Next Fest

	A	B	C
1	Game	Thoughts

2	Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor	Honestly, the best Vampire Survivors-like I've played so far that isn't the original or Halls of Torment, bringing a unique mining mechanic and the DRG's energetic vibes to the table.
3	Talos Principle 2	Guy who's only played the witness voice: A very fun puzzle game with ambitions of science fiction narrative. I like what it brings to the table but the writing is really doing more harm than good here. However, the game doesn't waste a lot of time before letting you get into the weeds of the puzzles, which are delightful	Special shoutout to the art team for creating some gorgeous environments, and the driller for being very neat. I did also manage to softlock myself out of the 8th puzzle lol
4	Last Train Home	An unexpected surprise! Based on the post WW1 civil war in Czechoslovakia, this is a darker game with rough themes and choices. I especially appreciate the option of setting the game's language to "immersive" which lets all the characters of various nationalities speak their own.	The game mixes survival strategy with traditional TTS in a really fascinating way, reminding me of Dawn of War 2, while the train and troop management is in depth enough to be a real challenge.
5	Anomaly Agent	A fun little side scrolling beat 'em up. The humor is a little dated but it's fun for a couple minutes.
6	The Thaumaturge	It uh, froze during the first combat. It feels ambitious but a little unpolished. that said, the card battler system seems interesting. I just wish the protagonist did.
7	The Gap	largely a point-and-click walking sim, this is a very personal story that relates to dementia and psychosis. It's rough, but I'm keeping an eye on it.
8	Jusant	An effortlessly charming climbing simulator with a stellar soundtrack, engaging mechanics, and a little creature I want to squeeze gently. Like, this is a guaranteed wishlist and you should check it out.
9	Classified France '44	Another one in the budding "we wish there were more games like xcom so we made one ourselves" genre. Its story is generic WWII tripe but the gameplay does enough to keep things fresh for me to keep an eye on it. I have notes, but from a gameplay perspective, the foundation is really solid, with a few quality of life choices I feel firaxis could learn from	Standouts are the way consecutive stealth takedowns build up an "ambush" meter that gives you an extra action, and the ability to choose whether or not to approve an overwatch shot
10	While We Wait Here	This is an interesting little narrative game that managed to get me with a twist even in the demo (though it did let me down but not having the cool goth from the cover in it). Definitely worth checking out!
11	Earthless	A cute roguelike deckbuilder from Blackbird that's got some new ideas. I think I'd recommend checking it out, but I'll wait until full release to see if it's got the depth to stick the landing.
12	Let Them Come: Onslaught	Another Vampire Survivor-like. It's okay, but it's a bit too punishing with not enough unique abilities to make it really stand out
13	Words of Yandor	A weird mix of Wordle, Hangman and other similar games that tries to tell a little roguelike story. Not sure it's for me, but it's very cool in concept
14	The Last Flame	Cute in concept, combining the Slay The Spire style with the Dota style autobattler. That said, just play auto chess or underlords.
15	Solium Infernum	A quaint 4X game that has you take the role of one of the princes of hell as they battle for dominance when Satan's disappeared. Right now, it suffers from a lack of depth, with a lot of features that are all a little shallow. Still, I'm really looking forward to this, because the execution and polish is STELLAR.
16	Overlode	an interesting real-time deckbuilder but flipping through cards in real time is just too much. Skip for me.
17	Interregnum Chronicles: False Prophet	Another turn based tactics game. It's missing something to really set it apart, and the incredibly granular AP system doesn't do it for me
18	Sovereign Syndicate	The first of what I'm gonna call the Discolike. Scrolling text on the right, using cards to do skill checks, various skills being voices in your head.	I've got thoughts on this one. It obviously doesn't have DE's charisma but there are very few games that do. however, there's a lot of unique ideas here, and I think I'll play this when it comes out. it's really interesting, if not necessarily everything it wants to be. I think good voice acting and a writing overhaul would elevate this.
19	Songs of Silence	A gorgeous game that fails to stick the landing. I really don't think real-time card strategy is going to take off.
20	Wild Country	A deck-builder puzzler that almost lost me with a weird overworld pokémon style exploration system, then got me back with its core gameplay, and then lost me again with a lack of polish and awkward navigation. More time in the oven would help, but it won't fix the aimless wandering around to find people to talk to so I can play the core game
21	Genesis of a Small God	it wants to be Black & White really badly, but a twenty year old game outpaces this new attempt by a country mile.
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100