- Table of Contents
Filtering method
I briefly went through all the available demos, of which there were 1166 at the time, according to the Steam filter count. The initial inspection involved hovering the mouse over the game’s store entry in order to determine whether the featured image, description or gameplay snippet would catch my attention.
This way, a total of 56 games stood out. It is inevitable that I have missed some games that may appeal more to certain gamers but such is the compromise of going through a massive library in a short time span.
Each game was given up to an hour for impressions. Some of them disappointed enough for their time to be cut short, others made me want to play some more.
Games were then rated in the “Tier list of the best games across all genres”. Impressions about the rest can be found in their respective genres which you can reach from the table of contents. Alternatively, you can use Ctrl+F to search for impressions of specific games.
Tier list of the best games across all genres
| S | Underspace, MULLET MAD JACK, Godsworn, Stormgate, Echo Point Nova, Eden’s Guardian, Tales of Kenzera ZAU, Cybertrash STATYX, Emberbane, Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse, Shadow of the Depth, Cats Love Boxes |
| A | Gatekeeper, Copycat, Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley, Deathbound, Crown Wars: The Black Prince, Ereban: Shadow Legacy, Check and Slash, Hirocato – The Delivery Hero, SYNTHALGIA: Retro Arcade Racing, DaemonClaw: Origins of Nnar, Awita: Journey of Hope, Meta-Ghost: The Breaking Show, Shadow Strikers, The Amazing Crackpots Club, Fight ‘n’ Jokes, Contenders: Arena* |
| B | Dungeonborne, Guild Saga: Vanished Worlds, Sword of Convallaria, Xeno Runners, Dungeon Stalkers, Legend Of Calvas: The Acurine Heart, Powerlust, Knights Within, Mendacium, Ghost of Catsushina, Morbid: The Lords of Ire, Homeworld 3, Yet Another Fantasy Tale, BLOODKILL, Children of the Sun, The Wicked Souls, Ratten Reich, Fury Race Survivor |
| C | Wakerunners, Kenshin Ninja, Codex Lost, Kingdom: The Blood, Sinderfury, Monomyth |
| D | NightFeed |
| E | Last Whisper Survival (Failed to launch), Impulse Rogue (Failed to launch) |
S and A tiers are well-worth tracking and wishlisting as they already look like quality games. A tier is already good while S is “best of the best”.
B tier has the potential to be good for fairly large audiences but I suspect a decently-sized portion of the gaming community will find issues with these titles.
C tier ended up disappointing after the initial impression but there is a glimmer of hope still.
D tier is for games that I can’t imagine will offer a significant draw to many players. Cult following is what they can hope for at most.
E tier failed to launch or presented other game-breaking issues.
*Contenders: Arena has high potential but should it fail to grab a large audience at the very beginning, it could end up dead on arrival.
Strategy
- Godsworn (Warcraft-like RTS)
- Stormgate (Starcraft-like RTS)
- Homeworld 3 (Spaceship RTS)
- Ratten Reich (Dieselpunk furry RTS)
Godsworn (S) is a fantastic strategy reminiscent of Blizzard’s glory days. The game is easy to pick up but the brief time with it gave me the feeling it has a fairly high skill ceiling. It may mend some wounds the colossal mess that is Reforged left behind.
Stormgate (S), another RTS akin to Blizzard’s high point, takes inspiration from Starcraft series. If you are looking for a true high skill ceiling, go for this one rather than Stormgate but expect to be crushed while learning as well.
Homeworld 3 (B) is easily the most anticipated game of all on the list and while it has beautiful graphics and audio design, the incredibly bad control scheme makes it hard to judge anything else in the game properly. Gameplay could be fun but you can’t tell because controls are out of whack. AI may be mediocre but once again, it is hard to judge whether the devs nerfed it to help players cope with the bad controls. Is UI plain bad or is it my frustration with controls speaking? The devs appear to be well aware of the massive problem and they postponed the game’s release. Let’s hope the extra time will be enough to bring Homeworld 3 to its maximum potential.
Ratten Reich (B) went for “realistic combat” in an RTS where the factions are rats, mice, cockroaches and lizards but it’s really a 4-way battle between furries inspired by those animals since they are all very humanoid. The gameplay itself is solid and the game is more polished than most of the chosen 56.
