The Steam Next Fest has quickly become one of my most anticipated gaming events, the biannual celebration of upcoming games offering demos and early looks at a frankly dizzying amount of titles from every conceivable genre. All of this is playable until 26th June, so you’ve got through the weekend to check things out.
With previous events I’ve gone for full immersion and sampled literally hundreds of demos, so I’ve now got a pretty decent idea of what makes for a good demo experience. With that said, here’s a handful of games that you owe it to yourself to try out. I’ve aimed for a pretty eclectic mix with a range of genres covered but let us know if anything else has caught your eye.
El Paso, Elsewhere
Take equal parts Max Payne and Dusk Till Dawn, bake at 180″C (160ºC Fan Oven), and then sprinkle with a heavy dose of cool style and a trip hop soundtrack before serving, and you have Strange Scaffold’s excellent El Paso, Elsewhere.
The retro-inspired third person perspective shooter is a clear love letter to the slow-mo, noir aesthetic of Remedy’s cheesy classic and offers up satisfying gunplay and what promises to be a story full of twists and turns.
Sea of Stars
Fantastic JRPG from the makers of retro platformer The Messenger. The demo offers a mini dungeon that shows some excellent level design and traversal that is actually fun with lots of jumping and climbing to reach areas.
Combat seems solid, with a timing mechanic straight out of Paper Mario. Writing feels quite charming although obviously this is only a short section – although the demo is a pretty generous hour or so of content. Decent accessibility options to help with the difficulty too.
The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales
This one has actually had its launch yesterday, 22nd June, so there’s no need to wait if the demo takes your fancy. Part point and click adventure, part isometric exploration with turn based combat in the mix as well, this game really shines in its setting.
You play as a disgraced writer who has been punished with 30 years of writer’s block and must pay off your debts by infiltrating books and stealing items from them. It has a similar feel to something like Disco Elysium and I love the idea of writer’s block being something you can earn your way out of.
Dungeon Golf
Dungeon Golf is one of those crazy mash-up ideas that shouldn’t work but does. Play a round of golf in a fantasy dungeon with a cast of bizarre heroes and a bestiary of devilish creatures. Score bonus shots for hitting enemies but beware leaving the ball in range of their attacks.
Each character option has different skills that can turn the tide in your favour and the bizarre mixture of D&D and crazy golf is shaping up to be a great time. Not to mention that one of the character options is a frog bard called Croaker. Need I say any more?
The Invincible
This one is a narrative adventure set in a cool 1950s style version of futuristic space exploration. The demo for The Invincible takes place midway through the game so it can be difficult to follow what has happened but it looks set to be a real treat for ‘walking simulator’ fans. For fans of science fiction the fact that it is based on an iconic novel by genre colossus Stanislaw Lem just adds extra cherries on top.
Ebenezer and the Invisible World
Fresh from its surprise trailer during Summer Game Fest, this literary inspired Metroidvania is actually a very solid game, rather than one that relies too heavily on a gimmick as it might have first appeared.
Using the ghostly aspects of Dicken’s A Christmas Carol to create both a bestiary of bad spirits and a group of helpful spectres who function as powerups, Ebenezer benefits from clear goals and a really well presented UI. The combat is challenging too, and all of this is wrapped up in a beautiful cartoon aesthetic.
Ebenezer and the Invisible World on Steam
Little Kitty, Big City
The title says it all with Little Kitty, Big City. You’re a cute black cat who has fallen from their high rise window and must explore the city to find their way back.
There’s maximum cute and cosy gaming here, but there is also some good potential for enjoyable cat platforming – catforming? – challenges. You get a real Nintendo feel here with collectables, cute interactions and just a general wholesome feel.
Little Kitty, Big City on Steam
Luna Abyss
Incredibly stylish black, white, and red FPS with combat that plays out almost like first person bullet hell. The necessity to dodge hundreds of projectiles is balanced out with a well designed gun lock-on system and everything is wrapped up in oodles of neo-noir anime style. There promises to be a storyline based around overly dramatic philosophical discussions of life and reality too which I am 100% here for.
En Garde!
And finally, a fantastically camp arena fighter with a focus on swordfighting duels, En Gade! is like Zorro crossed with Overwatch.
The demo contains a really good tutorial story chapter and a more challenging wave-based arena mode, showcasing swashbuckling sword combat that’s great fun to control and comes with a huge range of environmental damage opportunities. The writing is deliciously over the top too!
Those are my picks, but what have you seen so far on Steam Next Fest to take your fancy?
