Steam NEXT FEST 2021 Spring
Death Trash
So, here's the first one: Death Trash. Fascinating flesh-punk (post-apocalyptic?) world in which you get exiled from a Fallout-like shelter because you are infected with an unknown flesh disease and forced to roam around the world searching for answers. The combat aspect of the game falls a bit in telegraphing and timing the enemy attacks but is okay in general. I will probably get it.
They Always Run
Okay, the next one is They Always Run. The game is a slasher/shooter platformer with an exciting twist of your character having a third hand. The third hand allows you to knock back or break the block of enemies (even in the middle of your regular combo) and seems to be implemented in puzzles in very unusual ways. The movement is very fluent with negligible amounts of jank with beautiful animations involving the main character using his third hand all the times. Visuals are quite pretty looking with a somewhat hand-drawn look to them. Another one that I will definitely pick up.
UnMetal
UnMetal seems to be a nice comedy take on the original Metal Gear (not solid). There's not really much to say about it, the mechanics and graphics are not that far away from the original MG, while the humour and the story is what this game is mostly about.
Synthetik 2
Synthetik 2 is just more of Synthetik. I was a bit sceptical about the art style changes and the camera angle, but after playing the demo I can say that they both work really nicely. The sparkles and robot bits flying around look just as nice as in the first game, and new light and shadow effects are outright gorgeous. The camera angle adds a very nice depth of field effect to the borders of the screen while still providing more or less the same line of sight.
GRIME
Grime is a Metroidvania with a unique setting, one of the most interesting ones I've seen in a long while. You play as a 'Vessel' that has a black hole for the head. Gravity-punk? The game's mechanics all seem to revolve around the black hole that is your head. You start without a weapon and rely on a parry-like ability to absorb your enemies into your black hole head. There's a healing mechanic from Hollow Knight, but it can only be recharged using absorb-parry. You can acquire different enemy traits, but only if you kill them using parry-absorb. The souls-currency in this game is called 'Mass' and visualised as rubble and enemy parts being absorbed by your black hole head. Armour pieces are presented as various rocks and enemy parts that form your body. The game itself looks and plays quite average. The entire demo plays out in a rocky cave surrounded by grey walls and grey enemies, so I can't say much about the visuals. The movement is a bit floaty, but not enough to call it janky or unresponsive. I will check out the full version, even if only for the novelty of exploring the gravity-punk setting.
Giants Uprising
Giants Uprising is uh... medieval warcrime simulator? You operate a dark age Hulk stampeding through both military and civilian buildings and absolutely stomping over helpless troops. And fight other Hulk-people sometimes I guess. Probably a 'pass' from me, unless it's on 80% sale or smth.
Archer: The Witch's Wrath
Archer: The Witch's Wrath (displaying as Johanthearcher in the NVIDIA Shadowplay) seems the be a assetflip-tier trash tower defence. Can't say much else because the only thing that the game does is spawn in you in. Actual game mechanics do not work in the demo, there's absolutely nothing to do in it. Stay away from this one I guess.
Deepest Chamber
Deepest Chamber is a very nice looking deck-building game that seems to be built around tons of different status effects. I'm not a fan of this type of games, so you better check it out for yourself. One interesting thing that I've noticed is that the game shows you every possible move that the particular enemy can make and the exact move that it will do next, so I guess a lot of counter-play is expected.
Faerie Afterlight
Faerie Afterlight is a cute little Metroidvania that seems to want to be Hollow Knight, Ori, and Gris but only succeed in conveying that want and the lack of the developer's experience. While the platforming itself is serviceable, the lack of polish in terms of gamefeel and the ability of the game to explain what is happening or what the game expects of me kind of turns me off. Also, the main character looks like a hat with hands (?) and sounds like a chunk of meat hitting the ground.
Sable
Sable gets a big NO from me. Character animations at 10-15 are okay, but limiting the game to 30fps is entirely unacceptable. The camera is too slow, even on the highest sensitivity setting. Edge highlighting looks nice on bigger details but looks like a complete mess on smaller pieces and on the distant objects causing nasty flickering. The game has an awful LoD pop-in. I'm going to hard pass on this one unless they fix all these technical issues.
The Lightbringer
I don't even know what to say about The Lightbringer. It looks like a pretty stiff and generic Zelda clone with pretty jank controls and a very slow camera. Nothing really to be interested in.
Greak: Memories of Azur
Greak: Memories of Azur is a cute little platformer in which you control two characters (the trailer hints at a third one) at the same time (mostly separately, but sometimes simultaneously). This obviously leads to an interesting twist in puzzle-solving and boss fights. The game looks cute and controls well (except when you control both characters simultaneously, but they have different jump heights and mechanics, which leads to desynchronization issues between them). Don't have much else to say about it. Probably will get in on a sale.
Frontier Hunter: Erza’s Wheel of Fortune
Frontier Hunter: Erza’s Wheel of Fortune is a trash-tier Chinese action-platformer. In the demo, you control two characters; each has a single melee and ranged attack: no combos, no variety, no semblance of complexity. The movement is extremely basic, plus you can clip half of your body through the wall, and ladders don't work if you try to go down. Pure trash, don't touch this one.
