my steam nextfest best of
17 demos for you to try
I wanted to try and dig through the absolute mountain of games that were in Steam NextFest this year to try and find something that was an uncut gem. Sadly, I don’t think I have any real sleeper picks here. All of the games that I tried that were truly “uncut gem potential” were much too muddy / not good to actually see what potential was really there. Seventeen games are listed here, I believe I played 30 demos to make this list. I left some real heavy hitters off of here too; I didn’t have anything good to say about Far Far West, and I didn’t really get hooked on The Eternal Life of Goldman. However, the experience of playing these demos so sequentially left me with a few thoughts.
I am so sick of roguelites. They are simply a dime a dozen these days, and I sincerely will be so thankful for the day another game style goes into vogue. I find it frustrating to play the same gameplay loop over and over, unless it’s an amazing, award winning game like Hades or Balatro. And many of these don’t hurdle that bar. So when I tell you Raccoin is a good roguelite, I think it really stands out from the rest.
It is really hard to make a good video game. There are a couple games that I played, and a few on this list that are sincerely so so close to being incredible. But the small team / solo devs who worked on it couldn’t patch all the holes in their expertise and some things slip through, and it’s hard to look past major flaws. I think Cargo Hunters and Calx fall into this category, and they really did the hardest part of making a video game. They came up with the idea, made amazing art for it, they made it exist. Yet, they are lacking that final je ne sais qoui that makes a game go from okay to great. Bobo Bay, though I didn’t write about it, also fell into this category for me. But I want to keep talking about them and seeing what sort of projects they turn into.
Anyways, if your curious on the state of the games coming out this year that had a demo recently, here is my list.
A quick tier list for a breakdown of what was worthwhile if you don’t want any exposition.
STANDOUT: Titanium Court, Voidling Bound
VERY GOOD: Anti-virus Survivors 2003, Raccoin Pusher, Creature Kitchen, Cicadamata, Denshattack, Airframe Ultra, Replacer
NOT FOR ME, BUT I GET IT: Wanderburg, Enter the Chronosphere, Manifesto
MAYBE IF ITS YOUR NICHE: Calx, Hovercrafts and Nihilism, Directory Dungeon, Boost Vector EX, Cargo Hunters
Shooter
You see different aesthetic subgenres become trendy; some of which are harder to pull off than others. Cicadamata’s aesthetic is very parallel to another shooter coming out that is of a much higher prestige than itself (Marathon). However, this plays much more similarly to Neon White than it’s corpo-scifi-y2k aesthetic counterpart. Movement feels floaty, yet intentional. You have massive leaps that send you soaring through the air, but use of the ctrl button sends you straight to the ground, making the platform an elaborate and thrilling test of how much you can optimize your speed. There are also some hidden mechanics to the movement; ctrl ground pounds will send crabs aloft to make an easy target for your shotgun. I don’t always love grinding these speed optimization games, but the crunchy sound design and chaos may keep me coming back to this on launch. But why did they have to give your robot bunny an ass like that?
Verdict: WISHLISTED
Skating
Two of my greatest loves are trains and action-sport videogames; and somehow beyond all odds this has delivered, and in spades as of the demo. Controls are tight, the risk is high, and the adrenaline is insane. Each course has secrets, different routes, and special mechanics. As soon as I finished the first track, my instinct was to immediately run it back to try to get a better score, a promising sign for things to come. Length and continued quality of tracks through the game will obviously remain to be seen, but incredibly excited for the latest anime-inspired game coming out of Spain of all places.
Verdict: Kickflip Wishlisted
Racing
I absolutely ADORE the UI of this game, everytime I play a game made by a big studio I feel absolute devastation at the simplicity and minimalization of the UI. Boost Vector EX has a lovely UI that feels sleek and exciting, which is unfortunately the opposite of how I felt about the rest of the game. The movement is sticky and strangely unresponsive, slightly confusing and vague. This is VERY bad in a high speed racing game that clearly wants you to get stuck into the mechanics of it. Games that do this well make you feel like you actually understand what you did wrong; if you had been a quarter second faster or braked differently on that turn, you would’ve bested the other racers. I have absolutely no clue what I did wrong when I fly off a cliff or slow to a snails pace on a turn, and the AI seems to be boost spamming which surely cannot be the fastest way to play this game, right? Right? Combine that with dating sim dialogue (one of my least favorite things in video games) and character design that borders on goonercore, it all stacks up unfavorably. A real shame as I was looking forward to this one.
