8
votes
Humble Choice - October 2025
October 2025's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games.
| Steam Page | OpenCritic | Steam Recent/All | Operating Systems | Steam Deck | ProtonDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atomic Heart | 74 | 72 / 78 | Win | ✅ Verified | 🎖️ Platinum |
| V Rising | 83 | 85 / 89 | Win | ✅ Verified | 🟨 Gold |
| System Shock | 77 | 80 / 91 | Win | 🟨 Playable | 🎖️ Platinum |
| STORY OF SEASONS: Pioneers of Olive Town | 71 | 63 / 83 | Win | ❌ Unsupported | 🟨 Gold |
| Cryptmaster | 76 | 93 / 95 | Win | 🟨 Playable | 🎖️ Platinum |
| Shogun Showdown | 87 | 97 / 97 | Win | ✅ Verified | ✅ Native |
| Hotel Renovator | 70 | 82 / 77 | Win | 🟨 Playable | 🟫 Bronze |
| Caravan SandWitch | 72 | 67 / 89 | Win | ✅ Verified | 🟨 Gold |
Does anyone have experience with any of the games and, if so, would you recommend them? Is there anything in here that you're particularly excited to play?
You: "Hmm, something is different about the table this month."
Me: "Yes, it has an new, inescapably more positive aura."
You: "But isn't it the same regular table it always is?"
Me: "Yes, but also no."
You: "That's a contradiction."
Me: "Yes, but also no."
You: "Please stop."
Me: "Okay okay, I'll let you in on the secret. This table didn't take me a painstaking half hour to assemble by hand."
You: "Oh, of course! You probably used @talklittle's amazing new browser extension to build it!"
Me: "Naturally. It's too good not to use! It saved me so much time. That's why the table seems so light; so fresh; so carefree."
You: "I really can feel it! What are you going to do with all your extra time?"
Me: "This will give me even MORE time to praise Proton this month. In fact, I've written a one-man play about it."
You: "Errr, I, uh, really have to be going."
Me: "NO! Don't leave! It's really good, I promise!"
You: "I have to take this phone call. It's an emergency."
Me: "Your phone's not even ringing. The scene opens on a room full of windows. In the middle, the model of an atom sits on a pedestal under a spotlight."
You: "NOPE. Not a chance. I’m gone."
Me: ”Enter: Proteus Tonnerby -- a GNOME."
You:Me: "WAIT! Come back! Proteus is about to sing his first song!”
Oh boy. Didn't realize that extra free time would lead to one-man plays being written. Now I'm having some regrets about the extension.
I remember deeply concentrating for thirty minutes every month editing a markdown table and cycling through browser tabs checking all of the source websites.
In case @kfwyre hasn't said it to you enough: @talklittle this browser extension is so, so brilliant!
I have no experience with any of these games. But after the bundle was unveiled I watched trailers and gameplay videos for every single game here. Wow - what a great looking selection this month. I'm usually either indecisive or quick to skip a month but this is month a clear yes from me.
Based on Steam reviews the only game that I'd give a clear miss to trying out is Hotel Renovator because of the number of game-breaking bugs reported. I note that Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town isn't playable for the Linux gamers but I doubt that it comes close to Stardew Valley anyway.
No personal experience, but everything I've heard about Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town makes it feel underwhelming to me. I was a fan of the franchise since GameCube, starting back when it was still called Harvest Moon. And yes, there are also still games with that name. They split and the new HM games are made made by the team that localized the original games, but Story of Seasons is the original franchise. Starting around the time they split though, it felt like the newer games just... Lost a lot of the franchise's charm.
With Pioneers of Olive Town, the trailers just didn't interest me at all. It just seemed bland, and the overall sentiment from people who've played it seems to agree with that. The main complaints I hear are how shallow the characters are, the setting is empty, the story is short, farming is repetitive, there are too many makers... It's not necessarily bad but it's not particularly good, especially for a game from the original farming sim franchise.
Side-note: their remakes of older titles seem to be their best-received games recently. They just released a remake of Grand Bazaar which is getting rave reviews. I suspect they added this one to Humble Bundle to try to introduce new players to the franchise so they might check that out, in which case... This was probably a bad choice, since it's the most poorly received of their recent titles.
So if you're curious and want to try the franchise, I suggest getting Grand Bazaar or one of the other remakes. While I haven't played this version yet, the original on DS probably had one of the most engaging gameplay loops in the franchise with the weekly bazaar system. So between that and the general positive reviews, I can recommend it more than Olive Town. (Also, it's rated as Playable on Steam Deck!)
On an unrelated note, I haven't played it yet but I ended up snagging a Cryptmaster key in a recent Fanatical bundle on a whim, so I'm looking forward to if anyone has thoughts or experience with it. Maybe I'll redeem it and give it a quick try to share my thoughts on it.
Quick grab for everything for me this month, and have already spent some time playing Cryptmaster after hearing good things about it.
Enjoying it so far, the sense of humor in responses to what you input appeals to my taste.
V Rising - Fun game, highly recommend. Even if you don't co-op I think it's a wonderful combat system (even if i'm sad it's what became of battlerite). NOT the kind of game where you can just gear up past the bosses if you're struggling. You do need to learn how to use the base movement and skills to avoid things.
System Shock - If you like system shock, or have ever wanted to try system shock, it's a fine way to do it.
Shogun Showdown - I kinda bounced off it. Seems fun enough but it didn't hold my attention. There weren't any problems though. Felt well made and had a decent amount of variety, but the actual gameplay loop wasn't quite what I was looking for. I do plan to try again.
For the first time in a while, I can justify $15 for the pack. My friend wants us to get into V Rising as a sort of group play with larger objectives. I was interested in and recommended Caravan SandWitch, seems like a chill, cruise around type game. Strange it was 89% rating and dropped to 67% recent. I can only assume folks got it in the bundle, not directly interested in the premise but still tried it, then didn't like it?
Can't say I'm interested in the others though.
I really enjoyed Caravan Sandwitch on the PS5 when it first came out. Im always looking for games that utilize cars in some way. The physics arent great, youre not gonna be overlanding like in snowrunner but its still all very cozy and enjoyable and tells a cute little story.
Ive heard lots of good stuff about Cryptmaster and V Rising and have wanted to play the System Shock remake for a while so i might finally resub to choice for this month...
Thank you for the sweet graph/guide!