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Check Out These Six Horror Demos During This Week’s Steam Next Fest
Every time Steam Next Fest rolls around, I download entirely too many demos and end up with a ton of new games on my wish list. Good problems to have! With so many demos to choose from, I put together this list of six games to check out before it wraps up on March 3 […] The post Check Out These Six Horror Demos During This Week’s Steam Next Fest appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.
Every time Steam Next Fest rolls around, I download entirely too many demos and end up with a ton of new games on my wish list. Good problems to have!
With so many demos to choose from, I put together this list of six games to check out before it wraps up on March 3 (though some demos will likely stick around afterwards).
Here are some of this year’s best Steam Next Fest horror demos…
CREEPY REDNECK DINOSAUR MANSION 3
It’s been wild to see how prolific and varied Strange Scaffold has been in the past few years. Since 2023, they’ve released El Paso Elsewhere, Clickholding, Life Eater, and I Am Your Beast, all completely different but still identifiable as their work. Now their latest swerve is a survival horror/RPG/match 3 puzzle game with roguelike elements. After spending some time with the demo, I can say they bring all these disparate elements together into something that miraculously works.
Much of the game is presented like a visual novel or adventure game, making choices as you explore a weird mansion. Whenever you need to do something, whether it’s climbing a fence or fighting a dinosaur (yes, there are actually dinosaurs all over this Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion), you’ll switch into match 3 puzzle mode. Your character is on one side, and your objective is on the other. When you clear symbols from the board by matching them, you gain them as resources, and those resources can be used to do moves. For example, you’re fighting a raptor by clearing knife symbols from the board, but when you collect a certain amount of blue and knife symbols, you can do a special attack that does more damage. Enemies will also have turns and moves, so you’re not only trying to collect the symbols you need, but you’re also trying to prevent your enemy from being set up to get what they need. It’s such a clever system that really forces you to think about every move you make, but not in a way that gives you analysis paralysis.
The adventure game portion of it is also charming, with a very meta story that allows the game to have a bit of a roguelike structure. Every time you get to the end of a path down your branch of choices, you’ll go back to a save room and be given the option to buy new items that will help you out in your battles. I fully acknowledge that it may sound like this game is all gimmick, but I intended to sit down and play this for 20 minutes just to try it and before I knew it an hour had flown by. I’m already impressed with the ways they twist the match 3 formula, so I’m excited to see it expanded in a full release.
Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 is due out later this year.
It’s been over a decade since the last Twisted Metal game, and I’ve been begging for a return to the car combat genre. While this isn’t exactly part of the same arena-based subgenre, Scaravan 66 sends you hurtling down a highway on a roguelike road trip. The action is always moving forward as you swerve back and forth, flanked by numerous enemies, ranging from hellish fiends to heavily armed vehicles. Armed with a couple weapons, you’ll shoot and slam your way through high-speed encounters full of crazy crashes and exhilarating explosions. The handling of your car can feel a bit squirrelly, but once you get used to it, it really sells the fantasy of the breakneck pace.
After completing encounters, you’ll be given a set of upgrade options that come in the form of exits along the highway. Each stop has a different shop, which allows you to buy upgrades or fix up your car, setting you up for different builds in typical roguelike fashion. I didn’t get a great sense of the build variety just from the demo, but I’m hoping there are some more weapon options in the future, as a few of them felt a little sluggish. There are definitely rough edges here, but the core loop is promising enough to give it a spin to see if it’s up your alley.
I always look to check out at least one old school survival horror game during each Steam Next Fest, and this time we got a long-awaited demo for Post Trauma. You start out on a subway train before departing and exploring the surrounding station, both of which have, of course, been warped by some monstrous growths. There’s not a ton of narrative to be picked up yet from the short, 30 minute demo, but there’s enough spooky mood here to pull you through.
I found the first puzzle in the game really strong, forcing me to bust out a pencil and paper to take notes and figure out a numerical combination lock, which is one of my favorite things to do in games. In addition to puzzles, another aspect of classic survival horror that Post Trauma has is a strong use of fixed camera angles, which find some really great vantage points to follow the player from. The environments look strong, but sometimes there are performance issues and graphical glitches, with the characters clipping through the level during their animations in a way that feels kind of distracting. I don’t know if Post Trauma has the polish to stand up to some of the excellent games from the subgenre that have come out in the last few years, but there’s enough here that will satisfy survival horror fans.