Verdict: Uninstalled and sent to Horny Jail
Extraction Shooter
Games like these really show how hard it is to make a good video game. The premise and setting are compelling, the art style is cohesive and looks fairly good, if a little plain. But it lacks in exposition, and is going to really need some fine tuning moving forwards. I need just a little bit of explanation to who I am and what I am doing to feel really grounded, plus the lack of a tutorial makes things feel a little bit experiment-y. The movement feels light and just odd, you sort of slowly slide around things? The gunplay also feels non-intuitive, my pistol felt much more powerful than my sub machine gun. I think that this needs some major numbers re-adjustments as far as movement and damage goes, plus a sense of danger was really lacking. Extraction shooters like Arc Raiders give a really clear sense of purpose and danger; you need to move from here to here in this amount of time, avoiding these dangers, or you will be severely punished. Maybe I was in mortal danger blithely running around in Cargo Hunters, but if I was I was oblivious to it because the game never told me, with either text or world building, what danger there was besides the easily dismantled robots inhabiting the waste. I will follow it with interest, but it will take a lot of convincing to actually purchase for myself.
Verdict: Wishlisted Cautiously
Racer
Simply and utterly a match made in heaven. The studio behind Rainworld, one of the most innovative platformers of all time, brings us a post apocalyptic combat racer. It shocking feels very similar in terms of movement to Rainworld, almost too much inertia at first but once you get into it, becomes really satisfying. The graphics and designs are incredible, once again the UI here (mainly the HUD) is unbelievable. While I hope they add more than just multiplayer, what they have now is an absolute gem. I suck at it in the best way.
Verdict: Huge Wishlist
Puzzle
Sitting out at night in the summer, no matter where you are in the world, has a certain coziness with an air of mystery. This manages to capture that feeling perfectly. Staring into the pitch black night, in all of it’s unknown fears, yet feeling perfectly safe. Plus you get to feed your cute woodland friends. Very cute, very lovable, maybe a little too “cozy” for my tastes, but I nevertheless could see a certain mood take over me to play this.
Verdict: Cutesy Cozy Wishlist
Auto-Battler / Sim Management
One of the joys of playing a bunch of different demos is trying something you may have never picked up otherwise. I wish that then followed an epiphany on this sort of strategy genre, but I sadly didn’t end up getting Mindfreaked by this demo. But if you enjoy the genre, it seems to have a lot to offer, and I did enjoy the run I played. Very much a power leveling type of game where you have to be ruthless in your leveling in a way I always struggle with. Everything felt very polished and well explained, which a such a refresher after trying a fewer smaller titles that literally had zero explanation. Oddly enough the second No Robots title that is in this NextFest that is a critique of workplace culture.
Verdict: Uninstalled Wistfully
Exploration / Open World
Shadow of the Colossus was a cultural touchstone for a lot of gamers in the early 2000s, and nothing else has really scratched that itch. This game attempts to do so, with a dystopian futuristic spin on it. Piloting the hovercraft is okay, surprisingly easy to do with some nice heaviness to it. I played the first boss and found it alright, but the second just had a level of jank that I didn’t feel like dealing with. I love this idea, but the visuals had me feeling like I needed to clean my glasses. I think for the right person, who wants something with that PS2-exploration vibe, this could really be an interesting find. For me, it feels a little too unpolished even if the low poly visuals are charming. Oh and the weird communist texting dialogue was just cringe worthy.
Verdict: Uninstalled Marxistly
Side Scroller / Brawler
Remember what I said earlier about trying games I wouldn’t have otherwise tried? I don’t love side scrollers brawlers, they feel so simple. Wave after wave of monotonous destruction can just be so macabre to look forward to. Replaced hits that combat sweet spot of being interesting enough to be engaging, but very intuitive. It feels weighty and meaty, and I found myself looking forward to the next wave rather than dreading it. This is another UI/UX masterclass, everything is very clearly communicated, from the points of interest (little journals a la Fallout), to your little Palm Pilot with a scroll wheel that your character actually moves! Very tactile and satisfying. Finally, the aspect that surprised me the most; how incredibly cinematic it all felt. The combination of the 3D environment with the 2D characters is used in a beautiful way, with different objects blocking your screen at certain times to frame your character in new and interesting ways. The camera work too was really polished, it zoomed and panned so perfectly to highlight the amazing backdrops. I was just blown away honestly. It’s a short demo, so would definitely recommend trying this one out, and its an easy wishlist for me.
Verdict: Gritty Wishlist
Dungeon Crawler
It’s basically your most basic dungeon crawler, but in the charming setting of your very own console and file explorer. To move you drag the folder that is your character into the folder that leads to the next room. Utterly unique and novel, I don’t really know how much content they can add? The lore is your basic fantasy, it all rides on the gimmick of it all. Very curious to see what is added in the future, but we won’t have the wait long! Release in March.
