Indie Bundle 1

This is the first entry in my series of reviews for the Steam Indie Bundles. Each review is short and subjective, and is geared to give you a quick look at the game. Indie Bundle 1 includes: Anomaly Warzone Earth, Cave Story+, EDGE, Lone Survivor, The Baconing.

Anomaly Warzone Earth

Straight off, this game is probably the best game in this bundle. The game trials the concept of tower defense, where you are the attacker. The best way I can descibe the gameplay is the opposite to Sanctum, so if you haven't played Sanctum, then you have no idea what I am talking about. Being the attacker in a tower defense game is an interesting concept, packaged up with some story about the earth being invaded by some alien thing. Anyhow, the basic game is about assembling your attacking force and guiding their path through the maze of defenses. You control a soldier running around changing the course of the battle, much like Sanctum (albeit from a top-down perspective), healing your forces, changing their path as the defences change, and collecting power-ups etc.

Great multimon support is surely an accident or incomplete, because the HUD elements are still on the outside edges of the outer screens and the menus have some graphical oddities on the edges, but at least it works.

For me, this is the best game in the bundle. I didn't get totally addicted straight away, but it was fun and I'll probably play some more of it. 8/10

Cave Story+

A game for those that enjoy the old school adventure games, this great looking game unfortunately does not support multimon at all. However, the game's simple design and controls make for a fun old style game to explore anyway. My only concern were these strange cut-scenes to some dude sitting at a computer somewhere talking to himself - obviously they were there to attempt to explain the already bizarre story along the way, but some of the dialogue was just plain weird!

I liked the music in this game, it was retro and added to the mood of the game.

A good game to play windowed, I rank it third of this group of 5. 7/10

EDGE

Ever want to roll a cube (yes, roll a cube) around the place? This is the game for you. There is much rolling of a cube. Around many places. In multimon glory, although once again, no optimized HUD or menu says it's probably a fortunate accident, or at least unfinished support if intentional.

Ranks the lowest of the lot for me. Some people probably enjoy this. 5/10

Lone Survivor

This is a bizarre horror type game that is both pretty cool and pretty frustrating at the same time. The old style graphics are neat, but the text is so blocky that I really struggled to read it easily when I was tired, playing fullscreen on a single 27 inch monitor. And you only get to play on one monitor, because multimon is not supported (pillarbox behavior, outside monitors are just black).

This is an old style adventure game, in the typical drip-feed of information to try to get you interested in the story. Once again, I'm not really sure I have a good grasp on what is going on; I think you need to devote a chunk of time to this to get into the story and work out what the heck is going on. The pictures I've attached sum up my thoughts pretty well, using the in-game dialogue.

I think it would be pretty good if the text was easier to read - and there is alot of text - and you had time to sink into it. I ranked it fourth of this lot. 7/10

The Baconing

Any game with the name bacon in it must be good, right? I love bacon! And The Baconing is pretty good also. The graphics remind me of League of Legends or Torchlight a little bit, unapologetically blocky and cartoony but fun at the same time. This game puts the emphasis on fun, with loads of throwaway lines and gags all throughout it (refer to the inventory picture). It's a typical quest-based game, you know the type. Go here, bash this guy on the head, find some item, pick up loot along the way, etc.

On the flipside, multimon support is non-existant, which is a shame because it's about the only things that is missing from this to make it a well polished fun little game.

I only rank it behind Anomaly Warzone Earth because of lack of multimon, so it comes in 2nd of this group for me. 8/10

Summary

This bundle has a pretty good mix of games, with only EDGE being a game I will definitely not play again. Will I get time and have the motivation to time-sink the two retro style adventure games? Not sure, but Anomaly Warzone Earth and The Baconing are definitely deserving of more of my gaming hours. Mmm, bacon.