HomeFeatures
The best Steam Festival demos: RPGsDirty roles, played dirt cheap
Dirty roles, played dirt cheap
Readers, I have put on my waders and made my way into the deep mill pool of theSteam Game Festival: Summer editionfree demos. There are a lot, so I confined myself toRPGs. This isn’t an exhaustive list, of course, even though I got overexcited and did far too many, but it’s hopefully going to give you a place to start.
If you saw RPGs and thought “Christ, she’s done a list of all elves and wizards and that” then you’rewrong. There’s only, like, two elves, and the rest is an array of witches, sentient animals, magic paintbrushes and surreal dreamscapes. Wares to suit every purse (especially because these demos are all free for the weekend, right?). If you can’t be bothered to read the lovely words I spent ages writing for you, hit the jump to the bottom ofpage 2and you can see the full list.
Backbone
I’vetalked about Backbone before, because it is achingly stylish and I love a detective story as much as the next man, especially when the next man is Vidbud Matthew Castle. While the art inBackboneis luverly, especially the lighting, I think the thing that most excites me about it is the dialogue. I can take or leave an “animal species as racism” metaphor (probably leave, if I had my druthers) but Backbone is one of the first games in a long, long while where having a conversation with an NPC actually feels like having a conversation.
You don’t have a set 1,2,3 list of questions or options to ask. Your responses and dialogue choices evolve with the conversation, so you don’t end up in immersion breaking loops. After all, if you’ve just asked someone how their wife is, it’s weird to then immediately go “I’m looking for someone!”. And in Backbone, you can’t do that. You have to pay attention and think like you do when you have a chat in real life.
Get the free Backbone demo prologue here.
Paradise Killer
I did wonder if this strictly counts as an RPG, but fuck it, it’s in the Steam tags for the game, so I’m ‘avin it. You play as “investigation freak” Lady Love Dies, which I spose is what denizens of unreality call detectives. LLD has been called back in for one last job [spits out toothpick] after being exiled for donkeys years for an undisclosed transgression. There’s been a terrible murder on Paradise Island, and as you explore the extremely weird 3D metropolis of unreality, you run into its extremely weird citizens - each a suspect! The case possibly involves ritual sacrifice, conspiracy, demons, jealously, and a space helmet that allows inter-dimensional travel. This is, I suspect, going to be a tough nut to crack. But what fun to split it open, reader!
Get the free Paradise Killer demo here.
The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos
I first had a go of this oneat Digi-Rezzed a few months ago(God, remember when we were allowed to go outside and gather in groups??). This is the only fantasy RPG with a name like The Something Of Something Colon The Thing Of Something Else where I can be reasonably sure that it’s a self-aware joke. That’s Naheulbeuk’s whole thing, really: massively taking the piss out of D&D. You lead a little band of adventurers through tactical turn-based combat in a grim dungeon full of orcs and what not. The archer is a blonde elf called The Elf, the ranger is an uptight beardy man called The Ranger, and the dwarf has a Scottish accent, an axe, and is called The Dwarf. Etc and so on. YMMV with the humour, as they say, but it belies the fact that the combat isbloody hard. You can’t sleepwalk into this one.
Get the free Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk demo here.
Travellers Rest
I’m a fan of conceptual twists on the mighty hero story (likeMoonlighterand whatnot) and Travellers Rest does that whilst also being a fun life management RPG. The demo is only two days worth of game, but you can see how much depth the full thing could have. You can make different foods and brew beers with different flavour profiles, depending on the ingredients you use. There’s a farm out the back where you can grow different hops and grains, you can hire staff, you can craft coasters to put on tables to reduce how often you need to wipe them down. If it gets too cold, you must stoke the fire, and if it gets to hot you must put it out. Anything to maintain a good rep in the community! Plus, I’m pretty sure you get a cat, and a pub that has a pub cat is an A+ pub.
Get the Travellers Rest free demo here.
Pendragon
As Lancelot, I decided not to attack a group of villagers who were afraid and threatening me, choosing instead to move around them. But Icouldhave tried to attack. That could have changed Lancelot’s story, and thus changed his ability. As Guinevere I decided that I didn’t love Arthur, but would still help him - and that gave me the ability to attack on the diagonal.Pendragonis therefore a pleasingly holistic game, and I hope that one of the blacked out character portraits in the start menu is Mordred himself. Fun to be bad, innit?
Get the free Pendragon demo here.
