It seems like only two minutes ago that we took part in the previous Steam Next Fest back in February. It’s become somewhat of a tradition for myself and WesleyWhale to participate in this event which typically takes place 3 times a year, and each time we’ve always found a handful of amazing games to add to our never ending wishlists (and soon to be backlogs).
Here’s a quick insight if you don’t already know about it! Steam Next Fest is a week long event where hundreds of developers share demos for their upcoming games for anyone with a Steam account to download and play for free! This is the best opportunity to discover some new games and show your support to the developers whilst they continue to work on their beloved projects. These festivals usually run 3 times a year in February, June and October with this particular event running from Monday the 19th of June until the Monday the 26th of June.
Once again, we chose a small selection of demos with a varied range of genres to try throughout the week. Although we didn’t play as many as we usually do, we still managed to find some super fun games, and also some that weren’t probably as good as we were expecting… Quite a few of these picks were actually already on my wishlist though which is the main reason I decided to continue the trend and take part in this month’s event.
We used our previous writing format for ease of reading and we also included our brief thoughts individually as to whether we’d be interested in the full game or not. Please take note that we use 3/5 as an average score, but everything else should be pretty self explanatory. The demos are listed in the order we played them and not by favouritism, but if you are curious as to which games were our favourites, we’ve both included our top 3 at the end of the post!
Alien Hominid
Developer/Publisher: The Behemoth
Release Date: 2023
Demo Play Time: 40 mins
Co-op / Action / Shoot’em’up
Old friends and bitter enemies await as you invade Earth alongside a Mothership full of alien friends! Blast, beam, and bite your way through an endless swarm of enemies as you and up to three of your fellow hominids cause mayhem with a huge arsenal of weapons, mutations, and acrobatic maneuvers.
Steam Store
Visuals: 3/5 A unique art style that’s true to the design of the creator which can be seen in previous games such as Castle Crashers. The visuals could become very busy at times so it was sometimes difficult to see what was going on, but the bright green signifying things that would hurt you made a statement. The placement of the health bars wasn’t great though, they would have been much more visible at the top of the screen.
Audio: 5/5 The music was awesome and really creative which made it interesting to listen to. All the sound effects were excellent too and couldn’t really fault anything in that regard.
Gameplay: 4/5 The demo showed off a variety of missions with different objectives, but it mostly just amounted to the same thing – kill enemies, collect items, escape. The different weapons and gadgets kept each run fresh and elements such as shooting the ground for a boost, jumping on enemy’s backs and burying underground kept the gameplay fun. The controls also felt great to use.
Enjoyment: 4/5 The loot box element kept each run fun and it was cool that each player got different items rather than just unlocking things per level. This also helped with the competitiveness as loot boxes were found within the level which granted plenty of items including new weapons, gadgets, skins and colours for you character!
Potential: 4/5 Alien Hominid was definitely more fun when played co-op, but we imagine this would be even better with additional players. With everyone having personalised loadouts and fighting over loot boxes, this would further add to the chaos to make an excellent party game.
Wishlisted?
WesleyWhale: Yes. Seems like this game is shaping up to be a worthy sequel to the 2002 NG classic.
Skylar-Mei: No. It was fun for a while, but I can’t see myself playing something like this long term. Although, if Wesley bought it, I wouldn’t say no to playing it with him.
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Developer/Publisher: CAPCOM Co. Ltd.
Release Date: 30th June 2023
Demo Play Time: 30 mins
Puzzle / Mystery / Anime
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, the classic puzzle-solving mystery adventure directed by Ace Attorney creator Shu Takumi, is back! This long-awaited HD remaster features upgraded visuals and sound and new gallery content.
Steam Store
Visuals: 3/5 Ghost Trick certainly has a style to it with smooth animations and all round nice appeal. The 2.5D level worked well and the Ghost realm made it easy to see what could be interacted with, but this part did look a little basic.
