Steam Next Fest has started once again. What good demos have you found?
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store.steampowered.com/sale/nextfest
Let's share our lists and opinions on the demos. We'll help each other find promising games.
This Next Fest runs until Monday, June 16, 10 am PDT.
My report from day 1
Orbyss — 3D puzzles with spheres
Thoughts before playing: Pretty, abstract 3D puzzle game. But what's the killer feature? Like the portal gun from Portal or the camera from Viewfinder?
This is what it would be like to play the PlayStation 2 boot sequence as a puzzle game, with floating cubes and coloured sparks whizzing around in an abstract void. You get to control some balls, rolling them around the level to press buttons and zoom through pipes.
This demo shows some early levels, featuring some fairly stimulating puzzles, but it failed to really grab me. The slow pacing and pure abstractness of the game's setting aren't getting me excited to play more. I just never got to that "aha" point where I realized what made the game special. In comparison, another puzzle game demo I played in a past Next Fest, The Art of Reflection, didn't waste any time showing off its key feature of jumping through mirrors.
I'm going to pass on this game, but I know someone is going to like it.
Panta Rhei — Atmospheric top-down adventure with time manipulation
The game produced an error when launching it, which I fixed by forcing Steam to run it with Proton Experimental.
2D animated cutscenes? Hell yeah, I love that kind of effort. The in-game 3D art also does a good job capturing that illustrative feel of the cutscenes. Atmospheric top-down adventure with cool art and light RPG elements? I liked Bastion and Tunic, so maybe this could be up my alley, too. The game's premise and worldbuilding interest me. You play as a young guardian of time and use your time powers to fight the monsters ravaging the world.
But gameplay-wise, this demo is rough. I found the melee combat to be unsatisfyingly sluggish. There's a bug where falling off the world makes you permanently faster when you respawn, and I was definitely running way too fast by the end of the demo. The game is tagged as a roguelike (aka "choose some randomly drawn upgrades") on its store page, but there wasn't much time in the demo to really appreciate any of those upgrades in action.
I'll pass. It's really unfortunate that this demo disappointed me, since this game still might grab me if it gets in better shape.
Wander Stars — Turn-based combat anime
The key selling points for Wander Stars are its loud inspiration by anime and its word-slinging combat mechanic, the latter of which got me to try this demo. I thought it was an interesting take on turn-based combat to line up words that customize an attack, and that old anime style presentation is indeed charming.
Wander Stars is also very heavy on the visual novel-style dialogue and cinematics, which is probably necessary to evoke that anime feel. It felt more like a visual novel in disguise than the more mechanically involved turn-based RPG that I was hoping for. I'm just lacking the patience to read so much between active gameplay, though the gameplay near the end of the demo does show potential for depth in the turn-based combat.
I'll pass.
Day 2 of Next Fest is over! Here's what I tried.
Good Luck — An absurdly dangerous walk to work
Pass
Öoo — Puzzle platformer with bombs
Wishlisted
PANIK — Chess-like grid puzzles
Wishlisted
SourceWorld — Dungeon crawling FPS in the Half-Life universe
Soft wishlist (I'll keep an eye on this)
::: spoiler !mrak — Super stylish immersive sim
Soft wishlist
Day 3
Bloodthief — First-person parkour/speedrunning
Soft wishlist. I definitely enjoyed this demo, but I currently don't have an appetite for this type of game.
Dice Gambit — Tactical RPG with dice
Wishlisted
Day 4 was all black cats
Everdeep Aurora — Exploration-heavy platformer
Soft wishlist. This demo just wasn't long enough to be totally sell me on the full game.
Project Arrow — Puzzle platformer with archery
Pass
Swoosh Cat — Precision platformer
Pass. I had fun, but I'm currently not in the mood for Celeste-style precision platforming.
Day 5
Look Mum No Computer — Twin-stick shooter adventure
Pass
Morsels — Action roguelike (Isaaclike?) with creature collecting
Pass. I liked the demo a lot, but I'm already playing a lot of roguelikes and my wishlist already has ones I'm more excited for
ODDCORE — Surreal boomer shooter
Wishlisted
I'll plug The Stickman: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2781680/The_Stickman/
It was made by Simple Shark, who I know from his Rocket League Maps and Lethemyr videos.
I spent a good long time browsing through the piles of thumbnails to make myself a tall list. It's a mix of games I'm excited for, games that look interesting to me, and weird games. Since I spent so much time today browsing for games, I haven't actually played much today on day 1.
Some thoughts on my list
I showed my kid the trailer for bits & bops and he literally did a gasp of delight. Thanks for that :)
I tried a bunch of these today and yesterday. EDIT: also tacked on impressions of demos for After Inc: Revival, Kaizen: A Factory Story, and Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon.
In the "Shut Up and Take My Money" tier:
Pretty good but a couple hiccups:
Not for me:
Woah! BALL X PIT is shocking to me! This was easily my favorite second favorite next fest game I've ever played, just behind Balatro. The action is insanely cool, the combos are very unique and interesting. Loved every moment of it. Very curious to see how much the full game will have/add.
