Steam Next Fest, Feb. 2024 - An in-depth look at the Steam demos of this year

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@TheCrackMonkey Ultros is a fine mediocre metroidvania game. I didn't find the psychedelic look of the game as much as I expected. Although I don't understand why the backgrounds are so detailed and the platforms is all a silhouette. The combat and the music was alright.

You've all posted a ton of demos. I'll catch up as soon as I finish playing the ones from the current list.
 
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I want two things from the people reading this thread:
  1. If you can, play the games that don't work on my machine. Proton will only get you so far. Right now those games are: Dusky Depths, HELL GALAXY, Pacific Drive, and BioGun. Let me know if they're worth a good rating or not.
  2. If you suggest a 4x/RTS game, then I kindly ask that you play it yourself and let me know if it's good or not. I'm not well-versed in the genre and odds are that my opinion on those demos won't be as valuable as yours.
Other than that I'm fine with playing pretty much anything. My only limitations are RTS games and games that don't work on my end. Thank you in advance.
 
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Gender: Xenomorph said:
Personal finds:

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GTA meets Postal

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Platform Brawler/Shooter lotsa fun

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You like...dice?
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Diceomancer i played too and liked it, didn't mention it because it's even more autistic than Menace from the Deep. Great art direction, easy Day 1 pirate.
 
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three games piqued my interest:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2093920/Dread_Dawn/ - open world zombie sandbox game
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1309950/Children_of_the_Sun/ - a puzzle sniping game where you have one bullet that can do shit
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2379910/Dystopika/ - chill cyberpunk city building game similar to something like townscaper (may not be your thing tbh)
a mention goes to a game called #blud, which if you don't like the art style, you're probably not gonna go far in this game. its alright, albeit the combat is a bit eh (also may not be your thing)
 
Raw Metal: A blend of top-down stealth and SIFU-like 3D brawling presented in a very stylish package. You sneak through mines gathering resources and taking down guards. When you encounter a guard, the game switches to 3rd person over the shoulder and you get to the usual hit/dodge/parry. Very fun, but it has a bit of a learning curve.

Rotwood: Co-op roguelite beat em up. Nice art style and the combat is chunky. Didn't try the co-op part because I don't have any frie- Everyone was busy. Fun if a little simple.

Children of the Sun: Puzzle sniper. You pick an angle, mark your targets and shoot. The next shot is taken from where your last bullet hit, kind of like golf in a sense. The base concept itself is pretty fun, and then the game adds a few more mechanics on top to make it even more interesting. Good stuff.

#BLUD: Action RPG with a very cute Gendy Tartakovsky art style. It takes such heavy inspiration from him that the main character lives in Dexter's house. You fight vampires in a little suburban town. Pretty fun. The main draw here is the world and the feeling of being in a cartoon. Slow start. Lots of talking and world building. The game drips SOUL like a broken faucet.

Berserk Boy: 2D action platformer that takes VERY HEAVY inspiration from Megaman Zero. Dashing around the levels feels very smooth. A bit too easy, imo.

Other stuff that I tried that has been mentioned:

Maniac: a chaotic GTA survival game. Surprised it took so long for someone to make a standalone game using GTA's most fun aspect.

Pepper Grinder: Delightful. One to look out for.

Guards!: A co-op game where you play as medieval guards and you arrest people. Didn't play it much since the game has no tutorial and I had no idea what was going on.

Artifact Seeker: A chinese knockoff of Vampire Survivors but roguelite and with more numbers. Braindead game. You get a ton of items and stats thrown at you that make no discernible impact on the gameplay. Do you want +0.02% crit damage on a skill with a -1% movement speed penalty? It has Shatter and Freeze synergies. What does any of that matter? Well you see nigger nigger nigger nigger nigger nigger.
 
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@The Pulverizer

re: Pacific Drive

This is a combination of Stalker and Firewatch. The actual driving feels like trash and would benefit from at least going into third person but as per the trailer, there's a lot of instruments in the interior that you're gonna need to be referencing. There's a lot to do with the car itself and it's neat how they're going for making the car a character in its own right. The game itself is relaxing. You drive from POI to POI gathering resources, avoiding anomalies and enemies, and playing backpack fu. It's not much to look at but that's ok I suppose.

My gripe is that there's not that much actual driving. There's a hub base but you don't actually drive to the missions. You're teleported there and you drive within the mission zone which for the first mission is quite small. I wish it'd be open world but maybe the thought was that the actual driving mechanics weren't strong enough to justify forcing the player into the driver's seat for prolonged periods. Shame.

The game runs fine but there were a few very noticeable texture bugs.

Overall, the game is ok but not for the $25 they're asking (it comes out in a couple weeks). I'd pay 8 bucks for it on sale.
 
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The Pulverizer said:
HELL GALAXY
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Downloading rn. These types of games aren't my forte.

