Steam Nextfest - Let's try some demos

[Grauken]

Not sure anybody else is checking out stuff, but maybe a thread for it is useful

Dungeon crawler with very limited stats, you search from your latest bunk bed (save station), every step uses up energy and if you ran empty you die and respawn at your bed. Levels seem to be handcrafted. Gloomy mood. I like it, definitely will check out the full game

This one feels very much Castlevania-inspired, especially Super Castlevania with the swinging around. Also looks more like a Classicvania than a metroidvania for those who prefer something more straightforward. Apparently it's a sequel to a 1988 C64 game, never heard about it so I have no idea whether the original is any good or this is a faithful sequel. But the demo is fun, I definitely check out the full game

 

[VonMiskov]

It's a meme game but I found it pretty enjoyable. You can fuck around in the demo for 45 minutes or longer if you kill the dungeon boss. Dunno because I was caught stealing, started a fight with a NPC who gave me a quest and Benny Hilled with the guards all around the demo town until they killed me. Fun time. If you like Supraland you may enjoy this.

Immersive simmish RPG/Dark Messiaha vibes game. As far as the demo goes - you got a task like for example steal something - how would you do it, it's up to you. Looks like minecraft shit but is really fun with lots of mechanics.

"We have unashamedly stolen from FTL but set it in GRIMDARK W40K-esque setting". I will allow it. It's basically FTL PLUS with events like bombing heretical planet, not saving imperial citizens, fighting in 'Khorn expy' arena for blessed power axe, etc.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Not sure anybody else is checking out stuff, but maybe a thread for it is useful

There have been a few dedicated Steam demo -threads, but powers that be, in their infinite wisdom, merged those to general Steam releases -thread.

Anyways I've played a few so far.

Tactical vehicular combat, with time dilation and abilities with cooldowns.
There's also some caravan roaming in wasteland doing trading and events.


Fantasy X-com.
Very deadly combat with missions which encourage hit-and-run operations.
Has some stability issues and font I complained about a bit, but looks promising.

 

[Morgoth]

Teach space pirates a lesson as an Insurance Hitman in this ludicrous Imsim made with Idtech 4.

 

[Modron]

Not sure anybody else is checking out stuff, but maybe a thread for it is useful

Tried to make one of these in the past infin just merged it with the steam sales thread after 2 pages.

 

[Kabas]

Let me quote myself

So many demos i want to try here.

Already played recently:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3222870/Valor_Of_Man_Demo/ - interesting tactical rpg roguelite. The "reaction" system has potential.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1462030/Duil/ - Not for me
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3367690/Void_Sails/ - i like Treasure Planet - like ships but i wish mechanics were a bit more meaty.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3491930/Noobs_Are_Coming_DEMO/ - I had fun with the first basic character by going all-in on ranged damage, increasing amount of arrows and stuff. Didn't have much fun with the other characters like the summoner, certain builds and weapon types feel too gimmicky. The one that turns you into a rolling ball is one of the fun ones.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2693880/RX1040/ - a very straightforward third person action game with ricosheting bullets and robots. No roguelike or rpg elements, just a very straightforward and simple action game. Feels weirdly refreshing.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3452580/Demigoddess_Demo/ - a japanese indie strategy with a few Dominions/CoE inspirations and a focus on short sessions. As expected from a japanese indie i immediately run into issues with resolution that made it impossible to play it comfortably. I can tolerate some junky controls and wonky translations but i really can't tolerate unreadable fonts.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2631450/Bean_Beasts/ - cute little tower defence game. After trying Tower Dominions demo i've been growing an interest in tower defence games.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2471680/Risimon/ - posted some screenshots and even made a thread about it. Basically a Pokemon clone written like it was made by 4chan shitposters. Plot and dialogue are very amusing despite already outdated memes. Nice pixel art during battles but the combat is pretty much the same as Pokemon - good enough for someone like me who only played one Pokemon game in his life on Gameboy Advance but i doubt it's going to impress someone who is more versed in Pokemon games. I really wish there was a button to quickly speed up the animations.