Shooters
- MULLET MAD JACK (rapid-fire retro FPS)
- Echo Point Nova (FPS from Severed Steel devs)
- Gatekeeper (Isometric roguelite)
- Contenders: Arena (TPS)
- BLOODKILL (Metal boomer shooter)
- Children of the Sun (puzzle shooter)
- Last Whisper Survival (assets reminiscent of The Day Before)
- Phantom Fury (FPS) – demo missing
MULLET MAD JACK (S) is easily the most polished game of this Steam Next Fest edition and it comes with a fantastic gameplay gimmick where you live only for 10 seconds with enemy kills increasing the timer. Damage from enemies reduces the time you have left. Over the top action, high-speed with high urgency combined with a delightful 90s anime style and satirical narrative that mocks the modern day make this one hell of a combination. If you’re going to pick one shooter on the list, this is it.
Echo Point Nova (S) is a high octane shooter and nothing else could be expected from the people who made Severed Steel. Just like in that game, shooting is crisp, movement is fast and although the action seems a bit easier, there are innovative elements like hoverboard, grappling hook, perks and more to keep you occupied.
Gatekeeper (A) is a polished roguelite that has you going through stages battling hordes of enemies. There isn’t much more to it but the things the game does offer are beautiful – be it the art style, character progression or gameplay that quickly ramps up to dopamine-pumping levels. It offers up to 4-player co-op.
Contenders: Arena (A*) is a promising third-person arena shooter with heroes that have a twist. Instead of having 60 characters with different abilities, there are 3 frames that have 3 sets of weapons and 9 abilities you can put in a loadout that limits you to 1 weapon and 3 abilities. Highly dynamic, it needs a bit of polish and marketing if it’s to attempt to be the next Overwatch. Let’s hope it doesn’t end up like LawBreakers.
Last Whisper Survival (E) gave off The Day Before trailer vibes so naturally, it caused me to give it a shot. However, it failed to launch and kept crashing on startup. Since it’s a two-people project, it is not unexpected but unfortunately, I couldn’t play it at all due to crases on startup.
BLOODKILL (B) is a solid boomer shooter with a metal soundtrack to pump you up while tearing through hordes of enemies in a gory rampage. Fantastic way to wind down but it could use a whole lot more polish.
Children of the Sun’s (B) art style is psychedelic and disturbing. The game has you hunting down the cult that destroyed your life and the way you do it is the selling point. Shoot a single bullet and aim from the point of impact at the next target. The goal is to kill every enemy in the level with a single shot. Highly entertaining shooting puzzle but the rest may or may not throw you off.
I was looking forward to Phantom Fury (N/A) and the devs planned to have a demo during this Steam Next Fest but it did not come to fruition for some reason.
RPG
- Underspace (Sci-Fi RPG)
- Shadow of the Depth (Top-down roguelite)
- Crown Wars: The Black Prince (Turn-based RPG)
- Meta-Ghost: The Breaking Show (Action RPG / Deck builder)
- Guild Saga: Vanished Worlds (Turn-based RPG)
- Sword of Convallaria (JRPG)
- Yet Another Fantasy Title (Satire)
- Kingdom: The Blood (Action RPG)
- Monomyth (Dungeon crawler)
- NightFeed (isometric ARPG)
Did someone say Freelancer or Freelancer spiritual successor? In both cases, yes and plenty of times over the past 2 decades. Did anyone pull it off? Hardly, but there have been good attempts and Underspace (S) may shape up to be the best one yet, if not even the game to finally take the crown. During my time with the demo, the Freelancer vibes were kicking all over the place and other than the background music, I haven’t found a thing to complain about just yet. Remember how old games’ graphics are actually worse than we recall them? Freelancer held up pretty well over the years but imagine just for a moment what it looks like in your memories. Now compare it with the game’s actual graphics and you will see it’s not exactly that good. Underspace retains the early 2000s charm and offers a slight graphics improvement with all the bells and whistles that gave me the sense of wonder back in Freelancer days. Big like.
Shadow of the Depth (S) is a top-down roguelite that has you crawling endless dungeons with an occasional boss thrown into the mix. The gameplay is addictive, art style charming and the game promises many hours of fun.
Crown Wars: The Black Prince (A) has performance issues, voice acting can sometimes be iffy and graphics look slightly dated but it is an intriguing RPG along the lines of King Arthur: Knight’s Tale and Expeditions: Rome. A doggo comes with one of the party members as highly useful combatant.
Meta-Ghost: The Breaking Show (A) is a vibrant isometric roguelite. While the vibrant colors are pleasing on the eye, the game suffers from a high concentration of visual noise. Gameplay is fast and fluid which is interesting in its own right but once again, held back by visual noise.
Guild Saga: Vanished Worlds (B) has an intriguing narrative and surprising progression depth. Its pixeled graphics may turn some players away but the game is likely to leave a deep impression on those who stick with it.
