Recently, I've covered a whole lot of demos from Steam's NextFest 2021. Feel free to check out those vids!
I've got a dozen more demos to cover as well so stay tuned for those!
Here's the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLu-THx6SwAB6JJv3We-926hbZS0-52D6j
A couple of highlights (a.k.a. games that really made me go "Wow!"):
If you enjoy discovering new indie games, feel free to
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Recent plays:
The Lightbringer - A fun and gorgeous, story-driven 3D platformer with strong Legend of Zelda vibes. Family-friendly too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d1xpnIpxiw
Sheltered 2 - This game's review is a bit on the fence for me, and apparently for a lot of other players too. Personally, I haven't played the original Sheltered much (yet) but I'm quite enjoying my playthrough here so far. It's a bit slower than I'd like though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJsPC8vQroA
Bonfire Peaks - Bonfire Peaks is a story-driven Sokoban-based puzzle game with some intriguing mechanics and challenges. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDKbnTRjmYs
Age of Darkness: Final Stand - Very similar to They are Billions, minus the steampunk theme. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd81x2x7UnI
Cardful Planning. A pretty unique card-based puzzle game that will test both your strategy skills and your reflexes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHk5nDpnQ2k
Not Tonight 2 (Beta) I've committed the cardinal sin of playing the sequel BEFORE the original... heh. That being said, it has a fairly Papers, Please-style gameplay except that in this one, you play as a bouncer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PoLGdvD6Y4
Honey, I Joined a Cult - I'll say this once and I'll say it again - the resemblance to Prison Architect is simply uncanny. That said, game's both fun and funny (in a parody kind of way). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qVHIXqgAfI
Merek's Market - A humorous time management shop sim that supports co-op. I played it in single-player though! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBbtDuyng0A
Terrain of Magical Expertise - An RPG within an RPG :) Even if you're not a fan of the animation series, you can still follow the story here. Besides infusing its turn-based combat with quick-time events, the gameplay is a bit like Pokemon here - you can just avoid the grass (=the mobs that roam around the place) and only engage the (Pokemon) "trainers". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVp-mi5DetE
Greak: Memories of Azur - A gorgeous adventure platformer with plenty of places to explore, enemies to defeat, secrets to find, quests to complete, and puzzles to solve. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjsBi822QAg
Monster Harvest - If you like farming sim and monster collection, you might enjoy playing this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoohVhdIgbw
Patron - A medieval city-builder that reminds me of Banished, but a quick tip here: The "Easy mode", even as a tutorial run, might be a bit too easy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_NLjJ53lhM
Despot's Game: Dystopian Army Builder - A very entertaining roguelike-auto-battler hybrid - I'm definitely a fan! The progression is rewarding and the humour is point-on, whether it is an encounter or the tooltip on the items at the shop. Plus, I quite like the class combo effects and mutations, really add to the overall strategic nature of the game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRUcAirzBt4
Sphere - Flying Cities - Obviously inspired by one of my favourite post-apocalyptic city-builders ever, Frostpunk, this game just falls short of what it aspires to be. There are some really pressing bugs present, which IMHO is game-breaking, and there are some questionable design choices such as not being able to assign the exact number of workers you want to a facility (the game uses a "priority-based" system that's just not good enough). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVPzS8hMJOo
Midnight Protocol - A hacking-themed game that really makes you feel like a bad-ass hacker. You can even choose which kind of hacker to be, whether a white hat, a grey hat or a black hat, and naturally, your actions and choices will affect the storyline. The visualisation of the security and nodes in a network you've intruded is very impressive, and the turn-based gameplay is incredibly strategic and challenging, especially when both system trace and SysOps are involved. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TTd_uhRy40
YouTuber's Life 2 - Haven't played the original before, so to me, this game is simply a casual life sim where you get to try becoming a YouTuber without actually doing it IRL, Oh and the irony of having more subs in the game than on my channel isn't lost on me, I assure you! xD Oddly enough, I haven't encounter any of the bugs that many of the other reviewers have mentioned... maybe I'm just that lucky? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e9oZrRA2s0
The Good Life - A pretty good adventure RPG with a mystery for you to solve. I quite enjoy the photography aspect of the game, as well as the fact that you can change forms (no spoilers!) in this game to allow you access to previously inaccessible places. However, the protagonist isn't very likeable - she's the stereotypical snobbish city lady visiting a quaint town in the countryside. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQRQWTMUbQQ
