Next Fest Feb.2024 demo roundup/reclist
Feb. 9th, 2024 05:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hexmixsince i missed out on a lot of demos i'd been wanting to try during steam's last Next Fest, i've been making a concerted effort to get through more this time around, and as it turns out, there's a lot of really fucking rad upcoming games. wanted to rec a few of those here c:
gonna be adding to this list throughout the week!
INDIKA:
so this one might be the demo i was wanting to try the most, and it's certainly been one of the most interesting. heard about it a few months back when i was looking up Frostpunk 2 bc i wanted to watch the reveal trailer again, and from there i was checking out the dev, which lead me to INDIKA (11 bit studios is the publisher). INDIKA looks fucking wild as hell from the trailer, like the devs were doing their best to make a game into an arthouse film, and i seriously dug it. saw they released a demo for Next Fest and was beyond stoked, and honestly it more than lived up to my expectations:
the demo begins in media res and introduces the player to Indika (a Russian nun with some Satan problems) and Ilya (escaped prisoner? don't know for sure but damn is his arm fucked up). INDIKA looks like it's primarily an adventure game, so there is a lot of wandering the map looking for different objects to pick up to help the player progress the narrative as they solve puzzles, and most of the puzzles are pretty straightforward, but then the "psychological" tag you'll see on the game's steam page kicks in and you end up having to navigate Indika through a surreal landscape while Satan taunts her, warping in and out of reality through the very fun gameplay mechanic "right click to Pray." i'm being serious, i thought this was rad as hell and spent the entire demo all :D
there's also this incredible contrast between the bleak colors of the game's setting and what looks at first glance like an attempt at realism with the seemingly disjointed retro sound effects (lotta beep boops as you collect Religion Points, but more on that in a bit) as well as the delightfully off-putting and aggressive soundtrack.
the disjointed effect is amplified with Religion Points (i have no idea what they're actually called): the player collects points by interacting with religious icons or reading religious texts, and can then go on to unlock abilities which improve point-getting which are titled things like GRIEF or SHAME or REGRET. the pixelated Religion Points icon pops up like something out of an SNES game, complete with those beeps and boops as the Religion Points total tallies up.
the sound design in general is really nice. soundtrack aside, just navigating the world creates the most satisfying sounds, from the crunch of snow to the crackle of ice. likewise the VAs are all fantastic; the VA for Satan in particular is an interesting and yet fitting choice.
as for the story: Ilya is convinced that he's God's Chosen, and between him and Satan we see Indika embroiled in a lot of discussions of theology with a heavy focus on sin. there's a very satirical lilt to the game (i mean...Religion Points) which is clearly evident in the dialogue here as well. Indika herself seems to believe she's possessed, and it looks like the game will feature her trying to find a way to free herself from Satan's influence so she can return to her monastery.
there's just so many small details in the demo which added up to this very surreal experience, one which i thoroughly enjoyed, and which has left me immensely excited for this game. strongly recommend giving this one a shot!
Mouthwashing:
another game i'd already had wishlisted before it hit Next Fest lol. it's the same devs that made How Fish Is Made, which i haven't actually had a chance to play yet but that i've had my eye on for a while bc of how bizarre it looks. Mouthwashing, happily enough, seems just as bizarre:
it follows the small crew of a space freighter who have become stranded after the apparent suicide attempt of their captain damaged the ship. the captain (Curly) has been left horribly disfigured and in constant pain, and haunts the ship and crew just as much as the weighty sense of despair or the brutal repetition of corporate slogans and mascots.
the demo isn't very long, but it's also not linear: the story jumps back and forth from before and after the crash, alternating between the povs of previous captain Curly and Jimmy, who took over as captain after him. surreal interludes break up the otherwise ""normal"" narrative, creating a very real sense of unease.
additionally, the retro graphics are stellar; like the game just looks fantastic. demo gameplay seemed mostly focused on exploring the ship, emphasizing a narrative-based game steeped in a disquieting ambience.
honestly just as excited for this one as INDIKA; there's a clear anti-corporate focus just layered over with the horror inherent in being trapped in a metal box in the cold void of space with nothing but yourself, your small crew, and the raw skinless almost-corpse of your previous captain.
