Steam Next Fest: February 2025 Edition

nikos

nikos

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Next Fest February 2025 - LIVE NOW!

Steam Next Fest is a week-long celebration featuring hundreds of FREE playable demos as well as developer livestreams and chats. Players try out upcoming games on Steam pre-release, developers gather feedback and build an audience ahead of their Steam launch, everyone wins!
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Steam Next Fest is back!

Recommend your favorite demos. I'll post mine as I try them out.
 
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I'm at work so I can't check anything out yet but here's one I tried last night (that wasn't listed on Next Fest from what I can see).


A very promising PS1 survival horror (Resident Evil) style game. Has fixed camera angles with some that track. Cheesy/bad voice acting. Inventory management with item boxes and a save system that uses wax (ink ribbons). I thought the intro scene was fantastic and the lore you get from notes and audio tapes is quite good. I think it really captures that classic feel.

The main downsides are that it uses the analog stick for movement instead of the d-pad (dev has said it'll be added) and there being no controller deadzone (so slight movement or controller drift are noticeable) and the paths through the forest are a bit lengthy.

Edit: I have 2 hours played of the demo but that's a little inflated due to me taking notes for feedback. So maybe an hour/hour thirty assuming you watch the scenes, read the notes, listen to audio files.
 
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I'm not into trying out demos but I'll be following this thread to see what you fine dudes find interesting.
 
Do you guys know if that game which is kinda a mesh up of Metal Slug and Castlevania is on the list of demos? Or if is already laucnhed, I forgot to keep track of this game.
 
Downloading Tempest Rising and Deliver at all Costs, both of which look fucking awesome! There are a few others I'm going to check out as well. Some of these games look far far better and more interesting than anything the bigger studios are shitting out.
 

Probably in my top 3 roguelites that I've played and I'd reckon it's my favorite genre behind racing games.

Progress carries over to the full game, absolutely amazing demo.
 
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This demo is great. Pretty much the spiritual successor to Warcraft, and I believe coded up from scratch by one dude.

 
Beautiful mashup of a tower defense and melee combat.

Haven't tried yet but a fun looking boomer shooter already on my wishlist
 
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amigastar said:
Cool, Gothic remake is sure a game i look forward. Is it a recent version of the game if you know maybe?
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Kinda. It's a same version as demo they shown in the past on gamescom, but it might be updated as to my understanding older builds didn't had stuff like multiple languages etc
 
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Here We Go Again GIF
 

Chains of Freedom - A very solid "double-A" turn based strategy game that, despite some dodgy voice acting nails the atmosphere. It was much better than I expected and I quit after about an half hour of play as I'll definitely play the full game anyway.


Twisted Tower - Really really good but also heavily dependant upon how much variety in the content there is for the full game. They also need to spruce up the enemy AI and behavior as they got old fast. Still, the world building and attention to environmental detail was perfect so I'm very hyped for the full thing now.


Aethermancer - Pokémon roguelite that I didn't have the patience for to get fully invested in during the demo (too many mechanics and reading never makes for an interesting first impression during a demo I find). It seems polished though and I'm still interested in checking out the actual release, bar any bad reception of course.


Total Chaos - Based on the GZdoom mod for Doom II with the same name (but on Unity) this seemed like a weird amalgamation of early 00's horror games with a bit of Dark Descen and Ethan Carter thrown in as well. Technically it looks nice but the art itself is very drab and samey. The enemy animation is about as basic as they come and not intimidating at all. At the same time the world itself seems interesting enough so I'll keep it on the wishlist for now to see what the full release has in store. Could be really good as a short horror puzzle title that doesn't outstay its welcome.
 
Neyyah looks like a Myst/Riven type of puzzle game.
Ruffy and the Riverside, looks like The Plucky Squire.
Twisted Tower, looks like a FPS kind of Bioshocky.
Demon Tides, I got no idea but looks cute.

I'll start with these. Over 800 demos listed lots to go through.
 
NeverYouMind said:
I am having fun with this comic book beat 'em up reminiscent of Capcom's The Punisher:
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Nothing fancy but it's solid fun. Well, the horse riding stage wasn't but up until that point it was. Those voices are...something else. I dunno about the franchise so maybe that's how they're supposed to sound?

As an aside I looked at the dev page to see if they had any other games and seems they're releasing a Lady Death game next year. No demo though.

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Holammer said:
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Purple Phantom?! That feels super weird for me and and there's a reason. They should add a colour option.
In the Nordic countries the suit is blue, in other countries red.
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I prefer red myself. Something about the blue and purple head piece looks silly to me.
 
Went into Neyyah and got stuck pretty quick. Old school 90's point and click puzzler.
Unfortunately, developers wanted me to keep grabbing the keyboard to bring up maps, items and stuff.
I suggest they should use the right click mouse button or let me point to areas of the screen for stuff instead of using the keyboard please. That was clunky.
Even had the full motion live actor and compressed color pallet of the old Myst and Riven games at launch. But I'm already stuck. :(
The demo beat me or that was the end of the demo.
 
Here's all my picks, sorry for no linkage. (a bumpy ride demo is for my son :)

Can personally vouch for Cairn, FUMES, and Shape of Dreams. All really cool and great demos. Haven't played the rest.

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Demo for Eternity does not have Controller Support.


It really is good.


Goblin Girl action-adventure platformer


Puzzles make you use your brain.


If anyone missed this last gamefest it got an update

 
Had my eyes on this one, a point and click style adventure with tight story and cool visual design. The demo bit was super impressive so I quit after the tutorial ended and wishlisted it.
The Hogan's Alley mini-game could have been its own game.


Rogue-like physics racer/runner game. Neat presentation.


Survival crafting style game without stress and a relaxed atmosphere. Clever title.

 
as much as I love playing rogue likes... it kinda makes me sigh that so many of the games are trying to go in this direction. However, as the as the game is good then whatever.
 
manfestival said:
as much as I love playing rogue likes... it kinda makes me sigh that so many of the games are trying to go in this direction. However, as the as the game is good then whatever.
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Unless it's a very special action roguelike they all play the same and as soon as I see the choose between 3 upgrades screen I lose interest. I'd rather they just have roguelike modes as a part of games rather it just being the game itself.
 
What's worrying for me with this next fest is that two games I've been following for years now and in early access or with demos did not update for a new demo

Fortune's run & Death Trash

Eternal early access 💀
 
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