Five Steam Next Fest First Impressions And Should You Wishlist?
Please, Touch The Artwork 2
I stumbled upon this charming point-and-click puzzle game with such a relaxing vibe that I instantly added it to my wishlist. The artwork is so amazing that I found myself wondering if they actually scanned real paintings and dropped them into the game. While most of the gameplay involves a "Where’s Waldo" style of click-and-find, the character you control adds a dynamic touch, strolling around and interacting with these seemingly real brush-stroked paintings. I thoroughly enjoyed the demo and can't wait for more. The good news is, the wait won't be much longer!
Please, Touch the Artwork 2 releases February 19th for free on Steam, iOS, and Android.
Should you wishlist this game? YES!
Necrosmith 2
Playing this demo felt like it could go on forever, although I noticed I ran out of things to do pretty quickly. Necrosmith 2 is a tower defense game where you assemble random monsters to protect your tower, gather materials, and fend off enemies. There are tower upgrades and unlockable abilities to spice things up. While the game shows promise, it currently gives off a vibe of being a mobile game adapted for PC. I'm hopeful that the full release will bring more structure and additional content to enhance the overall experience.
Necrosmith 2 releases for Steam on March 27th.
Should you wishlist this game? Skip it
Coridden
Imagine your typical top-down RPG with monsters and a sprinkle of loot. Now, here's the twist: everyone is a Druid, sort of. Coridden stands out with its unique approach to shapeshifting. Instead of it being a magical ability you naturally possess, you have to collect DNA from defeated monsters to unlock the power to shapeshift. What makes it even cooler is that each monster you transform into has its own set of skill trees. While the regular combat might not be groundbreaking, the depth added by the shapeshifting mechanics is intriguing enough to grab my attention.
Coridden has a planned release for summer 2024 and has a kickstarter live now!
Should you wishlist this game? YES!
Breachway
Breachway is a turn-based sci-fi deck-builder, a lot of hyphens I know.The game is decent, but it does fall into a common pitfall of deck builders by becoming repetitive during battles. However, it manages to stand out with an intriguing map interaction feature. There is a solar system that you need to navigate around where there are spaces occupied by different factions, and you have different relations to different factions. So depending on how bad or good your relationship with a faction is, you’ll have a different encounter. While the battling mechanics are quite basic, employing a classic point-buy ability system, the map interactions add a refreshing twist to the overall experience.
Should you wishlist this game? Skip It
Vorax
The game that caught my attention the most was Vorax, a horror survival game with intriguing enemies and the promise of genuine scares. However, my experience with the game wasn't smooth. I had to reload it several times before gaining access, and even then, there was no option for full-screen mode, so I had to settle for playing in a window. To add to the frustration, after finally getting into the game, I died almost immediately, and then the game crashed, so any opinion I can form is loosely based on the short time spent in game. The graphics were nice, the controls were simple, and there’s potential.