I checked out a few game demos on Steam's Next Fest
Roguelites have never been more popular
Steam’s Next Fest is a week-long showcase of upcoming PC games that celebrates by having hundreds (maybe thousands?) of publishers release demos and generate hype. Before now, I’ve never really tried to get ahead of the curve and check any of these out myself, but this year I decided to try a small sampling of games that sounded interesting to me.
Death Howl
developed by The Outer Zone, published by 11 bit studios
Death Howl is sold as a souls-like turn-based deckbuilder game that fashions itself as a dark fantasy version of Slay the Spire meets Into the Breach. The demo sets up the story of Ro, a scandinavian mother in 6000 BCE who journeys into the spirit world to recover the soul of her dead child. While there are light exploration elements, the core of the game is a grid-based combat system that revolves around a deck of cards representing offensive and defensive actions. Combat here is super unforgiving and punishing but feels very rewarding as winning matches yields materials to build new cards for your deck.
I really liked the art style, that I could only describe as grotesque pixel art reminiscent of Blasphemous, one of my favorite indie games of recent years. However, the combat’s difficulty really put me off playing more of this. I will probably wait to hear what more people say about it before considering getting the full game later this year.
Insider Trading
developed and published by Naiive
With the smash-hit success of Balatro last year, it’s no wonder that a few copycat games are starting to show up. Insider Trading is yet another rogue-like deckbuilder that tasks you with manipulating the stock market to hit weekly monitary goals. Each of the 5 days of a given week you are dealt a “hand” of stock moves that will trigger at the end of the day, moving prices up and down according to rules of each move. You can spend tokens to manipulate the order of these moves to put yourself in a better position to gain a profit. Between each day you can also spend these tokens for permanent enhancements that change the way moves interact with one another, optimizing your loadout.
While I appreciate developers trying to cash in on the success of the simplicity of Balatro, I don’t really think that the idea of the stock market really lends itself to this kind of gameplay. It was fun for a few minutes, but I don’t see the final product being something I might invest in.
IRONHIVE
developed by Wondernaut Studio, published by CRITICAL REFLEX
Another deckbuilder! This time it’s a city-building resource-management game that appoints you as the leader of a post-apocalyptic colony, building your city from the ground up while trying to keep four different factions of colonists in check with one another. You can also send your workers out on expeditions to scout new land or plunder dungeons for riches, at the risk of losing them forever.
I really did not gel with this game at all. The nebulous goals of building up your empire felt unrewarding and the scarcity of resources and workers felt like an artificial limit put on an otherwise easily obtainable goal. I’ll probably never pick this one up again.
No, I’m not a Human
developed by Trioskaz, published by CRITICAL REFLEX
Not a deckbuilder or roguelike! Instead, this game is a horror survival visual novel with interrogation and investigative aspects. You play as a normal guy, confined to his house at the end of the world as the sun begins to scorch all of humankind of out existence and murderous underground “visitors” emerge. At night you interrogate guests through your front door, deciding based on clues whether or not you let them seek refuge in your house or shy them away as threats. During the day you can interact with those you let inside and examine them closer to determine if they are friend or foe.
A genre of game I have to admit I’ve never gotten into is the visual novel. To me, it always seemed like a minimally interactive way to experience a story in a medium that differentiates itself through interactivity. I didn’t know that’s what I was getting myself into when I booted this game up, and I was mildly surprised that there was more game here than I expected, but not as much as I wanted. I found this game incredibly aimless and confusing at best. I felt like nothing I did had any consequence (or maybe I was accidentally making the correct choices?). I’ll probably end up just watching a Let’s Play youtube video on this one if it ends up generating any buzz.
Ratatan
developed by TVT Co Ltd and Ratata Arts, published by Game Source Entertainment
Ratatan is a sequel of sorts to the Patapon series of rhythm adventure games that started out on the Playstation Portable. Even though I owned a PSP, this game went completely under my radar, despite me also having a significant interest in rhythm games. In this game you accrue little “ratatan” critters that follow you and react to your commands to the beat of music. I have never played a Pikmin game, but I imagine this game shares a lot of DNA with those games, except with music being a key component.
I kind of hated this game, probably due in part to me playing it with a mouse and keyboard. The rhythm aspect seems to barely matter and my commands sometimes didn’t even work the way I intended them to. There’s a good chance I just wasn’t playing it right, but the tutorial hardly did anything to set me on the right path.
Lots of dark themes, imho, as you can guess, I don’t like horror!