Demos i want to try out:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2986450/Metro_Gravity/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3136490/Echoes_of_the_Architects/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2053910/Isopod_A_Webbed_Spinoff/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3304280/My_Chandroid_Sweetheart/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2821920/Angeline_Era_Demo/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2111370/Covert_Critter/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2980450/Cliax_Codec/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3528750/o_Demo/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3175790/Mechaknights_Legends/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3088250/Nitro_Express/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3494500/Blightstone_Demo/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2563880/Ghost_Hand/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3477260/Demon_Tides_Demo/

 

[Sibelius]

Games I have tried already



Has been on my Wishlist since August 23 apparently. Sci-fi metroid-like, has really smooth movement and traversal, not had any serious combat yet, but the atmosphere and and presentation are on point. Best demo I've tried so far.



Billed as a souls-like in the tags, it's nothing of the sort. I have a high tolerance for jank, but this is an on the rails, QTE fest with terrible art direction, don't waste your time. Already uninstalled.



This is a top down action roguelike focusing on magic and mixing of elements/spells. Seems interesting, I really like the art, need to put some more time in, but seems decent.



Side scrolling souls-like/metroivania with a cool art style. Based on Slavic mythology, atmosphere is on point and the combat and gameplay is serviceable from what I have played so far. Translation is a a bit dodgy, hopefully the quality of the English prose can be improved before launch.



Interesting looking medieval survival rpg hybrid. Great visuals and interesting looking gameplay, need to put some more time into it.

 

[Sibelius]

Other demos I have added to my Wishlist to try out later. Basically these were selected on basic premise and a quick glance at the visual style, so don't expect a carefully curated selection!





Strange mix of visual novel and game within a game story. Pretty bad writing and strange board game character type movement, very basic turn based combat. Terrible modern UI that is completely at odds with the content. Uninstalled.



Indie Gothic/Risen clone. Very janky, movement feels worse than the Gothic remake and that's saying something! Somehow kept me interested and playing, will probably finish the demo.

 

[Sibelius]

 

[Sibelius]

This one is a dead cells clone, seems so similar there was no real point in playing it. Uninstalled.

 

[Lemming42]

Not generally a fan of these "looks like shit on purpose 'ironic' surreal comedy games" but something about the premise and visuals for this one really made me laugh.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

FUMES

Rather straightforward car shooter that unfortunately had maze section inside giant crawler machine that I got bored with.

 

[AndyS]

This one feels very much Castlevania-inspired, especially Super Castlevania with the swinging around. Also looks more like a Classicvania than a metroidvania for those who prefer something more straightforward. Apparently it's a sequel to a 1988 C64 game, never heard about it so I have no idea whether the original is any good or this is a faithful sequel. But the demo is fun, I definitely check out the full game

The original is a Ghosts and Goblins clone. Unlike some C64 games, it is apparently possible to complete it, but the difficulty is absolutely ball-skewering. The fact that someone is making a sequel to it is funny to me.

https://www.lemon64.com/game/beyond-the-ice-palace

 

[Baron Dupek]

remember - no preorders or something like that
quick look and people like it - also AI gives some challenge

 

[Kabas]

I brought some more demo impressions.

I thought it's going to be Warhammer Fantasy: Total War: Roguelike edition but it is actually similar to Mark of Chaos without any of the cool stuff it did have. Line of sight doesn't matter, ranged units have infinite ammo and are free to fire at the engaged units, units don't get tired, no routing - everyone fights to the death, no elevation, etc.
No cool spells either or at least some faction variety. There is just not much to the combat to make it interesting and you can completely break it by ordering your infantry to run circles around enemy while your archers shoot them down - AI doesn't know how to deal with this.
Some slack can be given to the dev as it's apparently the result of 4 months of work but still. This concept begs for so much more.

Annother survivors clone, now in complete 3D!
It's actually unironically pretty good. 3D aspect actually matters with the game having fall damage and stuff and it provides some challenge.

I remember this game mostly for that epic trailer.
Demo is small but pretty dope. After completing the short tutorial that teaches you all your moves the game immediately drops a dragon on you. Epic fight ensues.

Looks pretty and the main girl have some nice thighs but the game and it's gravity gimmick didn't grab me. Can't explain exactly why.

Played it some time ago but i found Axyn Adventure more enjoyable as a platformer. It's now also has a demo on steam.

Might be a bit gay tho

Furry gay sex doesn't really do anything for me, would have prefered if the dev left the lewd stuff at the level of implications.
It's a pretty good platformer if you can look past that^

That town high point got me completely filtered though. Couldn't figure out how am i supposed to jump here.

 

[Alienman]

Mostly boring meme games it seems.

 

[Roguey]

Looks all right, notice that this is an action game of reduced scope oriented entirely around this feature.

