NextFest Demos General Review
I'm gonna write what I think of the demos I played this NextFest. Each title is a link to the Steam Page, be sure to grab yourself a demo if NextFest isn't over (June 10-17, 2024). If not, some of them might still have public demos, and some of them might be out by the time you read this!
NextFest has ended but demos still remain! Check them out or wishlist them if theyāre in pre-release.
500 Caliber Contractz
Mario 64 but you have a high-caliber sniper rifle. It's honestly more often a movement tool than a weapon, and the movement tech in this game is quite interesting. I haven't gotten it quite down yet. Iāll write more about it later.
Aero GPX
Reminds me of Kirby Air Ride.
Airborne Empire
This game is seriously addictive. I meant to give it 30 minutes (around the minimum time Iāve been giving there games), and it took 3 hours. The whole conceit of the game is that you are building an airborne city. All sorts of things matter, such as the tilt (you canāt just pile it all onto one side), the lift (you need to add fans, which need to be manned by citizens, to allow for enough lift to build more stuff), and propulsion (buildings will slow you down, so you can build propellers and stuff to help you move faster), as well as food and water and coal) to keep everything running) and various building resources which you gather by deploying workers to deposits on the land using a hangar. Light is also important to stop accidents at nightā¦ thereās all the little systems you need to manage. I really love it. Usually in city builders I get really stressed about strategic placement and how me not leaving space next to that big useless rock turns out to be a mistake when I advance in the tech tree and learn the rock is actually the most useful and I trapped it under an underpass. Airborne Empires can have the āI didnāt know how big this building is so I didnāt leave enough space hereā problem (I really wish I could preview buildings before I had the resources to build them), but itās mostly fine. The tilt and lighting systems lead to making a spread-out base. You recruit more citizens by hiring them from settlements below, but youāll have to feed them all, and at least where I am in the game, you can only gather food and water, not generate it.itās visually very cute, all the people are birds, and the talking sounds are birdcalls. Itās pretty chill most of the time, even the occasional pirate attack isnāt that bad, especially if you get defense towers, since you can repair pretty quickly. I could play the game for days on end, honestly. I love it.
Akimbot
A very fun 3D platformer, reminds me of Ratchet & Clank, Crash Bandicoot, Skylanders, etc. The whole game looks really nice and stylized. I played with the Acid Sprayer and found it to be very fun. The voice acting and dialogue were a smidge lacking at times (Exe feels compelled to go "Tch" every time Shipset talks, and Shipset cannot shut up, but it didn't annoy me.) Overall I'm excited to see how the full game turns out!
Aloft
I didnāt find Aloft interesting. Itās not that I donāt like survival games, per se, itās that my patience with survival games is really low. (300 hours of DST has changed me.) They need to be really interesting for me to stick, because if not, I sink untold hours into them getting progressively more and more annoyed. Aloft is probably someoneās cup of tea, but it aināt mine. Sorry.
Beyond These Stars
Coming Soon!
Dice & Fold
A very fun roguelike deckbuilder game that's more about rolling dice than drawing cards. Enemies have slots you must fill to defeat them. Some enemies require exact rolls (say, a 3), and some just have numbers that have to be reduced (say, a 5, and you could put a 2 and a 3 in it to complete the slot). And there's more like doubles slots, slots that only accept odd or even numbers, etc. Your hero has an ability that you can earn by filling in the required slot on your hero card, there's all sorts of items and companions that alter the game in little ways... it's really fun and I'd love to play more of it in the future!
Dimhaven Enigmas
I love the graphics, just to get that out of the way. Pixilated textures are to die for, Iām a huge sucker for PSX or DS/3DS-style textures. Itās an interesting puzzle game, itās pretty intriguing, but dangit if Iām not bad at puzzles, lmao. Itās tough! It really makes you work for the answer, I like that, but I canāt really write review of a completed demo because of it. Try it out!
Dustborn
It seemedā¦ interesting. The graphics look good, the fight mechanics seem to have a bit of meat, but are sorta unseasoned. (They donāt feel like they flow that easily into each other but that might just be a personal skill issue.) The humor and writing isnāt really my cup of tea, it feels sorta like theyāre always talking, and the lines in combat seem to overlap sometimes but Iām sure thatās unintended. Idk if I personally will be buying the full game, Iād rather wait for a review of the full game to see if I wanna buy it, but I donāt hate it.
Gladio Mori
Gladio Mori explores an interesting concept of a physics-based medieval weapon fighting game that oftentimes feels a bit like TABS if you were in complete control of a unit. It's definitely interesting. Right now there's only 3 weapons and no move editor, but I feel like the simple existence of a move editor means that in the future, there's untold levels of complexity to be found in this game. Has multiplayer!
