CICADAMATA
One of the many stripped down Dash-'em-Up FPSes on the slate for this Next Fest. Oh boy, this one is meaty! Your character clomps around a white void but that's only if you never use the generous dash, slam, and double-jumps to speed your way through the levels. You only have one rifle but that's all you need to pick off red enemies as they evaporate into chunky pixel dust.
Had a blast with this one, highly recommended!
Luna Abyss
Luna Abyss is DOOM + Returnal, a bullet hell Dash-'em-Up that has a lot going for it...except one major flaw.
But first, the good stuff.
It's visually impressive! It's minimal in it's visual variety, but spreads it out in a way that feels good. Not unlike other megastructure indie games like Lorn's Lure. There were a few spots in the first zone that did feel like I was backtracking when I wasn't.
The gameplay takes a while to ramp up, but when trying out the second half of the demo, things get really interesting! Your weapons all do base damage and all have infinite ammo with different cooldown times, but each has very specific uses. For example, the shotgun has shorter range and wider coverage, but also breaks blue shields on enemies. So, you have to blast shielded enemies with it before you can deal more direct damage with your stock blaster.
Interestingly, they include a Metroid Prime-esque lock-on when using the right mouse button. As someone who hasn't spent hours on aim trainers, I quite liked this feature. It also helps to find targets when the screen is filled with bullets.
Ok, onto the part I really didn't care for. The dialogue! Don't get me wrong, this game is straining their arms reaching for that AAA quality and I commend them for it. The one AAA thing I wish they'd drop was just how much your in-ear companion chatters in your ear as you platform your way to the next battle. Shut it! Let me explore and wonder about the world myself! I just got here, I don't care about how the All-Father divorced the All-Mother and now they split custody over their prisoners or whatever. Let me play the game and once I'm invested, start giving me some tidbits to mull over.
This is a lesson I learnt the hard way in my brief time as a game director and as you can see I have some strong feelings on this. I may write more about that someday.
Anyway, that said, it's a intersting game! Worth a demo.
Boost Vector EX
Ooooo the UI hits hard on this one. It's got a super slick PS2 era racing game vibe. Hyper minimal with overelaborate motion graphics transitions. I want to keep this one in mind just for UI references.
The racing has got juice too, the feeling of moving fast is captured well. I personally found it hard to stay on the track though and once you're off the track it's hard to get back on. Gimme some those F-ZERO bowling bumpers and I'll be back for this one.
Far Far West
Indie Western HELLDIVERS. Apparently there's a full game's worth of content is in the demo! I only played it a bit solo and it seemed fun to me. Gonna be tough to convince my regular HELLDIVERS crew to jump in though.
Airframe Ultra
Loooove the vibe of this one! This one gets high marks just for being absolute PSX cinema. The hoverbike racing feels pretty good, and I was surprised that there is off-bike walking and combat as well. Reminds me of Rocket Jockey too.
The demo is just a sandbox for running around in, so it's unclear what the missions/goals will be yet. I'll be keeping an eye out though!
My one wish is to have a follow cam on the bike when you're racing. Currently it's manual so it's tough to race and look where you're going.
Wild Blue Skies
Activate all range mode cause we have a Star Fox game on Steam! It's quite literally just Star Fox and I'm ok with that.
Scott Pilgrim EX
There's no way for you to know just how much of a River City Ransom fan I am. I don't think there's been a beat-em-up that's ever surpassed that game in terms of weightiness, open-worldiness, and silly attacks. Battletoads maybe. Ok, and Castle Crashers i suppose.
Scott Pilgrim EX has got a lot going for it, and the little bit I played was pretty fun and oldschool. The pixel art is peak, smooth animations. This is one I might come back to with some pals.
REPLACED
I've been a big fan of the Cinematic Platformer genre ever since Another World and Flashback. INSIDE is one of my all-time favourite games of the last couple decades. Also really enjoyed The Eternal Castle which is a modern love letter to the genre. So when a trailer that looks like cyberpunk INSIDE with combat hits, I'm paying attention!
The game looks incredible, but something about it didn't hook me. It felt empty in not a good way. With INSIDE I was intrigued from the start (Why am I running? Why am I a boy? What kind of world is this?). But with REPLACED, it just seemed kinda meh. Maybe it was hemmed in by cyberpunk genre, a genre that's still hitting the same chords first played by NEUROMANCER decades ago. Maybe it was that I didn't care about the main character and that the story was treating everything with more gravitas than I could spare.
CONCLUSION
Pretty great Next Fest overall! I'm sure there's tons more to check out, but I got sidetracked when I saw that Marathon had a open beta for their Server Slam. It's such a wild and colorful take on the cyberpunk genre!