The Steam Next Fest is still going strong, and you still have a couple of days to play some great demos. I have compiled a list of 5 of the titles I think you should give a whirl this weekend.
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Commandos: Origins
I came out of Commandos: Origins demo weirdly optimistic, but I was expecting a bit more. The horrible track record of the remakes is still lingering in my mind, but this throat-slitting, body-carrying, bush-hiding-focused demo did a job good of piquing my interest, despite the showcased mission being too linear, and the poor graphical optimization. As to how much of that is due to my excitement about the Commandos franchise return, and how much is coming from the game being good by itself, we’ll have to wait and see.
Radio Commander: Pacific Campaign
I have pestered the Radio Commander: Pacific Campaign team for years to know about the state of the game, even going as far as directly asking them if it was silently canceled. They got back to me saying that no, it wasn’t, and that great news was coming soon. I guess this is great news. The two-mission demo showcases a game that’s faithful to its premise of commanding your units far away from the frontlines. You’ll need to be in constant contact with each single unit, manually update their position and status on the battle map, and realize that as a commander, a lot of stuff is outside of your control. I was just a tad disappointed we didn’t get to be a bit of the “strategic commander of the entire theater of operations in the Pacific“.
Tlatoani: Aztec Cities
There’s something about the Impressions Game’s gameplay mechanics and art style that just makes me love those games. Maybe it’s because I have fondest memories of playing Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom during my Saturday mornings as a kid. 20 years later, enter Tlatoani: Aztec Cities, a game that wouldn’t look out of place in 2002. Taking on the criminally under-explored setting of the Central American Empires, it’s a classic city-builder that’ll have you lead the Aztec Civilization from humble beginnings to the peak of their Empire.
The Stone of Madness
However, there’s a game I think it’s a better stealth strategy in this Steam Next Fest. Remember the souls-like Blasphemous series? It’s undeniably one of the more peculiar-looking games out there, its glorious art style taking direct inspiration from the Christian sacred art of southern Spain, mixed with a lot of blood and body horror. Well, the team hung up their action-platformer boots and instead decided to have a go at stealth strategy with The Stone of Madness. Set in an 18th-century Spanish monastery/ insane asylum, you’ll be attempting to escape it using your team’s pool of skills while facing their fears. I played the demo for over 3 hours and I’m now far too invested to figure out the mysteries behind the monastery walls.
Burden of Command
I’ve recently written about Burden of Command and how impressed I was by the attempt at capturing the human aspect of leadership in war, a topic seldom touched by other games. While the turn-based battles take central stage, there’s also a lot of love put into the amount of well-written text, the colorized pictures of World War 2, and the videos of veterans are impeccably presented and the game feels like watching a World War 2 history book come to life.
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