Gaming

RPG Fans Rejoices! Humble Bundle is Here with Their February Choice

For $12 you're getting a ton of hours of RPG gameplay with February's Humble Bundle Choice

Humble Bundle’s January Choice is a tough act to follow featuring the Doomslayer himself with Doom Eternal along with Olli Olli World Rad Edition and Tribes of Midgard, but if you sink most of your time in RPGs then this might be what you’re looking for. This month’s headliners are Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Enhanced Edition, Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales, and Fallout 76 + Fallout 1.

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Enhanced Edition

As a TTRPG fan (and went through the roller coaster that was Wizards of the Coast’s Open Gaming License fiasco) I’m pumped to dive into Pathfinder both at the table and now on my Steam Deck with Wrath of the Righteous. The game normally retails for $50 and its historic low Steam price is $15. OpenCritic rates this as Fair but Steam’s overall user rating puts it at 84% positive. Steam Deck compatibility is rated as playable/gold.

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

It’s not uncommon to get a card battler in a Humble Bundle Choice but Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales seems to be a particularly strong game filling that slot this month. Boasting a 30 hour long singleplayer story, this should satisfy you if you’ve ever just needed another round of Gwent. Standard retail this games goes for $20 but the historic Steam low is only $6. OpenCritic rates this as Mighty with some pretty glowing critic reviews to accompany Steam’s overall player rating of 89%. It gets extra points from me for being Deck verified/ProtonDB gold.

Fallout 76/Fallout 1

And then there was Fallout 76. Oh Fallout 76, you’ve had such a storied journey, and not a particularly positive one. The game famously launched with no NPCs, game-breaking bugs, and horrific review scores which is why OpenCritic puts this at Weak rating. It’s honestly fascinating how disastrous the launch was so I’ll include a video from Matt Muscles where he features it on his “Wha Happun?” below.

Bethesda didn’t give up though, they finally added NPC with the Wastelanders update and continued to try to win back fans with content. It seems to have helped a bit as this now sits with a Steam overall rating of 75% and as of writing has a 24-hour user peak of over 10,200. I was let down by Fallout 4’s regressions with its RPG elements so I never tried Fallout 76, but I’ve always been curious so this is the perfect excuse for me to hunt Mothman in post-apocalyptic Appalachia. Standard retail price for this one is $40 but the history Steam low most likely around $10 (it’s skewed on IsThereAnyDeal because I’m guessing the occasional free weekends). The game is rated playable/gold for the Deck which is enough to tip me over into trying it.

If a live-service Fallout game isn’t quite your speed, then you may be more interested in the second Fallout game in this month’s choice. Not to be overshadowed for it’s younger and shiner sibling, Fallout 1 is the classic that started it all. An old-school isometric PC RPG that may be a little harder for modern gamers to initially get into but fans of the genre will certainly enjoy. Fallout 1 has a playable/gold rating on Deck so you won’t need to worry about compatibility just like the rest of the headliners.

Four out of four headliners playable on Deck. You love to see it. For $12 it’s a pretty good deal for RPG fans with Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous and Thronebreaker alone, but especially tempting for Fallout fans. Headliners are all well and good but where would we be without our indies? Along with the three previously mentioned games you’ve got:

Othercide – Turn-based Roguelite. Currently has a Deck rating of unsupported however the ProtonDB lists it as Platinum.

Shady part of Me – Narritive Platform Puzzler. Verified for Deck long with a Platinum rating on ProtonDB.

Scourgebringer - 2D Roguelite platformer. Verified on Deck and Linux native.

Fobia – St. Dinfna Hotel – Survival horror FPS. Verified on Deck and Platinum ProtonDB rating.

Five Dates – FMV Dating Simulator. Verified on Deck and Platinum ProtonDB rating.

All in all I’d call February's Choice line-up pretty good. I think most people can find something to enjoy in all the five indies in this month’s Choice, though I think Five Dates might be more niche for some as is the nature of FMV games these days. You get all those nine games to keep for $11.99 plus some other perks like access to Humble’s publish games (through their launcher which is a pain to set up on Linux, come on Humble) and store discounts.

I feel the need to mention however, Humble Bundle seems to have been having issues with running out of Steam keys for games on sale and in bundles. I personally experienced this when picking up Marvel Avengers for $8 when it took me about a week after purchasing the game to receive a key. There was no warning of exhausted keys on the game store page which is not a great look for Humble regardless of how long I had to wait for my key. If you experience this issue please let us know so we can investigate further.

Full transparency, while Gardiner (not myself) is part of the Humble Bundle affiliate program, neither of us receive compensation for people signing up for Choice and my membership was paid for by myself.

2023 is looking to be a promising year for Choice subscribers so let us know in the comments if you pick up Choice this month and which games you’re playing from it. What other games do you want to see featured in future Choice bundles, shout them out below!