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Jump Ship for sure.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2841820/Jump_Ship_Demo/
Definitely got some rough spots though.
I tried it out and man I hate getting motion sickness from games. Got the ship ready to go and launched and instant hurgh stomach. Unfortunate, as it looks real cool!
I am loving Cleared Hot. It brings me back to my youth when MicroProse reigned supreme.
It felt like picking up Desert Strike with modern controls. Looking forward to this, instant wishlist.
I dig that microprose is going back to it's roots with stuff like Cleared Hot and Tiny Combat Arena. satisfying.
This has been on my wishlist for two years, can you now play it?
Demo is live
Fuck, won't get a chance to try it until tomorrow night
Ratatan!
It was surprising to see that it's rated mixed on the store page. It looks like a lot of the complaining is about how it's not like Patapon?
Maybe because is very different. But i like it. Idk people where so hyped by their nostalgia Patapon and probably feel robbed by the new way you move the character.
But once you get used to it it feels great. It also felt weird for me at the beginning but I chose to give it a try and don't judge it with the Patapon Glasses.
With the new mechanics the game relies more on you being able to dodge enemy attacks, you cannot spam that hard. It feels more dificult. Just new mechanics.
Most of it, but not all of it.
I played a little bit of the demo and was excited for a Patapon clone but it felt...off?
My main issues with it:
I really hope they can improve things but right now I don't really enjoy it.
Jump Ship and Moonlighter 2
How is Moonlighter 2? The first one is a game I always felt like I should like but I never really enjoyed the loop of the game for some reason.
It was interesting. Added a roguelite aspect to the dungeons, which could work if it's implemented well, but is pretty overdone at this point. The shop part is pretty similar with a few additions. Performance was pretty bad and was unplayable on SteamDeck.
Overall, I'll wait for the full release and see how the reviews look. I like the developers and hope it does well.
Jump ship, rogue point, and mycopunk. Pretty solid demos to try out. They definitely need more content for release, but all of them are decently fun.
I want to try disco as dead (rhythm beat'em up) and pioner (mmo stalker looking game)
This wasn't part of Next Fest, but I devoured 'Tainted Grail - Fall of Avalon'. Excellent demo.
Baby Steps demo is up.
Platypus Reclayed
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2912430/Platypus_Reclayed/
Remake of the 2002 shoot-em-up game led by the original creator Anthony Flack.
It felt so good playing the demo. It feels just like the original but with significantly higher fidelity visuals — just how it should be. I have a lot of nostalgia attached to this game and I can't wait for the full game to release.
That's a really cool art style! Maybe it could be of interest to [email protected]
One I've been waiting for for a while, "It has my face" Admittedly I didn't find it on the nextfest page. I found it well over a year ago when it was still DoubleMe. The original was super addicting and I like the direction the story seems to be going in the demo.
Also trying to be patient for Clover Pit
And Gone Fishing has some promise to it. Not everybody's bag, but my buddies and I all found the demo pretty fun.
N-n-no. I don't have an add-ad-adiction.
Pushes red button
Pulls lever
clover pit looks like gambling addiction on roids, holy shit did they exploit a good game loop. like, almost scary if you've known anyone who's struggled with it. at least it's not real currency and loot boxes fuck
Oh yeah... I got caught up in the Overwatch loot box thing when it was still huge. Never had a problem gambling before or since, but I dropped $300 in my last month playing and who knows how much before then. Soon as I realized I had a problem, I uninstalled the game. Couldn't even talk about it for a long time without wanting to reinstall. Fuck Blizzard and fuck loot boxes...
I've seen it second hand; it's wretched. imho many of these monetization mechanics should be restricted to 21+.
props and respect for recognizing it and getting yourself out. that takes character.
I am dying to play more Clover Pit, it's so so so good.
Let's go gambling!
This one: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3259820/Alices_World_Demo/
It's a nifty little game where the protagonist and the player are treated as separate characters. Some girl found herself in an apocalyptic world, and the player appears as a disembodied voice to lend assistance. What I like about this one is that the protag has some Tales-esque skits to chat with the player directly.
This one is REAL rough, not much interesting I've seen
Good, can‘t keep up anyway
I know right. I think it's the worst I've ever seen. I kept scrolling through for something good but all of it is was like those bargain bins you used to see in petrol stations full of old DVD's. Honestly they should be ashamed of this. I went through my whole wishlist to check if any of the games on there had demos and literally none did. Last Next Fest most of them did. That's some impressive enshitification right there...Actually I was wrong... Probably just needed to eat something and be less grumpy lol. Just found a fantastic demo that I'm downloading now. it's called Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream. Amazing people animation and great dialogue. I love top down games and this is easily better than anything I've seen before. Thanks to a NextFest roundup from Nookrium or I would never had spotted it.
