Hello and welcome to another little Steam Next Fest Showcase.

Like last time, me and my Girlfriend played some Demos which have been given to us by using an random number generator (except the first one). This time we didn´t use the 20min limit but played the demo until we reached the end or have seen "enough". :)

...................................................................

The Precinct Demo

Developer: Fallen Tree Games Ltd
Release date: Q4 2024
Recommend: YES
Player: Snowi

Steam description:
Averno City, 1983. Gangs rule the streets and your father lies restless in his grave. Clean up the city, uncover the truth, and embark on thrilling vehicle chases through destructible environments in this neon-noir action sandbox police game.

Opinion:
I love the old GTA games, you know, the top down ones. Precinct borrows the overall gameplay and modernises it to a degree. Here you are an police officer driving around with your car, catching criminals (damn you illegally parked cars!) and if they rob a bank, shoot them. To be honest, the game works for me. Driving around, doing police stuff is somehow really relaxing and cozy. It feels like old GTA games but in a light edition with a lot less violence.

Right now the game is Pre-Alpha and does have a lot of technical bugs they need to fix, but it looks promising!

...................................................................

The Axis Unseen

Developer: Just Purkey Games
Release date: 22 Oct, 2024
Recommend: Absolutely NOT
Player: Snowi & Girlfriend

Steam description:
The Axis Unseen is a heavy metal horror game created by one of the developers of Skyrim, Starfield and Fallout. Hunt nightmarish monsters from ancient folklore in a mysterious open world, collecting their enhanced sense powers and discovering elemental arrows. Beware, the hunter is also the hunted.

Opinion:
Girlfriend took this one first, but soon we discovered that the game doesn´t run on her system with only having like 5fps, which is odd given that the game graphics doesn´t look particularly good. Well, we then tried it on my machine, which does have better specs. But turns out that the game isn´t satisfied with an RTX 2050 either, so down with the settings we goo!~

Now, I don´t know where to begin. First off, the game looks awful, like really ugly. I fear that the developer does not understand that just putting unoptimized stuff in your game and letting Unreals Nanite technology handle the rest is a bad idea. At the start the game offers to give you an intro which is synced to the music ... just, don´t. We don´t know which music it is syncing to, but in the end it is just a super rushed tutorial which you won´t get because it doesn´t really show that much and is switching scenes way to fast. Gameplay is borderline okayish, movement is not inconsistent and there are lot of instances of movement forces stacking on top of each other. (Enemies send you flying like the giants in Skyrim) I encountered a tree giant which doesn´t seem to take any damage whatsoever and attacks you from the ground with no way of dodging the attack. But the BIGGEST problem I have is that there is NEARLY NO METAL MUSIC! Don´t say it is a heavy metal horror game when there is no metal, like seriously.

While other demos use versions like Pre-Alpha,Beta, Test and Early Access this one is labeled Gold Version, so I don´t have much hope of this one getting better.

...................................................................

Magibrick Demo

Developer: Fourth Front
Release date: Q4 2024
Recommend: YES
Player: Girlfriend

Steam description:
An uniquely styled deck-building game. Assemnble a deck with the right Magibrick and challenge diverse enemies in different regions. Fill the board, destroy enemy bricks,play amazing combo, and occupy the entire board with your Magibricks, leaving no space for your enemy.

Opinion:
Girlfriend says it is fun, a not too over complicated puzzle-deckbuilding game with nice pixel graphics. It does invoke the same feeling like Inscryption does, but at the same time plays a lot like the minigame in Splatoon 3 "Tableturf". She recommends it a lot!

...................................................................

Echoes of Yi : Samsara

Developer: Runmeng
Release date: Coming soon
Recommend: A shy yes
Player: Snowi

Steam description:
ECHOES of YI: SAMSARA is a dark martial arts action game infused with traditional Chinese culture. Players embody the Sword Saint's first disciple, battling fierce enemies and unraveling the mystery beneath the Jianmu Tree. Will you face the challenges or go with the flow? The choice is yours.

Opinion:
It is Sekiro with Chinese color paint. Timings and hitboxes need a little bit more polishing, some sound effects and dialog is missing, otherwise it looks fine. Would still prefer Sekiro but seems like they will take their time, so for fans of the Sekiro gameplay it is a recommendation.

...................................................................

And with that the Steam Fest was already over, one week is definitely not enough time to really play a lot when you are regular working but it was still a lot of fun. See you next time. :)