Steam Next Fest
Feb. 6th, 2024 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
got_quietI'm taking a break from the BG3 grind to check out all the demos on Steam's Next Fest as is tradition. Here's what I've played so far and how I liked em. I've been extra picky about games this time and with only a couple of gigs on my HD (BG3 is sooo big) I simply could not try some of the larger demos, so I haven't run into that many complete duds.
The Good:
Summerhouse
A casual, goalless little architecture game where you scroll through elements and build houses on a 2d landscape. I enjoyed this a lot actually, as someone who literally collects books just because they have nice architectural elevations in them. I think whether or not it's worth a little money will depend on how many elements will be in the final game, because other than that you have kind of complete freedom with how to place things. You can throw a tree into the sky for example. It might make for a nice creative tool for other projects too. (Of course intellectual property would still be a consideration.)
Oddsparks
A cross between Pikman and factorio. You run around a map creating a a little production line through the use of Pikmen, or whatever it is that the game calls what are clearly wooden Pikmen. It seemed simple enough. We didn't get through to the end of the demo but it did take us a few hours to get to maybe the third tier of the tech tree. It's also nice that it's co-op. I think it wouldn't be too bad as a very laid back single player though. The polish is also there, no real problems with execution.
The OK:
Parallel Experiment
A two player, narrative version of Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, kinda, except that instead of one player having the mechanism and another having the information, both players have all or half the information and half or all control over the mechanism. This significantly simplifies the puzzle and makes communication a lot less necessary. I thought it was ok, if more simple than I wanted it to be. My brother gave up on it because it was too simple so I didn't see all of it. There's a sort of Sawesque plotline where you're two detectives that wake up in this spooky puzzlefest, but I don't know if there's any real possibility of a bad end. It felt mostly like an escape room with murder vibes. There was also a very annoying section that required precise speed in spinning something via moving the mouse and it sucked for us gamers used to twitch gaming so with that I'd say it's inaccessible for anyone with arm mobility issues, which is kind of dumb considering it's in the puzzle genre imo.
Rotwood
An actiony rougelike with furry cartoon graphics. I gave it one round and made it to the first boss and then got wrecked by some footsies. The combat is slow. Swings are slow, movement is slow, enemies have well telegraphed hits. While there are a number of weapon "combos" you can do, for the most part you're just whacking things over and over again, but the positioning was important enough that I enjoyed myself. If I have time at the end of the fest I may play this some more.
PathBlasters
A simple arcade game where you lay bombs bomberman style to clear a path up, as the screen slowly scrolls down to kill you. It was a fine, simple arcade level game.
ARCO
A game with an interesting combat mechanic that I actually enjoyed. You and your enemies move simultaneously after locking in your action decisions. This includes decisions on how to attack, but also positioning. Little indicators on enemies tell you what they're going to do. So your job is to manage your cooldowns and resources, position yourself so that you don't eat attacks, and prep attacks so they meet enemies where they're going to be, not where they are. After getting a little frustrated with the tutorial because I wasn't enough of a coward in the beginning I played through a section of the "Story" part and enjoyed the different mechanics the enemies presents. However after beating a first boss the door trapping me in the room simply never opened again. I don't know if that was the end of the demo or I was missing something or what, but that's where I stopped. I would have kept playing this one though. That and the slightly janky ui and graphics made it a more meh game than otherwise.
The Not Good:
Terra Memoria
This game spent way too much time with the plotty fetch quests and not enough time demonstrating its actual combat system. The combate is "tempo based" aka every action costs a certain amount of time, which effects order of action on the field. The system as far as I got was very simple, you just choose the attack that will break the enemy guard and then get some free attacks on them. But again I didn't spend much time in the combat. Most of the hour I played or so I was running around a city talking to NPCs to follow some plot about one of the characters looking for her parents.
The sound design is a little bit odd, as is the art, even though it's also clean. I think JRPGs or games that follow any similar structure like this are generally the worst served in these sorts of demo fests because the thing that tends to sell them is story, and I'm busy trying to hit as many games as quickly as possible, thus uninterested in anything but the mechanics. What I did see of the story seemed novel at least.
Diner at the end of the galaxy
A sort of resource management game where you create rooms on a grid to make an operational space diner. The pixel art is a nice style, and I have wanted a game that satisfies the Dungeon Keeper room building itch for a long time, but it is in such an early state that I can't tell if the end result will be good or bad. There were a lot of QoL elements missing, including a more reliable employee management system and tracking of resources and smooth building of rooms. But I hope those issues are fixed so that this is a worthwhile game to play cause it looks great. It's all potential though. The actual gameplay was not fun.
