and last call BBS is still an amazing finale for them also it's the bottom of this tier which means there's two more games I would recommend over it the middle of this tier is Expeditions Rome this is a 40 hour crpg so there's a good length here the strategy and the combat is pretty interesting and the writing was good so if you're a fan of the genre this is a pretty safe bet this is for fans of this style though but there is a lot to sink your teeth into which leads us to nobody Saves the World this is a game I spent 20 hours with and I loved every minute of it it hits that part of my brain that makes me chase after achievements but it's also funny and charismatic and trust me this art style will grow on you or at least it grew on me this was a ton of fun and like I said 20-hour title easily worth a strong recommendation and that's what we have this month this is the final tier list and with that said we can move on to some Alternatives I do highly recommend this humble choice but if you want something a bit different well let me offer two Alternatives these will be available until 2 weeks after I release this video I believe it ends on the December 21st first up we have the uplifting Adventures bundle this seems like a nice cute bundle I can personally say tiny kins is an amazing game it's like peakman on the PC and that's something I've wanted for a long time so this might be worth checking out honestly I'd love a sequel of that one too the other bundle I'll call out is due to people always saying they want jrpgs well here you go note that's seven games and a coupon not the same thing is a come on humble you know that but I can say edge of Eternity is pretty good bug fables is almost like a paper Mario St style games so those I can recommend the others are new to me but should be interesting enough and that's what I have now this is the end of the year which means I'm working on my best of the year list and I'll try to fit that in with several other things going on if you didn't see last month I released a second video a retro review of dolphin for the Atari 2600 where I talked about the game but I also talked about the achievements that I made for it on retro achievements and if you want to check that video out I of course would appreciate it I'm hoping to have some news on that front but it's kind of out of my hands at the moment so maybe we'll have a second video this month or maybe January might be a little overcrowded with videos we will see with that said if you're interested in the humble Choice my retro reviews or even what I thought of last year subscribe ring the bell and keep an eye on this channel if you prefer I do have a Discord channel that will also pop up and I welcome all of you there so I'll pop up that retro review here and I'll also link to my send off of zonics it is a bit sad but honestly it's also a good memory because they gave me a lot of hours of interesting gameplay see you next time

Channel: Kinglink Reviews

Views: 3,921

Keywords:

Id: FzxvEceV60k

Length: 15min 54sec (954 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 07 2023