Cryptmaster:
goddamn this one was fun. wanted to try the demo bc it just looks incredible: the black and white is A Choice, but one that absolutely works. the typing-based gameplay also drew me in, and i am very happy to say that it works SO WELL. the game is immediately engaging and the gameplay is addictive; so addictive that i was legit shocked and dismayed when the demo ended bc i wanted to keep playing.
but basically: you play as a corpse woken up by the Cryptmaster (who def has some Crypt Keeper vibes), who needs you and some of your undead pals to help him with some tasks. to do so you need to remember (unlock) your forgotten abilities, and you do so by finding chests which contain objects to help you remember (collect letters). you then get to command the Cryptmaster to try out different things with the objects in order to figure out what they are. so like telling him to LOOK at the object and describe it to you, or FEEL it, or maybe even LICK it, each command will give you a new description to help figure out what the heck it is he has. if you guess correctly you'll receive different letters which will be added to blanks that appear next to the four undead characters' names. you can type in words at any time to try to guess what these letters spell out, and every single thing i tried lead to the Cryptmaster commenting on it, which was honestly really impressive due to how much that meant he was reacting to.
as you unlock skills you'll be able to better combat the various enemies populating the crypt, and combat is also a lot of fun: you have to type out the different skills of each of the four characters, each of whom has a different "class," so you'll be using melee or ranged magic attacks, or occasionally healing. defeating enemies grants you more letters to help with unlocking more skills. as i said, the gameplay is very addictive, and the game's humor also adds to that: the Cryptmaster is fucking great and i love him and i wanted to keep playing to make him taste more weird things and tell me about them.
honestly i think this might be the demo i'd recommend people try most simply based on how much fun i had with it. it looks great, it's a blast to play, and it's also just one of the most unique gameplay experiences i've had in a while.
Menace from the Deep:
this one genuinely surprised me. i don't really play deckbuilding games, and haven't ever felt very drawn to them, so i wasn't expecting to enjoy this one, AND YET:
the story seems pretty standard as far as Lovecraft-inspired stuff goes; while nothing really stood out the writing was fine (minus "the protrusion" lol). character design also not really grabbing me, though i did think the use of color was nice, particularly in the museum.
what's really the main draw of this game is the part i thought i'd enjoy the least: the deckbuilding.
can't speak to how the gameplay compares to other games in the genre, but i personally found it quite addictive and also incredibly easy to get the hang of, especially as someone who does not play these types of games. i'm a big fan of turn-based combat, so the game already had me there, but upgrading cards and managing relics was also just real fun to mess around with. combat felt satisfying, and while i was never really worried about losing any of the battles, there was a sense of challenge with the boss/mini-bosses in the demo.
i also particularly appreciated that all aspects of combat felt necessary: a lot of times i can just sledgehammer my way through battles leaning on attack only, but with Menace from the Deep i was actively switching from defense to offense and also stacking status effects whenever i could. seeing my attack damage steadily ticking up due to the mess of status effects i'd slapped on my enemies was incredibly satisfying.
there's also the build-your-own-adventure aspect of travel the game includes: cards not only determine your combat strategies but the way you move from location to location as well. selecting the order of random battles and merchant encounters was very novel to me, and from the very brief window i got from the demo i could see this game easily sucking me in.
Synergy:
big fan of city builders so had my eye on this one from the get-go, and it's pretty standard as far as the genre goes, but it looks like it's trying to expand a bit in the way more recent city builders/colony sims have been attempting, which i can really appreciate.
due to being set on an alien planet, Synergy's resource acquisition, much like in Stranded: Alien Dawn, first revolves around having your villagers research the local flora in order to learn how to best utilize it: is it edible, medicinal, etc. this is basically just adding in an extra step to your production chain, but like with Stranded i do really like having this included; it makes the scenario that much more believable. i feel like Stranded handles it better, but i really like that there is the same attempt in Synergy to make the world feel alien.
the end of the demo also focuses on expeditions: sending your villagers out to explore the world beyond their city. a lot of recent city builders/colony sims have expedition aspects (Stranded, The Wandering Village, End Zone, etc.) and i think it adds a lot to the game. Synergy is no different: entirely text-based in the demo, it looks like Synergy's expeditions will be more in line with End Zone's, possibly allowing the player to choose from certain actions that will determine the results of the expedition. this was severely limited in the demo (only one choice per action), but the set-up leads me to believe that choices will open up in the full game, much as they do in End Zone. they're just a really nice way to flesh out the world and to add a stronger emphasis on the villagers (there's that additional risk/reward balance).
the thing that sells Synergy for me the most however is the art style: heavily inspired by Moebius, the soft pastels and sloping shapes of Synergy's architecture make it an absolute treat to look at. i found myself pausing the game multiple times just to sit there and look at the different buildings i'd plopped down. some of the building types also speak to this desire to really play with the setting of an alien planet, like the scent garden, for example. it makes me really curious about other building designs or potential resource chains.
overall, it's definitely a game i'll be looking forward to, and it is certainly worth taking a gander at the demo, just for how beautiful it is, if nothing else. the tutorial is much more in depth than i'm used to seeing in the genre (*cough* Patron *cough*) so i think it'll likely be very easy for anyone to get the hang of, even if you're not used to the genre. (this was legit a huge positive for me lmao. i'm so used to city builder tuts being virtually nonexistent.)
gonna be adding to this list throughout the week!