Audio: 3/5 The audio was fine, just not particularly memorable. The music jumped around a little which could get rather annoying, and since this is supposed to be a rerelease, maybe some voice acting could have been a nice touch.
Gameplay: 2/5 Honestly, the gameplay was pretty dull. The first level was the tutorial to how the game worked (which was to be expected), but the controls were far too simple to justify this level lasting so long.
Enjoyment: 1/5 We know it was just the introduction, but it was about as engaging as a 4 piece jigsaw that you had to drag out over half an hour. The level’s dialogue was much too repetitive with it’s over-explanations and flashbacks from scenes that took place 2 minutes previously. We’re not going to lie, we were really fed up by the end.
Potential: ?/5 This is listed as a HD remaster, but I’m struggling to see what’s HD about it – it’s not even the right resolution for HD. It’s nice that an old game is being released for modern systems and all, but I’m struggling to justify the price of £25…
Wishlisted?
Skylar-Mei: No. I could easily tell it was by the creator of Ace Attorney and that’s probably why I didn’t like it… I think fans of the series will love Ghost Trick, but it’s not for me.
WesleyWhale: No. A terribly frustrating experience. The demo just went on and on, but didn’t really get anywhere.
Viewfinder
Developer: Sad Owl Studios / Publisher: Thunderful Publishing
Release Date: 18th July 2023
Demo Play Time: 20 mins
Puzzle / Surreal / Platformer
Challenge perception, redefine reality, and reshape the world around you with an instant camera. Viewfinder is a new single player game offering gamers hours of interesting and fun experiences while uncovering the mysteries left behind.
Steam Store
Visuals: 4/5 The inclusion of different art styles within the pictures was so cool and we’d love to see more of this! The main world was bright, clean and each stage was designed well to highlight what was required from the puzzles without making it super obvious. The way the pictures transformed into 3D objects when placed down was also an insane visual experience!
Audio: 3/5 The audio was quite plain, but the sound effects used to represent each art style added an extra layer to the experience. The voice over at the beginning really wasn’t good, but thankfully it was only there for basic guidance right at the start. I’m hoping it won’t make a reappearance.
Gameplay: 4/5 Placing the images did get a little stale but it was needed to start with to provide examples of what could be done within the game, Taking your own photos later on opened up the options and it would be interesting to see how far you could go with this feature.
Enjoyment: 3/5 Although the puzzles were quite simple, we did find it interesting that individually we would have both solved each puzzle differently. It’s always nice to have more than one way to complete puzzles!
Potential: 5/5 Viewfinder didn’t seem to have much of a story so the game would need to include obstacles and more complex puzzles in order for it not to get stale too fast. This game has so much potential to be a unique puzzle game though, we’re just hoping it won’t go down the road of a cringy story hidden in note form…
Wishlisted?
Skylar-Mei: Yes. This demo was so cool and I loved the changes in perspective. I’m really interested to see what else the game has to offer.
WesleyWhale: No. A curious take on the perspective puzzler, but I tend to find (with games like these) the gimmick wears thin pretty quickly and the real killer is that the puzzles just weren’t really challenging.
Wizard with a Gun
Developer: Galvanic Games / Publisher: Devolver Digital
Release Date: 2023
Demo Play Time: 50 mins
Roguelite / Crafting / Dungeon Crawler
Wizard with a Gun is an online cooperative sandbox survival game set in a magical wilderness wrought with dangerous creatures and arcane mysteries. Embark on a journey alone or with a friend to collect, craft, and outfit your wizard however you see fit as you explore the unknown.
Steam Store
Visuals: 4/5 Firstly, the opening cinematic was amazing! The style is full of character with beautiful animations and a great colour palate that suits it very well. The HUD was also laid out so it was informative but not too obstructive.
Audio: 4/5 The music was one of the best things about the demo and really suited the game with it’s flamenco-western approach that was also satisfyingly atmospheric. The sound effects were good too, but they soundscape was a little plain in comparison to the quality of the music.
