One more Next Fest roundup

As we finish off this week of Steam Next Fest, it's time for one more roundup of demos you should definitely check out. And, in a shocking twist, we got Ryan to play two demos that weren't roguelite deckbuilders!

Armatus

Armatus is an amalgamation of several things, but what it reminds me most of is a combination between Remnant and Outriders. 

The idea is that you play a demon hunter with a sick-ass cape and an assault rifle, and you get thrown into a string of rooms that look like city streets and are filled with demons. Kill the demons, move on to the next room. Get an upgrade, choose a new room. Repeat.

It’s all very simple – and mildly tedious, given the lack of diversity in the demo – but it’s super promising. The simplicity of it all – shoot, use abilities, upgrade those two things over time – makes the combat arenas move very quickly. And just trying your damnedest to optimize your run is pretty fun so far. I’m curious to see how much variety there will be at launch, but so far I’m having a good time.

—RG

Darwin’s Paradox

Darwin’s Paradox is, at its core, a pretty simple 2D platformer, but that comes with a big, flashing EXCEPT after it. Except you’re a lovable and unintentionally havoc-wreaking octopus.  Except it’s also kind of a high-tech stealth game. Except it’s published by Konami and is a love letter to Metal Gear Solid complete with the iconic sound effects.

Also there are aliens.

Look. There’s a lot going on here — even just in the demo — but Darwin’s Paradox is simply a delight to play. The stealth is a challenge. The environmental puzzles are satisfying. The art and animation are top-notch. It’s goofy and fun and worth every second of your time.

—JP

Fogpiercer

Fogpiercer is kind of like Fights In Tight Spaces or even Tactical Breach Wizards, but with a train. It’s being published by Hooded Horse – which if you paid attention to our GOTY awards last year or read my most recent Menace impressions, you know is a massive green flag – and it’s awesome.

Basically, you play as a train speeding down the railroad track, being pursued by vehicles that roll up and try to hurt you. You can spend your action points to play cards that do things like shoot rockets, or you can move the train forward or backward to dodge damage. But where the Fights In Tight Spaces comes in is that you can also move your enemies. You can shove them into each other, you can move them into hazards, and you can move them in front of your train so that you can speed up and ram them.

A lot of diving into Next Fest is going “OK, I see the potential in this.” But Fogpiercer is one of those rare demos that you play and go “I wish I could purchase the full version of this today.” Every step of the tutorial was like “you can do this” which led me to go “hell yes you can.” And that happened three or four times.

It’s got great moment-to-moment gameplay. It looks like it’s going to have pretty decent meta progression and depth. I’m fully sold and quite excited. Another hit for Hooded Horse, as far as I can tell. (Play 9 Kings, you’re welcome).

—RG

The Loopler

The Loopler is what feels like the 50th Balatro-like roguelite we’ve highlighted this Next Fest, but it’s also one of the best. The thing with The Loopler is that it’s extremely simple. There is a race track, and you manage a car. When you complete a loop, you get points. When you run out of gas, you have to spend some refill energy to fill your tank back up. You win a level by reaching a certain point threshold before your repair meter hits 0 and you explode.

Things obviously get a little more complex – you can add gates around the track that do things when you drive through them, for example, and there are the equivalents of Jokers and Charms like in most of these games – but the main idea really does just stay that simple the entire time.

At the end of the day, you’re just watching a car go round, and round in a loop-de-loop until you win or it explodes. And it’s shockingly satisfying.

—RG

Lucid

When I first heard of this game, it was via a PR email that called it a “Celestoidvania” and I did not care for that descriptor at all. On the other hand, I must admit it is more succinct than “a 2D pixel action platformer with great controls, a bunch of builds, and tough boss fights.”

Lucid is a game that lives and dies by its controls. Too finicky, too tough, and these hectic levels would feel like a brutal meat grinder. Too floaty and easy, and there’s no sense of accomplishment or challenge. This game just feels really good to play. Protagonist Oenn has a solid sense of weight to him on the ground, while being able to dash and slash with such agility that he goes airborne through careful timing and the right pathing. 

The environments are nice to look at and easy to navigate; they’re not so overpopulated, cluttered, or painted in clashing colors that I ever get lost. Lucid is the kind of game that makes my brain go quiet as I focus on the rhythm of bouncing off technicolor cubes, slashing through a scary little bat, and hopping up to a new path full of more enemies. The enemies have interesting designs, and they make me want to learn a little bit more about this strange fantasy world in which I find myself. I’m not always a fan of challenging platforms – they can feel a bit masochistic to play at times – but Lucid has the sauce.

