My Next Fest Hot Picks

 

Those are my picks from this Autumn's Next Fest. All eight of them, which is probably at least two too many for me to get through before the event ends. Possibly more.

A week really isn't long enough for this, is it? I guess the idea is that you approach it the way Krikket does and only play each demo for long enough to decide if you want to wishlist it or not. That is the purpose of the whole affair, after all.

I can't help treating them all as small, self-contained games. Unless I actively dislike them, I'm going to do my best to play each demo through to the end. The lengths vary a lot but I'd guess most take 45-60 minutes to complete, with a few outliers being either much shorter or completely open-ended, with no obvious end-point.

That makes it unrealistic for me to try and fit more than a half-dozen or so into my weekly gaming schedule, unless I'm prepared to drop something in their favor. Some quarters, it's not much of a problem. There have been Next Fests where I've struggled to come up with six demos I'm interested in playing.

Mostly, though, I have to turn down a few that look quite interesting and it has to be remembered that the total number of available demos in every event is well into four figures. Even allowing for the fact that most of them are in genres I have absolutely no interest in playing, the handful I pick can barely be representative of anything.

Except it kind of is, anyway, because I always gravitate towards a couple of categories that never seem to have a huge number of demos available: MMORPGs and traditional point&click adventures. Sometimes I can hardly find any of either. Eight would often be a quorum.

Not this time! There were more of both than I could cope with and several look really promising. Games that looked like I'd enjoy them were positively jumping out at me. I made my selections in a matter of minutes. It helped that the whole thing seemed to be laid out and presented more coherently than usual, although that might just have been because several of the demos that caught my eye were in the "Recommended For You" section. That hardly ever happens. Maybe the algorithm has improved.

The eight I went for are:

Nighthawks

First in this list, first in every way. I've had this on my wishlist since January 2021 (!) and I'd honestly given up hope of ever seeing it. And now here it is. Or a demo, anyway. It's a Wadjet Eye title and almost certainly their most ambitious to date. The pitch is "...a deliciously twisted new take on vampire role-playing games as you take over a failing nightclub on the wrong side of the tracks, and turn it into your personal empire through seduction, intimidation, and careful use of secret supernatural Gifts" Might be a little too much on the management-sim side of things for me but I have very high hopes.

Nova Antarctica

A survival game set in Antarctica in the year 2900, where you play a child who's been sent alone to the South Pole to investigate a mysterious signal. Why a child? I have no idea. Maybe because despite the bleak setting, the game looks extremely cute and gameplay involves "the mysterious animals of Antarctica." One of the screenshots shows the child-protagonist wearing a space-suit and riding a wolf. Sold!

Atomic Age

 

One of several extremely good-looking demos in my pick. The visuals did contribute a lot to my choices as they always do but there's no point trying to play a great-looking game in a genre for which you have no affinity, so even the greatest pictures have to take second place to the gameplay. This one's "A futuristic, humorous, slapstick based point & click adventure in the shape of the 50th and 60th years." All of that sounds right up my street except maybe the slapstick. I do really like the phrasing on "50th and 60th years", which I think means the 1950s and '60s. It does describe itself as "retro and nostalgic" (For the characters, that is, not the player, which is a clever conceit, if hard to parse.) I have a feeling this one could be quite odd. I hope so.

Dark Rites of Arkham

Pretty much says it all in the title, doesn't it? And yes, it's exactly what you'd expect: a pixel art point&click (They cutely call it a "pulp&click".) in which "A macabre ritual murder puts Arkham PD detectives Jack Foster and Harvey Whitman to the test. As the investigation progresses, they will unveil a disturbing connection between the Salem witch trials of the 17th century and the end of humankind." I'm not a huge fan of Lovecraftiana but it's a safe and trusted setting for this sort of thing and I'm happy to give it a whirl.

Magic World

An MMORPG. Confusingly, not the first to call itself "Magic World", either. There were several MMOs in this Next Fest but this is the only one I went for and I'm not confident about it at all but the rest looked even less likely to be fun and I felt I really ought to try at least one of them. This one has a fairly traditional setting: "Expansive Open World – Explore mysterious lands, ancient ruins, hidden treasures, and battle dangerous creatures." Unfortunately, the devs also appear to want to re-invent the wheel by replacing all the tried and tested methods of combat with one that has you "drawing magical symbols with your mouse and combining them with key presses to unleash devastating abilities." I have seen this tried before and it was not a success. Also, I don't have room on my desk for drawing symbols with the mouse...

Dissimilar

I have a lot more faith in this one. It's "A unique blend of mystery, turn-based combat, and exploration" with gorgeous, hand-drawn art. I'm always looking for games with the kind of turn-based combat I so much enjoyed in the Dungeon of Naheulbeuk but they're very hard to find. This isn't exactly the same but it looks like it might have a similar feel. And even if it doesn't, the detection and exploration looks like it'll be fun.

A Tale Of Dirty Whiskers

 

There are always loads of demos featuring cats in every Next Fest, aren't there? Anyone would think there was some connection between owning a cat and playing video games. Hard to imagine. It was the feline factor that drew this to my attention but the main reason I picked it was that the demo seems to be in Spanish. Not the text, which is definitely English, but the voice acting. I don't speak Spanish but I know enough to pick out a few words and I was wondering if playing a whole game where the translation of what I'm hearing is right there in front of me might work like some half-assed kind of language course. And it's another point&click murder mystery, so there's that...

Aether and Iron

Not exactly leaving the best to last but quite possibly the best-looking. Gameplay-wise, it's a "decopunk Narrative RPG set in an alternate 1930s" with turn-based combat between flying cars, which sounds amazing and looking at the raves from the likes of PCGamer (“This tactics RPG set on a floating New York City could be the next great noir videogame.”) I guess it might turn out to be the best after all. Here are a couple more tantalizing comparisons:

“Aether and Iron Is Like Disco Elysium, Citizen Sleeper, and BioShock All at Once” - GameRant

“Aether and Iron has lashings of Bioshock and Baldur’s Gate 3...” - PCGamesN 

That's some heavy praise. It better be good after all that! 

I'd better stop typing and get on with playing or I'll never get through them all before the event ends. I'll be back with my judgments later - always assuming I can find time to write them up.