The Ubisoft Humble Bundle Is Quietly Good Value

Sometimes bundles pop up that are an utter waste of time. And then there are bundles that are worth it for only one or two games.

The latest offering is a bit better than that.

This time around the company making headlines is Ubisoft, and while the selection isn’t quite as good as what they could have forked out there is plenty of value on offer worthy of your consideration.

It’s difficult to justify diving in at the top end — nobody really wants to spend $USD75 for The Division and a t-shirt, regardless of what else you get — but at the first and second tiers, there is plenty of value to warrant a look.

Especially if you haven’t played Splinter Cell: Blacklist.


Tier 1: Pay $USD1 or more


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  • Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
  • Grow Home
  • Rayman Origins

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The more you look into this $USD1 trio, the crazier it becomes. Grow Home might not be everyone’s cup of platforming tea, but for $USD1 it’s difficult to not justify giving it a try. It was one of Mark’s favourite games last year, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t because climbing was the central mechanic.

But it’s not the only game worth your time. Rayman Origins deserves far, far more credit than a lot of “hardcore” gamers are willing to give it, and it’s not a half bad game to play through with a friend or partner in local co-op either. But the real gem here is Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, which has a tremendously good reputation amongst Steam users, and rightly so.

It’s basically a modern Western romp that focuses on gunning everyone down in sight, which is really all you want from a Call of Juarez game. It’s the kind of nonsensical fun that will appeal to anyone who recently had a good time with the rebooted DOOM campaign.


Tier 2: Pay more than the average (currently $USD6.33)


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  • Far Cry 3
  • Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
  • Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China
  • More games to be announced

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The average will probably soar by a couple of dollars over the next week, although this is the tier where things could really get interesting. As it stands, Far Cry 3 and Splinter Cell: Blacklist is an exceptionally good pairing for just under $9. If something like Valiant Hearts, Child of Light or Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon gets thrown into the mix, I’d consider it a must-buy (provided you didn’t own all of those games already).

I’m obviously skipping around AC Chronicles: China, and for good reason. It’s a six-hour experience that plays it safe, which is a bit disappointing given that it’s a 2D game instead of the full open world Assassin’s Creed experience. Not awful, but not spectacular either.


Tier 3: Pay $USD15 or more


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  • Assassin’s Creed: Rogue
  • The Crew

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And here the value starts to dry up significantly. Rogue was meant to be the cast-off of the big Assassin’s Creed games when it launched the same time as AC: Unity, but it ended up being the superior game. You can get it for cheaper than $USD15 if you really want to flesh out your AC experience, however. Mind you, if you’re a fanatic for the series you’re not getting a bad deal.

The amount of value you’re getting from The Crew is pretty arguable, however. It was a weird experience when I played it at launch, given it’s an always online game relying on the quality of peer-to-peer connections — most of which will be in the United States if you’re trying to play now.

I had more fun with any of the recent Need for Speed games, although The Crew did look and run very nicely at 4K on my GTX 780 SLI setup. So there’s that.


Tier 4: Pay $USD75


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  • Tom Clancy’s The Division
  • Exclusive Division t-shirt

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You are officially bonkers if you consider paying this much money for a copy of The Division with a t-shirt. You can get the game for cheaper from a retail store, and if you’re buying a PC key you might as well use a third-party retailer like OzGameshop, GMG or any of the other, far more affordable alternatives.


So that’s what’s on offer in the latest Ubisoft bundle. Remember, if you buy into the second tier now you’ll get all the games that are added to the bundle when they’re announced next week. The amount to buy in will probably increase a little — I’d say around $3 after the exchange rate is factored in — but if you haven’t played any of these games already, waiting a little longer won’t kill you.

As of right now, it’s a nice little discount just for Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Which is an excellent game that any fan of stealth action games should play, and you can massively crank up the graphics on modern systems to make it look nice and spiffy. But that’s just me. What do you think?


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