Want to try Cleared Hot and Star Birds (Kurzgesagt game)
I am enjoying Cleared Hot.
Dang, I didn't even notice Star Birds was in Next Fest.
Yeah got a wishlist mail because the demo was made available
I watched a bit of Life Below played on a stream. If you like colony sims and coral reefs, check it out.
Surprised nobody has mentioned Wildgate. It's really fun! Different take on the Jumpship idea with a lot better execution (but they're at different stages of dev to be fair!).
The demo for the update of Camp Keepalive is worth checking out
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3702210/Camp_Keepalive_Endless_Summer_Demo/
It's a nice, casual strategy game that still keeps you thinking.
I like shareware
Seeing as Steam Next Fest ends about 12 hours from now, I'd like to describe / review some demos I've played over the week. Hopefully, at least some of these games haven't been mentioned before, apologies for bumping the thread:
No, I'm not a Human: Easily my favorite demo of Steam Next Fest. The game presents a kafkaesque scenario in which you must let in humans, but keep out "Visitors" from your own home. The game is intentionally (and consistently) ugly, in a way where even the humans are ugly. The game has a collage like aesthetic, much like the creepy Nickelodeon show Angela Anaconda. This is my favorite type of horror (eerie and weird!), all without resorting to cheap methods like jumpscares. Aspects of the demo are randomized, so there's lots of replayability.
Bloodthief: Oh man. As a fan of games like Dusk, Ultrakill, Celeste, and Super Meat Boy, this is a game that was made for me. It's like a precision platformer in first person with hack and slash elements... I am going to spend a lot of time on this when it comes out lol
Ball x Pit: basically Atari breakout combat (against tetris shaped enemies) with roguelike elements. Also, you craft and build outside of combat. I'm interested to see how these different genre elements will play out in the final release.
Bits & Bops: Beautiful rhythm based game, thats fun, charming, and family friendly. Apparently a spiritual successor to Rhythm Heaven, which I have not played. Has a native Linux build. I encountered some bugs (the game would sometimes freeze when transitioning from tutorial to game, or restarting a stage)
Project Arrow: Puzzle platformer with some precision platforming elements and combat (involving a bow and arrow). Adorable cat protagonist. Synthwave soundtrack, plays great with mouse and keyboard.
The Adventures of Sir Kicks A Lot: Surprisingly deep immersive sim with hack and slash elements. Despite the Minecraft aesthetic, the animations are surprisingly fluid and funny at times. There's some DNA of Dishonored and Thief in here, where you are rewarded for creativity.
Kity Builder: Simply adorable. It's a calm game in which you are free to build on a remote island. In fact, there are no limits: you do not have to gather resources, farm materials, or grind to build. You can also place as many buildings as you like (and you have to, to get around the island)
Dispatch: Surprising depth to the hero dispatch mechanics. Funny cutscenes (although the humor might not be for everyone). Cutscene interactions remind me of the Telltale games (to be expected, since some of the employees worked on this). Has a star studded cast that makes it feel like you're playing a high budget TV show
Evolve Lab: Async multiplayer rougelite in which you (auto-) battle sea creatures that you can upgrade between rounds. Pretty fun for the small amount of time I played
Forestrike: Roguelite martial arts game in which each battle can be rehearsed infinitely in your character's mind (before actually trying it in the real world). You are encouraged to rehearse extensively, since what happens in a real world fight (like getting hit, or having a hostage die) is permanent in your run. An interesting, political story is teased in the demo.
Pigface: Very dark, gritty immersive sim in which you play as an assassin, taking contract jobs. Atmosphere almost feels like Manhunt, although not quite as dark. Feels more like a PS2 game than PS1. AI could use some work but the potential is definitely there.
Wander Stars: Animation and character designs are an obvious love letter to DBZ. Gameplay is turn based combat, where you arrange words to create your attack. You know how in anime they shout words before their attacks? The combat is literally that lol. Note that it's a roguelite so dieing puts you at the beginning of a map (or forces you to load). I'm somewhat mixed on this structure (for this type of game), but we'll see how it goes when the game releases.
Öoo: Cute puzzle platformer and metroidvania where the title looks like the main character lol. You use bombs to break obstacles and reach certain areas.
Ratatan: Rhythm based roguelite where you command a small group of creatures to fight bosses and other enemies. It definitely has a "kawaii" aesthetic, so not for everyone. Overall really fun
The Drifter: Point and click game with an interesting story and great voice acting. I won't mention more, to avoid spoiling the story
Demonfo: The only VN on my list. It is also a point and click game. Interesting story that kind of reminds me of Urban Myth Dissolution Center. Surprisingly funny, at times.
Special mentions:
- Undermine 2 and Neon Abyss 2: I'll be honest, I thought these were only ok as singleplayer experiences. However, they look like they might be fun games to play in online coop.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2509200/ERA_ONE/
Era One looks interesting, but i don't have time to try it.