I just wrote a blog post for the first time in
checks 9 freaking years about all the demos I played. Looks like I can just copy paste it here and save you from having the inconvenience of clicking open to another tab, but I'll link it in case the formatting is nicer for you:
Steam Game Festival Summer Edition Demos
15 demos, 3 of which I'll probably pre-purchase or day-1, another 5 of them I'll keep my eye on and maybe dive in, the rest weren't bad (mostly) but they're low on my list right now.
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Cris Tales[/UWSL]
I had already had this on my wishlist, I liked the premise described and it looked beautiful from the screenshots. It’s an RPG at the core, with a time manipulation gimmick – you can see the past on the left third of the screen, and the future on the right third, and in combat you can force enemies either into the past (and then back to present) or future (and again, bring them back). You can use this to do things like poison enemies and fast-forward them (essentially) to make them take more damage.
It practice, it ended up feeling pretty straightforward in combat. In addition to that, the normal attacks and defense has a “sweet spot” button press to parry / block or crit, which I felt conflicted with the otherwise slow, turn-based combat. Not technically required but seems like combat would be incredibly slow and painful without it, and kind of tedious with it.
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Fights in tight spaces[/UWSL]
This one I hadn’t heard of. It is a deck-building game a la Slay the Spire, in a style reminiscent of SUPERHOT, and plays out in small-room tactical grid combat encounters. You control a person using your cards to move and push or strike other enemies, and defend yourself. Each level is a point along a path, again very much like Slay the Spire.
The cards themselves didn’t seem too balanced, but it is an early demo. Strike cards seemed much weaker than all the push/shove options. Also, again like Slay the Spire, the map “choices” aren’t really choices, they’re just random encounters with no information offered so the only choice you have is if you want to go to the health stop or gym (which let you tweak your deal & heal or add/upgrade cards respectively). I think if they make the choices more like actual choices, it could have some potential.
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Trepang2[/UWSL]
This feels like someone really liked FEAR and got annoyed the OG FEAR team hadn’t made another FEAR game, so they figured out how to make this as a spiritual successor.
It’s janky right now, and one of the things that made FEAR so great was how tight everything was, so that definitely needs to be polished before release. It also weirdly has some stealth mechanics thrown in but they are mostly optional and seem to be a tool to let you reposition and re-ambush in a fight.
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Ghostrunner[/UWSL]
This is a one-hit-you’re-dead first person platformer and sword slasher, in a cyberpunk setting. Again, janky is the feeling I got while playing it, for a game like this you’d want really good feedback, tightness of the rules and feel and control, and I just didn’t get that. I might keep an eye on it, as a fast fun game like this would be nice, but I wouldn’t get it as-is.
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Grounded[/UWSL]
A survival / crafting game with a narrative, where you and anyone co-oping were shrunk down to insect size in an unknown yard. You have to gather materials, craft stuff, fight off dangers, and figure out what is going on.
It looks nice, and the core mechanics are there. I can’t put my finger on it but it just didn’t feel quite right. Something in the gathering-inventory-crafting cycle was not great. Again, a “wait and see” title for me, and I don’t think I’d go for it solo anyway.
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Going Under[/UWSL]
This game is madness. It’s an action dungeon crawler roguelike where you’re an intern at some startup and the items / enemies / powerups are all start up themed, failed or otherwise, as you descend through the dungeon and find apps to use and items to wield to bash Joblins.
It was fun but I’m not entirely sure how much depth it has. I might get it for the right price, or if the full release has a lot more going on.
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Raji: An Ancient Epic[/UWSL]
An isometric action game based on Indian mythology, following a girl who is trying to rescue her brother after they were attacked by demons. Kind of nice, nothing too special but it’s nice to see a new take and it’s produced / developed by an Indian team.
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Haven[/UWSL]
A sci-fi co-op (two person) narrative crafting RPG adventure? You play as two lovers who are running from somewhere and are stranded on a strange alien planet. You have to gather food and energy, explore, calm critters, and work as a team. Seemed nice.
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Fallen Angel[/UWSL]
Initial impressions was this is a direct knock-off of Hyper Light Drifter, but as I got farther it differentiated itself at least a
little bit. Isometric-ish action combat game, using melee / dashes / ranged attacks. The angle actually made some of the combat and platforming a bit awkward but it is somewhat forgiving. Would give it a real shot.
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Exo One[/UWSL]
An atmospheric exploration game where you are a futuristic space-sphere-probe using gravity manipulation to accelerate down hills, launch off them, glide, jump, and explore. Seems to have a narrative. Played it twice. Annoyed it’s not out
right now to buy.
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Solasta: Crown of the Magister[/UWSL]
This is basically Baldur’s Gate 5th edition, by a different team. It played really nicely and looked great. I would definitely play more of it.
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The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos[/UWSL]
A tactical RPG with a set cast of characters, based on the writings of a French novelist that parodies common fantasy tropes. It definitely had a humorous bent, but I felt like some of it was wearing thin even in the demo. Also not sure I’m interested in a tactics RPG with just set characters.
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The Last Spell[/UWSL]
Another tactical RPG (after years of none, we really are in a renaissance for this genre), however this is a roguelike city defense against zombie hordes. Not totally dissimilar from They Are Billions but with tactical RPG trappings. Felt pretty brutal but there was some fun there.
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Spiritfarer[/UWSL]
Not 100% how to describe this – a 2D platformer, with base building (your boat), as you are a ferrymaster to the deceases. The store description probably makes more sense than anything original I could write. It’s another beautiful game, and felt nice, and seemed lovely. I will definitely be checking it out.
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Occupy Mars: The game[/UWSL]
A take on a realistic Mars colonization / survival game. I didn’t play much of the demo because the controls are abysmal and there’s almost no direction and it’s pretty easy to just die. The devs said the tutorial will be heartier in the full game. Looks like it will be single player, not sure if narrative at all or only sandbox.
metacouncil.com
3/5
