Steam Next Fest is currently ongoing - which demos did you like/dislike?

Managed to try Shapez 2 Demo. It has me proper hyped for the release.
- I really liked the original, did they change a lot?
  
  It's still the same basic game, but some of the changes make a big difference. Like they added a second layer, and the stacker machine works across both levels with the top item dropping down on top of the other. And the colors are now liquids.
  But, as silly as it may sound, the graphics change make a huge difference in game feel. Every tiny thing is animated fully in a way that makes sense and nothing ever disappears into a machine to reappear later. The underground belts are replaced with launcher ramps and catcher ramps, which does the same thing but feels more fun.
  The entire background, music and artstyle give it such a beautiful surreal abstract vibe that I can get lost just staring at it and moving the camera around. (Although as a kid I used to hold up and stare at CDs for ages, so your mileage may vary)
- I haven't even played the first Shapez. How do you like it?
  
  Feels easy to get stuck in. Progression balance is better.

I tried out Lightyear Frontier and Homeworld 3.
Lightyear Frontier made for a generally pleasant low-stakes low-stress first person farming game. The mech aspect had some minor jank in places, but nothing I think the developer can't smooth out with some minimal adjustments. Seems like a good game to relax with.
Homeworld 3 looks beautiful. I played through the tutorial and it's got me hyped for the full game. Only complaint was that there isn't a proper single player level to the demo. It appears to just be a tutorial and skirmish/online, and I'm not a competitive multiplayer guy.
- I was so fucking hyped for Homeworld 3.
  I still am but I think I just discovered I'm no longer a day 1 gamer for anything.
  50% off is the bare minimum now, holy shit that sticker shock is real.
  
  I was just reading an article about Homeworld 3 and it sounds like I was mistaken about the online/skirmish thing. It sounds like it's some sort of PvE coop mode or something. Still not my cup of tea. Still excited for the single player campaign.
  I'm with you on the patient gaming. With few exceptions, purchasing the new hotness on day 1 means paying more for a worse experience. By the time a game goes on sale, the major bugs and balance issues will have all been fixed (if they'll get fixed at all), so what's the rush? Most gamers these days, myself included, have big enough backlogs that we'll never be in the position of not having something fun available to play anyway.

Pepper Grinder is an amazing little retro-style 2D platformer that took the burrow ability from Ori 2 and made a whole game around it. It's novel, fast-paced, and surprisingly polished! Made me wish the demo was longer than 3 levels.
- Second this. One of my stand outs. It just felt great to play. Movement and combat was satisfying, especially with controller rumble. Looks like a fun title

Stormgate
It's like 90% StarCraft 2 and 10% Warcraft 3. The competitive RTS part is promising but it didn't show me anything new. Depending on the lore and campaign it may get more interesting, so far it's neutral.
Millennia
It starts very similarly to Civ 6 with even more kinds of resources. The current version of the UI seemed confusing and the poor performance (on linux) stopped me from finishing the demo.
- Man, I really want to love Millenia. It feels like it has so many great ideas mechanically (from the ages mechanic to how resources work domestically and internationally), it just seems really rough at the moment. The pacing feels off and the flavor comes off just bland (none of the civs seem to have much character).

Balatro, it reminds me of how everyone who back in the day played Solitaire on the desktop to pass time. Instead it has a modern take with poker and mixing it into a roguelike. Easy to learn but can be complicated. I thought I was going to put 30 minutes into the game but now I have 10 hours into it and can't wait for full release. Recommend it even if you do not like card games.
- The modifications you can make to your deck are straight forward but feel ridiculous by the end of the run.
  "Change 3 cards to diamond"
  Sure, why not.
  "When you play a diamond, increase how much it scores."
  Cool.
  By the end of the run 40 cards in my deck are diamonds, my Flushes are worth 3x as many points, and each card is scoring points twice.

The four I've tried and would recommend:
Homeworld 3 looks gorgeous. I'm not good at RTS games but I'm interested in this one just for the nostalgia and it hits that just right.
Lightyear Frontier is a good "just chill and work on your farm" kind of game. It seems relaxing.
Pacific Drive is like The Forest but instead of feeding and protecting yourself, you're fueling and repairing your car.
And for a surprise hit I just tried on a whim, Space Trucker. A sci-fi twist on the Euro Truck Simulator style game.
- I will chip in for Homeworld 3 as well. Even at lower graphic settings that game looks amazing!
- Pacific Drive had one of the most atmospheric intros I've seen since Half Life. It loses a little once you start scavenging and crafting and get your HUD, but still a unique game. Like a cross between My Summer Car and STALKER.