Goblin Cleanup
Itās fun. Thereās not much to say about it, as itās just a simpler Viscera Cleanup Detail, but itās cute, honestly. Thereās some interesting quirks and level progression things, such as being able to light slimes on fire to be semi-infinite, faster mops, and you can do a lot with traps and stuff. Sorta simple as-is, unless I just missed the really cool stuff. (I havenāt played all of the demo yet, only the first two levels.)
I Am Your Beast
This game is amazing. The presentation of cutscenes is phenomenal; I really love the big bold letters and colored background. It's simple but it does its job. The voice acting is great, too. And the gameplay is just amazing. The amount of speed and precision you can move and attack with is on point. I'd suggest everyone
Kaiserpunk
Coming Soon!
KILL KNIGHT
Kill Knight has some wicked graphics. They look like theyāre crackling with an unchained energy, power so great it corrodes the world. The gameplay is tough, I can barely survive a few waves, but the combat is promisingly meaty. Sword kills fuel the heavy weapon, and enemy drops can fuel the bfg thing (forgot its name). Iām not used to twin-stick shooters so I donāt know how much is innovative and interesting and how much is in every twin-stick shooter, but I certainly found the game really interesting. Really tough, but really interesting.
MACHI KORO With Everyone
Only the offline tutorial as of now, which is kinda annoying since i can't even try to run an offline hotseat game. But, it teaches Machi Koro pretty well. I like Machi Koro I like this game. It is nothing more or less than being just Machi Koro.
Metal Slug Tactics
Coming Soon!
Once Human
Open-World Survival Horror MMO. Iām only into survival horror, really, and was playing alone (Iām not that into MMOs except with friends). The systems seem okay, the combat is about what you would expect with heavy and light attacks and simple chainsā¦ the character creator is pretty good. (And I love myself a good character creator.) Not my cup of tea.
One Btn Bosses
Itās a bullet hell but you only need one button. Your āshipā moves on a ring outside the boss, and you use the button to change directions. The faster youāre moving (you gain more speed the longer you travel in a given direction), the faster you shoot. Thatās about it for the systems (that I could see, at least. I havenāt beat it.) itās fun, Iād recommend it to anyone. After all, you only need to press one button!
SCHiM
A very cute puzzle game where you play as the shadow of this one guy. You jump from shadow to shadow to navigate the levels. The art is beautiful accented neutrals, the music and sound design is really cute and musical, reminiscent of Untitled Goose Game. Itās really cute!
Screw Drivers
Itās Lego Technic as a racing game. To be completely honest, it just didnāt click well with me. The building aspect of it felt like every Lego Technic Iāve ever built, plus actual engineering. You need to connect the engine to the axel to the drive wheels, and set those to steerableā¦ I know thatās simple, but itās a bit too complicated for me to play that much. Iām a simple woman. Seemed fun to drive the cars, tho.
SWORN
Itās Hades but with Arthurian Legend. I donāt really know what more to say. It controls like Hades (well, I played Hades on the Switch, so maybe keybinds are different than I expect) itās got similar systems of boons, in-level currency and cumulative secondary currencies, et cetera, et cetera. This isnāt a slight against it, I really like it! I canāt really speak for its writing since I canāt find much and Iām sure not all of it is in as of yet, but what I could find in-game was interesting. I donāt quite understand the world and how the Holy Grail and pagan deities and King Arthur all feed into why these monsters are about, but Iām assuming thatās elaborated on as you go through. Iād be willing to get the full game.
Tactical Breach Wizards
I adore this game. The graphics are really cute, the combat puzzles are really interesting and fun (I like this genre of games, Iām totally blanking on the name tho) and the writingā¦ oh the writing. The writing is so good. The jokes are right up my alley, the story is really interesting, the world is the right amount of absurd that the characters can be deadpan about always having newt bones on their person that you can tell that itās just as much of a half-joke in-universe as youād expect. Itās really fun and Iām hoping to play the full game upon release.
Tavern Talk
I loved this game. The sound design is so peaceful and soothing, the writing I really like, thereās a lot of good jokes and just tender moments. I love Fable, the main other character in the game. Theyāre an anxious ranger who wants to get out into the world and go on adventures, theyāre so cute. The other character, Caerlin, is nice too. The art is beautiful, Iām really invested in it now! I need to get the full game!
Tiny Glade
Cute game where you can do a bit of finely-controlled procedural generation of a little landscape, and take photos of it. I played game last NextFest called Dystopika that was like this but with a cyberpunk city. Tiny Glade is cute, simple, and allows you to make little houses and landscapes. Itās cute, Iām sure people will like it, but it just aināt my genre.
