Games I Played From Steam Fest (October)
A bunch of demos I played that interested me & hopefully you too
Steam Next Fest from October 14th to the 21st came and went far too soon than I would’ve liked. It was an incredible week of playing with many samples and seeing which one I would purchase in the future. It's like going to Costco and seeing those food demonstrators you see on certain days. I tried many games but didn’t want to take too long, so I decided to showcase six games. These are the ones that caught my eye, and I want to share my thoughts. Hopefully, some of you might find something you like on this list.
*This article will have my gameplay, but I lost all the footage because I was dumb! I’m going to use other people’s footage, but this won’t happen again next time! Thank you for understanding*
Developer: YCJY Games
Type of Game: Road Trip Management RPG
Platform: PC (w/MAC & Linux)
Release Date: TBA (To be announced)
First game on the list brought me back to when I played a lot of The Oregon Trail, 5th edition, in 3rd grade.
Except this time, I’m a high school grad with not much going for summer break in early 2000s Sweden, and it shows. The goal is to get to your old friend’s house before the end of the week so you can play video games together. From its synopsis, I noticed that you, the player, are attending a concert. There could be different scenarios upon release. Along with random encounters, each new playthrough adds replayability. The creativity in its “battles” is what we all face on the road, besides maybe hitchhikers catching a ride.
Keep Driving surprised me, and if we get a more concrete release date, I will be keeping an eye out for it on its release day.
Developer: ChaoticBrain Studios, Gammera Nest; Publisher: Meridiem Games/Astrolabe Games
Type of Game: Turn-Based Adventure Game
Platform: Pc, Switch, PS5/PS4, Xbox
Release Date: Nov 26, 2024
Next on the list is an adventure game that brought something different to the formula… turn-based JRPG combat! Admittedly, I got caught off guard by that and thought it was interesting to have such a system. As of the time of this writing, the turn-based mechanics are as bare-bones as they get. It serves its purpose but needs something more to keep it from going stale throughout the game’s progression. I am already doing the “pressing X plus some buffs to win” strategy, which plagues turned-based games. Whether or not it has been rectified by release remains to be seen.
Developer: Digital Mind Games; Publisher: Kwalee
Type of Game: Stop Motion Metroidvania
Platform: PC (Steam/Epic)
Release Date: December 12, 2024
A metroidvania occurs in what seems to be Sengoku, Japan, playing as a samurai with a cat companion. Who doesn’t like having pets as your greatest allies? You can even play as the cat and another character who wasn’t playable in the demo. What caught my eye personally was the stop-motion animation, and I would love to see more pieces of media using this art style. Combat looked stiff despite feeling good to play, but maybe that was the point, considering the stop-motion presentation. In any case, I’m looking forward to its release two months from now—a little gem in a saturated genre.
Developer: Fallen Tree Games; Publisher: Kwalee
Type of Game: Isometric Open-World Police Sandbox
Platform: PC, PS5, Xbox
Release Date: Q4 2024 (Fall/Winter)
It has been some time since a GTA-Inspired game was placed in an isometric angle while taking a point-of-view of a cop instead of the usual vigilante/ criminal. It might turn some people off, but The Precinct would’ve been called a copycat otherwise. As the new kid on the block in the police force, you’ll be doing what police do in real life. Writing tickets, apprehending stragglers, the whole shebang that cops do. Minus the big set pieces spicing things up. I would venture to say The Precinct resembles Rockstar’s L.A. Noire with significant differences. This is a day one buy for me as I have been looking for a game resembling old-school GTA Rockstar used to make. Without having to use a launcher outside of a platform, I prefer to use.
Developer: GRUMPY
Type of Game: Hack & Slash Roguelike Dungeon Crawler
Platform: Xbox, PS5, PC
Release Date: Q4 2024 (Fall/Winter)
Grumpy saw Stellar Blade and thought, “We want in on that!” So they did and how DISORDER was developed. Unlike its inspirations, Disorder took another direction as a dungeon crawler with roguelike elements since they don’t have capital, which Shift-up has. While the heroine is beautiful, the combat she partakes in is not… Under-cooked is the term I would use to describe Disorder’s combat. Functional, but animations need some work for some of the skills I encountered and tried out. The developers clearly made the demo with one hand, considering that their heroine movement is pretty good *wink*. I am putting this on the back burner and will probably forget about it. Oh well, you can’t have everything be a home run!
Developer: INTI CREATES
Type of Game: Top-Down Pixel 2D Action
Platform: Pc, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch
Release Date: Winter 2024
This final game takes me back to simpler times despite my distaste for the whole “transported to another world,” or Isekai’s if you will. Unlike the slop Japan piling on, Flamefrit, at least in the demo, briefly mentions it and never again. It makes me wonder why even bother having that story element there in the first place. Despite my displeasure, A top-down action adventure with pixel art for the old souls in the back. My favorite thing about Flamefrit is getting into the boss fights via Power Ranger Megazord’s vs.. the Kaiju of the week, except it’s more like a solo endeavor akin to Kamen Rider. Tired tropes aside, Divine Dynamo Flamefrit is a callback to more simple times.
That’s all I can fit into this post without getting too long. All these games shown here still have demos available (Keep Driving doesn’t have it anymore for some reason, so oops.), so you can try them out even if you missed the event. They wouldn’t be on here otherwise, so if any game you see caught your attention and you have a Steam account, give them a shot!
I really want to play KEEP DRIVING on my Switch
A nice roundup of Next Fest titles! Keep Driving and The Precinct are definitely on my must-buy list.