Gameplay: 3/5 The combat was typically what you would expect for this type of game and it controlled well without any issues. As a resource/crafting game, being able to gather both items and standard crafting materials from enemies made it less of a slog, but this also took away from the objectives. Since you could complete most of the requirements by just running around killing enemies, there was a loss of variety and the quests would be checked off without the need to really think about what you needed. It also felt a little like an extraction shooter with the timed elements.
Enjoyment: 2/5 The game seems like it could be a lot of fun, but the demo was pretty slow paced. The main buzz-kill though was the timed levels. Even opening a menu drained the timer, so interacting with new upgrade items found within the randomised worlds couldn’t be used freely enough without 5 minutes looming over your head. We have no issues with having a timer and it was nice that you could extend your time by defeating portals, but when you use your whole roaming time playing dress up, it’s a bit of a kick in the teeth. There is a base to hang out in and sort out your upgrades/gear so you can chill out between missions, but some menu time would’ve been nice too.
Potential: 4/5 The store page has Wizard With A Gun listed as being a 2 player co-op game which we both think would add a lot to the experience as resource gathering would be faster and each player can focus on a separate build. However, leaving it at just 2 players seems a bit of a mistake as this would likely be even more enjoyable as a 4 player experience. Overall, if the pacing speeds up a bit and acquiring more time in each instance becomes more doable for longer runs, then this could be an awesome little game! Also, please let us rotate items, we like to make our base look pretty!
Wishlisted?
WesleyWhale: Yes. In all honestly, the demo was mediocre but the one thing that’s saving it for me is the fact that the full release will have co-op. These types of games are almost always improved by this feature.
Skylar-Mei: Yes. I agree. I still have mixed feelings about the game in general, but I think it would be a lot more fun if we could play it together!
En Garde!
Developer/Publisher: Fireplace Games
Release Date: August 2023
Demo Play Time: 30 mins
Swordplay / Swashbuckler / Comedy
En Garde! – the swashbuckler action game! Battle graceless guards and nefarious noblemen in fast-paced fights full of spectacle. Use the environment, your wit and your blade to teach them all a lesson
Steam Store
Visuals: 4/5 The cartoony art style was bright, atmospheric and perfect for this type of game with brilliant character design, excellent costumes and tonnes of personality. The animations were excellent and suited the cartoony style to the game, especially the dodging when in sword stance. It was a little heavy on the HUD with a fair amount of button prompts which made it slightly distracting and less immersive, but it’s likely this is just for the early stages of the game.
Audio: 4/5 The demo features flamenco style music which suited the game well and also included great sound effects with good audio cues to represent different attacks. The demo was also fully voiced with highly entertaining voice acting, although the style is possibly not to everyone’s taste. There was enough voice acting for it to be a prominent feature thanks to the banter both in and out of combat, but it was never annoying at all and some of the lines were hilarious! If anything, we wished there could have been more of it!
Gameplay: 4/5 The gameplay was simple, but definitely effective! The general combat was straightforward, but it was mixed up by the introduction of props and trick shots. Throwing or kicking items at enemies would stun them which made handling large groups more manageable, but sometimes the props could break the flow of the combat as they needed to be lined up properly. There’s also a wave survival mode as well as the story!
Enjoyment: 5/5 Everything combined made the whole experience so much fun! The variety in the props, environmental hazards and how the actions all chained together made for a highly entertaining and slightly chaotic experience. Accompanied by the super character design, great voice acting and comical animations, this was a demo we won’t be forgetting any time soon.
Potential: 5/5 En Garde! was an excellent demo for a title with so much potential! If the prop aspect is ironed out a little to make the combat flow better, and the fighting and platforming sections are synergised better, then this will make for an even more enjoyable experience. We’d also love to see the introduction of more crazy characters!
Wishlisted?
Skylar-Mei: Yes. En Garde! was so much fun and I’m so excited to see more!
