Humble's come out of the gate swinging with its first Choice Bundle—available through the charity-focused initiative's $12 subscription service—of the year. Marvel's Midnight Suns, alongside a collection of seven other games, are available to keep for subscribers at no additional cost.
I'm not much of a Marvel guy these days, but Midnight Suns definitely caught my eye. Our 2022 GOTY runner-up is a tactical deck building RPG from Firaxis, the creators of XCOM, but instead of permadeath-vulnerable randomized mooks, you control a stable of classic Marvel heroes like Blade, Dr. Strange, and Spider-Man.
One of the biggest surprises of the game was how much it leaned into that BioWare fantasy of having this big gaggle of digital friends you hang out with back at home base. PCG editor-in-chief Evan Lahti praised how you can "Go on long walks with Tony Stark; take Blade on a picnic; [and] gripe about your evil parents with goth pal Nico Minoru." With its focus on character-based storytelling, online editor Fraser Brown found Midnight Suns to be more Fire Emblem than XCOM.
Midnight Suns definitely feels like the real jewel in the crown of this Humble Choice Bundle, but there are a few other winners to be found here as well. Dog sledding survival voyage The Red Lantern has always intrigued me, while higher education management sim Two Point Campus also strikes me as a choice acquisition.
The fact that games from Humble Choice are yours to keep as opposed to Game Pass' more ephemeral offering is a big draw for me. I know most of my games are digital anyway and subject to the whims of rights-holders, my own internet access, and (god forbid) any instability of the platforms I use, but I'd still rather own them then have my access be fully contingent on a subscription. You'll have until the end of the month to take advantage of January's Humble Choice Bundle.