Sword of Convallaria (B) is a JRPG with beautiful pixel art, fairly deep character progression and multiple endings thanks to a branching storyline. During the time with the demo, I didn’t pick up on any negatives other than obvious clues pointing to future microtransactions which may or may not prove detrimental to the game’s health.
Yet Another Fantasy Tale (B) is a satiric take on fantasy RPGs and while the occasional joke hits the right notes, most of the writing is forgettable. Graphics are serviceable while gameplay is clunky on mouse and keyboard. Overall, the game has potential but still needs to reach it.
Kingdom: The Blood (C) is an action RPG with clunky movement but dodging is quite smooth so it somewhat compensates for the combat issues. The selling point here is the moveset customization and the ability to fight 1v1 battles with other players. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to experience the last part during the demo.
Monomyth (C) failed to impress me entirely as the game has horribly mismatched vertical and horizontal mouse sensitivity which only pronounces the other issues with combat such as apparent slow motion upon landing a hit and the severe lack of clarity during a fight. Dungeon crawling comes with a lot of combat so this is significant issue but it is nothing that can’t be polished until full release.
NightFeed (D) pretends to be an isometric ARPG with roguelite elements but it completely fails to incorporate the “A” into the abbreviation. The player doesn’t do much killing on their own. Instead, the upgrades one gets will kill the enemies automatically while the controlled options are limited to a single fairly ineffective attack and a jump that looks more like a float. As a result, the Van Helsing looking guy ends up killing monsters with his rotating penis hammer instead of shooting them dead.
Soulslikes
- Deathbound
- Morbid: The Lords of Ire
- Codex Lost (caster focused)
- Impulse Rogue
Soulslikes are also RPGs but I felt they deserve their own section and RPG is already crowded.
Deathbound (A) is ambitious as it attempts to have the players control up to 4 different fighters at a time. Unfortunately, this means gamepad controls get clogged and as a result, item usage becomes clunky and requires getting used to. Hit registration is bad enough to remind me of Dark Souls 2 but the demo was marked as a pre-Alpha build so it’s possible many of these kinks will be ironed out for the proper release.
Morbid: The Lords of Ire (B) has an interesting art style and the makings of a good soulslike foundation but it needs a lot of polishing. Animations look like they are missing a few frames which leads to combat not being satisfying and feeling weightless at times. The twist to the soulslike formula in this game comes from Poise being visible and you play around breaking it to get that juicy crit on the enemies, resulting in a combat loop you wouldn’t experience in other games in the genre.
Codex Lost (C) is a soulslike that’s all about spellcasting. Players can equip up 10 spells from what I’ve seen but the combat itself looked rather shallow in the demo. This is also the only soulslike that failed to recognize my Xbox gamepad so I had to do it with keyboard and mouse but to the devs’ credit, they didn’t mess up KBM controls like From Software did.
Impulse Rogue (E) failed to launch, citing DirectX 12 is not supported on my system. Thankfully “dxdiag” command exists to help me avoid getting gaslit by a demo.
Cats
- Cats Love Boxes (Puzzler)
- Copycat (Narrative)
- Hirocato – The Delivery Hero
- Ghost of Catsushina (Sidescroller)
This is technically not a genre but why not let cats have their own section?
Cats Love Boxes (S) is possibly the most adorable demo as it exudes that “labor of love” energy. The game is a beautiful little puzzler with delightful music and fun facts about cats. It will run on a potato if you stick some wires in it, offers co-op, allows gamepad as well as KBM inputs and comes from devs with a pile of cat games that usually end up with Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on Steam.
Copycat (A) does something rather unexpected as it connects narrative gameplay and the ability to mimic the life of a cat rather seamlessly and does it in a way a human would attempt to interpret the cat’s thought process. Graphics are somewhat aged but the gameplay is fun in unexpected ways, like annihilating the toilet paper or committing random acts of chaos all over the house.
Hirocato – The Delivery Hero (A) is a challenging platformer that has players on the timer to make deliveries. It starts off easy but quickly ramps up both the speed and difficulty to squeeze that adrenaline rush out of you after a successful completion.
Ghost of Catsushina (B) is a promising sidescrolling platformer but the build provided in the demo is a pre-alpha prototype that doesn’t even have sound yet. As such, it is hard to gauge how good it can get but the mechanics that are in the game are solid and so is the art style.