Post Trauma launches on March 31.
You’re in the woods. Monsters surround you. And HE is coming. This roguelike autobattler RPG plops you in a dark fantasy world and gives you a ticking clock to prepare yourself for battle. In He Is Coming, you’ll move your character around a map, battling creatures and tracking down items in order to create builds that will allow you to take on the boss creatures that show up every three days. Monsters roam the woods, and they are dealt with in automated battles that are rendered in gorgeous old school pixel art. Player and monster characters will take turns based on their speed stat, doing damage according to their attack until one of you is left standing. Monsters sometimes have special rules that you’ll need to pay attention to in order to make sure you’re in the best position to beat them. Spiders do extra damage if they’re quicker than you. Bears will do double damage when you’ve got armor. All these little things matter as you’re figuring out your build based on the items you find.
And it’s key to get your build in order, because the boss creatures that show up are no joke. The timeline on the top of the screen shows you how long you have until they arrive, and you can view their stats at any time to know exactly what you’re preparing for. Even in the limited time I spent in the demo, I was able to find a lot of different builds that all made me feel clever for putting them together. Doing challenges will make more items available to you, so it seems like there will always be new options for you as you progress. Based on this demo, it seems like He Is Coming is going to be a great little roguelike that will have me always itching to sneak in another run.
He Is Coming comes out later this year.
Roguelike deckbuilders are all over the place on Steam, and for good reason. Cards combat is a fun and readable mechanic that allows a lot of variability for strategies, and building your deck during a run is a great joy that makes you feel clever. Death Howl sets itself apart by billing itself a soulslike deckbuilder instead, wrapping interesting card based battles in the exploration-based structure of a FromSoft game. You play a woman trying to revive her dead son by exploring the underworld, which is rendered in a gloriously moody pixel art style. As you wander, which is done from an isometric perspective, you’ll find bonfire-like points that act as fast travel points and allow you to heal, at the cost of reviving all the enemies on the map.
When running into enemies, you fight them with a combination of grid-based tactics and card based combat. Each turn provides you five mana, which can be used to either move on the grid or play cards of various cost and utility. Defeating enemies gives you resources which can be used to craft new cards, steadily expanding your combat options. Even in the demo, the card mechanics were already showing promise, with unique strategies and decisions emerging in play. As much as the combat drew me in, it was the moody exploration that really got its hooks in me. My short introduction into the world of Death Howl was an intriguing one that has been on my mind ever since.
I’m a huge fan of board games, and I always think it’s interesting when video games try to emulate that format in digital form. The Horror at Highrook gave me that feeling, presenting an interesting mix of RPG and card crafting with eerie Lovecraftian theming. You play as a group of investigators who are exploring Highrook, the home of the recently missing Ackeron family, trying to uncover the dark secrets of their disappearance.
The house is represented by a Clue-like board, with each room having a certain amount of spaces in it. Your investigators are all cards that can be placed in specific rooms with specific items in order to do actions. These actions will often yield either resources to help the investigators or more key items to investigate. Having your mechanist open a crate may yield a dream tonic, which can be taken by your Plague Doctor, and the resulting dream will give a new card for your Scholar to investigate in the study. Each of these actions take up time, and time will increase the hunger and fatigue of your characters, which will need to be dealt with using specific resources and actions.
It can all feel very mechanical as you’re moving cards around, but thankfully the flavor of the game makes it a joy to do. In addition to the items from investigations, you’re also finding notes that slowly reveal the enigmatic mystery. Every time I unlocked a new room in the house, I was eager to see what new actions I could do there, slowly adding complexity to the game mechanics. After spending an hour with the opening chapter, I’m extremely intrigued to see where it goes from here, both in terms of gameplay and narrative.
What games have you run across during this week’s Steam Next Fest? Sound off in the comments below with your suggestions!
The post Check Out These Six Horror Demos During This Week’s Steam Next Fest appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.
