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STEAM Fest 2022 |OT| - sifting through trash

Bartski

Gold Member
Februry STEAM Next Fest 2022 is live with a load of demos available to download.



So far I've seen of perhaps worth mentioning:

such a cool idea, awesome finding. Go check it out. Soon on Gamepass!


Prequel to Daymare 1998
it sucks.

runs real bad on my PC and mouse pointer is broken but overall quite a doozy. Totally not what you'd expect judging by the name alone, it's a first-person perspective narrative horror... Very interesting.


Share your findings below!
 
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winjer

Gold Member
I tried Scathe. It has some nice graphics and design. Music is awesome.
But weapons don't have that punch. Feels like shooting a BB-gun.
Since it's still in development, there is time to improve.

 

ChoosableOne

ChoosableAll
Turbo Overkill- The best game I've played recently. This is awesome! The gameplay was very fast at first, but I got used to it quickly. I didn't realize how 1 hour passed. Gunplay is perfect. Music, sound effects, atmosphere are very good. It's a very good idea to slip and cut an enemy with a saw attached to your leg. For the first time I liked melee action in a fps game. It has vendor machines like Borderlands. You can upgrade your weapons with cool new features, buy some ammo or upgrade your body. It has some parkour elements like wall running, sliding, double jumping, dashing in air etc. I highly recommend this game.

Scathe- It looks a lot like Doom(2016). Music was ok, but sound effects not so much. I deleted it after 5 minutes. I didn't like Doom so don't take my advice on this one.

Kao- Decent 3d platformer. Crashed after 10 minutes though. They should change Kao's voice artist.

Shortlist of demos I've downloaded(I will edit this if I play any of these);
-Elderand(looks like Dead Cells)-- Played it for 90 minutes. I liked the art style. Controls are tight and responsive(despite having issues with ds4 compatibility). Whip is so cool. If you use it after pressing down and forward(like hadouken), it makes a spinning move which is awesome. You have a shield, bow(which i couldn't use because ds4 issues), etc. You can dash forward, backward. You can be a mage. There is a simple character progression based on exp(includes strength, health, agility, mana paths). This game needs better AI though. Other than that, it's a solid 7/10 as it is. I will try mage next.
-Demon's Source(souslike-roguelike-but one man dev)---Played it for 10 minutes. Runs like crap, skips some frames. You have to strike 6-7 times to kill some skeletons. 5/10.
-Expedition Zero(survival horror)-- It's more like scary The Long Dark clone. I liked it but it's too scary for me, I can't endure that much stress.
-Monsters Domain(make your skeleton army): It's like playing Skyrim as Necromancer. It's far from complete though. Added to wishlist.
-Little Orpheus(award winner 2d platformer?): It's a 2d walking simulator. Pass.
-Tinykin(3d platformer): I can slide with that soap board 24/7. Great platformer, perfect level design. This could become something huge. Highly recommended for 3d platformer lovers. They could come up with much more charming protagonist though. I hate that blah blah type voice overs too(like in Okami).
-Hero's Hour(which was very popular on Steam stream)-- It's Heroes 3 with real time combat. It has same resource management, town building, hero leveling, troop gathering mechanics. Your troops(every one of them appear on screen) fight automatically but you can change their positions or order them to attack a spesific group. It was fun to play. I love Heroes 3 but can't play it for too long. Maybe I will try this one instead.
-The Wandering Village(it's like frostpunk on a creature's back)
-Hazel Sky(slow paced adventure about making planes?): 3d adventure. Not bad but not my type of game.
-The Iron Oath(turn based tactical rpg): I love tactical strategy games so I liked this one. Good sense of exploration and mystery too. I will wait for reviews though.
-Coromon(like Pokemon?)-- Straight copy with QOL improvements. You wake up at your home, say goodbye to your mother, than pick a Coromon out of three choices... I might try it in future, why not? It's a Pokemon game on PC!
-Unliving(2d necromancer game): Visuals are kinda blurry, maybe because of my eyes or my PC so I don't know. I liked the idea and gameplay.
-Mago- 2d platformer. Mario clone with modern twists(like using coins for upgrades, semi open world design while choosing which level to go next etc). Character moves slowly but I got used to it. It's a little bit hard but I loved the art style and music. Added to my wishlist.