Verdict: Cutesy Wishlist
Gambling Rogue-like
I’ve always been obsessed with the coinpushers in arcades and a little mexican restraunt I used to go to. They capture one of the most visceral sounds for humans; the sound of coins clinking. It is pure stimulation and dopamine. However, most IRL coinpushers are a scam and a waste of time and money. Like Balatro, Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers, Cloverpit, and many others since then, this gives you the freedom to indulge in life’s greatest mistake and be only out of few dollars instead of a few thousand. Sound design is tight and the coin sounds will make you clench. It felt incredible to roll a huge tower stack from a combo, then use my black hole ball charm to devour it in a sparkling sea of money. I think this one could be a keeper, even though I am not really a purveyor of this genre.
Verdict: Gambler Wishlist
Action Open World
Undoubtedly a labor of love, as most video games are. The art style is gorgeous and the music is gripping, I was mesmerized during the first boss fight. With a small team, you can sometimes see where their strengths and weaknesses lie if they are lacking in a certain department. Here, the level design and combat is really hurting them. It's not for want of complexity, there is a dodge mechanic and a ranged weapon. The enemies simply feel plopped everywhere, and I don’t feel satisfied defeating them, they are simply an annoyance for me to mash LMB with a dodge or two till they die. The first boss fight was immaculate because it became a sort of bullet hell that was surprising and difficult, but the regular enemies feel boring (and their design kinda sucks too). I think also the lack of creativity feels a little antithetical to a game like this. BotW gave you basically unlimited creativity on how to defeat enemies, Rainworld gives you so many options to outmaneuver or stealth. Hell, even something more linear like HL2 gives you a bunch of weapons to try out plus a gravity gun. Here, it really is just bash or mash till they die. Levels also feel like I am just running around in circles, and everything is very flat and unimaginative. Which is shocking, because the first area was really beautiful and fun. But the canyons just felt uninspired. Good level design surprises you on where you can go and what you can do; when you just run in circles through mostly same looking exteriors with very few actual points of interest, it begins to slog. I think the movement hurts it too, I’m never a big fan of platformers where your mouse movement is really influential on the flight of your jump. Could come out really strong, it’s hard to say. Things change a lot before release, and there is a lot to love here. If you’re a Zelda fan or just open world exploration in general I would definitely give it a shot, I feel like I wrote so much because it just is so close to being something worthwhile that the parts that don’t work really stand out.
Verdict: Watchful Wishlist
Bullet Hell Roguelite
Just simply not for me. Art style is a little too cartoony, I don’t love the slow motion strategy, a kind of combination between SUPERHOT and a turn based combat game. I think there could be a lot to love here if you are someone who loves roguelites and this hybrid style of combat, but it just got stale for me personally after about 30 minutes. Definitely check it out if that is something you are into, talented dev team working on a fairly unique idea.
Verdict: Personal Uninstall
Bullet Hell Roguelite
Feels and looks like a really high quality mobile game. It has excitement, tight controls, solid progression, and interesting mechanics. I think these type of games are more of a timewaster than anything, but it seems like one of those games it would be fun to watch your spouse play if they were getting into it. I think that there could be a fair few hours of fun from this, but curious to see what the full release reception is.
Verdict: Mobile Uninstall
Match 3, Strategy, Roguelite
Despite the quaintness of the genre it falls under, this is a complex and surreal experience. You find yourself in a fantasy land full of faeries who wear ties and have a breakfast buffet before their battles, trying to find your way home. To do so, you match tiles to create your economy and the ultimate battlefield advantage against the foes that stand between you and the way back to where you came from. The art style is not only cohesive and bold, but captures the absurdist tone of the whole game perfectly. Yellow and pink portraits of baseball players hitting home runs blast the screen whenever you take out an enemy castle. It’s not only a great game as far as gameplay, but had me and my wife laughing out loud every couple minutes with the clever humor of the writing. Can’t wait to see what is in the full release, because this demo is a solid 2 hour long experience at least.
Verdict: Wishlist Potion
Survivor-like
It has to be said, I never played any of the survivor-likes, not even the one from whence they rose (Vampire Survivors). However, the charming aesthetics and pitch of this one convinced me that this was the moment. And wow, this is simply just a great time. Waiting for your WinRar to extract your new DVD screensaver weapon upgrade while you are being chased by little Window’s warning icons is something that you will be hard pressed to find anywhere else. Can’t compare it to others, but for my first game like this I found it sincerely fun. This is probably a day one buy for me, as these rarely sell for much.
Verdict: Wishlist Trojan
Creature Collector, 3PS
What can I say that hasn’t already been said about this one? It’s very polished, and somehow after all these years, a fresh take on the creature catching genre. The idea of taking care of different creatures that you then take control of for a third person looter shooter romp through various planets is maybe the first game to make evolution fun since Spore. I was astounded by the sheer amount of content, the first two creatures had 31 variations each, for different elemental combos and powers. There are supposed to be 47 species of little voidlings shipping with the game, so I think this will be a hard buy for me, potentially day one if the price is right.
Verdict: Wishlist Pet
If you got this far, thanks for reading, and I hope that you found some helpful recommendations <3
-junie