Gaming is a pretty divisive hobby, but as of late there’s been two things that gamers have universally agreed on: That Frozen Synapse is an amazing game, and the Humble Indie Bundles are amazing value for money. Those two universal statements have somehow crashed headlong into each other. Now – and for the next two weeks – you can get Frozen Synapse (plus an additional five games by Frozenbyte, if you want to pay a bit more) for a price of your own choosing.
Plucky indie startup Mode 7 Games have apparently teamed up with more established, prolific Finnish studio Frozenbyte to offer a huge pile of remarkably polished games in this ‘mid-season’ bundle. Frozen Synapse by itself is very new and normally worth $25, so being able to go as low as you want is downright shocking. If you choose to pay more than the going average (and that number looks to be rising quite rapidly, so get in early if you’re a cheapskate), you also get all the games by Frozenbyte to date, including the widely loved fantasy co-op platformer Trine, and the Alien Breed-esque Shadowgrounds series of top-down shooters, as well as a few others including a preorder on an upcoming title, and an unfinished prototype complete with source-code.
As great as the Frozenbyte games are, they’ve already had a turn in a past bundle. Frozen Synapse is what most people should be interested in here. A turn-based tactical combat game set in a cyberpunk world, and putting you in the shoes of an omniscient AI commander, giving bursts of orders to a squad of expendable, vat-grown soldiers. Both you and your opponent place your orders simultaneously, and each turn is a true battle of wits, as your plan is played out in parallel with the enemy. The winner is never down to luck – there’s not a single random variable in the game, other than map layout. It’s whether you had the better battle-plan. There’s an extensive and replayable (semi-randomly generated maps give it huge replay value) singleplayer campaign, and a very fleshed out online mode, letting you play multiple games simultaneously, as each match doesn’t advance until both players have submitted their orders.
It’s a fantastic game. And the Bundle version includes the wonderful soundtrack, too. You shouldn’t let this opportunity pass you by.
The Humble Frozen Synapse bundle is available now (and for the next two weeks) and all games support Windows, Mac and Linux. You can opt to have the games in DRM-free, Steam or Desura formats, too.


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