Steam Next Fest, which is a regular event for showcasing upcoming games, is happening now on steam and will continue until February 12 at 10:00 AM PST (UTC-8).
With hundreds of demos available, even if you’re only interested in a fraction of the games it’s going to be difficult to try everything before the event ends. With that in mind, I’m hoping people can use this thread to share their thoughts on the titles they’ve played.
Which games did you enjoy, and which do you think suck? Please share your thoughts!
I tried out Lightyear Frontier and Homeworld 3.
Lightyear Frontier made for a generally pleasant low-stakes low-stress first person farming game. The mech aspect had some minor jank in places, but nothing I think the developer can’t smooth out with some minimal adjustments. Seems like a good game to relax with.
Homeworld 3 looks beautiful. I played through the tutorial and it’s got me hyped for the full game. Only complaint was that there isn’t a proper single player level to the demo. It appears to just be a tutorial and skirmish/online, and I’m not a competitive multiplayer guy.
Managed to try Shapez 2 Demo. It has me proper hyped for the release.
Stormgate
It’s like 90% StarCraft 2 and 10% Warcraft 3. The competitive RTS part is promising but it didn’t show me anything new. Depending on the lore and campaign it may get more interesting, so far it’s neutral.
Millennia
It starts very similarly to Civ 6 with even more kinds of resources. The current version of the UI seemed confusing and the poor performance (on linux) stopped me from finishing the demo.
Pepper Grinder is an amazing little retro-style 2D platformer that took the burrow ability from Ori 2 and made a whole game around it. It’s novel, fast-paced, and surprisingly polished! Made me wish the demo was longer than 3 levels.
Played the Pacific Drive demo last night. Definitely looking forward to the real thing now, and I’m not usually a fan of crafting games.
I’m looking for either factory / automation games (see: Factorio, Satisfactory, Nova Lands, etc.) or games similar to Against the Storm (Roguelike city builder). Anyone have any suggestions?
Shapes 2 for the factory game!
Oh my god yes, I forgot I had this demo installed. I also grabbed Final Factory and Civ Idle.
Any other jams?
I don’t know if this would be considered a shameless plug or not, but I have a friend doing the music and sounds for a game on Next Fest. I finally got to play the demo yesterday, and I think it’s pretty neat.
packet.Breach() — it’s kind of a tower defense game and kind of a roguelike. Instead of setting up turrets and hoping for the best, you are redirecting the enemy’s fire with certain “programs” you can place. And the playable space continually moves, so it’s not just one map that you have to kill X number of bad guys before going to the next stage.
I’m not always super into tower defense, but even beyond knowing people working on it, I enjoyed my playtime last night.
Balatro, it reminds me of how everyone who back in the day played Solitaire on the desktop to pass time. Instead it has a modern take with poker and mixing it into a roguelike. Easy to learn but can be complicated. I thought I was going to put 30 minutes into the game but now I have 10 hours into it and can’t wait for full release. Recommend it even if you do not like card games.
The four I’ve tried and would recommend:
Homeworld 3 looks gorgeous. I’m not good at RTS games but I’m interested in this one just for the nostalgia and it hits that just right.
Lightyear Frontier is a good “just chill and work on your farm” kind of game. It seems relaxing.
Pacific Drive is like The Forest but instead of feeding and protecting yourself, you’re fueling and repairing your car.
And for a surprise hit I just tried on a whim, Space Trucker. A sci-fi twist on the Euro Truck Simulator style game.
I was going to try Harold Halibut but I’ve read that it contains noticeable spoilers so haven’t bothered.
Homeworld 3 is next.
Really crossing fingers that Homeworld 3 delivers.
Yeah I’m looking forward to it. Currently playing through the old ones, they hold up surprisingly well.
I tried several and most did not play well with the Steam Deck. Serum and the car survival game were the bigger disappointments, there; really wanted to try them.
I’m awake you can download proton hacks to make them work, but that’s not the point, imo .