Edit:
This game is ok. It would probably be better with a flightstick but I don't have one.
Performance wise, I wasn't getting any stuttering but I have an extremely beefy PC and it was sitting between 60-70fps.
The demo did not include gameplay options, comprehensive video settings, or the ability to rebind controls. Contrast this with Pacific Drive which had a million bajillion video and gameplay settings in its demo.
I played in third person but you can switch between the two on the fly. No complaints there.
There is no way to see your loadout except at the spacedock. The ship has a handful of abilities but I have no idea what any of them do. The loadout system looks like it'll be fairly robust. It reminds me of AC.
The aesthetic is nice. It's a bit of Borg, Alien's Engineers, and System Shock's cyberspace.
Overall, it's fine. It's not my thing but nothing stuck me as explicitly shit. Someone else more into flight/dogfighting games should play this and report back.
 
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Asian tech support said:
This game is ok. It would probably be better with a flightstick but I don't have one.
Performance wise, I wasn't getting any stuttering but I have an extremely beefy PC and it was sitting between 60-70fps.
The demo did not include gameplay options, comprehensive video settings, or the ability to rebind controls. Contrast this with Pacific Drive which had a million bajillion video and gameplay settings in its demo.
I played in third person but you can switch between the two on the fly. No complaints there.
There is no way to see your loadout except at the spacedock. The ship has a handful of abilities but I have no idea what any of them do. The loadout system looks like it'll be fairly robust. It reminds me of AC.
The aesthetic is nice. It's a bit of Borg, Alien's Engineers, and System Shock's cyberspace.
Overall, it's fine. It's not my thing but nothing stuck me as explicitly shit. Someone else more into flight/dogfighting games should play this and report back.
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I'm interested to see how this one implements RPG features. I was worried about performance issues because the trailer had a horrible framerate.
 
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The Pulverizer said:
I'm interested to see how this one implements RPG features. I was worried about performance issues because the trailer had a horrible framerate.
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I think the gameplay loop is gonna be something like this: do mission > get paid > upgrade ship/buy new ship > repeat until you can go into the next zone. You can fly around and do non mission shit but I'm unsure about how profitable that is at the beginning of the game. You can go outside those yellow wireframe boxes you see in the trailer but the game tells you you'll get fucked by spooky space ghosts or some shit. I'd guess that eventually where the game takes you. Not sure if the galaxy is "open world" or if there's just a bunch of zones with inner and outer areas.

Later I might try it cranked way down on my work computer.
 
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I've never tried diving simulators (and they seem antithetical to what I focus on nowadays, short campaign games that I can finish while having time for the rest of my life) and the only space game I have (Elite Dangerous) was so overwhelming I never got far past the tutorial. Shelved it and realized I'd made a mistake getting that bundle (it came with that studio's other games, the Planet Coasters and such, which are interesting, but they're all very time demanding).

But I'm interested in Space Trucker, or Star Trucker, or whatever they're calling it. It having roll is a good sign. I doubt it has Newtonian physics, but few things do. Basically, does it operate by video game logic where you keep on the gas to keep moving, or does it follow real world logic where you only burn to change your velocity? But what gets me, aside from the Space Truckers aesthetic, is it having spacewalks, repairs, stuff like that. It sounds like it will be very good.

Wonder if they'll ever add chases with space police (like for violating traffic or smuggling)?
 
Ughubughughughughughghlug said:
Basically, does it operate by video game logic where you keep on the gas to keep moving, or does it follow real world logic where you only burn to change your velocity?
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Didn't really pay that much attention to it, but if I remember correctly you keep your velocity and slow down very slowly, like if you are slipping on ice. When you are outside of your truck everything is way more sensible and if you brake automatically at all then much slower than in your truck. The point is: it just feels very good and satisfying to control! I strongly encourage you to try it on your own!

Ughubughughughughughghlug said:
Wonder if they'll ever add chases with space police (like for violating traffic or smuggling)?
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For traffic violation I only got less money for my delivery and was only informed about it when I got the payment, however there are speed limit signs on the spaceway(?) and police is going around, so it might be possible.
Smuggling though I'm quite sure will be a thing, because I ran into a police control when leaving a portal and they checked my storage. Waited for the scan, so didn't try what happens if you don't do what they ask for (maybe they already chase you in the demo?).
 
The Feline Solution said:
Diceomancer i played too and liked it, didn't mention it because it's even more autistic than Menace from the Deep. Great art direction, easy Day 1 pirate.
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Word of warming on dread dawn. It does some fucky stuff with your settings and may be malware/bitcoin miner

Edit: I totally replied to the wrong person was posting @Deadwaste
 
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@Asian tech support Can you try out Bit Esc and BioGun? Those games have been broken for me since the festival started. If they work, then let me know if they're worth a check mark or not.
 
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The Pulverizer said:
@Asian tech support Can you try out Bit Esc and BioGun? Those games have been broken for me since the festival started. If they work, then let me know if they're worth a check mark or not.
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Sure. I've got some shit to do this morning so it'll have to be in a few hours.

Update about Hell Galaxy. It barely ran on my work pc. It's gonna require a fat system to run at a passable framerate,

@Ughubughughughughughghlug you've got to step on the gas in Star Trucker, unfortunately. There might be a module you can get for cruise control but I only played for about 30 mins. Chill game, not much else to say. It's exactly what you expect. I'll probably end up buying it as a time waster while away for work.
 
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