Steam Next Fest hit me hard. I thought I already had more than enough demos to fill up my time but nope, not yet. Many more hit my library and I am going to keep chewing through them at as fast a pace as I can to provide some insights and hopefully let you find your next favorite game! Let's roll!
DICE PLAYER ONE
It is a rare occurrence when you step into a game that sucks you in immediately. That manages to seep into your very soul in mere minutes, promising endless hours of fun. And of course, it was a given, that the staggering success of BALATRO will spawn many clones and look-a-likes! Not that it's a bad thing. Vampire Survivors revives and reintroduces a niche genre, and we've got plenty of bangers out of that. DICE PLAYER ONE is exactly this kind of inspired work, built on a known frame, but with more than just a new coat of paint.
You fight against yourself, or rather, progressively growing points threshold. To get points, you roll, lock, and re-roll dice. Following a bit of classic Yahtzee rules, you get points by getting various combinations. All simple and easy so far. But each dice value and each combination also offer additive points and multiplier, both of which can be altered and grown throughout the run. Sounds familiar? The core of the game lies in the dice themselves. They're a great, GREAT plenty of them, each different, each offering its unique bonus or mechanic. Building your 'box of dice' to work points miracles the way you want them is the fun loop of the experience. Cracking that monster build that spits out massive numbers as you grin manically.
But Lo, and Behold! For there is more. There are bosses. Boss Dice that you collect. Resonances, which are slottable upgrades to your dice. Cards to summon for passive bonuses. Tokens that grant rerolls or extra dice rolled each round. Different starting boxes of dice! It's the whole shebang, the full package. Even the demo already offers hours of fun. This beautiful game jumped onto my list of most anticipated without effort and if you love BALATRO, you should give this one a try.
TOWNFRAME
This made me feel all warm and cozy inside. I had the game on my radar for quite some time, it looked cute and soft. I admit, however, that the end product is even better than I anticipated. The game is very simple, straightforward, and a great bit of fun. The very idea of reconstructing a picture from a memory of a character is great, and it is executed well. In the demo I never got stumped, the puzzles were easy enough to cross through without issues. But at the same time, they never felt bad or too straightforward, and each time I finished my task I felt a tiny, warm ember of satisfaction. It has this perfect flow of a little mental exercise followed by a little reward and then a quick jump to the next task at hand.
I was pleasantly surprised with the different tools you unlock to interact with the pictures. Even in the demo, there was a nice display of capabilities that the system can provide. I sure do hope that the full version will have multiple such interactive elements. That way they can craft more and more challenging puzzles that will require solid deduction skills!
ARRANGER
What a brain teaser! At first, I wasn't too sold on the game concept. It seems so rudimentary. But it took only 10 minutes of playing to have it click with me. The whole shtick? You're cursed... or blessed! Or perhaps special. And you're the only, so far as we know, a living human who moves the world with your steps. Literally. Our protagonist, Jemma, is a small-town misfit who shifts the very ground as she walks, sort of casually rearranging reality around her. this of course causes no small amount of trouble in her day-to-day life, and so she decides to embark on a journey into the mysterious Wilderness.
The game is a puzzle adventure, where we need to use Jemma's peculiar powers to solve logical and spatial puzzles. The mechanic attached to her movement is very elegant in its simplicity and even the demo challenges have proven enough to make my grey matter spark and tingle. Like every good puzzle game, it has plenty of those precious moments when solving a challenge placed before you release that shot of happy chemicals.
On top of that, the game is pretty, has a nice, clean style, vibrant, and light. The music and sounds are excellent, and the writing is whimsical and rather charming. I wasn't sold by trailers alone, but the demo managed to convince me that this might be an excellent mind-boggler once released.
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