Steam Nextfest - Let's try some demos

[Kabas]

Nextfest is almost over and there is still so many demos left to try.

 

[Cheesedragon117]

Anyone else try Haste: Broken Worlds? It was a fun Sonic-like endless runner game but the woke character designs had me cringing hard.

If anyone remembers those speed sections from the more recent 3D Sonic games (where it's on-rails and you can't stop running) it's like that but a rougelite. Didn't make it far before I got a random crash in the middle of my run, killed my desire to play further.

 

[Modron]

Nextfest is almost over and there is still so many demos left to try.

Yeah they should be a couple weeks long as quite a few developers just remove their demo the next day.

 

[VonMiskov]

It's turn-based rougelite. Despite it being TB the combat is really fast an snappy with 1 enemy turn for 3 your turns. The game still needs a bit of tuning because it's either super easy or super hard. Really liked it.

Chinese(?) Brotato clone. The demo borked on me after playing one run. So I can tell a lot about it. But if you liked Brotato you might want to check it.

If Risk of Rain 2 and Vampire Survivors would have a child this bastard would be it. Very junky and low budget.

 

[Kabas]

Anyone else try Haste: Broken Worlds?

Looks fun. Might try it but roguelite element doesn't appeal to me in this context.

More demo impressions.

A really stylish Run 'n' Gun inspired by old 2D arcade action games. You can deflect bullets and shoot into the background but the strongest point is definitely the visuals. One of the main characters looks like christian Jin Kazama.

A platformer that is very clearly inspired by Mario 64 which i never played. Not much to say about it other than i thought that it was pretty decent. Good choice for someone who wants a classic 3D platformer with no needless bullshit.
Lack of checkpoints during levels can be annoying sometimes.

Another Hades-like but with some "MOBA-style" gameplay. Somewhere between alright and meh for me, enjoyed Yasha a lot more.
Not sure what to feel about stuff like the game rewarding you with meta progression currency for wishlisting it. Gives a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

Neat Run n' Gun game with cute girls. Fun but visuals can be a bit overwhelming making it hard to dodge stuff and controls feels a little wonky.
Demo is pretty short - something that i am weirdly starting to appreciate.

 

[Bad Sector]

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

I just tried this, it looked interesting but it begins with the most obnoxiously railroaded and in-your-face tutorial that i ever saw in a game and something that felt the antithesis to anything even considering approaching the concept of being an immersive sim.

Also i really disliked being teleported around instead of letting me explore the levels.

I hope both of those are just because of the demo tutorial (in which case, it would be a bad way to "demonstrate" the game IMO) and not really how the full game players. But it was enough for me to abandon the demo after saving the cats and messing around with the emails a bit.

The full game seems to be coming out soon so i guess we'll see how it plays.

 

[Roguey]

I just tried this, it looked interesting but it begins with the most obnoxiously railroaded and in-your-face tutorial that i ever saw in a game and something that felt the antithesis to anything even considering approaching the concept of being an immersive sim.

It's a tutorial mission, much like the one in Deus Ex that was optional. The second level is the intro what the actual levels will be like, a mini-sandbox. You cut out too soon.

 

[Kabas]

Got some free time so i spend it all on playing more demos.

A cute puzzle platformer with some nice presentation. You're playing as a walking save button and have to jump on various tabs some of which can be moved with a mouse, on some others you can switch them to a different one, etc. Not my type of game but pretty cute nevertheless. Movement reminds me of Super Meat Boy.

A sequel to Demon Turf which i didn't play but heard was one of the "good 3D Sonic-like" games. After the tutorial prologue the game opens up into a very solid platformer, good enough to make me tolerate the fact that the protagonist's group are all a bunch of zoomers. Experienced some performance issues however.

A cardgame deckbuilder combined with a tactical combat and a pretty budget presentation. Nice hand drawn art.
You can do a few cool things with the cards like combining dwarf with a horse to get a minotaur.
In the end Conjurers filtered me though. Very difficult and some menus are not very intuitive, i still have no idea how am i supposed to activate certain unit abilities. Combat is also a bit too slow paced for my tastes.

Players have disappeared from the world so it's now up to a fishermen NPC to accept onion collecting quests, level up and save his fellow NPCs.
For a comedy game gameplay is actully pretty fun, everything revolves around you fishing for stuff which as the game progresses turns into a more an more involved process.

Spoiler

Things escalate quickly.

One of those fest games that i wishlisted.

"Gundam Survivors". Not much to say about it other than it has nice presentation and "why modern devs keep adding this horrible motion blur?"

 

[Kabas]

A roguelite that plays like a RTwP party based rpg. Mixed feelings about this one.
I like pixel art enviornments but don't like super small character and monster models. You have some elemental interactions like pushing enemies into pits but most of the abilities are not really interesting. Things are a bit too easy but i suspect it's because i was still at the tutorial part when i decided to wrap things up.
Not going to anticipate this game but will still keep an eye on it.

A pure deckbuilder about trying to capture your opponent's lands. Surprisingly not bad, looks like it's inspired by a certain other popular card game i can't quite remember the name of.
Art is very obviously done by AI.

Day of the Shell

Thanks for recommendation.

It's a really cool game.

I also want to thank Abu Antar for recommendations too.

Interesting but somewhat junky Diablo clone in space. Why do you need 3 different type of dashes when their actual function is exactly the same?

Another roguelite with Slay the Spire-like campaign structure.
This one looks pretty good graphically and has some nice tactical rpg combat. You can do some fun stuff like place a damaging trap with your hunter and then using your wizards to push an enemy onto it with a telekinesis.

 

[Kabas]

I also tried some metroidvanias

Moadra and Ghost Hand. Can't say much about them, i think i am not really in the mood for 2D platformers with level navigation more complicated than "go right".

Not a metroidvania but i also wasn't in the mood for this one.


Still, i would like to give it a special mention because presentation is really awesome. These backgrounds remind me of Roger Dean artworks.

That's it for now.

 

[VonMiskov]

I tried this after seeing some screens in screenshots topic. It suppose to be immersive sim - stealth game. But the demo\game is very empty with most clunky and user unfriendly controls. Well they seem to be normal but are fucking unresponsive. And a lot of people are bringing it up on steam forum. I died trying to wall run because it just didn't respond correctly to input. Also there is a lot of huge empty spaces with nothing in them.

 

[Haba]

Takes the idea "nothing happens if the boss isn't watching" to the literal sense.

Pretty simple game, but amusing.

 

[Sibelius]

Put some time into this over the weekend, will definitely be buying when released. Great visual style and a fun combat system as well, kind of reminds me of Morrowind and Onimushha