INDIKA:
so this one might be the demo i was wanting to try the most, and it's certainly been one of the most interesting. heard about it a few months back when i was looking up Frostpunk 2 bc i wanted to watch the reveal trailer again, and from there i was checking out the dev, which lead me to INDIKA (11 bit studios is the publisher). INDIKA looks fucking wild as hell from the trailer, like the devs were doing their best to make a game into an arthouse film, and i seriously dug it. saw they released a demo for Next Fest and was beyond stoked, and honestly it more than lived up to my expectations:
the demo begins in media res and introduces the player to Indika (a Russian nun with some Satan problems) and Ilya (escaped prisoner? don't know for sure but damn is his arm fucked up). INDIKA looks like it's primarily an adventure game, so there is a lot of wandering the map looking for different objects to pick up to help the player progress the narrative as they solve puzzles, and most of the puzzles are pretty straightforward, but then the "psychological" tag you'll see on the game's steam page kicks in and you end up having to navigate Indika through a surreal landscape while Satan taunts her, warping in and out of reality through the very fun gameplay mechanic "right click to Pray." i'm being serious, i thought this was rad as hell and spent the entire demo all :D
there's also this incredible contrast between the bleak colors of the game's setting and what looks at first glance like an attempt at realism with the seemingly disjointed retro sound effects (lotta beep boops as you collect Religion Points, but more on that in a bit) as well as the delightfully off-putting and aggressive soundtrack.
the disjointed effect is amplified with Religion Points (i have no idea what they're actually called): the player collects points by interacting with religious icons or reading religious texts, and can then go on to unlock abilities which improve point-getting which are titled things like GRIEF or SHAME or REGRET. the pixelated Religion Points icon pops up like something out of an SNES game, complete with those beeps and boops as the Religion Points total tallies up.
the sound design in general is really nice. soundtrack aside, just navigating the world creates the most satisfying sounds, from the crunch of snow to the crackle of ice. likewise the VAs are all fantastic; the VA for Satan in particular is an interesting and yet fitting choice.
as for the story: Ilya is convinced that he's God's Chosen, and between him and Satan we see Indika embroiled in a lot of discussions of theology with a heavy focus on sin. there's a very satirical lilt to the game (i mean...Religion Points) which is clearly evident in the dialogue here as well. Indika herself seems to believe she's possessed, and it looks like the game will feature her trying to find a way to free herself from Satan's influence so she can return to her monastery.
there's just so many small details in the demo which added up to this very surreal experience, one which i thoroughly enjoyed, and which has left me immensely excited for this game. strongly recommend giving this one a shot!
Mouthwashing:
another game i'd already had wishlisted before it hit Next Fest lol. it's the same devs that made How Fish Is Made, which i haven't actually had a chance to play yet but that i've had my eye on for a while bc of how bizarre it looks. Mouthwashing, happily enough, seems just as bizarre:
it follows the small crew of a space freighter who have become stranded after the apparent suicide attempt of their captain damaged the ship. the captain (Curly) has been left horribly disfigured and in constant pain, and haunts the ship and crew just as much as the weighty sense of despair or the brutal repetition of corporate slogans and mascots.
the demo isn't very long, but it's also not linear: the story jumps back and forth from before and after the crash, alternating between the povs of previous captain Curly and Jimmy, who took over as captain after him. surreal interludes break up the otherwise ""normal"" narrative, creating a very real sense of unease.
additionally, the retro graphics are stellar; like the game just looks fantastic. demo gameplay seemed mostly focused on exploring the ship, emphasizing a narrative-based game steeped in a disquieting ambience.
honestly just as excited for this one as INDIKA; there's a clear anti-corporate focus just layered over with the horror inherent in being trapped in a metal box in the cold void of space with nothing but yourself, your small crew, and the raw skinless almost-corpse of your previous captain.
