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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Games featured in this trailer:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2315400/Knights_in_Tight_Spaces/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2408820/Luma_Island/

As with past threads here on GAF, you're encouraged to post and discuss the demos you've played and enjoyed during this new edition of Steam Next Fest!

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

 

[Dazraell]

 

[SF Kosmo]

I recommend checking out the remake of Little Big Adventure. It's graphically pretty minimalist but it does a great job modernizing the controls, script, and voice acting.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Knights in Tight Spaces looks sick. I loved Fights in Tight Spaces.

 

[Solarstrike]

Fukc yeah it's game o'clock! Gimme. Dem. Demos

 

[Gonzito]

I have finished the demo for the game The precinct and it was actually good, the voice acting was not great but the gameplay was surprisingly solid, is not too long but it has potential. I wish we got more games like gta man, I miss them

 

[nikos]

Just downloaded about 40 demos. Will post some good ones.

 

[ssringo]

From my own wishlist. Only tried the first one so far (which i enjoyed). Hope the others are also good.

 

[Holammer]

Ah right, there's a new demo for Antonblast.
Should be one more level in there and I don't remember the last demo having voice acting.

Had my eyes on this. Platformer where you navigate a workbench style OS desktop.

 

[delfrickintree]

I have finished the demo for the game The precinct and it was actually good, the voice acting was not great but the gameplay was surprisingly solid, is not too long but it has potential. I wish we got more games like gta man, I miss them

Have you checked this game out? Its kind of budget but it definitely has that classic gta style. I got the platinum for it and had fun the whole time

 

[SolidQ]

Found this metroidvania. Gonna try demo

 

[Branded]

Got 26 demos queued up. Thanks Steam.

 

[BennyBlanco]

I didn’t even know this existed until today but the demo is great. Expanded on the concept of Fights in Tight Spaces in a totally different setting with way more cards seemingly. Day 1.

 

[Branded]

I didn’t even know this existed until today but the demo is great. Expanded on the concept of Fights in Tight Spaces in a totally different setting with way more cards seemingly. Day 1.

Thanks! This looks decent, will give it a go.

 

[Bartski]

 

[Wildebeest]

It is basically Dune 2 but with a few refinements and twists.

Surprisingly close to an 80s arcade game for an "adult" game. Unfortunately, It does have a visual novel type story.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

Played a match of Delta Force and it was pretty good to my surprise. I'm not a fan of the futuristic stuff but it played well and I can see this being something I hop onto now and again.

 

[GymWolf]

Eageer to try call of booba.

 

[The Infectious Paradox]

Holy fuck these all look lit. I would love to play Sulfur with a VR mod. And the Precinct! I wish I could play the demo but this God damn hurricane

 

[TheStam]

I really enjoy finding weird demos on Steam Next fest. Here's a promising Turkish narrative game with a Lawrence of Arabia kind of soundtrack. It's starts with you, the dude being asked by a woman with a very heavy Turkish accent what your star sign is and you proceed to mansplain that Astrology is bullshit. Then you get attacked by some enemies. I quit there and now I can't start the demo again unfortunately, but it felt interesting.

 

[Needlecrash]

Antonblast was a fucking surprise for me. I get 90's throwbacks to it. Definitely getting it when it comes out.

 

[Mister Wolf]

 

[Solarstrike]

 

[SmokedMeat]

Played these last night…

 

[Holammer]

Rogue-like by Motion Twin (Dead Cells). Looks pretty good, but there seems to be focus on online co-op gameplay. It's optional, but I got the impression the game resented me for playing alone. Wording in weapon descriptions (including functions), the healing potion leaves an area effect for your party and the right stick is used for emotes.

---

A third person match-3 puzzle bobble style game where monsters are made out of strings of coloured bubbles. Looks freakin' amazing with a certain Splatoon charm, but it's co-op only with no SP at all. No matchmaking and I'm never going to get any of my friends to play that.
Interestingly it's developed by Hypergryph, the devs behind Arknights.

---

RPG/Life simulator in the style of Harvest Moon and the like. Fantastic environment with a pixely aesthetic. Screenshots don't look that hot, but it's amazing in motion. This is my jam, wishlisted.

---

Mining game, fun idea but very poorly executed. Give it a pass.

---

Adventure platformer taking a lot of cues from Wonderboy & Shover Knight. The art is sub-par and I want to take an axe to the cringe dialogue. Gameplay however felt pretty good.

---

Hard precision platformer. Felt pretty good and it kicked you out of the door screaming with the first screen. But it's not for me.

---

Third game in the Ravva series, developed by a small Brazilian team. Button mapping was bad/bugged in the demo (jump with circle button), unplayable!

---

This one did not spark joy.

 

[SolidQ]

For those who love Vampire Survivors

 

[touchfuzzy]

They always do this shit when I'm in the middle of some huge game (Metaphor) and don't want to commit any time to it.

