Steam October 2024 Next Fest is well underway, bringing another few thousand demos for people to try. There are demos from various genres, including action, adventure, puzzle, and even some co-op games for you and your buddies.
With so many different demos to choose from and only so much time to try them, you might be struggling to decide what you want to dive into. No need to worry, though; like with the last Next Fest, I’m here to help. Here are 10 Steam Next Fest demos you need to try.
10 must-play demos from the October 2024 Steam Next Fest
Before we begin, I should clarify that these are my ten favorite demos from the Steam Next Fest. That doesn’t mean you should avoid playing any others. There are plenty more demos of solid quality, like Fallen Tree’s The Precinct, that simply couldn’t make the top 10. If you have the time, be sure to do your own research. With that out of the way, let’s get started.
Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders
The first Lonely Mountains game is a hidden gem for me, sporting some great mountain biking and hilarious wipeouts as you master each course and complete it with better and better times. Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders is very similar but manages to stand out through both beautiful snowy locales and new gameplay mechanics that create more split-second decisions (i.e. Controlling whether you do long or short jumps to save time or make major shortcuts). The first two tracks in the demo offer plenty of variety in both speed and shortcut opportunities, and I hope to see this carried through with the other downhill slopes.
Mandragora
There are plenty of Souls-likes in the Steam Next Fest lineup to check out, but two of them stood out among the rest. Mandragora is one of those two, sporting some beautiful visuals and great lighting effects through fire or enemy spells. It almost felt reminiscent of Moon Studios’ No Rest For the Wicked, with its deeper tones contrasted by sharp visual effects. Combine this with some nice variety in classes, an expansive talent system, and plenty of exploration, and you’ve got the makings of a solid side scroller.
Windblown
I have yet to play Dead Cells, but the developer’s next game is making me want to dive in. Windblown is a co-op (or solo) roguelike where you and up to two others clear out hordes of enemies as you jump from island to island, gathering resources and new loot on the way. What stood out to me most with this game was just how fluid everything felt, with dashes and swings being lightning fast without trivializing the difficulty. That’s a tough balance to pull off, but I was still getting my ass kicked. While few roguelikes can come close to the influence Dead Cells has had, Windblown has the potential to be at the same level of quality, especially if post-launch support remains as strong of a focus.
Spilled
Every Steam Next Fest seems to have one environmental cleanup game that sticks out to me. For the past few, it was Loddlenaut and Terra Nil. For this edition, it’s Spilled. Spilled sees you control a small oil tanker trying to clean out the oil and trash without the lakes and rivers near bustling, environmentally friendly cities. You even get to see the fruits of your labor as the water becomes a beautiful blue and showcases marine wildlife swimming happily through its waters. As a cherry on top, it borrows the gameplay style of games like SteamWorld Dig, where you go out to get resources, come back to sell them, then buy better gear so you can get more resources. I have a soft spot for that sort of thing, so Spilled felt right at home.
Gravelord
I’m well beyond exhausted of boomer shooters since I’ve played far too many that feel the same, so believe me when I say I don’t add one to this list lightly. Gravelord’s unique shtick is cards, which allow you to give yourself different passives that change how you play. They could be changes to the way armor works or fire rate buffs to send bullets out faster, with three slots that include new choices on every map. This is on top of some great gunplay, including a shotgun that’s made with excellent sound design. If the team keeps developing the card system, including adding more active cards that give you new abilities, this could truly be something special.
Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel
There are a lot of Vampire Survivors-style games in this Next Fest, and while they’re all good on their own, many of them feel derivative without much to separate themselves from some of the best. Jotunnslayer is one exception to that. For one, it has a visual style similar to something like Diablo 4. It also sports a new system in the form of subclasses, where each character gets subclass choices around level 10 that help you further spec into your build. It doesn’t have too much content in the demo, but what’s there offers a few unique builds that I hope to see expanded upon down the line.
Lynked: Banner of the Spark
Some parts of me were admittedly a little skeptical about Lynked: Banner of the Spark. Pretty art styles have fooled me one too many times, and what little I saw of the gameplay didn’t sell me. However, having played a couple of its missions, that skepticism was misplaced. The unique combination of melee combat with the grapple claw in play allows you to weave attacks between one another and manipulate both the environment and your enemies to your advantage. It feels great in practice, almost sandboxy at times, as you approach combat encounters your way. While the demo is a little easy, I’m excited to see how the team might up the difficulty with some of the later levels.
AI Limit
You may recall me mentioning a second soulslike on this list, and AI Limit is just that. While its blend of realistic environments and anime characters was evoking gacha games like Genshin Impact, its gameplay feels like the team taking some of the better mechanics of From Software games and throwing their own spin on it. It even does away with stamina, replacing it with a new system called Sync Rate that buffs or debuffs your damage depending on how much you’re hitting enemies or getting hit. Keeping the game challenging without stamina limits is a tough thing to achieve, but if my chunk of time with AI Limit is anything to go off of, they’ve achieved it. I don’t want to spoil anything since exploration is part of the soulslike magic, but I highly suggest you take a look for yourself.
Voin
I had seen trailers and images of Voin before playing this demo, and that made it seem cool. While it’s a far different experience than that material implied, that doesn’t stop it from being a boatload of fun. From the stellar soundtrack to the fluidity in its movement and melee combat to even its mix of modern visuals with just a touch of retro, it’s all executed very well. Perhaps my favorite part is, ironically, how the game doesn’t immediately tell you what each weapon’s attacks and bonuses are. This encourages you to try the weapons for yourself so you can see if it fits your playstyle. I’m hyped to see how the semi-open-world nature of the game translates into the full release once the other worlds are built and ready to go.
Moon Watch
Last but certainly not least is a demo I played the night before writing this piece. Moon Watch is a mashup of Vampire Survivors, a deckbuilding roguelike, and Superhot. That might scratch a few heads, but I promise you, this game has no right to work as well as it does. Time only moving when you move is a brilliant addition, giving you time to strategize without the stress of those VS-sized hordes speeding towards your doorstep. To top it all off, it even brings out that classic roguelike feeling of formulating 18 different builds you want to try in your head. That’s a surprisingly rare thing to see pulled off well. If you somehow need more convincing, this game is helmed by the developer behind the ever-popular Backpack Hero. If you like any of those three sorts of games, I implore you to give it a go.