WesleyWhale: Yes. With its highly amusing sword play, unique style and tonnes of character, En Garde! was a cut above the rest. Estupendo!
Aztecs The Last Sun
Developer/Publisher: Play2Chill S.A.
Release Date: Coming Soon
Demo Play Time: 70 mins
Colony Sim / City Builder / Economy
Aztecs The Last Sun is a city-building strategy and city manager. Become a ruler of the great city-state of Tenochtitlan. Develop a city, build an army. Let your people flow in riches!
Steam Store
Visuals: 3/5 The demo looked pretty with nice animations and a decent amount of ambience, but it would have been nice to be able to zoom in further to see the buildings and citizens in more detail. The citizens’ pathing could also be quite glitchy and the actual paths didn’t visually connect sometimes which looked rather messy. The HUD was neat and unintrusive, however, the new day messages lingered in the middle of the screen for far too long.
Audio: 2/5 The audio was subtle and not especially noticeable for the most part. It was atmospheric enough to contribute to the experience and although we wouldn’t particularly want to listen to it for hours on end, it’s not the type of sound scape that would get on your nerves easily.
Gameplay: 4/5 It was interesting to see new management features such as cooking stations, but it didn’t really make much different to the gameplay as a whole. It played well as far as colony sims go though. It seems military management is also going to be a large aspect of the game, but unfortunately the demo ended before any of this was shown.
Enjoyment: 3/5 I feel like the game will come into its element when exploring the next section as the military comes into play, so we really only got to experience the setup in the demo. So far, it seems like a proficient city builder with decent pacing that was entertaining enough for the hour we invested into it.
Potential: 4/5 The story aspect an choice making mixed things up a little and it’ll be interesting to see how the next part of the game pans out with the military. If this is handled well, then it could have the potential to stand out against other games in the genre, although it really just depends how well all these gameplay element mesh together. A bit more depth to the blood sacrifice mechanics would be good too.
Wishlisted?
Skylar-Mei: No. Despite having a decent time with the demo, I don’t think I’m interested enough to get back into one of these time sucking games any time soon…
WesleyWhale: No. This demo was a bore. There wasn’t really anything particularly compelling about it, just the most basic elements of any colony sim.
Lies of P
Developer/Publisher: NEOWIZ
Release Date: 19th September 2023
Demo Play Time: 40 mins
Souls-like / Action RPG / Dark Fantasy
Lies of P is a thrilling soulslike that takes the story of Pinocchio, turns it on its head, and sets it against the darkly elegant backdrop of the Belle Epoque era.
Steam Store
Visuals: 5/5 Lies of P really does look great! The first thing we noticed was the stunning lighting and the atmosphere presented to us right from the start. There were lots of little attentions to detail such as oil splatters on clothes when attacking robots and these really made a difference. Animation wise, the player character did mimic the movements from Dark Souls and it’s apparent that the developers clearly want this to have not only the same playstyle, but also the visual similarities too.
Audio: 3/5 There was plenty of ambient sound featured in the demo since the level is set mostly outside during a thunder storm. The sound effects were pretty good but fairly standard and didn’t really have their own identity. Music was only present during the boss fights, which again very much mimicked the music present in the Dark Souls games, however, it did provide tension and was suitable for purpose.
Gameplay: 4/5 The controls weren’t as tight as you would expect and there was quite a lot of delay between actions, especially regarding the parry. This made the combat feel slow and kind of sluggish which didn’t really suit the appearance of the nimble looking character, complete with rapier… On the other hand, the controls did feel very familiar and we’re sure souls fans will notice the resemblance.
Enjoyment: 4/5 Since it clearly wants to be a souls game, and even markets itself as such, it’s hard not to compare it to the series so many people love. It clearly resembles Bloodborne more so than the other titles, and in our opinion, it actually both looked and played better – but does it have its own identity? Not really… and now it’s going to be difficult for it to get one.
