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Our 12 favourite demos from February’s Steam Next FestMake time for these ingenious indies
Make time for these ingenious indies
Just in case you neededmoregames to play this week on top ofElden Ringand everything else coming out, you’ll be pleased to hear that Valve have just kicked off a brand-new edition of their indie demo extravaganzaSteam Next Fest. Running from today until Monday February 28th, there are hundreds of new indie games for you try during this week-long festival, and to help you get started we’ve put together some personal highlights of the best demos we’ve played so far. Whether you’re after small, relaxing puzzle games or a new RTS to sink your teeth into, we’ve got you covered.
Steam Next Fest February 21-28, 2022Watch on YouTube
Steam Next Fest February 21-28, 2022
We’ll also continue to highlight more games as the week goes on, but hopefully the demos here should give you a couple of good jumping in points while you digest the full extent of what’s on offer. So, without further ado, here are our top picks from February’s Steam Next Fest so far.
Jack Move
Download thedemo on Steam right here
The Fertile Crescent
Download thedemo on Steam right here
Doors: Paradox
Download thedemo on Steam right here
Kick Bastards
James:There’s a still chunk of my primate brain that sees “fluid wall-running” and thinks “best game ever made.” This Kick Bastards demo is not, on reflection, the best game ever made, but it is a kinetic, chaotic good time in theGhostrunnerorTitanfallvein. Besides all the sprintin’ and jumpin’, kicking itself is a means of traversal: booting a wall at the right angle will propel you upwards, and attacking an enemy sends you flying at them sole-first, keeping up momentum and opening different routes through each level. It also has what is perhaps the most hilariously exaggerated door-kicking animation I’ve ever seen, the unfortunate planks cartwheeling through the air until they find something to shatter on. It’s all very promising, though the demo does leave a certain plot point unclear: are you a Kick Bastard yourself, or do you simply kick bastards?
Download thedemo on Steam right here
Space Wreck
Picking the character preset for online video celebrity Joan (you can make your own spaceman too), I initially bashed my head into the most obvious initial obstacle, a security bot which would kill me when I tried to pass. I lacked the tech expertise to shut down security systems and the brawn to smash it. Then I realised I was approaching it like a Fallout 3 player, assuming the obstacle immediately before me was what I should be doing, and that I should be able to do it right now. I went looking in other directions, zero-g jumping to distant areas, and soon was charming strangers, freely exploring, trying to cut through panels to reach lower floors, and generally having a grand old time exploring. I have no plan, but I trust the charms which got Joan 75,000 subscribers can also get her a fuel chip. Combat is fully optional, the devs say.
Download thedemo on Steam right here
Writer’s Block
It’s notthatstraight forward, of course. Enemies retaliate, but not directly. At the end of a turn your foes transform tiles on your Boggle board into different types of traps. Barbed wire tiles will hurt you if you use its associated letter, whereas red tiles will do the opposite, hurting you if you can’t think of a word that includes it. It’s a dastardly simple trick, forcing you to decide between shorter words that cause less damage or longer words that will also harm you. Violent Boggle. How have I not discovered this sooner?
Download thedemo on Steam right here
Nine Noir Lives
Download thedemo on Steam right here
Toy Tanks
Hayden:When I saw Toy Tanks, I knew exactly what to expect. Instantly, I was transported back to playing Wii Play Tanks, the fun little minigame that captivated my brother and I as kids. Like Nintendo’s effort, Toy Tanks offers cute little tanks barreling around an arena, firing a bunch of cannons at each other until either someone dies, or the screen is covered in moving bullets that you need to avoid. There are 27 levels available in the current demo, some of which feature startlingly difficult boss battles that had me desperate to win, and a few different tank variants that you can use.
The big difference that I appreciate with Toy Tanks is the speed. Wii Play Tanks was a bit slow, but Toy Tanks adds a little hop and a dash that you can use to quickly leap around the arena, bringing some physics fun and new tactics that got me hooked. On certain levels, I found myself desperately dodging at the right moment before firing cannons into pesky healer tanks that were keeping the boss alive. After knocking out the supports, I battled the big boss in a vicious duel to the death, blasting and ramming into my opponent while a joyful little jingle played in the background. Toy Tanks is such a delight, and if you liked Wii Play Tanks, you should definitely download this demo.
Download thedemo on Steam right here
Download thedemo on Steam right here
Hero’s Hour
Ed:Graham wrote about strategy RPG Hero’s Hourlast yearand it piqued my interest. And now having played the demo of the upcoming Steam version, it has left a good impression. Yes, a strategy game that I, Edders, can get behind. This is because it’s part RPG, part auto-battler. You explore a procedurally generated overworld, conquer towns, and march onwards into the great beyond. Enter a fight and it’ll take place in real-time, but your units will take care of themselves. You can step in with spells or rearrange units if you’d like, or just let them crack on. Whatever takes your fancy. I like this leisurely approach.
Download thedemo on Steam right here
A Little To The Left
Alice Bee:I saw A Little To The Left come up on a showcase last year and immediately smashed it onto the ol' wishlist. It’s a sort of puzzle game, but sort of a tidying up game, and it looked completely lovely. Luckily the demo bears that out. I hesitate to use the word charming, but the demo for A Little To The Left really is charming. Levels are little tasks like take all the stickers off the fruit or line up the pencils in order of height. Sometimes a naughty cat’s paw comes in to mess up your work. Sometimes your tidy-mind tasks are more complicated. One level in the demo in particular was a hint of possible things to come: tidy upthatdrawer. You know the one. The one with used candles, a cotton bud and a bunch of batteries that you’re not sure are dead or not, plus the second best pair of scissors (because you keep the good scissors in the knife block). I hope there are more levels like that in the full game, because I was utterly absorbed.
Download thedemo on Steam right here
Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between
Alice0:The original Glitchhikers was one of manydreamy gamesI enjoyed in the summer of 2014, a time when I was drinking too much, sleeping too little, and very up for escaping into strange little dreamlands. Well, a sequel is coming eight years later and oh, how strange to be thrown back into that mindset. Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between is still a game about travelling through low-poly landscapes and gabbing with strange strangers about, like, life, dude, and journeys, y’know, and the nature of reality, man. This time, the journey is not limited to driving, also visiting a petrol station, a train, and other spaces between. It’s quite quaint to return as someone else; I like it.
Download thedemo on Steam right here