The Good:
Summerhouse
A casual, goalless little architecture game where you scroll through elements and build houses on a 2d landscape. I enjoyed this a lot actually, as someone who literally collects books just because they have nice architectural elevations in them. I think whether or not it's worth a little money will depend on how many elements will be in the final game, because other than that you have kind of complete freedom with how to place things. You can throw a tree into the sky for example. It might make for a nice creative tool for other projects too. (Of course intellectual property would still be a consideration.)
Oddsparks
A cross between Pikman and factorio. You run around a map creating a a little production line through the use of Pikmen, or whatever it is that the game calls what are clearly wooden Pikmen. It seemed simple enough. We didn't get through to the end of the demo but it did take us a few hours to get to maybe the third tier of the tech tree. It's also nice that it's co-op. I think it wouldn't be too bad as a very laid back single player though. The polish is also there, no real problems with execution.
The OK:
Parallel Experiment
A two player, narrative version of Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, kinda, except that instead of one player having the mechanism and another having the information, both players have all or half the information and half or all control over the mechanism. This significantly simplifies the puzzle and makes communication a lot less necessary. I thought it was ok, if more simple than I wanted it to be. My brother gave up on it because it was too simple so I didn't see all of it. There's a sort of Sawesque plotline where you're two detectives that wake up in this spooky puzzlefest, but I don't know if there's any real possibility of a bad end. It felt mostly like an escape room with murder vibes. There was also a very annoying section that required precise speed in spinning something via moving the mouse and it sucked for us gamers used to twitch gaming so with that I'd say it's inaccessible for anyone with arm mobility issues, which is kind of dumb considering it's in the puzzle genre imo.
Rotwood
An actiony rougelike with furry cartoon graphics. I gave it one round and made it to the first boss and then got wrecked by some footsies. The combat is slow. Swings are slow, movement is slow, enemies have well telegraphed hits. While there are a number of weapon "combos" you can do, for the most part you're just whacking things over and over again, but the positioning was important enough that I enjoyed myself. If I have time at the end of the fest I may play this some more.
PathBlasters
A simple arcade game where you lay bombs bomberman style to clear a path up, as the screen slowly scrolls down to kill you. It was a fine, simple arcade level game.
ARCO
A game with an interesting combat mechanic that I actually enjoyed. You and your enemies move simultaneously after locking in your action decisions. This includes decisions on how to attack, but also positioning. Little indicators on enemies tell you what they're going to do. So your job is to manage your cooldowns and resources, position yourself so that you don't eat attacks, and prep attacks so they meet enemies where they're going to be, not where they are. After getting a little frustrated with the tutorial because I wasn't enough of a coward in the beginning I played through a section of the "Story" part and enjoyed the different mechanics the enemies presents. However after beating a first boss the door trapping me in the room simply never opened again. I don't know if that was the end of the demo or I was missing something or what, but that's where I stopped. I would have kept playing this one though. That and the slightly janky ui and graphics made it a more meh game than otherwise.
The Not Good:
Terra Memoria
This game spent way too much time with the plotty fetch quests and not enough time demonstrating its actual combat system. The combate is "tempo based" aka every action costs a certain amount of time, which effects order of action on the field. The system as far as I got was very simple, you just choose the attack that will break the enemy guard and then get some free attacks on them. But again I didn't spend much time in the combat. Most of the hour I played or so I was running around a city talking to NPCs to follow some plot about one of the characters looking for her parents.
The sound design is a little bit odd, as is the art, even though it's also clean. I think JRPGs or games that follow any similar structure like this are generally the worst served in these sorts of demo fests because the thing that tends to sell them is story, and I'm busy trying to hit as many games as quickly as possible, thus uninterested in anything but the mechanics. What I did see of the story seemed novel at least.
Diner at the end of the galaxy
A sort of resource management game where you create rooms on a grid to make an operational space diner. The pixel art is a nice style, and I have wanted a game that satisfies the Dungeon Keeper room building itch for a long time, but it is in such an early state that I can't tell if the end result will be good or bad. There were a lot of QoL elements missing, including a more reliable employee management system and tracking of resources and smooth building of rooms. But I hope those issues are fixed so that this is a worthwhile game to play cause it looks great. It's all potential though. The actual gameplay was not fun.
