In yesterday’s news there was a lot of you, myself included, who lamented the fact that Humble Bundle’s downturn was largely thanks to the reduction in decent bundles.
But with a new day brings a new story and a new bundle. And guess what? It’s actually worth buying.
The latest offering comes courtesy of Capcom, although fortunately all of the main titles here are solid PC ports. There’s three tiers as usual, and more games will be added to the second tier at a later date (although if you purchase early you’ll get keys for those too).
The first tier is the US$1 or more offering, and it comes with Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Lost Planet 3, the first episode of Resident Evil Revelations 2 (Penal Colony) and Strider. At least two of those games aren’t too bad: Strider isn’t fantastic across the board, but it’s an enjoyable enough action-adventure that hits a few Metroidvania-beats, while Bionic Commando: Rearmed offers a good challenge (provided you’re playing with a controller — no, really, it’s a lot easier).
I never thought much of Lost Planet 3, although I didn’t play the other games in the series. My brief experience was that it was a bit dry and uninspired. You’d never accuse any of the Resident Evil games of being dry, given the series’ penchant for accidentally hilarious writing, although whether it’s worth your time generally is another matter. For US$1(ish), though, I’d argue it probably is: the Steam ratings aren’t too bad for the price of entry.
The second tier is more tempting and comes with DmC: Devil May Cry, Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil Revelations. Resident Evil 5 might not be held in such high esteem as its predecessor, but it’s a solid entry in the franchise and being bundled with Revelations, provided you’re willing to pay US$8 (the average is US$7.88 right now), isn’t a difficult sell.
I’m a big fan of the DmC reboot though, and I’d argue that if you haven’t gotten the game yet the PC port, which runs reasonably well at 4K, is priced pretty well. Again, I didn’t play the originals so the changes to Dante didn’t affect me in the slightest. It also helps that Ninja Theory have a bit of talent when it comes to combat, and the humour helped carry me through some of the weaker levels.
If you’re willing to drop a touch over US$15, you’ll get Resident Evil 5 with all the DLC and Ultra Street Fighter 4. USF4 works just fine on PC now that Games for Windows Live has gone the way of the dodo, and it’s not difficult to spend a whole night playing match after match without any issues. The game will set you back US$30 on Steam if you haven’t got it already, or US$15 if you’re one of the few who picked up vanilla Street Fighter 4.
That’s effectively 50% off with a string of other fighters thrown in. For me, this bundle is kind of like two packages: either the Resident Evil offerings take your fancy, and you’ll get some platformers (Bionic Commando, Strider) on the side, or the thought of USF4 and DmC together (potentially with Lost Planet 3) works for you.
I’d also be willing to quietly bet that, considering USF4 is part of the package, access to the Street Fighter 5 beta might be included as part of the beta. I’m sure it wouldn’t be overly difficult for Capcom to rig up some special Steam keys that grant access only to the beta without giving away the game entirely (and they would probably like to get more feedback about SF5 on PC in general).
But given how much they cost on Steam right now, we’ll probably see something like Remember Me, the Mega Man Legacy Collection, Lost Planet 2, the Ducktales remaster, Dead Rising 2 or Street Fighter x Tekken get added instead. (Given the way the bundle’s structured, I imagine the last two, or Dead Rising and Remember Me, is probably the best shot.)
Comments
6 responses to “The Latest Humble Bundle Is Actually Worth Buying”
I heard the new steamworks version of Resident Evil 5 is a pile of garbage, can anyone here confirm?
The link you’ve used is their email campaign tracking link.
So while it works fine, it will be skewing their open rate numbers, you know, if you care…
@piratepete Do you mean the old version or the update gold version?
Compatibility with the splitscreen co-op mod was patched out with the gold version, I’ve heard it’s still available in the old version. One of the few reasons that make the game worth buying.
Just picked up the bundle myself =)
I really enjoyed the first two Lost Planet’s, a pretty game with lots of “dumb” fun and i have been waiting for RE 5 and Strider to go on sale for a while, so for $8 i definitely cannot complain. I am hoping that Dead Rising or Mega Man are the last lot in the bundle, as i already own the other options you mentioned =P
More quality games to add to the Steam pile of shame!
I was tempted to buy it till I looked at my PS3/PS4 shelf… Everything but Lost Planet 3 was already sitting there. I know having them on PC means more shiny graphics, but why should I rebuy these games once again? (Plus only having the first episode of Revelations 2 with a 50% off coupon to buy the rest of the game is a bit dodgy. Full game or GTFO)
Nah..I looked at this bundle when it hit my email. Only took a quick glance to tell it was another bundle I don’t care about.
Not a single Linux game. This looks like a last-gasp bargain bin offer from a publisher not prepared to port their franchises to today’s new platforms.