Boundary- Imagine Sandra Bullock and George Clooney fighting each other with AKMs in space! What a great idea! You can lean 360 degrees too! But this one kinda boring, like space itself. In future someone will use these mechanics to make a better game, I'm sure. Probably I will wait for that game.

Neon White- Didn't work on my PC. It seems a common bug, black screen or infinite loading, devs trying to solve it.

Warstride Challenges-- Pretty cool concept. Fps platformer. It is a game where you try to gain speed by jumping and sliding and then, you have to kill all the enemies within the given time (usually 30-40 seconds maximum)(headshots are essential). In some sections, you also gain the ability to slow down time for a short time. It is important not only to finish, but also to finish faster than other players who have played the game before. You get a rank based on your timing. Added to my wishlist.

Ghostlore: Cheap isometric ARPG. But I liked some ideas so keeping eye on this one.

Souldiers: Another metroidvania game but plays nicely. Added to wishlist.

Lost in Fantaland: Turn based strategy game with cards. It looks like Into the Breach. Added to wishlist.

Lil Gator: Zelda Botw without scary stuff. Gliding, endless sliding, climbing... It has all the good stuff in it. This is exactly what I was looking(for my daughter). Added to wishlist.
 
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Griffon

Member
Tried a bunch of Retro Shooters:

Scathe was hot trash.
Any dev team that's fine with releasing a demo so bad doesn't have my confidence. It's off the wishlist.

Warstride is alright I guess.
Movement and guns are nice but I'm not sure I like the speedrun concept. I'm willing to wait for a deep sale for that one.

Turbo Overkill is kinda meh.
Level design was nothing special and the controls are way too fast and slippery for such tight maps. And while the whole chainsaw gimmick looks nice in trailers, in practice it's not very satisfying to use. The guns are not trash like scathe, but that's not saying much, shooting doesn't feel particularly impactful. This one is getting off the wishlist too.


Pretty disappointing so far.
 
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Holammer

Member
Just tried Souldiers, an instant wishlist.
First of all, I'mma sucker for pixel art and this is *the* best example I've seen in years. It looks like the finest SNES game I ever saw, the stuff you'd expect from Capcom or Square back in the days. The artist(s) understand the pixel and I actually felt a chilly shiver of delight from the graphics. I could wax lyrical about the authentic feeling use of color and palette, particles & transparency effects, parallax layers. But I'm not getting paid to write this.

Gameplay is great and feels like a solid Metroidvania with fair difficulty setting. Music and sound effects deserves a mention too, it like the graphics sounds as if it was composed within certain limitations to get a SNES style sound.

 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
bad movies endless trash GIF


I appreciate the people that take the time to look into these games though.
 
Bio-Gun: Metroidvania where you play as a pig character with a starting level inside the womb of a dog, which weirded me out a little. Fighting bacteria/viruses inside is the theme. Didn't feel the gameplay was particularly great or compelling, and not feeling the artstyle. Doesn't bring enough to the table for me to return to the game.

Hero's Hour: already bought through itch.io, after trying the demo (released before Nextfest). I really like the concept of a 'mini Heroes of Might & Magic' with auto battles. Looking forward to 1.0 release.

Kalyzmyr: action RPG rogue-lite, where you alternate between sections of walking and killing mobs for gold & gear upgrades, and sections called 'raids'. Raid is like a defense mode, where your character stands still at the beginning with incoming mobs. You spend your gold on walls, traps, ballista's that you can place before your character. It's an interesting concept that has potential, but it feels very barebones. Not sure if in this form I want to return to it, not really feeling the raid parts, would rather see they go all out on the scrolling sections.

Jetman: Jump King-like mechanic meets Megaman 16-bit console era aesthetic. Like Jump King, it's all about timing your jumps. Your character will auto-attack vertically, but can also perform a combo at his highest point, also slashing horizantally. Level/difficulty progression feels like Japanese design philosophy; gradually adding different mobs & bosses. I think it's a quite a fun concept executed in a neat & charming little game and can definitely see myself buying the game. My only fear is that it may rely on grinding for upgrades, instead of a skill focus.
 
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