Lifeslide
Lifeslide is an arcade flight game but plays much more like some sort of a downhill sports game. In this game, you fly through the pastoral fantasy landscapes as a paper plane and collect shiny bits to unlock upgrades and extend the game timer. Unfortunately, your paper plane lacks jet engines, so the only way for you to control your speed is to pitch up and down and use the terrain and power-ups to your advantage. Roll and yaw controls are combined, so you can't perform aileron/barrel rolls and fly freely. All of the above will probably put off anyone expecting any actual flight mechanics but, on the other hand, might interest someone who wants to play a relaxing biking/snowboarding/skiing game.
Metal Mind
Metal Mind is a clunky Enter the Gungeon knock-off. I don't see any reason to play it instead of the original.
Song of Iron
Song of Iron might not look good at first glance, but behind the minimalist presentation hides an engaging experience. In the demo, you spend most of the time in a misty nighttime forest that shows off charming looking scenery and lighting. The soundtrack consists of ambient Viking battle chants that add a lot to the experience. You play as a grieving Viking avenging the death of a loved one by killing what I suppose members of a warring clan and mythical beasts. The core gameplay is akin to Limbo/Inside/Swapper but with a much more significant focus on combat than puzzles. People apparently don't like when other people say that the game has a 'heart' or a 'soul', so I say that this one has a certain je ne sais quoi that immediately made me want to play the full version.
INDUSTRIA
It is hard to say much about the game because the demo was really short, but INDUSTRIA is an intriguing "Half-Life 2"-like experience set in a robot-infected Germany, right after the fall of the Berlin wall. I will be checking this one out.
The Riftbreaker
The Riftbreaker is not really a part of the Steam NEXT FEST, but it has been on my wishlist for a couple of years, and this is just as good time as any to try the demo out. The Riftbreaker is a rare mix between a twin-stick shooter with RPG elements and a factory-builder. The factory building aspect consists of resource excavation, building up the power grid, and defending your base from hundreds of bugs swarming it from all sides. The Twin-stick part makes you run around the map looking for the mineral deposits while fighting off the native fauna and destroying their nests to stop them from preventing you from instating the capitalist utopia. The game looks terrific: thick vegetation reacting to the bugs and gunfire, the weather effects, the stunning looking explosions. This is a real next-gen experience, something to be absolutely hyped about.
Mechajammer
Mechajammer demo was extremely short, so there's not much I can say about it. But, from the looks of it, it is a bit more fast-paced Fallout 2 set in some weird grimy cyberpunk universe. The visuals are an acquired taste, reminiscent of PS1 graphics and Teleglitch. The demo doesn't really give enough time or info to understand the combat system, unfortunately. I will keep an eye on it.
Severed Steel
Severed Steel. Oh my, that one's a banger. First-person Max Payne on crack? Trepang2, but even better? Sairento VR, but not in VR? Run on walls, dive through windows, flip in midair, slide under tables, kick people with a steel-toed boot, grab handguns off the enemies' hips, and of course, shoot some sick trick shots while doing all that. Guns are consumables, and the only constant is speed. Empty mag? Throw that useless junk away and automatically pick up some other gun from the ground; reloading is a waste of everyone's time. The store pages also teases Metroid-like handcanon capable of blowing holes in the walls. The game looks pretty nice with clean, almost Portal-like graphics, and thick sharpening postprocessing straight out of Fear while in slow-mo. This is the second time I hear something that I would consider a pretty good witch house soundtrack in a game (the first one was RUINER).
Trifox
Trifox is a cute little 3D action-platformer in which you play as a fox and choose from the three classes: Warrior, Mage, or Engineer. The classes are different enough to provide some variety in combat, but the combat itself is not that smooth or responsive to be much fun.
Trigon: Space Story
Trigon: Space Story is an outright FTL clone in 3D with nice graphics, there's nothing legally distinct about this game except for audio-visual presentation. All the gameplay systems are just 1-to-1 copy. Weird shit.
Spire of Sorcery
Spire of Sorcery is a turn-based RPG with some board game vibes sprinkled in. The main appeal of this game is the combat/interaction system. All of the combat and general world interactions require you to build spells out of runes that you get from the character-specific decks. So, let's say that you smash the chest open; to do that, you need to cast a spell of harm, and to do that, you need to put two harm runes and one focus rune on the table. All of the characters can contribute runes from their hands to the spell, but only one per turn; contributing more requires you to accumulate exhaustion tokens which will turn into a harm token if you get enough of them. So the whole game runs on managing all the tokens on both your party members and enemies with many different ways to add and remove them.
Narita Boy
Narita Boy is a simplistic 2D action-platformer, think a mix of Superbrothers, Kung Fury, Hyper Light Drifter, and Tron. While the combat seems not to be anything special, the aesthetic is mind-blowing and makes the game worth it by itself. (edited)
UNSIGHTED
UNSIGHTED is a pleasant surprise. I was expecting some mediocre slasher but instead got a bit slower, more methodical Hyper Light Drifter with a focus or parry mechanic and some light RPG elements. Even the mood and the art style is kind of the same. The default controls are a bit strange, so you might want to rebind them, but in general, the game plays great. I will keep an eye on it.
Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector
Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector is another pleasant surprise. Very competent tactics in which you command a squad of freshly bred Primaris Blood Angels in their war against Tyranid infestation of their homeworld Baal. The most noticeable features of the combat system are model count and armour system. Meaning that you will have to choose the right weapons to deal with either swarms of lightly armoured units or big chunky boys that will require heavy ordnance. Of course, in terms of sound and visuals, it is no match for Mechanicus, but if you're looking for some competent WH40k game or a good tactic, then I can recommend trying out Battlesector.
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