If you only pay attention to the big headliner showcases, it’s easy to miss the “smaller” ones like Steam’s Next Fest. I saw a tweet (refuse to call it X) that the Next Fest was going on, so I had to stick my head in to see what was happening.
Boy is it a good thing I did. There’s probably at least 50 demos for games I’ve had interests in and games I’ve never heard of, and I actually found myself quite happy with what I tried out.
Today’s post is going to focus on the highlights I encountered in the sea of Soulslike and survival games the Next Fest offered.
I Am Your Beast is comic book John Wick, and I’m here for it
Heading into this one, I had no idea what to expect. The Steam page caught my eye, so I figured I’d give it a whirl.
Holy heck was I surprised at the what was offered here, and I highly recommend it.
Given it’s a demo, there’s not too much narrative backdrop to this, but the gist seems to be your main character is an ex-operative who’s left the trade due to conflicts of interest or something along those lines. What unfolds is John Wick-esque, as the opening sequence demonstrates brutal and fast-paced gunplay.
Beat up a bad guy with your fists. Pick up his gun. Kill an enemy with said gun, throw the empty weapon away to make another goon stumble, and pick up their weapon to kill another guy is the flow here. I’m describing it terribly, but it’s so seamless and fluid.
There’s only four levels in the demo, and they each drop you into small arenas where you had to eliminate all enemies or secure intel, and then escape the area. Missions last as long as it takes you to do just that, and you’re given a letter grade at the end for your performance. The quicker you are, the higher the grade.
Like I said, I had no idea what to expect, but my eyes are all in on I Am Your Beast when it launches August 15, 2024.
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is a solid Soulslite
I’ve had my eye on Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn since its announcement in 2022, and it caught me off guard to see that it was on Steam’s Next Fest. One of the many Soulslike titles, or Soulslite in this case, this game leans more towards the recent Star Wars Jedi titles than Bloodborne or Elden Ring, meaning it’s more forgiving than the FromSoftware titles.
That’s not a knock, by the way, since I like the middle-ground challenge provided here. You assume the role of Nor, a Sapper who gets caught up in unleashing the evil Gods. You have to defeat them, and you get help from a talking fox named Enki.
Enki’s pretty cool since they aid Nor in combat and traversal. The traversal gameplay is one of the best parts here since you can travel through rifts and do fancy jumps with Enki’s help. It’s a lot cooler than how I described it, I promise.
I found myself invested in the demo, which is a feat within itself since my attention span has shortened the older I get. What I will say is I recommend playing with a controller since the PC scheme is a little clumsy. Funnily enough, the demo recommends you play with a controller; I just had to charge mine, so I didn’t.
There’s nothing crazy about this one, but if you like Soulslite titles, the demo was solid enough to sell me on it. It’s coming to GamePass (not an ad) which is how I’ll play it when it launches on July 18, 2024. That said, I believe it’s 10% on Steam if you’re keen on owning your titles.
Like I said, there’s a lot more demos to try out, so this post is just the tip of the iceberg. You have until June 17 to demo away so get in there if you can!
Johnnysworld 