The Total War Humble Bundle Is Decent, Provided You Go All The Way

Humble Bundle’s really having a stellar couple of weeks. Most of the year it’s been fairly quiet on the service in terms of worthwhile deals, but the last few months have seen some cracking offerings. Hell, the NEOGEO offering earlier this week is still worth your money.

But not everyone is interested in arcade games. Some people want things a bit slower. A little more methodical. A little like, say, the Total War games. And if you’re that kind of person, then Humble Bundle would like to introduce you to the franchise. All of it.

It’s an encore bundle for the Total War franchise, and it features four tiers. Unlike most bundles of late, you’ll want to at least jump into the second tier to get proper value.

Let’s break it down piece by piece.

Tier 1: Pay What You Want

• Medieval II: Total War Collection
• Viking: Battle for Asgard
• Shogun: Total War Collection
• Total War: ROME Original Soundtrack
• Total War: WARHAMMER Illustrated Campaign Map
• Total War: ARENA 30 Days Premium Account & Exclusive Humble Warrior Greek Shield and Commander Leonidas Bust 3D Printer File
• Total War Battles: KINGDOM – Exclusive Humble Banner Heraldry & In-game Resources
• Total War eBooks (Roman Soldier vs Germanic Warrior, Alesia 52 BC, the Final Struggle for Gaul, Sword of Attila part one)

There’s an incredible amount of fluff there: a campaign map for Total War: Warhammer? A month-long premium account for Total War: ARENA? Nice if you’re paying bugger all for it, I suppose, but hardly something to get excited about.

The same could be said for the original Shogun and Medieval 2 as well, as both games haven’t aged particularly well. Fortunately, the second tier is more enticing.

Tier 2: Pay More Than The Average (US$8.35/$11.50)

• Total War: ARENA Premium Spartan Hoplite Unit
• MEDIEVAL: Total War Collection
• Empire: Total War Collection
• Humble Store 66% off Total War: ATTILA coupon
• Total War: SHOGUN 2 Collection
• Napoleon: Total War Collection

Napoleon: Total War and the Shogun 2 sequel are the pick of the bunch, although many users will be aware that the Shogun 2 collection has gone on sale many, many times before. There’s a high chance you’ll be able to pick it up for US$5 or less over Christmas, and Napoleon: Total War has been discounted to US$5 before too.

Let’s tackle the third tier.

Tier 3: Pay More Than US$15/$20.66

• Total War: ROME II – Emperor Edition
• Total War: ROME II – Wrath of Sparta Campaign Pack
• Total War: ROME II – Caesar in Gaul Campaign Pack
• Total War: ROME II – Nomadic Tribes Culture Pack
• Total War: ROME II – Pirates and Raiders Culture Pack

This is undoubtedly where the real value in the bundle lies. A real annoyance with Total War: Rome 2 has always been the exorbitant cost of the DLC and Creative Assembly’s penchant for it. It’s not quite in the same vein as a train simulator, but the fact that the amount of DLC offered on the page right now costs more than the game at full price — which is still going for US$79.95 — is a touch grating.

If you were to purchase all of the DLC offered in the Humble Bundle right now, it’d cost you US$45.96/$63.26, which to most people seems fairly absurd. And that’s not factoring in the cost of the base game either.

But it’s not a spectacular deal by itself that demands you purchase straight away. And it’s worth remembering that there are several other DLC packs not included in the Humble Bundle: the Blood & Gore DLC, culture packs for the Greek states and the Black Sea Colonies, the Hannibal at the Gates campaign pack and a couple of unit packs to boot.

Mind you, when you throw Rome 2 on top of the Shogun 2 collection, Napoleon collection, packages for the Medieval games, Empire: Total War, the original Shogun and the e-books … that’s when this deal starts to make a lot of sense.

It’s worth adding that you can get a Humble Total War t-shirt if you pay US$30 or more, although there’s nothing particularly special about the t-shirt (as was the case with the NEOGEO 25th anniversary tee).

But as an entire package, it’s still decent value for money — just not for any of the tiers individually. Chances are you’ll probably know one or two people who will really get a kick out of the franchise, though, and for them this could be a nice way to get their feet wet.