I love the Steam Next Fest and normally do a big top ten list of game demos that I have enjoyed during the week long virtual festival but this time… it’s been tough. I’ve played a LOT of demos but a lot of them just didn’t do it for me and certainly didn’t get anywhere near the quality I feel I need in order to recommend giving the game a go upon its full release. I tried, I really tried. There’s quite a few decent bits that just aren’t my cup of tea (Viewfinder, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, for instance) but a lot of stuff either put me off immediately or simply wasn’t quite enough to make me want to play any more of it. I JUST about scraped ten together that I think are worth a further look. Here’s the stuff that pressed my buttons and I’ll be keeping an eye on them moving forwards.

STEAM NEXT FEST TOP 10 - JUNE ‘23

The Invincible

A hard sci-fi narrative adventure based on a ‘60s Polish novel, created by a bunch of ex-CD Projekt Red staff and takes heavy influence from Firewatch? Sign me up. The demo picks up a few hours into the story, which obviously automatically creates some mystery as you’re trying to piece together what may have led up to these moments on show but the atmosphere and vibe is top, top stuff. There’s a creeping sense of dread to the proceedings, everything feels like there’s some kind of unknown horror behind everything as you poke around the surface of this planet looking for clues as to what has happened to your fellow crewmates. The demo ends on the kind of reveal that is going to hook you but also, is likely a pretty hefty spoiler moment if you’re definitely going to check this one out, so keep that in mind. It’s coming to all next-gen consoles too, which is good because the demo crashed on me. Fantastic stuff.

En Garde!

A really nice looking action game that has a very simple but super satisfying combat system - a button to parry, a button to strike and a button to roll - and has a really generous cancel window for animations which means as long as you can react to the enemies’ various tells, you can perform the appropriate counter. It feels very loose but in a good way, responsive and instinctive instead of messy. There’s a little basic platforming to offer a bit of a change of pace between the combat sequences, a physics based environmental combat system that allows you to kick bits of scenery into your foes and and the whole thing looks and sounds ace. Unsure if the fencing combat mechanic is enough to sustain En Garde over its entire length if it ends up being a long one, but the demo certainly gives the impression that even if that is the case, there’s plenty of fun to be had nonetheless simply messing around with the environmental interactions, which sit on that brilliant line of feeling scripted but are actually all completely off the cuff.

Toxic Crusaders

A scrolling beat ‘em up in a similar style as the recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles release by DotEmu, featuring Troma’s lovable mutant hero Toxie and his mates from the early 90s cartoon series. It’s a much, much simpler game than TMNT (and even more so than the masterful combat in Streets of Rage 4) but it’s undeniable fun, with a real looseness to the rules that govern the combat, allowing for daft stuff like infinite juggle combos and the like. There’s no denying it is a much more basic experience than those other titles but there’s clear love for the source material and loads of references to not only the animated TV show but also Troma movies in general. Give me a reference to Combat Shock in the full thing and I’ll declare this to be the greatest videogame ever made.

Crime O’ Clock

Essentially Where’s Wally meets Ghost Trick, which should be all you need to hear to know that this one is a bit of a belter. A beautiful, detailed landscape needs to be scanned with great care in order to find clues as to how a crime was committed and then who actually committed it, before finding a means of preventing the crime from happening in the first place is your goal. You’re scanning areas for evidence and then using that evidence to work out whether your next clue happens before or after it in the timeline and you jump back and forth to slowly piece together a solution. I love a good detective game anyway, but the incredible visual style of this one gives it an edge. Had to stop playing it, because I know I’m going to be getting this one and I don’t want to spoil any solutions!

Sea Of Stars

There’s been a lot of controversy recently as to whether the term ‘JRPG’ has some racially insensitive undertones and, far be it for me to dictate to anyone what they think of that, for me the idea of a term for RPGs made by Japanese developers that all feature certain specific mechanics and stylistic choices is a badge of honour. Western RPGs, although enjoyable, are a very different beast altogether and part of the reason I’m a bit cold of Final Fantasy 16 is because it feels like a Western RPG when I really, really want a JRPG from that series. Anyway, Sea Of Stars is a remarkably confident Japanese style RPG by French Canadian developers that channels Chrono Trigger and Suikoden and has a soundtrack partial performed by Yasunori Mitsuda. Fantastic stuff and feels extremely authentic.

Broken Roads

A strategic RPG that melds classic turn-based combat with some significant, deep morale choices and character build flexibility, sitting more towards the Disco Elysium/Planescape Torment side of things. Set in a post-apocalyptic Australia, there’s a really clever morale compass mechanic that shifts your characters internal belief structure around based on the actions you take in the various situations you are confronted with. Obviously, far to complex a game to really gauge from a demo, but it looks lovely and polished and the core RPG systems were intriguing enough to make me wonder what sort of character you can shape in the full game, so job done, I guess?

Venba

I love cooking and I love learning about cooking and I especially love learning about different cooking styles from different cultures and this is some narrative experience that appears to largely be about an Indian family living in Canada in the ‘80s but the actual interactive elements are mainly little cooking puzzles that have you going through a cook book and following the recipes and learning the little tricks to get the best possible results and although this is a game that is far, far from the usual shoot guns/fight mans that I play on a daily basis, the little cooking minigame element won me over. Lovely art style too, worth a look.

Mini Knight’s Journey

In what seems to be a theme in regards to which games I have enjoyed during this Next Fest, Mini Knight’s Journey is an astonishingly simplistic linear platform game that does absolutely everything right. It feels correct. It looks correct. The soundtrack is correct. It’s just a nice time. There’s not much to it but then it never set out to be more than an enjoyable 2D platformer and you can argue that, in that regard, its perfect. The little video on the Steam page indicates that the challenge ramps up over the course of the game, which is nice to see. Just a very nice time.

Lords Of Exile

It’s just Castlevania with samurai shit in it. Weirdly, and I appreciate that this will only really resonate with a handful of you, it reminds me a lot of Master System Castlevania clone ‘Master Of Darkness’. If you know, you know. Anyway I like classic Castlevania games so I like this. Rad soundtrack too, as expected.

Mythforce

A dungeon crawler meets a hero shooter meets a roguelike with the art style of an 80’s Saturday morning cartoon and, although this might be a game that leaves you wanting if you’re not going to be playing it in multiplayer on a regular basis. It’s certainly solid enough to be entertaining for the course of the demo, but the real star of the show here are the visuals, which absolutely nail the aesthetic it is going for. As someone who probably won’t play this with friends on a regular basis, it won’t be for me but I absolutely love the art style. Someone needs to do a Bravestarr game that looks like this. Or Centurions. Or - and this is almost certainly what they are going for only without the license - Dungeons & Dragons.

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