—CM

Solarpunk

This Next Fest, Steam has recommended me so, so many survival-crafting games. You know the type: punch tree for wood, craft an axe, don’t forget to eat. To be super reductive, they’re all some version of Minecraft (or, lately, some version of No Man's Sky). It’s a well-established genre that works, but with so many options out there, a survival-crafting game in 2026 has to have a hook.

I’ve played a few of the demos. Some were promising, but didn’t grab me (AtmosFar and SpaceCraft, for example) for various reasons. Solarpunk is the only one I finished and was still ready for more.

It starts off pretty straightforward — sticks, stones, axe, wood, bed — but the setting and the vibe make it appealing. Solarpunk takes place on floating islands in the sky and is rendered in a not-quite-pastel, not-quite-dreamy style. It’s peaceful and serene. And it’s pretty enough that it’s not overly painful to trudge your way through the first hour of crafting and farming before things get interesting.

After that, the hook of Solarpunk is clear — you get an airship that allows you to fly between the islands. It’s a cute little one-person boat-under-a-balloon setup. Your destinations are pretty limited in the demo, but you do get a taste of how electricity will work — solar panels and windmills — in the next level of the tech tree.

It promises to be a really interesting full game that can stand out from the crowd.

—JP

Titanium Court

Titanium Court is described on its steam page as “a surreal strategy game for clowns and criminals” and yes, I can assure you that description is quite accurate. This game is aggressively whimsical, to the point where I sometimes find it a little bit frustrating. Trying to invoke meaning from its pastel pixel screens is like arguing with a fae creature. It’s a game about ruling a kingdom about accidentally discovering you’re a queen … kind of? It’s a match-3 game. It’s a strategy game. It’s giving me a bit of a headache.

This frustrating nature is extremely intentional, and the more I push through the early confusion (why are these battles interrupted with little scenes of a cat knocking something off a shelf or a cricket match?) the more I start to “get it.” The worst thing a game can do is be confusing and refuse to help the player; in Titanium Court, I’m confused. The other characters are confused. Even the game systems themselves are confused, breaking their own rules – at one point, UI text isn’t readable, as it’s against the faction’s religion. Ah, I see. Thanks, I guess.

It’s hard to explain Titanium Court in a few short paragraphs because it defies being summed up. This is a game that will thumb its nose at you and do a stupid little dance. If you can tolerate that indignity, you’ll have a lot of fun.

—CM

Wild Blue Skies

This is Star Fox 64. Hope that helps.

OK, but seriously, this is really just trying to do the Star Fox 64 thing, which is extremely admirable, as Nintendo hasn’t seemed to want to do that since I was a very small child (and now I’m 32, so it’s been a second).

You play as a dogfighting team of animal space pilots who fly around in R-Wing-shaped ships shooting various robot bad guys and dodging debris. Sometimes your allies get into trouble and you have to save them. Then, at the end, a boss shows up with some pithy comments and you have to put them down while they scream about how the big bad is gonna be pissed. It’s Star Fox 64. 

The demo controls really nicely and it really does nail the vibe its going for. The one demo level is, unfortunately, very short, and I do have some questions about alternate routes or boss fights, and if that depth from Star Fox is going to be there. But just from what I’ve seen so far, I’m quite interested in what the full version looks like.

—RG

Zero Parades: For Dead Spies

Now that we’re a few years removed from the 2019 launch of Disco Elysium, it feels safe to say that it was one of the most influential RPGs of recent years, perhaps ever. The franchise was sold to Amazon and the original creators splintered, many of them being fired or leaving. Robert Kurvitz, Helen Hindpere, and Aleksander Rostov are all out, and only a fraction of the original team from Disco Elysium are working on Zero Parade: For Dead Spies.

So, needless to say, this is a contentious title with a lot to live up to. Even if it were the same team, top to bottom, following up Disco Elysium is a daunting task. I went into Zero Parades: For Dead Spies uncomfortably aware of all of this context, and did my best to give this game a fair shot on its own merits. And you know what? There’s something interesting there. This is a spy thriller with a cold war playing out between a few major factions. Hershel Wilk is a spy fresh off a disaster of a mission, plunged back into the game after years on the bench. 

Hershel Wilk, code name Cascade, is a mess of a person, and so the game spends quite a bit of the time in her head. Much like Disco Elysium, many of the choices a player makes is not so much with other characters but with herself. Fatigue, delirium, and anxiety are three status effects she must wrestle with throughout the game, balancing them by smoking a cigarette or enjoying a drink. I enjoy spy drama and espionage stories, and the Zero Parades: For Dead Spies demo offers an intriguing look at a complex narrative. It’s just a shame that it’s so in the mold of Disco Elysium, with a similar art style, UI, and narrative structure.

—CM