Sidescrollers and Metroidvania
- Eden’s Guardian (Metroidvania)
- Tales of Kenzera ZAU (Metroidvania, RPG)
- Cybertrash STATYX (Sidescrolling shooter)
- Emberbane (Metroidvania)
- Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse
- DaemonClaw: Origins of Nnar (Sidescrolling beat ’em up)
- Awita: Journey of Hope (Metroidvania)
- Mendacium (Metroidvania)
- The Wicked Souls (Metroidvania)
- Kenshin Ninja (Sidescroller / Platformer)
Eden’s Guardian (S) is one of the demos that impressed me the most this time around. It uses the classic metroidvania formula, takes simple mechanics such as chain attack on a single button, dash, jump and sword throw to create fantastic environmental puzzles both in exploration and combat. It is highly recommended to check this one out and anticipate the full release.
Tales of Kenzera: ZAU (S) probably had one of the highest budgets of all the games participating in in Steam Next Fest February 2024 and it shows through the beautiful and fluid animations, fantastic soundtrack, gorgeous art style and excellent voice acting. However, the demo is quite choppy, either because the full game will need more optimization or Denuvo is sandbagging the performance.
Cybertrash STATYX (S) sports a banging cyberpunk soundtrack, high difficulty and a beautiful aesthetic that is somewhat reminiscent of Dex, probably because they are both pixelated cyberpunk games. It is looking really good even as a demo so it’s likely to just get bigger and better as a full release.
Emberbane (S) doesn’t scream “high budget” at first glance and as such, you don’t expect to hear high quality voice acting but I was pleasantly surprised. This metroidvania’s traversal and combat mechanics find a way to create enough depth to hook the player in, despite their initial simplicity. All of this is complemented by great background music and pixelated eye candy as you become the unofficial Avatar.
Never Grave: The Witch (S) and The Curse’s title is a bit misleading as you would think you’re playing as the cutesy witch from the promotional material. Instead, you are playing as her hat, which actually possessed the witch’s corpse as well as many other creatures in this adventure. This clever twist offers the game a unique set of mechanics that is not seen in any of the other mentioned demos.
DaemonClaw: Origins of Nnar (A) dives into the charm of arcade games head on and pulls it off. Four directional buttons and three action buttons were enough for the devs to create a sidescrolling beauty that became one of best demos during this edition of Steam Next Fest.
Awita: Journey of Hope (A) is another beautiful Metroidvania in SNES aesthetics. The demo doesn’t support gamepads but the full game likely will and here’s hoping this will be the case because keyboard controls are a bit awkward.
Mendacium (B) features beautiful music and maps while the main character’s design seems to lack a few details to properly blend in. Combat can be somewhat annoying at times because the game automatically switches your weapons after landing multiple hits and using the bow causes you to step back slightly. This can lead to unfortunate accidents and frustration so you might want to git gud with your arsenal.
Kenshin Ninja (C) has a couple of interesting mechanics and gives off Mark of the Ninja vibes although it is not nearly as complex. It rubbed me the wrong way, however, as it became clear the game will push mobile-like microtransactions. If you run out of lives, you will need to pay with gold to fill them up or restart the level.
The Wicked Souls (B) is a metroidvania that attempts a cartoonish look and a whimsical atmosphere in a dark setting. Voice acting could use some work and many parts of the game don’t work properly in the demo but with enough effort before release, this could a quite interesting title to pick up.
Hack ‘n’ Slash
- Check and Slash (Strategy/Roguelike Hack ‘n’ Slash)
- Dungeonborne (Medieval fantasy extraction)
- Dungeon Stalkers
- Legend Of Calvas: The Acurine Heart
- Powerlust (Isometric Hack ‘n’ Slash)
- Knights Within (Extraction shooter but also Hack ‘n’ Slash)
- Sinderfury (Roguelite Hack ‘n’ Slash)
Check and Slash (A) takes the mechanics of chess pieces’ movements, gives your king a sword and then you go to town with it. The game also uses roguelike elements – clearing up each square provides a pick between 3 bonuses but they are also tied to negative effects so you need to choose extra carefully. Highly clever design and a good time overall.
Dungeonborne (B) is an extraction game in a medieval fantasy setting, meaning there will also be a lot of slashing, casting and shooting, all done at a snail’s pace but it is still faster than Dark and Darker. If it reminds you of the aforementioned game, it is because there are numerous purchased assets both of them use. Performance is choppy at times, gameplay is solid, as far as the somewhat new subgenre goes but both lobby and class balance are terrible.
Dungeon Stalkers (B) has a good foundation of a dungeon crawler but it’s not exactly refined and combat can feel floaty at times. It seems to be crafted with horny teenagers in mind as jiggle physics is probably something you will notice even before getting into your first match. Once you’re in, your character’s generously sized cheeks will be what you will see before any enemies or loot.