Haven't tried anything yet, but I'm thinking of seeing Millennia and comparing it to Civilization.

Played the Pacific Drive demo last night. Definitely looking forward to the real thing now, and I'm not usually a fan of crafting games.

MULLET MAD JACK is my kind of boomer-shooter, and the visual style is interesting.
- I tried that as well, but really didn't like it. The visual especially were extremely unappealing to me.

I don’t know if this would be considered a shameless plug or not, but I have a friend doing the music and sounds for a game on Next Fest. I finally got to play the demo yesterday, and I think it’s pretty neat.
packet.Breach() — it’s kind of a tower defense game and kind of a roguelike. Instead of setting up turrets and hoping for the best, you are redirecting the enemy’s fire with certain “programs” you can place. And the playable space continually moves, so it’s not just one map that you have to kill X number of bad guys before going to the next stage.
I’m not always super into tower defense, but even beyond knowing people working on it, I enjoyed my playtime last night.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2482970/packetBreach/
- Whoa, that looks incredibly cool, definitely going to wishlist this one
  
  Nice!
  One thing that I mentioned to them last night that I’ll tell you now is that you cannot place the “programs” on the “track” where the enemy nodes are traveling. And that may seem self explanatory, but some of the flavor text made it seem like you needed to put the “program” right in the way of the enemies. But that’s not the case. Nothing will go there.

Next Fests are my gaming Christmases. I play way too many demos each time
Feb 24 standouts for me so far:
Meta-Ghost: The Breaking Show: Solid roguelite experience. Each of the 3 characters on offer have very different playstyles and speeds. In-run upgrades allowed for powerful, game-breaking synergies. Meta progression goes beyond just stat upgrades into new(?) territory by allowing you to customize your 4 skills (main attack, special, dodge, ultimate) in different tiers. There is also the ability to "weaponize prosthetics" (its a cyberpunk universe) that was not part of the demo. All in all looks like a promising new title for the genre.
Pepper Grinder: A fun, polished Devolver Digital title? Surely not. I heard people had some hype around this one and it seems founded. Fun, old-school type platform adventure with a movement twist - you drill through sand to get around. You can attack from under enemies, there is some puzzle elements to trap doors and bombs, collectathon bits, and YOU CAN SCROOGE MCDUCK ENEMIES. Hard not to see this one as a win. Should be another solid indy entry from the dying Devolver Digital.
Raw Metal: The artstyle and dynamic camera got me in the door. I'm not a stealth game guy, but this one has my interest. Most movement is from a top down perspective while stealthing, but if discovered, the camera shifts for a cqb fight cam while you take out your enemies. Not being successful with stealth at all times seems forgiving if you can make up for it in combat. This is a roguelike title, so patience is likely required regardless of skillset.
Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse: Commonly misconceived as the third Pocketpair EA title, its just published by them, different devs according to steam page. Shares some similarities with Hollow Knight visuals, but its really hard to see in screenshots alone that its only vaguely; in-game its more apparent that it's not a copy. Gameplay-wise, its Dead Cells-esque roguelite without the soul/cell loss mechanic, so standard meta currency accumulation. There are also other materials you acquire that you use to build up your town and the shrines that let you purchase meta-upgrades. Combat was snappy, movement and exploration felt good for this type of game. One to watch for fans of the genre.
The Age of Hell: The game to beat for me. I am a boomer shooter fan, so I've been eating well for a while. But there is also plenty of crap that came with the explosion of the genre. So when you find one that steadily makes you go "oh fuck yes" as it introduces more elements in the demo is a happy time. Running on GZ doom, you have a dash mechanic, great christian demon-slaying one-liners, and a holy hammer for maximum mashing with combos to boot. But wait, you can also Mjolnir that instrument of god right at all the enemies and even reflect projectiles back. And did someone say Holy Hand Grenade? The dev did at least, cuz you get one. Toss in a dragon's breath shotguncrossbow and chaingun with crazy RPM and I am in. Can't wait.
I still have a bunch of demos to get through. Will add more if anything else catches my eye.

Duel Corp has been super fun! Played 2 hours of the demo and feel like there's still a lot more enjoyment to get out of it.

I was going to try Harold Halibut but I've read that it contains noticeable spoilers so haven't bothered.
Homeworld 3 is next.
- Really crossing fingers that Homeworld 3 delivers.
  7-month follow-up: It did not deliver. Massive disappointment.
  
  Yeah I'm looking forward to it. Currently playing through the old ones, they hold up surprisingly well.
- The demo for HW3 is out!