Potential: 4/5 Lies of P was a fantastic clone of the souls games and the demo showed clear potential for it to be what it aspires to be, especially with the attention it’s already received. It’s a shame the story wasn’t shown and a little more is needed in the world for the exploration to be enjoyable, but it has certainly proved that there is a demand for more of these types of games, even when they aren’t FromSoft titles.
Wishlisted?
WesleyWhale: Yes. Actually, no (I changed my mind). In terms of gameplay and visuals it was bout as good as the games it’s imitating, however, it felt like something was missing from the experience. Or perhaps I’m just suffering from souls-like fatigue.
Skylar-Mei: Yes. I thought the game looked interesting and I enjoyed the setting. I’d like to keep my eye on it to maybe try sometime in the future, but I’m not invested in it enough for it to be a Day 1 purchase.
Toxic Crusaders
Developer/Publisher: Retroware
Release Date: 2024
Demo Play Time: 20 mins
Beat’em Up / Retro / Co-op
The Toxic Crusaders return for an all-new, all-action beat ’em up for one to four players! Grab your mop, tutu and attitude, and get ready to clean up the mean streets of Tromaville, one radioactive goon at a time!
Steam Store
Visuals: 4/5 The retro style with all the bright colours looked great and followed the art design of the 90’s children’s cartoon closely. The character animations were well done and we liked some of the moves the characters had, particularly Yvonne swinging an accordion around.
Audio: 4/5 The only term you can really use to describe the soundtrack is ‘Megadrivecore’ (or ‘Genesiscore’ for you Americans). The music was excellent and stuck to its retro roots, and the sound effects sounded like they came straight from a 90’s cartoon – which was sort of the point – so they hit the nail on the head there. The sounds were a lot of fun and quite comical, but they could get a little irritating after a while.
Gameplay: 3/5 Since the game took the retro approach, there was a limit to what you could actually do. There was only a couple of attacks per character with only one combo chain and a special attack that didn’t feel very impactful in most cases. There is the argument that it’s simple to pick up, and the feature of local co-op play also supports this, but as a beat’em up fan, it just wasn’t fun enough to play long term.
Enjoyment: 3/5 It was fun to play for a while with local co-op, but I don’t think the levels would be entertaining enough to play for long periods of time. A way to improve this could be by introducing weapons and/or set piece hazards rather than just the option to pick something up and instantly throw it. It was pretty funny to randomly pick enemies up though – you don’t see that very often!
Potential: 3/5 I think this could be a fun story and a great game for fans of retro beat’em ups, but since more ‘modern’ games in the genre have much more going for them, I don’t think fans of those particular games will find this one entertaining for long. It just doesn’t have that replay factor.
Wishlisted?
Skylar-Mei: No. The demo was fun, but it’s not got enough to it to grab my attention. I’ve been spoiled by Streets of Rage 4…
WesleyWhale: No. I really did have fun playing this demo but ultimately I feel that the game will only stay fun for a couple of hours due to the simplicity of the gameplay.
Inescapable: No Rules, No Rescue
Developer: Dreamloop Games / Publisher: Aksys Games
Release Date: Coming Soon
Demo Play Time: 50 mins
Visual Novel / Mystery / Anime
Inescapable is a social thriller set in a tropical island resort: you’ve been kidnapped and forced to participate in a twisted reality TV show with 10 strangers. At the end of their stay, they’ll each receive $500,000… If they survive.
Steam Store
Visuals: 3/5 Considering Inescapable’s darker themes, we were surprised at how colourful the demo was. The CG art was pretty and all the characters had their own identities and personalities reflected within their designs. However, we didn’t like the board game/playing piece idea. This design choice will probably make more sense later on as it hasn’t served any purpose yet, but we just don’t understand why it was made that way.
Audio: 1/5 The game is (almost) fully voiced in English, including the player character, Harrison. Usually, voice acting in visual novels is a huge bonus, but not on this occasion. The characters were so annoying anyway, but the voices made them even more unbearable and quite frankly, we didn’t want to spend time with any of them… The music was also way too dramatic and conflicted with the voices making it a bit of an audible mess.
