I got through the October game in my Year of Gaming challenge faster than expected, which gave me a chance to dive into some of the demos in this year’s Steam Next Fest.
Read on to find out what I played and what my first impressions were.
Next Fest is a celebration of gaming, where hundreds of game demos are released and developers are encouraged to do livestreams and make videos to promote their games. For me, it’s mainly been an opportunity to preview some of the games on my wishlist and try out a few games that I wouldn’t normally play. I managed to play (or at least try to play!) seven games during this year’s Next Fest, and these are my first impressions.
Note: I’m not sure if all these demos are particularly new or exclusive to Next Fest, but these are the ones that I played!
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era
I’ve never played a Heroes of Might and Magic game, so I thought I’d give this one a try. For those, like me, with no experience of HoMM, it’s a turn-based strategy game set in a fantasy world, where you have to manage cities and armies led by hero characters as they charge around the overworld and get into turn-based battles.
I played through the two tutorial missions, completing both in a single two-hour session. It’s a beautiful-looking game, with great animations and some compelling ideas and mechanics. I know I’m coming at this from the wrong direction, but it’s a lot like Songs of Silence (which I played in my July Demo Roundup). However, as I said in my Songs of Silence review, this kind of game sits in an awkward middle ground between games like Civilisation and Starcraft. I love both of those games, but for some reason, not SoS or HoMM. Neither the overworld nor the turn-based battles feel particularly deep or engaging. I can see that they are very well-made games that have a lot of potential, but they just don’t really appeal to me.
MARVEL Cosmic Invasion
I was really excited for this. a side-scrolling beat-em-up set in the Marvel universe from the makers of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge – a game from the last few years that I’ve really enjoyed. It’s aiming for that same 90s-era beat-em-up nostalgia, which I am a big fan of. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, I played the first two levels, New York City and a SHIELD Hellicarrier, first with Spiderman and Venom, and then with Wolverine and Storm. Maybe I haven’t found the right character(s) yet, but the game just didn’t gel for me. It somehow feels like a step backwards from Shredder’s Revenge, in a way I can’t adequately explain. Maybe my expectations were too high, or maybe I would get used to it – it took a while to get into Shredder’s Revenge after all. The full game is still on my wishlist, but for whatever reason, the demo didn’t make a great first impression.
Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown
This was a particularly interesting one. You recreate Voyager’s journey home from the Delta Quadrant, except you get to make your own decisions (with a healthy amount of dice rolls thrown in to potentially f*** you up!). It’s a cross between FTL and XCOM: Enemy Unknown, where you have to repair your ship, do research, recruit crewmembers and manage power, while travelling from between star systems and planets, collecting resources and completing missions. As a fan of FTL and XCOM, this game would seem to be tailor-made for me.
It’s not without bugs. Characters appear in scenes they shouldn’t be in. The writing could also do with some work. The game lacks any voice acting, which feels weird. I think it would feel less weird if the dialogue was a better fit for the characters. However, as it is, it feels a bit jarring. It’s still in early development, so hopefully this will all get fixed before release.
The demo ends with a choice: destroy the Caretaker’s Array or try to use it to get yourself home. I went with the canon choice, but I’m curious as to what happens if you try the alternative. I look forward to questioning some of Janeway’s biggest decisions: Do you make a deal with the Borg? Do you murder Tuvix? Do you promote Harry Kim at any point? And what are the consequences? I’m excited to find out!
The Oversight Bureau
This game is described as a “voice-driven narrative adventure game”. You wake up in a strange, dystopian facility, where you have to follow instructions from a mysterious voice and solve puzzles… So far, so Portal. However, where it gets interesting is that you interact using your voice. Characters will ask you questions, and you can answer them however you wish. (How much impact this actually has, it’s hard to tell!) Where it definitely works is in puzzle solving. You have robot helpers, and you have to order them to pick up boxes and put them on buttons (because of course there are box/button puzzles!), or stand near consoles to power them up.
It has that weird, almost photo-realistic art style that reminds me of games like Exit 8. Which is fine for a walking simulator, but it can feel a tad uncanny when you put game characters in it. Still, it’s an intriguing premise, and I’m curious to see more.
High Above
This is a nice, peaceful little game where you build a rooftop paradise. You lay out your building, then decorate it with various items on it, like rugs, flowerpots, lights and ivy-covered walls. (At least, in the ‘European’ mode, which is available in the demo – other options will be added in the full release.) Meanwhile, there’s a chilled soundtrack, a gentle breeze and the occasional bird flying past, while the world moves from night to day with wonderful effect.
This is a chill experience with strong Tiny Glade vibes, which scratches the creative itch of other building games but without the stresses of budgets or resource management. I don’t tend to play these kinds of games very often, but they’re lovely little experiences to dip in and out of when you need to relax and unwind.
Bytebond
My wife and I have been looking for more games like It Takes Two or Split Fiction that we can play together. However, all our recent attempts to find fun games with local co-op have only served to prove how great those games were, and how hard it apparently is to make good ones!
Bytebond was a relative highlight in our quest, however (though it MASSIVELY oversells itself as “Split Fiction meets Portal!”). You play as two little BB8-esque robots, running (or rather “rolling”) around inside a computer, trying to fight a virus by solving cooperative puzzles. First impressions were that it might not be the game for us, and that we might be better playing it with our son. But then we ran into a relatively simple puzzle early on that stumped us for longer than we’d like to admit! We soon got into the swing of it, though, and went on to complete the demo.
It’s an interesting idea, but it doesn’t hit the same as the Hazelight classics. We might try the game out with our son, but I can’t honestly say we’re itching to play more.
Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2
Well, I was going to play this, but after waiting for it to update, I pressed Play and was told that the demo was no longer available. It annoys me when they do this. I understand it is sometimes necessary to do short-term tests, alpha or beta tests, etc., but this was frustrating – not helped by the fact that the demo’s expiry was not well communicated at any point!
I’m not a fan of Warhammer from what little of the universe I’ve experienced so far. This was a chance for them to win me over, and they blew it!
Final Thoughts
It is frustrating to see games like Space Marine 2 are only available for such a short time. A lot of us have lives, after all, and there’s a limit to how many games we can try in a week! In general, however, I think Next Fest is a really fun idea and I hope it continues.
Triple-A studios seem to rely on people preordering their bloated, over-funded games, so that they cough up their hard-earned money before they realise how bad the game is. It’s great to see smaller studios taking the time to make demos. I much prefer being able to try a game out before I buy it, especially given the rising cost of games (and everything else!). Plus, I’ve been stung too many times by games that were overhyped and turned out to be bad or mediocre, so I’m now overly cautious about what I spend my money on these days.
Next Fest has been a wonderful experience, and my wishlist is now longer than ever! Despite mixed results in my Year of Gaming challenge, I’m still curious to try out new games, and I think that playing more demos is a less risky and generally much better way to do that!