Hollow Knight and Hitman headline the Humble Monthly
Insects, assassins and zombies, oh my!
The Humble Monthly continues to impress - today's $12 subscription bundle deal is massive souls-inspired Metroidvania Hollow Knight, murder-sim Hitman and zombie survival sandbox 7 Days To Die. While the third of those doesn't quite fit, the first two are among the best in their genres, though Hitman is arguably a genre unto itself.
That's not even mentioning the other handful of games to be unveiled at the end of the month. Plus, the upcoming Hitman 2 (due November 13th) will integrate with the original game, letting you take on old missions with new gear. Below, some trailers for the current trio of games, and some thoughts on each.
I don't think it's too controversial to say that Hollow Knight is a modern classic among Metroidvanias. Heavily inspired by Dark Souls and set in a cartoony (if grim) world of little insect-people, it offers a massive interwoven world to explore, and a huge number of optional quests and areas on top of its main story arc. Now padded out further with several free updates, it also appears that developers Team Cherry are working on a commercial expansion starring rival character Hornet, teased at in a new ending introduced in the latest free add-on.
Originally released episodically (hence the Complete First Season designation), Io's Hitman is a series of playgrounds for aspiring assassins. Each of its mission areas is an elaborate puzzle-box full of moving parts, interacting NPCs and hidden areas. While completing a level can sometimes only take mere minutes, mastering any single map and completing all its multitude of optional objectives can take days or even weeks. The Humble Bundle version doesn't appear to contain the Game Of The Year edition's extra missions, but there's always the option to upgrade later.
7 Days To Die feels like the odd one out of this group. A little bit Minecraft, a little bit DayZ, it's still in early access despite debuting in 2013. It first appeared when excitement for zombie survival games was at fever pitch, but still remains reasonably popular. Curiously named developers The Fun Pimps continue to hammer away at the game, with an enormously detailed list of development updates for the next alpha build listed on Steam here, and a 45 minute look at the next major build on YouTube here.
And of course, being the Humble Monthly, there's likely another 4-6 games to be revealed. For $12 (£9.15, give or take), Hollow Knight and Hitman alone make this absolutely worth the money - those two are excellent, and mastering them could take you months. With these games, Humble, you are really spoiling us.