Gameplay: 1/5 The demo didn’t really show off any of the gameplay we expected to find, only showcasing a small puzzle at the start and then a few pointless dialogue choices (that made you start the conversation again if you chose the wrong one). It wasn’t very impressive.
Enjoyment: 1/5 Skylar-Mei is definitely no stranger to visual novels, but we just couldn’t grasp what this one wanted from us, or what we was supposed to get from it. None of the characters seemed to really care that they’d been abducted and accepted it far to fast considering the circumstances and the demo didn’t even give a glimpse into the kind of ‘twisted’ things that are meant to follow.
Potential: 3/5 Honestly, we think this was just a bad demo as it showed next to nothing about the prime aspects of the game. If it wasn’t for the voice acting, we’d have probably enjoyed it more, but overall we just failed to connect with any of the characters. The concept is definitely there, but it’s difficult to tell which direction the game is going to go in at this stage.
Wishlisted?
WesleyWhale: No. Terrible writing, awful voice over and riddled with technical issues. Inescapable’s demo truly is an offence to the senses.
Skylar-Mei: Err… No. It actually was on my wishlist before I played the demo, but not anymore. Inescapable clearly isn’t the game I was expecting it to be.
Sea of Stars
Developer/Publisher: Sabotage Studio
Release Date: 29th August 2023
Demo Play Time: 50 mins
JRPG / Turn Based / Adventure
Sea of Stars is a turn-based RPG inspired by the classics. It tells the story of two Children of the Solstice who will combine the powers of the sun and moon to perform Eclipse Magic, the only force capable of fending off the monstrous creations of the evil alchemist known as The Fleshmancer.
Steam Store
Visuals: 4/5 The pixel art was so pretty with nice animations and great character design. The backgrounds were beautiful and super detailed with varying settings shown throughout the demo.
Audio: 3/5 None of the sound particularly blew us away, but the music and sound effects included in the demo were pretty good and functional for this type of game.
Gameplay: 4/5 For a turn based game, this was actually pretty interesting. There were some extra little bits added into the combat that made it much more interactive with examples such as combo team moves, spells that functioned almost as tiny mini-games, and pressing buttons on attacks would deal more damage to the enemies and mitigate more damage for your team. You could also cancel enemy attacks by hitting them with a sequence of different damage types, however, this was rather difficult to pull off due to high mana usage and turn order of your party. There was a lot going on.
Enjoyment: 3/5 Despite turn based games not really being our thing, Sea of Stars seemed to offer something different from others in the genre. The enemies did seem to be really tough at the beginning and our teammates were constantly being defeated, but sometimes they would just randomly heal or revive again without any sort of pattern which was kind of annoying. Since there wasn’t a focus on farming, this difficulty spike did hinder our enjoyment slightly, but maybe that’s just because neither of us are used to this style of gameplay.
Potential: 4/5 Sea of Stars looks like it’s heading in the right direction and was actually pretty enjoyable for a JRPG. Hopefully we’ll see some new party members and additional abilities later on as well as more locations during the adventure’s progression.
Wishlisted?
Skylar-Mei: No. Despite this being one of the better demos, this type of game just isn’t for me. It was fun while it lasted, but unfortunately I don’t think I’d enjoy this as a full length game.
WesleyWhale: No. Surprisingly I was quite impressed with this game. It’s not to my taste so it’s not going on the wishlist, but it deserves a place on someone else’s wishlist, for sure.
from Madness with Love
Developer: Jamsanpoid, VampireK.K. / Publisher: VampireK.K., PLAYISM
Release Date: 18th July 2023
Demo Play Time: 50 mins
Visual Novel / Otome / Horror
This is a dating sim with guys you will never be on the same page with! For some reason, you just can’t communicate with the guy you like… An unusual yet extraordinary experience with a cute pixel art style, fully voiced in Japanese.
