I am a person who likes to talk about how they play intend to play demos and then does not play the demos in question. But I do play some, and so here’s what I spent time checking out during Steam’s Next Fest:
1348 Ex Voto
1348 Ex Voto on Steam¹
Journey through a tumultuous Medieval Italy as Aeta, a young knight errant who sets off on a brutal quest to find and save her closest one. 1348 Ex Voto is a cinematic action-adventure game inspired by chivalric tales.
I’ve had my eye on this game for a while, as a fan of medieval chivalric and romantic tales. Yes I do have four different versions of Orlando Furioso sitting around my house.
This demo was pretty short, it’s what I would guess is the “prologue” for the game. It introduces Aeta, the situation at hand and sends you off on a journey. The combat is very interesting and distinct, essentially setting you in a 1:1 per enemy. I don’t know if it will hold up in the game but you don’t draw aggro on multiple enemies at once. You do have to defeat every enemy, so I think this setup makes sense. The actual combat reminds me a lot of the tradition of European CRPGs (Gothic et al) which…this is I guess so there you go. Very heavy feeling. I would recommend trying out this demo to see if the combat is for you if the game seems interesting, I think it is definitely a “not for everyone”.
Meow Survivors
Meow Survivors on Steam¹
A casual top-down game with simplified roguelike elements, where a ginger cat named Meow battles endless waves of enemies. Gain experience, upgrade your skills, find the most effective combination of abilities, and try to survive as long as possible.
Very stripped down VampireSurvivors-esque. Enemies aren’t very smart and get stuck on stuff, like trying to go straight through walls to get to you instead of going around the borders/etc. Can’t imagine putting much time into this one in its current state.
Vampire Crawlers
Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors on Steam¹
Deal world-ending combos and blitz through infested dungeons! Vampire Crawlers: the turbo wildcard from Vampire Survivors is a casual, turn‑based deckbuilder with roguelite elements. Master the Turboturn™ with your own hand of cards!
I’m not actually mad that Vampire Crawlers is very good but I am mad that Vampire Crawlers is very good. It really does combine Vampire Survivors with a dungeon crawler from the DOS days very well. There is a mini-map on screen so I’m sure that will cause some fuss. Oh also it’s a deck-builder but I’m choosing to not engage with that intellectually and will simply build the biggest dumbest deck known to mankind as I play through. Which I will be doing many times, I assume.
Armatus
Armatus on Steam¹
ARMATUS is a third-person roguelite shooter set in the demon-infested ruins of Paris. As the last supernatural warrior of an ancient order, armed with powerful firearms and incredible celestial powers, scour the city in search of a lost gateway to heaven – the Sunless Gate.
This one is a “roguelite shooter” which means you kill enemies on semi-random rooms in a map to get to a boss. As a demo you’re not able to do any permanent upgrading of the character (the other essential “roguelite” part), so enemies seem a bit like damage sponges and it’s hard to gauge if they’d stay that way or if it’s just scaled for difficulty progression. You do get to pick your weapon from what’s been unlocked at the start of a run.
I feel it’s got Returnal in its roots though I don’t see any indication that there are any of those platforming/progressions going on there. One thing that annoyed me is that the character moves too fast by default and it goes into the walk –> run speedup thing very quickly on top fo that.
Will check this one out when it’s on sale because I do enjoy a good Catholic Inspired Horror. Though the “chosen souls ascending” Rapture is a bunch of Prot Rot.
Tombwater
Tombwater on Steam¹
A Souls-Like Western full of Eldritch horrors. Explore the accursed Wild West town of Tombwater and lay bare the darkness that lies beneath. Survive blood-spilling combat in this gruesome 2D action-RPG that may just drive you to madness.
I like the concept of an “Eldritch Western” game but I died a ton of times in the demo and decided to take a break. It’s from a section from the middle of the game so that you can see a “complete structure” which makes sense but also dumps you into a bunch of peril. I put it on my wishlist for now, I’ll keep an eye out. I do like the top-down 2d action RPG sub-subgenre.
Dungeons of DUSK
Dungeons of DUSK on Steam¹
Dungeons of DUSK is a classic turn based dungeon crawling RPG that takes place canonically between the episodes of the cult classic FPS. Are you… WORTHY?
I’m not sure why everyone is suddenly making DRPGs but if they’re competent, I’m not going to complain. A spinoff of DUSK that’s a dungeon crawler? Sure, I will check that out. I played the first floor to get a sense of how it’s all put together, and it does have all the right parts. I like that there are secret areas to unlock on each floor. It’s of the style where you are not pulled into encounters with enemies but interact with them directly on the map through combat actions/etc. I think that’s a good choice for something that is coming from a “For people who like Hexen” background. It both opens it up to a new audience and has some trappings in the first-person and combat that seem similar though more subdued. On the wishlist it goes,
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