Legend Of Calvas: The Acurine Heart (B) has a pleasing art style and animations are not bad but they could use a little more polishing. Combat is also close to being good but not quite there yet. Maybe it will all come together when gamepad compatibility is introduced since keyboard and mouse control are awkward, to say the least.
Powerlust (B) presents players with highly entertaining abilities that can be combined regardless of one’s starting class, which immediately gave me Kingdoms of Amalur vibes. Unlike that game, however, Powerlust requires a whole lot of polishing before it attains the possibility of becoming a hit or at least a hidden gem.
Knights Within (B) brings to life the fantasy I’ve been seeing around a lot lately – medieval knights with guns. While the concept is original in gaming, the genre really is not since it’s basically an extraction shooter, the current thing that every dev and publisher is trying to get into. Animations feel slightly clunky but the real issue is I couldn’t find other people to play with. Due to the game’s complexity and potentially low or non-existent player base, this game is under threat of being dead on arrival.
Sinderfury (C) appears to want to be something between Dark Souls and Diablo but fails on both counts due to wobbly combat which is the product of animations that need a whole lot more work. Forced movement with attacks contributes to these issues since it often drags you into the middle of a group of enemies. AI is terrible so the hordes here are much like those in Diablo.
Racing
- SYNTHALGIA: Retro Arcade Racing
- Xeno Runners
- Fury Race Survivor (Roguelite)
SYNTHALGIA: Retro Arcade Racing (A) is exactly what the title says – retro arcade racing with nostalgic synthweave. What the title doesn’t mention is the eye-catching art style that blends beautifully with the aforementioned music. Arcade driving mechanics are great and you even choose between automatic and manual gear shifting while going for the high score before hitting another car and taking a dive through the windshield of your Lamborghini Countach knockoff.
Xeno Runners (B) is a whole lot of fun since it basically puts you in an Iron Man suit and you fly through various courses with obstacles at high speed. It suffers from poor performance since it was almost always under 30 FPS without the graphics quality being even close to justifying such hardware demands.
Fury Race Survivor (B) feels a bit like a roguelite that could be a browser game but it has its charms. The player’s car is constantly trying to accelerate to top speed and the player only gets to control the brakes and steering while the weapons automatically attack enemies around. It is good for a bit of fun but will likely have a hard time retaining the players’ attention.
Fighting
- Shadow Strikers
- Fight ‘n’ Jokes
Shadow Strikers (A) demo features only 3 characters and the graphics need improving. The important part is that the game feels like a pretty good Tekken-style fighter and call me crazy but the hits felt a bit more impactful here. It definitely has high potential but whether it will manage to live up to it remains to be seen.
Fight ‘n’ Jokes (A) makes a big deal in its marketing about the satirical take on the old school fighters but below that lighthearted surface is a well-made old school fighting game. The devs didn’t just settle for one gimmick driving the potential sales and it shows. This is definitely worth a try.
Other genres
- Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley (Cartoon adventure)
- Ereban: Shadow Legacy (Stealth platformer)
- The Amazing Crackpots Club
- Wakerunners (Arena brawler)
Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley (A) is a return to childhood for many of the now older gamers. Snufkin is back with his helpful nature and wanderlust and just like many episodes of the Moomin animated series, it is both wholesome and has a terrifying twist. There is no Groke in the demo, so you can play without having to worry about lasting trauma.
Ereban: Shadow Legacy (A) is a breath of fresh air in an era where everyone is just mimicking someone else. The game has no combat other than stealth takedowns and instead focuses on the player solving area puzzles in 3D by sneaking around, above or even below enemies. Melding with shadows is the foundation the game was built upon and this mechanic is quite fun whether it’s used for platforming or sneaking.
The Amazing Crackpots Club (A) is a highly addictive game that is basically extreme Pong. Each side needs to score by getting the projectile past the other until their vial bursts. There are also power-ups to spice things up, graphics are cartoonish and fit the tone well. Overall, it is fun whether you are playing it solo vs CPU or in local and online PvP, be it 1v1 or 2v2.
Wakerunner (C) is a fast-paced top-down arena brawler that relies on speed and inertia to bring chaos into the gameplay loop and this method works really well. It is a competitive game so expect bliss when you hit the highs and flaming from teammates when you hit the lows. Overall, the game seems polished and if it manages to build up a healthy player base, it could be big. Otherwise, it could crash and burn quickly. If not for the loot boxes in the store, I would have graded it A in the tier list.
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