Steam Store
Visuals: 4/5 I loved the bright colours and cute pixel style. I feel like this is going to work so well as juxtaposition later on since the game has horror elements (not quite sure what yet though)! There were a few CGs shown in the same pixel style too.
Audio: 5/5 I really enjoyed the music, especially the opening song! The game is also fully voiced in Japanese and there are plenty of crazy sound effects happening throughout. Some of these could get a little annoying (like the dialogue selection noise), but I somehow actually kind of liked how bizarre this was too.
Gameplay: 3/5 There’s not really much to say. It’s a visual novel with dialogue choices so there’s nothing really special about it, but the craziness of the scenario makes things much more interesting.
Enjoyment: 4/5 This demo was definitely an experience and I’ve been left even more confused than when I started. The craziness and uniqueness this provided makes me want to experience more, or maybe I’m just going insane.
Potential: 4/5 Although it probably won’t appeal to all otome gamers, I’m sure there will be plenty of takers that would enjoy from Madness with Love’s wacky concept of not being able to communicate with any of the characters. Plus, if there are indeed horror elements that are explored and executed well, then this could be one hell of a game.
Wishlisted?
Skylar-Mei: Yes. I enjoyed this way more than I would like to admit. I really don’t know the direction this game is headed in, but I’m certainly intrigued to find out.
WesleyWhale didn’t play this demo.
Eternights
Developer/Publisher: Studio Sai
Release Date: 21st September 2023
Demo Play Time: 45 mins
Hack & Slash / Anime / Dating Sim
Eternights is a dating action game where you try to make the most out of life during the apocalypse. Monday: Go on a date. Tuesday: Clear dungeon. Friday: Freak out! The clock is ticking!!
Steam Store
Visuals: 4/5 Eternights has that typical JRPG style with anime style aesthetics that we’re so used to seeing, but it also includes high quality animated cutscenes. The animations were smooth and each level was surprisingly atmospheric. The only thing I really didn’t like was the large size of the date on the screen. This didn’t even need to be here and it was actually super irritating.
Audio: 4/5 The demo was fully voiced (with the exception of the player character) in both English and Japanese. I played with Japanese voices and it was actually pretty decent for a game that retails at £22. The demo also included suitable music and great sound effects, so I couldn’t really complain.
Gameplay: 4/5 Although the combat was fun, it does seem quite simple. Overall, the gameplay’s actually quite varied featuring a balance of roaming, hack and slash combat, quick-time events, stat/relationship building and choice making. All the aspects were used together well, but having quick time events during combat wasn’t the best choice in my opinion.
Enjoyment: 3/5 It was a little slow to start but I enjoyed the overall plot. Even though I’m no stranger to dating sims, the constant dialogue about dating, dating websites and p*rn was way too much that it was kind of off-putting and also quite unsuitable for the situation considering the world looks as though it’s about the end. I guess that’s what they were going for from the description though.
Potential: 4/5 With everything the demo showed, I think this could be an interesting adventure with a great style and fun, varied gameplay. The cutscenes were awesome too so I hope more of those are included, I just hope they don’t get too carried away with the dating aspects.
Wishlisted?
Skylar-Mei: Yes. Although there was plenty I liked about the demo, there are still some aspects I’m not fully sold on. Even so, I’d still like to keep my eye on this one for the time being.
WesleyWhale didn’t play this demo.
Skylar-Mei;s Top 3:
3. Lies of P
2. from Madness with Love
1. En Garde!
WesleyWhale’s Top 3:
3. Lies of P
2. En Garde!
1. Alien Hominid
That brings us to the end of yet another Steam Next Fest! Although we didn’t play as many demo as we did back in February, we still found a few decent titles that we’ll be keeping our eyes on. Once again, thanks so much for reading and let us know if there are any demos you enjoyed this time!
Hopefully we’ll take part in another Steam Next Fest soon!
gamergal.exe 
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