Steam Next Fest February 2025 Review - What I Played

Rogue Light Deck Builder: I've been waiting a while for this one after seeing it previously because of the meta joke, and I was curious as to what the actual demo of the game would be. It very much didn't disappoint with its simple premise and surreal art style.

It was super simple, building a deck under a flickery light for your husband to get money for upgrades while avoiding hitting your hand, and saving up one million dollars for freedom. Sometimes your nails were replaced with little people or a talking skeleton, or you got a shiny plank that gave you money for going fast, but besides that, the demo keeps it quiet with what the rest of the experience will be.

Verdict: I think the dev might need to check his carbon monoxide detector, but give the game a shot! If you're into the surreal-looking and weird style of games, it might be your thing.

KINTSUGI - A Journey Through The Broken Pieces: Self-described as "Inspired by the ancient Japanese art of repairing ceramics, which transforms cracks into decorative features, highlighting their beauty with gold." the game intrigued me because I always thought the practice was interesting, and it looked pretty similar to "Master Of Pottery", another simple artsy kinda game I enjoyed.

The demo offered a few different objects to reassemble, a couple vases, bowls, and a teapot with an option to toggle between larger pieces or more small pieces. The harder difficulty gave you all the fragments at once while the easier one slowly introduced parts to help guide you through putting it back together.

Regardless of the difficulty pieces click into place easily once you find them, which helps reassemble the intricate patterns on each piece of pottery. The game also helps guide by automatically rotating the shards, meaning you don't have to worry about parts facing the wrong way.

The gameplay is complimented with changing themed backgrounds and relaxing music.

Verdict: Pretty fun! It's a simple puzzle game with a neat gameplay loop.

DoubleWe: Described as a roguelite sandbox horror game, your objective is to kill a clone of yourself before it kills you. You start off with just a mirror to identify yourself and your foe, and the map features a variety of ways to kill, from finding weapons in a suitcase to setting off falling crate traps. You need to be careful in what you do, as you need to find your exact clone, and sometimes people will walk up and talk to you, so don't kill instinctively.

The game offers differing gameplay in the demo by featuring level mutators, which have different effects on the game, like making everyone hold a knife. The full version of the game talks about a story mode, map challenges, upgrades, and a multiplayer mode which sounds pretty fun.

Verdict: Felt really easy, but excited as a Hitman fan to see the game expanded on.

Beholder: Conductor: A spin-off game from the original Beholder series, you're appointed conductor of a train with the goal to monitor the passengers, complete missions given to you by higher-ups, and keep the train moving.

Beholder: Conductor, like the previous Beholder games in the series, will offer you tough choices to make regarding passengers and your colleagues, letting you decide the kind of conductor you want to be and what you want to let slide.

I really enjoyed the pixel style the game had and enjoy these management-type games, with lots of different choices to make and adapt and mold the story to the way I want. The tutorial was simple with searching luggage for illegal goods, spying on passengers, and checking papers, but it taught you what you needed to know.

Verdict: The demo really had me wanting to play more! The genre is something I'm interested in and I was a fan of the Beholder series prior to playing.