News: Humble Bundle 7

Great games, great cause, Grimrock, what else do you need?

Head over to www.humblebundle.com to buy now!

Well, it's that time of the year and what better way to treat yourself or a loved than with a bundle of great games, soundtracks, a documentary, and a donation to a good cause all wrapped up in one. We're now onto the seventh numbered Humble Bundle, and it's one of the best so far; a veritable stocking full of goodies to keep any gamer more than occupied over the holiday season.

For anyone unaware, a Humble Bundle is a collection of games--usually indie games but sometimes otherwise--music albums, or eBooks. Mostly games though. It's the games we care about here. This collection is then offered on a pay-what-you-want basis for a limited time, with certain games or extras being locked behind an average price barrier, and more content usually added over time. Not only that, but all of the money you choose to donate can then be distributed, again by you, however you like amongst the developers, the Humble Bundle operators themselves, and various charities. Pretty awesome, right? I know!

So, back we go to this particular bundle and let's take a look what's inside. For now--since the bundles usually grow over time--we have six games, five of which include their respective soundtrack, and the award-winning documentary Indie Game: The Movie, along with its soundtrack. Two of the games are locked behind the average price barrier which is around $6 at the time of writing. You have until the end of December to buy, and any donations over $1 grant you Steam keys for all your games. 

This is Grimrock. It's worth more than twice the average price of the Bundle. Purchase justified.

Speaking of the games, let's take a closer look at those on offer. We've got what I would, so far, deem one of the highlights of the package in the form of The Binding of Isaac plus its Wrath of the Lamb DLC; a surprisingly deep, top-down, roguelike game from Edmund McMillen (co-creator of Super Meat Boy) and friends. The game has a fantastic art-style, a sick sense of humour, and countless loot-filled, randomly-generated dungeons to plunder. The fact that the DLC is included here is more than a welcome bonus since it includes a shocking amount of new content that expands your Binding of Isaac experience in the best possible way; more goodies to find and more bosses to fight. Up next there's Snapshot, yet another of those 2D platform-puzzlers that garners cries of "Ooh that's clever!" from anyone who tries it. I've not played much so far, but it's cute, clever and convivial, with a nicely-managed difficulty curve and some smart mechanics. Closure, winner of the 2012 Indie Game Challenge, is in fact yet another of those puzzle-platformers. Yet with an eerie, monochromatic art-style, almost 100 challenging puzzles to solve, and some very unique light manipulation techniques, this one looks a little bit special. The last of the games that isn't locked behind the average price is Shank 2, Klei Entertainment's sequel to their smash-hit, side-scrolling stab-em-up. New weapons, fresh multiplayer, and plenty of brutal shanking ensure that if you enjoyed the first game, you'll find lots to love here.

The two 'bonus' games are Legend of Grimrock and Dungeon Defenders with its DLC. The former; an old-school, grid-based dungeon crawler with beautiful graphics and some inventive puzzling. The latter; a multiplayer-focused, tower defense action RPG, and yes I agree these long-named sub-genres are getting rather silly nowadays. Suffice it to say that all six of these games seem more than worth your time, every one of them has received some degree of critical acclaim and I think they're all worth a try. The only thing left to discuss is Indie Game: The Movie; it's an award-winning documentary, highly relevant to the Humble Bundle, charting the efforts and toils of several independent video game developers including the likes of Phil Fish (Fez) and Edmund McMillen. Frankly, I'm no movie reviewer but it's an incredibly well-assembled piece of film that should be of great interest to anyone with a passion for the game industry, offering an extensive look behind the scenes of indie development and shedding some humanising, and at times harrowing light on the creators themselves.

So there you have it, Humble Bundle 7 is available now for a very limited time, and I'd encourage every gamer to treat themselves or a friend to a few extra Christmas presents. I'll be playing each of the games and reviewing most over the coming days, but frankly I can already recommend a purchase. Supposing you were to pay the average price, the games you're getting are exceedingly good value for money, with the movie and soundtracks being welcome and valuable additions themselves. Not to mention that if you buy early, you'll receive any additional games absolutely free of charge, and I'm sure the bundle guys are feeling pretty generous this time of year.