Tried out a lot of demos today, here’s some reviews!

Jusant A very nice looking game about rock climbing, from Don’t Nod (Life is Strange devs), seems like a departure from their usual stuff. The gameplay in the demo was pretty good, the climbing is a lot more involved than the press forward climbing you’re probably thinking of from most games. You individually control each hand’s grip (think GIRP or Mount Your Friends, but less awkward), and can freely place spikes in the wall to attach your rope to which can save you from falls or give you places to swing from. You’re exploring this abandoned cliffside village, and there’s notes and stuff to piece together the stories of the people there, I didn’t pay too much attention to them in the demo because I’d probably just forget and read them again in the final game but it seems not bad as far as that kind of thing goes. Main complaint is that the performance was pretty bad, hopefully that gets polished up by launch.

Alien Hominid Invasion I always look forward to anything new from The Behemoth, but was a bit skeptical about this one because I really did not enjoy the original Alien Hominid. It was brutally difficult while feeling quite shallow in gameplay. Thankfully, this is much better. I was immediately impressed by the movement, you get a dodge that turns into a long dive in the air, shooting in the air can boost you upwards, and a double jump that resets your other options. This doesn’t have the 2.5D movement of most beat 'em ups, which I’m glad for the lack of, and probably wouldn’t fit well with the chaotic pace here. The level structure is quite different as well, with bite-sized levels that you pick from a grid map for each mission, where you can select levels with varying levels of challenge and loot you can earn. You can use the loot to change your loadout, and it seems like there’s a bunch of different weapons, perks, and cosmetics. This mostly seems like it’ll be fun in co-op, and I did play it solo but the game gives you some AI companions. The level objectives seem like they could get a little repetitive, as I did see the same ones a couple times already in the demo, but maybe I was just unlucky or there will be more as you progress in the full game.

Sea of Stars This is a turn-based RPG from the devs of The Messenger. I was a little skeptical going in with the genre being very hit or miss for me, but I’m pretty impressed. The game looks amazing, in a way that I feel like doesn’t fully come across just from trailers or screenshots. The traversal is pretty fun, you’re able to climb up and down ledges and jump over gaps, and the world has a lot of verticality. There’s also puzzles that you solve through a combination of that “platforming” and stuff like pushing boxes around and flipping switches. That aspect doesn’t seem as good as something like Crosscode, but did feel a lot better than the similar platforming in Chained Echoes. The combat takes a lot of inspiration from both Chrono Trigger and the Mario RPGs. It has the positional attacks and combos between party members from Chrono Trigger, with the timing mechanics from Paper Mario and the like of button presses on attacks landing or while defending, with some more involved little minigames for special attacks. The dungeon you go through in the demo was pretty fun, the puzzles were a little basic but I liked the structure a lot, and assume it’ll build up in complexity. While it doesn’t have the full heal/mana restore between battles of Chained Echoes, it does encourage you to spend your resources a bit more than most RPGs by giving you a pretty generous mana regen from your basic attacks. There wasn’t really enough story here to judge that yet, but it didn’t seem bad. I also want to acknowledge this being the best structured demo of any in this group, it gets you right into the game, and skips ahead to give you some variety rather than just making you play through a full intro section.

Van Hellswing This looked like a promising little score attack arena shooter with some cool movement options. Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed by the demo. You have some cool movement options like wall running, shotgun jumping, and a grappling hook. These really don’t feel natural to string together though, especially in the environment in the demo. I’m not sure if there will be more arenas in the full game but I felt like that really held the game back. There were a lot of spots to fall to your death, and one movement option not working exactly like you expected could kill you. There also seems to be only one weapon, and a severe lack of enemy variety. I’ve enjoyed a lot of similar games and there’s some good ideas here but I hope this one gets quite a bit more work before release.

Beyond Sunset A boomer shooter made in the GZDoom engine, though don’t let that set your expectations for how it plays. Pretty movement heavy, with a fair bit of platforming and dashing around during combat. Your first weapon is a katana, and while you do get guns pretty quickly, you’ll be using melee a lot and it uses a system similar to modern Doom of special execution kills being your most reliable way of recovering health. The difficulty is kind of brutal, and even as a veteran of this type of game regret playing the demo on hard. I didn’t love some of the enemy types, but the combat is still pretty fun overall. It’s also very cool looking, I love the look of this engine and this is very unique to anything else I’ve seen made in it.

I gave Sea of Stars a try. It’s from the developers of The Messenger. I’m really liking what I played so far. After Chained Echoes, I think this will be my next big hit for retro jrpg. The pixel art is gorgeous and the music is really good so far. I’m not big on timed attack in turn-based game, but I suspect that I’ll get over that quickly.

Here’s what I’ve tried so far:

Botany Manor – low poly indie game where the puzzles are figuring out how to grow plants. the low poly is done well and feels very painterly and cozy! the puzzles feel very short and easy to solve, and I suspect that won’t really change in the full game. I’m hoping it’ll be a $10 to $15 dollar game that I can pick up and complete in a weekend.

Jusant – a slightly janky but enjoyable rock climbing game. I’d be very curious to know if actual rock climbers feel it was represented well here? I think rock climbing in general isn’t usually the focus of an entire game so it’s neat to see it become the main game mechanic here. the physics can be a bit janky if you do things that you’re probably not supposed to do (eg. I almost got stuck with the rope under a metal support beam once) but as long as you don’t try to break it, things go well. If this releases around the $20 to $30 price point it’ll be a definite buy from me.

Sticky Business – create your own stickers and sell them! the final game needs a much broader range of options for your sticker creation, and needs a better UI view of all your stickers once you start packing them for orders. the writing feels a little clunky and generic, but it helps provide a little motivation for why you’re selling the stickers. also has a slider for music in the options but was dead silent in the demo?? honestly got my fill of it during the demo so I can’t see myself picking up the full release.

Haven’t played it yet, but I’m looking forward to trying the demo of Stray Gods – it’s got the Greek Gods vibe of Hades, and I’m a Dragon Age fan so have to give it a shot for David Gaider’s writing.

Oh and I also have to plug the demo for Horticular! It’s a relaxing, gorgeous, and satisfying garden design sim. I’m super excited for the full release of the game whenever it comes out; I played ~10 hours straight last year when the demo first launched, and it looks like it’s been well polished for this year’s Next Fest.