So, I played a bunch of the demos available in the recent Steam Summer Game Festival. There were various different adventures I'd been keeping track of and was eager to play and (for the most part) I was really pleased and even gained newfound excitement for certain titles.
Here's some brief impressions of the games I played:
Crowns & Pawns - Really polished experience. The protagonist was likable straight away, the visuals are colorful, clean and charming. Gameplay is tried and true traditional 90's fare by way of Revolution Software's Broken Sword. Some of the inventory puzzles flirted with contrivance but nothing that would scare a seasoned adventure fan away. Really looking forward to this one. 5/5
Children of Silent Town - I was only vaguely aware of this game before, having seen a little bit of it, and I've gatta say CoST has got a lot of promise. Aesthetically it's in the vein of Fran Bow, Jhonen Vasquez or Tim Burton-esque cutsey horror. Your mileage may vary on that but I can dig it. Story wise it's a lot more wholesome and subtlety creepy than a game like Fran Bow. I found the characters very inviting and the protagonist believably young in a way many games screw up. Puzzles were inventory based and mostly very simple. It also does the "some items are only relevant after the plot demands it" thing, but I've been through worse (see: every CiNG game). 4/5
The Uncertain: Last Quiet Day - Probably the most disappointing demo I played during the festival. This very likely has to do with it also clearly being the earliest offering
by far. To be frank, I don't think the devs should have let people play it in this state. There was no VA, missing animations, performance was spotty and the section of game they chose not particularly interesting. You're scavenging for medical supplies in the robot apocalypse and gor some reason you're taking very little despite being in a fully stocked pharmacy. All the character interactions were super stilted due to missing animation so I couldn't really get a sense for anyone's personality. The puzzles tend to solve themselves via the streamlined UI a la Truberbrook (ugh) and there's one of the most god awful QTE sections I've ever played in a game. I'll say that the visuals are nice and the writing seems competent but there's a lot to fix before release time. 2/5
Aurora: The Lost Medallion - Really impressed with this one. I've seen it a lot before, actually, and hadn't been too excited about it because the artwork comes off as pedestrian in screenshots (imo). Really glad to have played the demo so I could find out just how wrong I was! Aurora is another game that really captures child characters well. The cast has a good variety of different personalities and are all generally likable. The artwork and animation has a lot of personality in motion that doesn't translate to screen grabs. You play as a group of kids in an underground bunker playing a variation of hide and seek that contains an added level of lore. The seeker is some kind of monster they've clearly been taught to fear but the whole affair is pretty lighthearted. It's a good setup for a multi-step puzzle chain thats genuinely creative and fun. I want more time in this world and with these characters, without question. 5/5
Nine Noir Lives - Something about this game just didn't click with me at all. I went into it thinking I was going to really enjoy playing, but the demo starts out with this incredibly long (and imo super unfunny) intro sequence. Which goes straight into a tutorial, which goes straight into another long uninterrupted string of (unfunny) dialogue. To be quite honest I couldn't finish the demo. Maybe someone else could like this game, visually it's nice enough, but I couldn't get through it. Cliche, half baked jokes that go on
forever. 1/5
Roki - Already played the demo from a previous Steam festival but I thought I should reiterate that it's awesome. Simple & stunning cell-shaded art style. Well designed puzzles and some flat out awesome creature design (especially as seen in the last trailer). The demo itself is just a brief taste but I think the final game could really be something special 4/5
Saw this pop up on my Ig feed - cpuldnt find much else on internet, but i like the designs and concept so far...
Nice find, Heck! I'll have to look into this one, the characters look really cute.
