I tried a handful of Steam demos recently:
tl;dr: A bunch of shit, the only ones I'd consider picking up so far are:
TMNT: Splintered Fate and
Those Who Rule but not in that order.
Depths of Faveg: Bizarre, it's like a roguelike with blobber combat that strips out actually moving around or exploring the dungeon with clicking "explore" and giving you a random battle every time you do that, choosing to either fight random battles or fight a boss and descend to the next dungeon level (or die). Descending a level provides a rest that refills your hp and mp. Class picks for level up are random with your choice to pick one of three to go up a level each time. Not my cup of tea, I'd rather just play a blobber for this sort of thing.
Flint: Treasure of Oblivion - not sure yet, I got stuck in dialogue hell and had to run out. What little gameplay I've seen before makes me skeptical, but I reserve judgement for now.
Magic Cauldron - Dungeons: Complete hot garbage. Eye of the Beholder but with one guy (as I recall, I basically uninstalled right away and barely remember it other than noping out pdq)
Never Second in Rome: Sweet mix of ancient Rome and clicking next to read text while watching numbers go +1 next to a skill or something. I don't even want to play this again if you paid me.
Saturated Outer Space: Interesting idea, play a space search and rescue team in tactical turn based combat... with the jankiest shovel ware presentation I've seen in years. Probably not worth a $0.35 coupon to Taco Bell.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate: Isometric action roguelike TMNT brawler take on Hades. I sort of like this one, but there are better games in this space. Only worth it if you both like this style of game and are either a TMNT fan or a kid.
The Adventurers: We have Battle Brothers at home.
Stellar Terminus: Like playing a space blobber on your graphic calculator in 1990. Nope.
Combat Complex: Some sort of progression oriented twin stick shooter except moderately slow paced and clunky. There are way better games to scratch this itch.
Those Who Rule: Let's make Fire Emblem as a westernized flash game. ... I actually really like this, but I also have a soft spot for this genre. I'd totally buy this if I'm looking for something to play in this space. Assuming it's not coming out priced at like $60 or something.
Whispers of the Eyeless: Cool art style, not much else going on. It kind of reminded me of a less interesting Darkest Dungeon. YMMV. I won't be looking at this again.
Things I will theoretically try for at least 3 minutes each before NextFest ends:
- Flint: Treasure of Oblivion - just to get into the actual gameplay loop and see if I hate it.
- Spirit of the Samurai
- Stone Madness
- The Precinct
- Neon Blood
- Worshippers of Cthulhu
- Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch
- Knights in Tight Spaces
- Lurks within Walls
- New Arc Line (less sure about this, I was pretty sure it was going to suck before I saw comments that say the demo sucks)
Honourable mention:
Not a demo but I finally got around to trying
The Textorcist which is insanely discounted and I've had in my library for years. What a bizarre, yet inspired game. Love it.