Metallic Child - A really good roguelite featuring a typical anime-style story - but it's still an engaging story nonetheless! - and lots of fun mechanics that you can use during combat. Game's best played using a controller. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e99XhjfhP7U (terrible showcase of the gameplay, I know. I'm just hopeless with the controllers. Will try to get a better gameplay vid up when I've got the time for a redo)
Nuclear Blaze - Created in a game jam by the "lead dev" for Dead Cells. I have really high hopes for this :) Update: Incredible, incredible game! There are frustrating spots here and there, such as having my firefighter roll twice right into a fire when I accidentally held the roll key a tad bit longer, but if a nub like me could make it to the end on Normal mode, it shouldn't be too difficult for you too :) Oh, and if you can find and rescue all 14 secret cats, kudos to you! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNfJzlRw-S0
Sky Tale - If you've played enough casual/relaxing city-builders like me, you probably wouldn't think that this gameplay is at all unique... and you wouldn't be wrong. However, the game's still very entertaining. It has a nice variety of structures and tiles. You progress through the game, not only by expanding the world but also by unlocking new cards as you gather more coins. You'll also have to learn the game as you go so don't expect too much from your first run. For me at least, I think I did pretty alright :) https://youtu.be/hgLWyignPg4
The Unliving (Demo) - A unique combination of roguelike and RTS, where you can play as an evil necromancer who had amnesia. It's incredibly fun and satisfying (in a morbid kinda way) to slay your enemies and bring them back as your minions. Might be good to have a mini-map though; I get lost far too easily and ended up going in circles sometimes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6ux4MPTVxk
Just Die Already - A fairly "whatever goes"-kind of sandbox game that's probably along the lines of Human Fall Flat. Just Die Already puts you into the flip-flops of one of four boomers in an insanely-dangerous world where the younger folks just want them to "die already". The goal here is to complete your "bucket list" (well, it's someone else's but you needed something - anything - to do so you just "took" it) which will involve exploring the sizeable sandbox city, and getting your boomer into various "sticky" situations. The game gave me motion sickness (much like Mirror's Edge did and there aren't any option in the Settings to disable blur) so be careful going in! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V3dFd5609g
Growbot - Growbot is truly a little gem of a music-themed point-and-click game. Gorgeous art, lovely story, fun yet not too complex puzzles, and a cute little protagonist to explore this fairly bizarre world with! Was planning to do a full run within a single video recording but a bug (I think?) halted my progress - Update: not a bug. Seems like I've missed something. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_Igx42KsZU
The Unliving (Demo) - A unique combination of roguelike and RTS, where you can play as an evil necromancer who had amnesia. It's incredibly fun and satisfying (in a morbid kinda way) to slay your enemies and bring them back as your minions. Might be good to have a mini-map though; I get lost far too easily and ended up going in circles sometimes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6ux4MPTVxk
Just Die Already - Spent wayyyy too much time trying to steal that exploding squid gun from the hidden underground science lab so feel free to skip that part. Also, the game gave me slight motion sickness and nausea after an hour or so of playtime so be warned! That said, the game is fun if you enjoy completing "bucket list"-style achievements and unlocking new areas in the sandbox city. Probably better with friends too since I ended up feeling rather bored after I've discovered most of the city (played a bit more after I ran out of space recording the gameplay vid). Not really my kind of game despite loving the humour (not an ageist by the way!) here; might be yours though! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V3dFd5609g
The Last Hope: Zombie Defense TD - This one you already know, thanks to the generosity of the devs. If you want to know what I think, the full review is available over here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKvXUjWw-6Q
Giants Uprising - Even for an Early Access title, I can't say I'm not disappointed. It feels more like a demo - No other missions to go on except what I think is the tutorial and the introduction (up until the first major "boss fight"); no skill tree yet although the interface is there; and nothing much to do once you're done with the intro which only lasted for less than 2 hours, even if you eek the playtime out by destroying almost everything you see. Gameplay feels a bit clunky but otherwise, the game's pretty fun since you get to like stomp on large armies and destroy stuff. You get to feel powerful much like a giant would when facing an army of puny humans I reckon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGpMXKEmG_Y
Recipe for Disaster - A surprisingly in-depth time management game where you can design your own recipes and menu... based on the feedback from your customers, of course! Feedback can be a bit vague since you can get completely opposite feedback for the same dish. You can really come up with some pretty gross stuff if you want, like boiling burger patties lol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9drTb9IeMw
Congrats on reading this wall of text! Here's a secret GA for you! iE?Xl (find the ? among the text) - secret GA's over, but I might just hide something else somewhere just for fun :P Keep your eyes peeled!
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