Another Steam Next Fest has come and gone and with that, plenty more demos, and plenty more games that deserve our love, attention, and wish list clicks. We checked out quite a few demos and below are those which really stood out above the rest. Did you play any of these? If not, go and check out these demos (many of which are still ready to download), and give them a play and wish list right away.
If you want some recommendations, check out these great-looking games below!
Trepang 2 
The boomer shooter crazed might still be in full force, we now see a new age of 2000’s inspired shooter slowly coming up from the woodwork. Trepang 2 is an immense FPS that’s a love letter to the likes of the highly renowned F.E.A.R. With spectacular gunplay, immense visuals, and intense high-octane action, Trepang 2 is a simple, yet compelling and highly enjoyable shooter that aims to blast the competition apart.
Everything about Trepang 2 is incredible, from its booming visuals, John Woo-style gunplay, and bleak, merciless atmosphere centered on government conspiracies, government soldiers, and brainwashing. The developers behind Trepang 2 are newcomers to the industry and this is their first game (from what people have seen after research). This is an incredible feat to make your first game so relentless, polished, and highly enjoyable.
I can’t wait for the full release!
Release date: 2022 Above Snakes 
Survival games are a dime a dozen nowadays. But Above Snakes has some neat tricks up its sleeve (or snakeskin). Set in Frontier times, you play as a lone native American woman looking to survive in the harsh lands of the Frontier, by gathering resources, building shelter and other items to ensure her survival, and above all … fending off the undead.
A compelling survival game that allows players to build the world around them with various tiles, scavenge important items for a challenging and rewarding path of survival, and take part in a story where she aids the local townspeople who have lost everything due to the zombie outbreak.
A cool game with plenty of neat mechanics, nice visuals, and a charm that kept me invested for quite a bit of time.
Release date: Early 2023 Railbound 
Railbound joins that special club of sweet and nifty puzzle games, which look nice, sound nice, and can keep you playing for hours. Railbound tasks players with putting together a series of trains by attaching carriages to the locomotive via building railway tracks. You need to figure out and construct the right path for the carriages to follow and have them connect to the locomotive at the end. It’s simple, yet a lot of fun, and some of the puzzles present in the demo were a good challenge to overcome.
With beautiful family-friendly style visuals, simple yet engaging train-based puzzle gameplay, and just generally a good vibe from start to finish. One of the smaller games from the Next Fest which really impressed me!
Release date: Coming Soon Anger Foot 
What else would you expect from Deveolver Digital other than pure gold and even purer insanity? Anger Foot is basically what we would get if Hotline Miami was in First Person and infused Duke Nukem’s mighty boot as a core mechanic.
Anger Foot has players busting into rooms, by using their foot and wreaking absolute carnage with said foot and any firearms laying around (but mostly with your incredibly dangerous foot). It’s a bit like Ghostrunner, where you can only take a hit or two, it’s very fast, frantic, and beautifully gruesome and if you're like Quintin Tarantino, foot-based combat/gameplay will seal the deal!
(Disclaimer – you don’t need to have a foot fetish to enjoy Anger Foot, but it helps).
Release date: 2023 Selaco 
Another intensely brutal, yet highly entertaining shooter, with retro aesthetics and spectacularly colourful mayhem to match. Selaco feels like the love child of Ion Fury and F.E.A.R, dressed in an anime cosplay outfit. The action starts off with our leading lady having to find a weapon and for the first few minutes, it’s a frantic game of cat and mouse with the heavily armed forces hunting you down. This section almost felt like the start of Half-Life, after Gordon starts the Resonance Cascade, and Black Masa is in ruins. But soon enough, you find a gun and action begins in an amazing fashion.
The action/gunplay is solid, the combat satisfying and the right level of challenging, and the general tone is bright, colourful, and overall, visually pleasing. Selaco has some tough competition when it comes out, but it’ll sure gather much attention for its awesome, intense gunplay.