Cryptmaster:
goddamn this one was fun. wanted to try the demo bc it just looks incredible: the black and white is A Choice, but one that absolutely works. the typing-based gameplay also drew me in, and i am very happy to say that it works SO WELL. the game is immediately engaging and the gameplay is addictive; so addictive that i was legit shocked and dismayed when the demo ended bc i wanted to keep playing.
but basically: you play as a corpse woken up by the Cryptmaster (who def has some Crypt Keeper vibes), who needs you and some of your undead pals to help him with some tasks. to do so you need to remember (unlock) your forgotten abilities, and you do so by finding chests which contain objects to help you remember (collect letters). you then get to command the Cryptmaster to try out different things with the objects in order to figure out what they are. so like telling him to LOOK at the object and describe it to you, or FEEL it, or maybe even LICK it, each command will give you a new description to help figure out what the heck it is he has. if you guess correctly you'll receive different letters which will be added to blanks that appear next to the four undead characters' names. you can type in words at any time to try to guess what these letters spell out, and every single thing i tried lead to the Cryptmaster commenting on it, which was honestly really impressive due to how much that meant he was reacting to.
as you unlock skills you'll be able to better combat the various enemies populating the crypt, and combat is also a lot of fun: you have to type out the different skills of each of the four characters, each of whom has a different "class," so you'll be using melee or ranged magic attacks, or occasionally healing. defeating enemies grants you more letters to help with unlocking more skills. as i said, the gameplay is very addictive, and the game's humor also adds to that: the Cryptmaster is fucking great and i love him and i wanted to keep playing to make him taste more weird things and tell me about them.
honestly i think this might be the demo i'd recommend people try most simply based on how much fun i had with it. it looks great, it's a blast to play, and it's also just one of the most unique gameplay experiences i've had in a while.
Menace from the Deep:
this one genuinely surprised me. i don't really play deckbuilding games, and haven't ever felt very drawn to them, so i wasn't expecting to enjoy this one, AND YET:
the story seems pretty standard as far as Lovecraft-inspired stuff goes; while nothing really stood out the writing was fine (minus "the protrusion" lol). character design also not really grabbing me, though i did think the use of color was nice, particularly in the museum.
what's really the main draw of this game is the part i thought i'd enjoy the least: the deckbuilding.
can't speak to how the gameplay compares to other games in the genre, but i personally found it quite addictive and also incredibly easy to get the hang of, especially as someone who does not play these types of games. i'm a big fan of turn-based combat, so the game already had me there, but upgrading cards and managing relics was also just real fun to mess around with. combat felt satisfying, and while i was never really worried about losing any of the battles, there was a sense of challenge with the boss/mini-bosses in the demo.
i also particularly appreciated that all aspects of combat felt necessary: a lot of times i can just sledgehammer my way through battles leaning on attack only, but with Menace from the Deep i was actively switching from defense to offense and also stacking status effects whenever i could. seeing my attack damage steadily ticking up due to the mess of status effects i'd slapped on my enemies was incredibly satisfying.
there's also the build-your-own-adventure aspect of travel the game includes: cards not only determine your combat strategies but the way you move from location to location as well. selecting the order of random battles and merchant encounters was very novel to me, and from the very brief window i got from the demo i could see this game easily sucking me in.
Synergy:
big fan of city builders so had my eye on this one from the get-go, and it's pretty standard as far as the genre goes, but it looks like it's trying to expand a bit in the way more recent city builders/colony sims have been attempting, which i can really appreciate.
due to being set on an alien planet, Synergy's resource acquisition, much like in Stranded: Alien Dawn, first revolves around having your villagers research the local flora in order to learn how to best utilize it: is it edible, medicinal, etc. this is basically just adding in an extra step to your production chain, but like with Stranded i do really like having this included; it makes the scenario that much more believable. i feel like Stranded handles it better, but i really like that there is the same attempt in Synergy to make the world feel alien.
the end of the demo also focuses on expeditions: sending your villagers out to explore the world beyond their city. a lot of recent city builders/colony sims have expedition aspects (Stranded, The Wandering Village, End Zone, etc.) and i think it adds a lot to the game. Synergy is no different: entirely text-based in the demo, it looks like Synergy's expeditions will be more in line with End Zone's, possibly allowing the player to choose from certain actions that will determine the results of the expedition. this was severely limited in the demo (only one choice per action), but the set-up leads me to believe that choices will open up in the full game, much as they do in End Zone. they're just a really nice way to flesh out the world and to add a stronger emphasis on the villagers (there's that additional risk/reward balance).
the thing that sells Synergy for me the most however is the art style: heavily inspired by Moebius, the soft pastels and sloping shapes of Synergy's architecture make it an absolute treat to look at. i found myself pausing the game multiple times just to sit there and look at the different buildings i'd plopped down. some of the building types also speak to this desire to really play with the setting of an alien planet, like the scent garden, for example. it makes me really curious about other building designs or potential resource chains.
overall, it's definitely a game i'll be looking forward to, and it is certainly worth taking a gander at the demo, just for how beautiful it is, if nothing else. the tutorial is much more in depth than i'm used to seeing in the genre (*cough* Patron *cough*) so i think it'll likely be very easy for anyone to get the hang of, even if you're not used to the genre. (this was legit a huge positive for me lmao. i'm so used to city builder tuts being virtually nonexistent.)