Deathbulge: Battle Of The Bands
I do not say a game is genuinely funny lightly, because most of the time they are not, and yet Deathbulge is. I think it’s because it’s not trying too hard. Our hero, Faye, a lead guitarist with pink hair shaped like a Flying V, is in the Tone Wood (a forest of extremely ripped trees) to find bassist Ian. Ian is a really hench skeleton, I think, who like fish. Faye signed them up for a battle of the bands but found out too late it was a cursed competition. Now the fight is one to the death.
Get the free Deathbulge demo here.
There are even more RPG demos to be recommended on page two…
She Dreams Elsewhere
While Sin said a lot about the theming and writing of She Dreams Elsewhere, I want to emphasise again that the soundtrack is a real standout feature that has burrowed into my brainspace. This game also does amazing things with colour. Because the majority is in black and white, colour can be used to highlight objects you interact with, or to indicate a sudden atmospheric change or wrongness. Also, the save points are dogs.
Get the free She Dreams Elsewhere demo here.
Wytchwood
In practise this involved ambling around a nice forest in autumnal colours and talking to the people you find there. I needed to make frog slime, so a lad gave me a net and promised me a frog in exchange for five fireflies. I needed dog hair, and the dog’s owner said it needed calming down with a soporific potion. Which I could make, but first I needed some mushrooms and some meat, and for that I needed to make a critter trap and find some purple mushrooms. Although it took me a while to figure out the controls for my inventory and dread witch’s grimoire, this one really truly charmed me, and I can’t wait to do the dark goat’s bidding in the full thing.
Get the free Wytchwood demo here.
Black Book
I’m not sure if my partner died and my Grandad was like “welp, better sell your soul to the devil and open 8 forbidden seals to bring him back from the dead, then” I would characterise him as being part of a healthy support system during my grief, but it takes all sorts. In fact, your sorceress character is really just following the family line of work in becoming a witch. The combat is comparable to a deck, except you choose to play words of power from the Titular Black book. The pages rewrite themselves after you play one, which is the analogue to more cards being drawn from the deck.
But the most interesting bit is that you have to do the day to day business of witching, i.e. seeing people who have come to you for help and advice. The first of these, in the demo, is a miller who has been seeing strange shapes in the darkness at his mill. So the next day you have to go visit the mill and see what’s up. It’s sort of a Granny Weatherwax ‘em up, in that way - although in this case most of the demons are real, so you can’t use headology and sugarwater placebos.
Get the free Black Book demo here.
Chicory
Greg Lobanov didWandersong, so a colourful adventure that allows players to be easily creative without judgement is well in line with that. I say no judgement; my little dog (who ended up being called Mac n Chee because the game asked me my favourite food but did not leave enough room for the “se”) was asked to recolour in a local’s house with the magic paintbrush they now wielded, but said local didn’t like my work! I call that ungrateful.
Get the free Chicory demo here.
The Iron Oath
A bunch of my characters started bleeding out, I was too cautious and spent ages scouting ahead, so my party started getting tired, and I didn’t properly manage the healing abilities of one of my team members in combat. But the way you can combine abilities (knockbacks into glyphs on the floor, for example) is fun, and the creature and chracter design is great. Complete with the death animations, actually, which are well fun and a bit glory. The animations for attacks and spells are cool too, and sometimes the screen does a big zoom when one happens.
Get the free Iron Oath demo here.
Cris Tales
You solve environmental puzzles and make choices this way - getting ingredients from the future to use in a potion in the present, for example. But you can also use the time crystal powers in combat. Crisbell can send an opponent into the future when they’re old, or the past when they’re young. In the demo boss fight, Cristopher throws water on the enemy’s impenetrable shield in the present, so when they’re wellied into the future the shield is rusted. It’s very clever.
Get the free Cris Tales demo here.
The Full List1. Backbone2. Paradise Killer3. The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos4. Travellers Rest5. Pendragon6. Deathbulge: Battle Of The Bands7. She Dreams Elsewhere8. Wytchwood9. Black Book10. Chicory11. The Iron Oath12. Cris Tales
If you’re looking for RTS or city builders, action games, strategy games or management games, check out our otherbest of the Game Fest lists here.
Whatever you call it, hit ourE3 2020tag for more from this summer’s blast of gaming announcements, trailers, and miscellaneous marketing. Check outthe PC games at the PlayStation 5 show,everything at the PC Gaming Show, andall the trailers from the Xbox showcase, for starters.