I’m looking for either factory / automation games (see: Factorio, Satisfactory, Nova Lands, etc.) or games similar to Against the Storm (Roguelike city builder). Anyone have any suggestions?
- Shapes 2 for the factory game!
  
  Oh my god yes, I forgot I had this demo installed. I also grabbed Final Factory and Civ Idle.
  Any other jams?
- Oddsparks
  Dyson Sphere Program
  
  Yeah I have DSP, I gotta see if they fixed the really rough translation.

Second batch of highlights
Rotwood: From Klei Entertainment, makers of Don't Starve/Together, a 1-4 player roguelite with artstyle and map traversal similar to Cult of the Lamb. Thankfully, it has deeper combat, with a combo system. The in-run progression felt good with nice synergies for movement and combat abilities. Dodge felt a little off, but it may have been the heavy class I was playing. Did not get to try multiplayer and progression was demo locked. One to watch for sure.
STAND-ALONE: If anyone has played Astral Ascent, the gameplay is similar. The "Skill-Deck Building" system is nearly identical, just without the annoying rotation mechanic so you can use anything at any time. Run progression is short arenas then on to the next area via your ship that contains some type of reward. Presumably with path choices in the full version. The story is sheep vs wolves is some futuristic war-like engagement.
StormEdge: Another roguelite with its own combat system. From what I saw, you only have one attack, but as you combo it, its power grows. They throw in armored enemies that require making it to the last part of your combo to break. The other piece on display in the demo, and what kept my attention, is the necessity of perfect dodges, such that it encourages risky play so far as to bait attacks and dodge them. The demo character created copies of himself on success that attacked with you and broke magic armor. Only complaint with the demo is I really wanted to see one of the other playable characters, but it appeared to require more time than I like to give demos, if it was even possible.
Necrosmith 2: Didn't play the first one, so fresh take. It is a tower defense/RTS light game flow. You raise new soldiers from body parts scavanged and earned throughout play. You can give each soldier different commands such as resource hunting and defending the tower. Different body part combos make different soldier types. And you can take movement control of individual soldiers at will. Could be a fun Deck title for sure.
Chasmal Fear: If I were a fan of slow horror shooters, this one would excite me. It attracted me with: " next-gen FPS action horror game...from the perspective of a body camera." And it delivers on that and the extremely claustrophobic feeling that entails. The field of view this necessitates makes aiming feel odd and I think it may struggle to find a wide audience due to potential nausea some people experience at low fov. But I did enjoy seeing something new-ish and would recommend it to fans of that game style.
Surprise demo of the event so far...
Knights Within: I downloaded this as a joke expecting absolute jank for some lulz. But I promise you this assessment is not a prank. What I got was a surprisingly smooth, fairly polished game with satisfying gunplay and melee combat. It's, no joke, a Helldivers 2/Risk of Rain 2 style co-op, objective-based horde shooter with the ability to extract or push your luck. The aesthetic is knights with guns and Titanfall 2 colored visors. Movement and combat felt really good. I successfully completed my first run after a challenging boss fight. Definitely should be a good time with mates if you enjoy a 3rd person rougelite shooter experience. I bamboozled myself and got a nice surprise and I'll be playing more of it before the event ends in case the demo goes away.

Last Batch
Lightyear Frontier: Standby for TitanFarm. I'm not a survival/crafting game fan, but I'm always on the lookout for one that might finally win me over. And for mech based games. So I had to try this. And I think I might get into it. Right out of the gate it already captured me more than other similar titles. Some of the more frustrating aspects of this type of game are addressed, but not completely. But I can't explain much more than that I had a really good time just messing around, which I never do. So I think its a safe bet for fans of the genre. Looked and ran great too.
Balatro: Hardly the first to sing this one's praises. It's a satisfying experience. All you need to know is how to make a poker hand, the game does the rest. Has plenty of its own mechanics to stay interesting. Making an outlandish and bold prediction this one gets popular.
Artifact Seeker: Had a lot of skepticism about this one with the obvious thirst trap, but I had to try it was I ran short on demos. Turns out its a pretty fun mashup of some of the best aspects of more successful survivor titles out there today. Should provide a nice grind heavy experience for survivor fans on full release.
Echo Point Nova: Freshly updated demo for this next fest. Fantastic new adventure from the maker(s) of Severed Steel. A wide open, insanely fast movement shooter metroidvania with coop to boot. Can't get much better than this.

I tried several and most did not play well with the Steam Deck. Serum and the car survival game were the bigger disappointments, there; really wanted to try them.
I'm awake you can download proton hacks to make them work, but that's not the point, imo .