Release date: Release date to be Confirmed. Signalis 
From the get-go, I knew Signalis was going to be my thing. By the end of the demo, I’m pretty sure Signalis will be the hidden gem worth finding and telling my friends about.
I’m a huge fan of survival horror, the old days of the genre, with the fixed camera angles, limited resources, and immense intensity of the unknown creeps up on you with every step you take. And Singalis had all these elements and so much more.
This isometric horror game was beaming with confidence and understood the fine details of what makes a captivating horror journey. While a short demo, every room, every encounter, and every step I took had me on edge, and with every little hope of finding resources and a safe spot, I released a lung full of air. That’s what makes a good horror game, and along with the beautiful retro-inspired visual style, great sound design, and its general brooding nature, I feel Singalis is going to be a cult classic horror game and one you should definitely keep an eye out for.
Release date: October 27th Ghost Song 
One of the most haunting, yet beautiful and enriching games I played from this Next Fest. Ghost Song gives off plenty of Metroid vibes yet pushes a much darker tone that really makes it one of the more visually striking and memorable 2D Metroidvanias since Blasphemous and Hollow Knight.
You take control of a “Deadsuit” on the desolate moon of Lorian. You awaken from a long slumber and set out to discover the truth behind your arrival. Ghost Song is present with beautiful hand-drawn visuals and is highly atmospheric as you embark on an adventure of self-discovery and cosmic horror.
There is a good balance of exploration and intense combat, as you explore the winding caverns under the planet’s surface and battle it out with strange and powerful creatures. Like any good Metroidvania, you’ll acquire new abilities to help you unearth the long-forgotten secrets of this strange place. Ghost Song looks to be the next big Metroidvania and could easily be held in high regard as the likes of Metroid, Hollow Knight, and Blasphemous.
Release date: Coming Soon Agent 64: Spies Never Die 
Is anyone else waiting for the Goldeneye remake to finally come out? Yeah, us too! So for the time being, here is Agent 64, a monumental blast from the past that’s beaming with Goldeneye/Perfect Dark vibes. As John Walter, ex-agent codename 64, it’s up to you to save the world once more after being called out of retirement. Complete various missions across the world that will test your combat skills as you partake in intense gunfights with enemy agents and use a range of nifty gadgets to progress through the mission.
The gameplay will feel very familiar to those who played the original Goldeneye back in 1997, with the retro visuals, simplistic yet enjoyable gunplay, and overall tone that screams James Bond. Yet there are some neat mechanics, and gadgets, and aside from the intense difficulty, is highly approachable to newcomers and those who are big fans of the classic Nintendo 64 Bond shooter.
Release date: Coming Soon – In Early Access Old Skies 
Old Skies will feel very familiar to those who’ve played 90’s Point and Click, especially some of the greatest titles in the genre being the Broken Sword games. From developer Wadjet Eye Games who brought us the pretty great point-and-click adventure game, Unavowed has decided to refine their skills/craft to deliver yet another immense adventure game centered on problem-solving, human interaction, and engaging storytelling.
Playing as Fe Quinn, a “Time Agent” who gets sent back in time to ensure other individuals (usually the incredibly rich) who have traveled back in time for their personal holiday in the past, don’t mess up the timeline. The demo focuses on Fi’s efforts to control a situation when a client travels back in time to enjoy the period of his life that was more carefree but manages to mess things up royally.
There was plenty to love from my time in Old Skies, including a great personal story that hit all the right emotional notes, a great concept that’s perfect for a point-and-click adventure, and a solid structure for investigating, exploring, and speaking with locals that made this thoroughly engaging. This was a perfect throwback to an era of gaming that has been largely forgotten, but Old Skies shows that some of the classic genres do still matter and can deliver brilliant stories and neat gameplay.
Release date: Coming Soon Loopmancer 
There was something incredibly charming about this game. Maybe it was the polished visuals that felt akin to the Strider remake, maybe it was the cool Cyberpunk/East Asian aesthetics, maybe it was the brutal and fun swordplay that saw me slice enemies to bits and pieces. Or maybe it’s the cool concept of how death resets the day.