 

[Herbspiceguy]

• Chinese Darkest Dungeon knock-off with decent visuals
• Abilities and synergies doesn't feel as deep and satisfying as Darkest Dungeon, making it feel like a 'light' version of DD
• Gacha mechanics (not a fan at all)
• Uninstalled, much rather prefer playing DD 2

 

[ChoosableOne]

AI Limit: It's a good soulslike. Enemy and enviroment design kinda sucks but combat is good. It's not fluid though, frame pacing issues? It's on my wishlist now but I won't pay full price for it.
VA proxy: I didn't understand how to play this one. Gen Z stuff? Probably a hit coming but I couldn't get into it. I will give it another go.
Windblown: Imagine creating a classic like Dead Cells, then copying another classic(Hades) to make your next game. It's an okay game but not groundbreaking. Interesting.

 

[MagiusNecros]

Only 2 games I like here.

 

[Perrott]

Do yourselves a favor and go try Keep Driving now.

Super cool 90s-themed road-trip roguelike with turn-based "combat", Resident Evil-esque inventory management and a beautiful pixel art aesthetic.

 

[12Goblins]

Windblown is excellent and runs beautifully on the deck. Like a hybrid between two of the best games ever made; ember knights and Hades.

 

[Herbspiceguy]

Past the rudimentary UI and visuals, there's a surprisingly fun auto battler that I want to keep returning to. Will definitely keep an eye out on the game's development:

 

[Wildebeest]

My favourite demo so far. Simple sort of top-down boat piloting where you clean up oil spills and stuff. Podcast game.

This was already on my wishlist from a previous demo. It is a parody Ultima Underworld/Thief game, but it plays very well.

 

[StueyDuck]

Was keen to try the precinct, the demo ends far too quickly, I'm still not sure whether it's more free roam or more LA Noire. The writing is absolutely terrible but i can skip pass that if the free-roam is dope, i do like the emphasis of having to do things manually and not just doing video game skips.

Also tried Delta force, it's ok, definitely not the next big thing like streamers are pushing but it's being made by a Chinese company right? the numbers will be mental when it launches. I am having a weird mouse sensitivity issue with the game though? Is anyone else feeling like it's delayed or there's some weird mouse smoothing or something going on? not sure if it's just a weird bug on my end or a game issue.

What are the big 5 demos (not literally 5, just the important ones) that you all recommend?

I have streets of rogue 2 lined up, loved the original

 

[SaiyanRaoh]

Whats the best method of holding on to these demos after Next fest ends on Monday? I'm a little busy this week and can't run though the 40 or so demos I've downloaded so far. Is there anything better than maybe installing them on one of my older PCs and keeping it offline so it's not patched out?

 

[Branded]

Some that I've tried so far:

KARMA: The Dark World - Super weird but in a good way. It's a horror walking sim but very polished and seems rather ambitious as well. There's lot's of influences across media but not in the least of which: it's very Kojima'esque. Definitely going on the wishlist.

Heroes of Valor - A Battlefield Heroes inspired ditty but very shallow. Cool that there's bot support though.

Hordes of Hunger - Really wanted to like this, as I'm all about Survivor-like games these days, but man... There's a dodge, a parry AND a sidestep? On top of that there's multiple attacks as well and overall it just felt very floaty, chaotic and not satisfying at all. I basically got anxiety from all of the controls available at any given time lol. Back to the top down auto-attacker Survivor-likes I go. Jotunnslayer; Hordes of Hel is far superior to this imo.

Windblown - Played for 15 minutes which was all I needed to know that this could be the next big Roguelike banger! I was never really into their previous game, Dead Cells (Astral Ascent and The Rogue Prince of Persia are more my jam) but Windblown instantly had its hooks in me. Can't wait for the full game!

 

[Branded]

And tried some more demos.

New Arc Line - An isometric tactical RPG that definitely has impressive visuals but with no voice acting whatsoever and UI elements that seemed rather under cooked as well I didn't really care for it. Pass.

Trophy Knight - This is a level-based Metroidvania? Or someting? In any case the confusing level design and floaty controls already gave me a bad first impression but moreover it just felt boring. Not sure who this is for really. I played two levels and couldn't be bothered with it any more.

The Last Humble Bee - I appreciate what they were going for here, trying to add adventure mechanics to the usual one-round-affair of Survivor-likes, but the execution is very lacking. The visuals and art style make it hard to gauge an enemy's elevation and the sound design quickly became grating as well. Not for me.

Knights in Tight Spaces - See, this is where it's at! A fantastic soundtrack, strong art style and brutal unforgiving card-based combat? Sign me up! I got my ass handed to me multiple times but I'll definitely check out the full game to get my revenge on these stupid skeletons. Very cool game.

