This Next Fest includes some demos for games I’ve eager to play, so without further ado…
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
A Vampire Survivors-like in the Deep Rock Galactic universe. These games are all pretty similar, but I like the shorter levels in this one; makes it easier to pick up and play for a few minutes. Being able to mine through the level to create new paths keeps things interesting.
Foundry
A voxel factory-building game. Starts off pretty slow, and the demo doesn’t get very far. It’s got potential.
Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance
A fairly standard tactical RTS in the Terminator universe. It’s not bad, but it didn’t really hook me.
Pioneers of Pagonia
It’s basically classic Settlers, down to the little border stones that your guards place to extend your borders. Settlers III is one of my favorite games, so I’m definitely looking forward to this one.
Sentry
It’s basically sci-fi themed Orcs Must Die! The demo is pretty basic, with only two levels and a handful of weapons and items to use. This is another one that has some potential.
The Crust
The Crust looks interesting; a mix of Surviving Mars, Factorio, and a little Frostpunk. There are surface and underground layers for construction, and a layer with points of interest around the moon that you can send expeditions to investigate. It’s a little clunky at the moment, but if it gets cleaned up a bit, I could see myself enjoying it.
Ascent of Ashes
A colony sim like RimWorld. It looks OK, but the demo performance was really bad… Once my colony got raided, the game turned to a slideshow.
Poems and Codes
I played a demo for Prose and Codes a while back and thoroughly enjoyed it. (I really need to buy that game…) Both Poems and Prose use public works, and 10% of sales go to support Project Gutenberg. Poems is a little nicer than Prose, with some extra information about the poets and links to Project Gutenberg to download works.
Last Train Home
An interesting historical strategy survival game where you lead your soldiers across war-torn Russia during World War I. There’s an overworld map where you maintain and upgrade your train, and send your troops out on missions to gather resources. The tactical combat is pretty good. I enjoyed it.
Celestial Empire
An Ancient Chinese city builder. It looks nice, but some things during the tutorial are unexplained and I had to figure out what I was supposed to do on my own.
Europa
A pleasant little adventure game. Controls are a little weird on mouse and keyboard; it’s probably better with a controller.
Gunhead
A fun shooter that reminds me a lot of MOTHERGUNSHIP.
Summary
I always find a few games I enjoy in the Next Fest events, and this one is no different. I’m really looking forward to Pioneers of Pagonia, and I’ll likely own Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor at some point because I love that type of game. I’m hoping The Crust improves because it’s certainly something I’d be into if they can improve some of the basics.