A subjective selection of the most interesting demos from Steam Next Fest. What’s worth waiting for?
From October 14 to 21, the next edition of the festival of demos of upcoming games took place on Steam. This time I went a bit crazy and tested as many as 30 productions. I decided to share my picks with you.
30 demos in three days is a lot. Enough, anyway, to suggest a few conclusions.
Next Fest October 2024
First of all: the competition on the gaming market is enormous. This seems to be something obvious and known for a long time, but it has never hit me so strongly. Among the titles I have reviewed, there are many that I would like to give a chance and spend a little more time with. A few years ago I might have even beaten half of those 30 games. Today I know that there is no chance for this, because before I even start with the titles presented here, there will be a hundred more worth checking out.
Secondly, the “roguelike” niche has already entered the stage of development where too much of it starts to make you feel sick. It’s hard to even look at the card bastards of Slay the Spire (although we managed to find two gems). I am equally allergic to Hades and Dead Cells clones. Many productions simply look like a money grab, a cheap flair. There is also a suspicion of using graphics made by artificial intelligence. Too much of anything is unhealthy.
Thirdly, in this flood of new games you can still find original things, done with taste, humor and intelligence. This makes me happy. Especially since we are not talking about single cases, but a really large number of titles. Let’s take into account that I only played a small part of what was available, and I described an even smaller part so as not to waste time on total crap.
I also apologize in advance for favoring card games and small “turkeys”. After all, this is a subjective list, and larger productions will surely find their way to you on their own.