Played the demo for this one, the controls took some getting used to, but ultimately it's both boring and irritating. I saw it through to the end because making deliveries appeals to my autistic brain, but I've had enough, don't need to pay for any more. Just going to get more irritating from here.

Pretty long chunk of gameplay too, wasn't expecting it to last an hour and forty minutes.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Not sure anybody else is checking out stuff, but maybe a thread for it is useful

There have been a few dedicated Steam demo -threads, but powers that be, in their infinite wisdom, merged those to general Steam releases -thread.

Anyways I've played a few so far.

Tactical vehicular combat, with time dilation and abilities with cooldowns.
There's also some caravan roaming in wasteland doing trading and events.

It's ok, pretty boring. Kind of a bummer given that it's basically a Mad Max convoy RPG.

Fantasy X-com.
Very deadly combat with missions which encourage hit-and-run operations.
Has some stability issues and font I complained about a bit, but looks promising.

This was a massive letdown imo. It's ugly and whatever, but basically it's so barebones that despite basically using the D20 Midnight setting for a nu-XCom game, I'd rather play pretty much any other version of this for the additional polish and options.

 

[Grauken]

Played a couple more demos, nothing really great or anything

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3252840/Fracas_Demo/

jRPG grindy combat mixed with a contemporary setting (or something like it) and a grid-based dungeon crawler, I'll follow this more seeing how bad it gets instead of expecting anything good from it

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3351870/Microvania_Demo/

You standard, generic mini-metroidvania that might scratch that itch if you don't care for new ideas or orginality

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3123920/Coral__The_Abyss/

Top-down action adventure leaning into exploration and having weird visuals with some odd controls still might be interesting

 

[Morgoth]

Metroid, but Samus is a Predator.

Solid gameplay, nothing wildly new, but the highlight is the Giger-esque art design. I'm always a sucker for alien aesthetics.

 

[Roguey]

Teach space pirates a lesson as an Insurance Hitman in this ludicrous Imsim made with Idtech 4.

Solid engine and gameplay mechanics, however the style is so gratingly childish. Unsurprisingly multiple troons are involved in its development.

 

[Kabas]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3391250/Echoes_of_the_Architects_Demo/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3528750/o_Demo/

Meh

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2980450/Cliax_Codec/

Not to my taste

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2053910/Isopod_A_Webbed_Spinoff/

Looks cute but the game itself is meh.

Alright, this one is actually pretty good. Not sure if i can describe it as Zelda-like but it's nevertheless a pretty nice exploration focused "bump"-action adventure game.

 

[Roguey]

Silent Hill/Resident Evil clone where you play a fat guy with a quick-to-drain stamina bar. Terrible combat, found it annoying and dropped it when I died and would have had to do a whole collection sequence over again.

 

[Kabas]

FPS about speedrunning, think of it as first person 3D sonic without rings and you have a gun to shoot the occasional enemy. I got filtered while trying to learn how to perform certain moves but i feel like some people might enjoy it here.

Western rpg-shooter where look down on your feet in order to switch weapons, jump(in the most litearl sense) on horses to ride them and put heavy bodies in your inventory to bring them in for the bounty. You can also catch bullets and shoot them back with your finger.
Omega turbo junk but fascinating.

This is an unexpected gem for me. A minigame focused RPG where indivudual elements are really simple but as a whole they create an interesting experience as you keep unlocking more and more of these individual elements. Progression feels somewhat similar to those incremental games(Cookie Clicker and stuff).

Nothing really special gameplay-wise about this tower defence game but the music is great and i found myself in love with aesthetics and presentation.

 

[Kabas]

Go on a wacky adventures together with your android wife in search of a thief who stole her battery/memory card and messed up the city's electricity.
Cute puzzle game but there is not much more to it. Cozy and relaxing one rather than the one that intends to challenge your brains. You can play dress-up with your android wife.

Hades clone but japanese and with cute girls. Never actually played any of the Hades-likes, this game is my first time.
You get to pick from three characters each with their own story mode, move sets and avaliable roster of weapons. I picked the oni loli because she is cute and funny.
I still suck at this parrying thing and keep messing it up from time to time, especially if there is a crowd of enemies. Won the demo by unlocking cleavers that turn your dash into a pretty effective attack and just dashing everyone to death.
First impressions of the genre are pretty good, can see myself playing something like this for quite awhile. My only complaint is that some of the dialogue reads like it was "extra localized" for the western audiences. Anyway, wishlisted.