 

[Branded]

Trizna - Interesting from the outset but the actual gameplay turned out to be a massive chore. It's probably someone's passion project which is fine but I'd rather just go back to Grime instead.

Mandragora - Played this for about 10 minutes which was all I needed to know that this is going to be a fantastic Metroidvania. Very impressed by the overall presentation and straight forward controls. Good stuff!

System Purge: Hollow Point - It's one of those platformers with insta-death upon making one wrong move, so expect lots of trial and error. It's got eerie vibes and a well realized art style but the gameplay is not for me.

Hark the Ghoul - This is basically a sequel to Lunacid. And while I enjoyed that title the gameplay itself became very repetitive; the level design and presentation really carried that one. This however already seems more interesting in that regard as it incorporates physics based combat (kick objects into enemies) and the fact that you can shoot enemies with yer pistol (with satisfying feedback). Hark wasn't on my radar at all but now it's definitely going on the wishlist.

 

[Branded]

The first-person-something section:

VOIN - This was actually on my wishlist but after having played it I've removed it. The level design was very lackluster (with poor signposting, if at all) and the combat itself wasn't that engaging either. I ran around the first 'open-world' level you get access to and after wandering around aimlessly I quickly alt+f4'd out of there. Disappointing!

Bloodshed - A fun albeit basic First-Person-Vampire-Survivor-like. I only played one round but one glaring issue I found already was that there's no reason to use any other weapon once I upgraded my shotgun? Could also do with more enemies, faster upgrades and the ability to skip the chest animation. Anyway, might pick this up on the cheap at some point.

Sulfur - Yeah nah. It's got charming visuals, sure but I've played too many of these cave dwellers that I just can't be bothered with them any more. The level design left a lot to be desired what with its monotonous and dull biome and there's far too much waffling from the characters as well. No idea why the devs thought it'd be a good idea to have a character prompt you with six dialogue trees. Just give me what I need and keep your mouth shut lol. Anyway I've taken this off my wishlist; not at all what I expected. If I was going to play one of these I'd rather go back to Nightmare Reaper (and I quickly got bored of that as well).

STRIDEN - Complete ass. Sorry to say but what even is this game? Everyone ran around aimlessly and while the performance was actually solid I have no idea what this is supposed to offer compared to similar games. DOA.

 

[12Goblins]

really enjoyed this.

like serious sam + vampire survivors + RE4 vilage map xd

 

[Kacho]

really enjoyed this.

like serious sam + vampire survivors + RE4 vilage map xd

Looks dope. Installing.

 

[Branded]

The meh section, apparently:

Rogue Flight - Stylish presentation but got bored before the first mission was even over. Pass.

Cursed Dawn - A friend happened upon this and suggested we should give it a go.... Played 20 seconds of this before uninstalling. Avoid. *friendship score lowered by 21 points*

Heretical - A Vampire-Survivorlike (sort of) with PS1 inspired Dark Souls art style that's also an absolute snoozefest. Do these devs not play their own games? No thanks.

Lynked: Banner of the Spark - Another top-down combat Roguelike that misses the mark. Just play any of the many other, established, titles instead such as Meta-Ghost, Dreamscaper, Hades, Ravenswatch, Voidigo, Enter the Gungeon, etc.

 

[Herbspiceguy]

• Compact roguelite with bullet hell bosses, quite similar Tiny Rogues
• But unlike Tiny Rogues, doesn't offer any build variety through stat and perk upgrades or random mods, which is IMO what makes games like these interesting
• Also no cool loot/weapons to be found in the dungeon, just money to buy new guns and whiskey bottles (offers temporary buffs) in the starting hub
• So what's left is a pretty straight forward action roguelite that pales in comparison to Tiny Rogues, 6/10

 

[delfrickintree]

Only 2 games I like here.

It's hilarious how much of a MGS ripoff this is, almost parody level (look up UnMetal for actual parody). Really not bad though, control scheme could use some work. Also the name of the terrorist group is Dike Uprising?

 

[MagiusNecros]

It's hilarious how much of a MGS ripoff this is, almost parody level (look up UnMetal for actual parody). Really not bad though, control scheme could use some work. Also the name of the terrorist group is Dike Uprising?

I've had issues with picking up weapons and not understanding the ammo system they are using and most of the time it's just better to punch enemies anyway.

Plot doesn't seem serious to me.

 

[Herbspiceguy]

• Tactical turn-based roguelite deckbuilder
• Charming artstyle and presentation
• Combat reminds me a bit of Into the Breach in the sense that it feels very 'compact' (small area, make the best out of limited resources/moves)
• Demo is a bit on the short side and doesn't really allow for synergies through cards and extra (support) toads, 7/10 with greater potential

 

[MagiusNecros]

Mmm you know I think that's a big problem with these demos. Too many roguelites. And none of them really stand out to me.

 

[drotahorror]

How did this not get mentioned yet. Beautiful art style