Loopmancer puts players in the shoes of the private eye Xiang Zixu, who is investigating the disappearance of a missing journalist. After pursuing an infamous crime lord, things soon take a turn for the worst and Xiang Zixu finds himself dead. However, when death occurs, he wakes up with a fresh start in his apartment on the day he began the case. His day repeating, Xiang Zixu is able to learn from his mistakes, gather new evidence, and gain ever so small advantages over the case with each defeat he faces.
This 2.5D Cyberpunk detective adventure infuses Metroidvania and Rogue-Lite style gameplay, with brutal action, interesting lateral components as you piece together evidence from each run, and a compelling mystery. I was thoroughly hooked through the demo and I can’t wait to see more come this July.
Release date: July 14th Midnight Fight Express 
Midnight Fight Express … looks so awesome.
This is an isometric brawler with a focus on melee combat that infused hand-to-hand street fighting, kung-fu, and all other manners of lethal melee action. I guess this could be considered a mix between Sifu and Hotline Miami, but the demo really showed us it’s so much more. The energy is relentless, the combat flows beautifully, and the impact from every punch/kick and gunshot really does have an impact. I for one kept saying “Ouch” and “Damn” every time I beat the living s*** out of someone. Bottom line, Midnight Fight Express has the potential to be an indie darling and one hell of a cool fighting game that truly kicks you in the balls!
Release date: August 23rd Moonscars 
Now if you loved Blasphemous (which I really do), then put this on your radar. Moonscar is the goth, younger sister of Blasphemous, who wants nothing more than beautiful, bloody carnage!
Moonscar will look and feel very familiar, with beautiful, gothic 2D pixel art, bloody and brutal melee combats, skill trees, and a massive decaying world to explore. Yet has enough of an edge with its bleak art style, super smooth animations and intense combat wielding a massive sword feels every bit as devastating as you would imagine, to feel worthy of a playthrough.
Many games trying the same thing don’t usually succeed in living up to the hype, and while I can see many people (myself included in some respect) comparing it to Blasphemous, I have a good feeling that Moonscar will deliver an enthralling and merciless 2D hack and Slash experience we can all enjoy.
And if there are more games like Blasphemous, then that’s a good thing!
Release date: 2022 Cultic 
Another Boomer Shooter throwback inspired by the legendary 90’s FPS Blood. Cultic speaks volumes with its incredibly frantic and impact gunplay, filled to the brim with plenty of blood, explosive gunplay, and a visual style that’s resembles something pulled off a Windows 95 computer, yet looks highly detailed and aesthetically pleasing, Cultic will be another great name to add to the trend of returning “Boomer Shooter” style shooters.
Release date: 2022 System Shock Remake 
A remake that feels like it’s been in the making for an age! The remake of the highly acclaimed 90’s Sci-Fi shooter System Shock, being remade by none other than Night Dive Studios, has been in development for quite some time. But that time in development has paid off and from the demo, and recent trailers, the wait will be worth it.
System Shock Remake will refine the cult classic gameplay featuring intense combat, resource management, exploration, and problem-solving with all-new HD visuals, updated controls, an overhauled interface, and all-new sounds & music. Plus, the icing on the cake, features the original voice actor of SHODAN, one of gaming’s most iconic villains.
“Witness the rebirth of one of the greatest and most influential games ever created.”
Release date: Coming Soon Gloomwood 
Gloomwood seems to have been in development for age and we’ve covered this game back nearly 2 years ago. But from what we played in the recent demo, things are coming along swimmingly, and the game is looking to be one of the most enthralling retro throwback shooters to date.
Inspired by the likes of Thief, Gloomwood offers a beautifully gothic world that’s rich in atmosphere, dripping with insanity, and presents immense stealth gameplay and intensely claustrophobic gunplay. The level design, dynamic lighting, resource management, and cosmic horror elements all with a beautiful low poly art style really makes Gloomwood one of the most intriguing games that’s surely going to be worth the wait.
Release date: To be confirmed 