Demos—post game demos here

[Brian Boru]

Long long ago, in a galaxy far far away, there used to be demos for many games. Then we entered the Great Demo Void But now, they're back!
So let's tip each other off when such a magical event occurs.

Expeditions Rome RPG, tactical, turn-based
https://forums.pcgamer.com/threads/expeditions-rome-demo-turn-based-party-based-crpg.121960/
@ZedClampet's thread re ER inspired this one.

Ones in my in-Play folder:

Humankind 4X, Historical
From Amplitude, makers of Endless Legend & Endless Space games. A potential competitor to Civilization, but not there yet.

Inscryption Deckbuilder, Card Battler
97% Overwhelmingly Positive rating from 46,011 votes!
I don't go for card games usually, but so many people are raving about this one…

Gamedec RPG, Detective
Hmm, not sure why I have this one…

 

[ZedClampet]

Three big games that are already out and still have demos are:
Outriders-Loot shooter like Destiny or Warframe
Knockout City-PvP dodgeball
Football Manager 22-a game I'd love if only I knew anything about soccer. Don't expect the game to explain anything to you, either.

I like little indie oddball games, so here's a few recent demos that I intend to try out soon:
Car Manufacture - Become the next Ferrari
Car Detailing Simulator - Looks like Car Mech. Sim. Open a detailing business.
Builder Simulator - Build houses
Gust of Wind - Kind of interesting looking stealth game
Blood Field - Vietnamese horror
Planet Crafter - Survive on an alien planet and terraform it
Mud and Blood - Old popular Flash RTS game comes to Steam

 

[Brian Boru]

Gust of Wind - Kind of interesting looking stealth game

Strange name, but hey, who doesn't want to be a mutant seagull—it's a 'might be'

Planet Crafter - Survive on an alien planet and terraform it

Looks interesting.

Thanks for those, 2 more to check out

 

[Zloth]

The demo for the Stanley Parable is almost as big as the game itself and tells a very different story. I would suggest playing it before the game, even if you've bought the game.

Overload's Teaser was fun for about 45 minutes. Overload is essentially Descent done in a much more modern engine. There's even a little story thrown in. Great game for flexing your spatial awareness muscles. (There's a VR version, which must be really intense!)

 

[Brian Boru]

the Stanley Parable

Thanks for that one. I played the original HL mod, but not the later remake, so this should be fun. I see there's an Ultra Deluxe version planned to release this year after 3 years of delays.

 

[ZedClampet]

Builder Simulator and Car Detailer Simulator are both typical Polish indie games. Steam is flooded with them, and almost all of them are shallow jankfests. You can thank PlayWay for most of that. PlayWay released its own game one time and when people complained about it and asked when it was going to be fixed and updated, PlayWay responded that they weren't going to do any updates because they were moving on to hopefully better games.

 

[Pifanjr]

The demo for the Stanley Parable is almost as big as the game itself and tells a very different story. I would suggest playing it before the game, even if you've bought the game.

I really loved The Stanley Parable, I didn't realise the demo was an entirely separate experience. I wonder if I can get my wife to stop playing Skyrim long enough to try this with me.

Thanks for that one. I played the original HL mod, but not the later remake, so this should be fun. I see there's an Ultra Deluxe version planned to release this year after 3 years of delays.

I wasn't aware there was a remake, nor that there was a newer version planned. I can't imagine what could be improved from the base version.

EDIT: Apparently the remake is the standalone version, while the original was a half-life mod. The more you know.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I really loved The Stanley Parable, I didn't realise the demo was an entirely separate experience. I wonder if I can get my wife to stop playing Skyrim long enough to try this with me.

The good thing about The Stanley Parable is it's a game you can just play in an evening. It's not going to be time consuming and significantly take you away from your main game. I've never played the demo, but I would assume it's the same way.

 

[ZedClampet]

Desolatium

: is a first-person point & click Graphic Adventure based on Lovecraft Mythos. Live this horror story where you will have to visit mysterious locations, face lovecraftian creatures, find clues and combine objects to solve puzzles.

So there is a demo and a prologue. They used to charge for the prologue, but both of them are free now.

Prologue

Demo

 

[Furr_Man]

I played this a while back, and the demo recently got significantly expanded, so much it feels like its more than a demo now. Its basically a first-person Hotline Miami, and its awesome.

Anger Foot by Robbie Fraser, LolthersArt, Jaybooty, hyphenza, Jem Smith

A lightning-fast hard-bass blast of kicking doors and kicking ass.

squidcor.itch.io

 

[ZedClampet]

Here's another Polish simulator demo: Electrician Simulator. I played it a bit this morning. The problem with it, I think, is that fixing light switches and outlets is not exactly complicated and could get boring quickly. The game needs more complex problems that you should have to diagnose, and adding older homes with fuse boxes would be interesting.

"Shockingly", the game--at least the first few missions--doesn't give you a multimeter. What kind of idiot electrician doesn't have a multimeter? I personally own two multimeters, and I'm not even an electrician. To me, the game is way too basic to be able to hold my attention for very long.

 

[ZedClampet]

Didn't see any major game demos come to Steam recently, but here's a few indie demos that someone might have some interest in:

Supraland Six Inches Under -- Game just released and has Overwhelmingly Positive user reviews. Looks like a first person puzzle game to me. It advertised exploration, puzzles and combat.

The Forest Prison--First person puzzle game. According to the tags, it may have some platforming, but I didn't see any in the trailer.

Music Racer 2000 -- Takes your own music and generates race tracks somehow based on the music.

Vanaris Tactics -- Narrative, pixilated (yawn), tactical RPG adventure.

MadVentures -- VR sandbox with user generated content.

The Plague Doctor of Wippra -- Narrative, point & click, pixel graphics (yawn)

Witching Hour -- Looks like someone set out to make the most tiresome, unoriginal horror game in history, carefully ensuring that it is completely unidentifiable when hidden in a pile of other indie/hobbyist horror games.

Everything Is For Humanity-- Looks like someone set out to make the most tiresome, unoriginal horror game in history, carefully ensuring that it is completely unidentifiable when hidden in a pile of other indie/hobbyist horror games.

Bugged Dungeon -- Isometric puzzle game that will also support user-generated levels in the Steam Workshop.

 

[Brian Boru]

The Forest Prison--First person puzzle game

I'm harnessing my super-blind superpower again—can't see a demo.
Wishlisted tho for sure, looks like a Portal-inspired game. You can shoot portals onto designated 'doors' or you can toss to items and move onto one to appear where the other is.

Bugged Dungeon -- Isometric puzzle game

Reminds me of a trilogy of great early-90s puzzles, whose name I can't recall. Looks fun—and can see the demo!

 

[ZedClampet]

I'm harnessing my super-blind superpower again—can't see a demo.

Dangit, they took it down. They launched the demo on the 15th (per SteamDB) and now it's gone. Must have had a problem and just pulled it for now. Not sure if that's a good sign or a bad sign.

I saw someone in the comments say that one of the character models had been "appropriated", but those kind of comments are very common for indie games and don't necessarily mean anything. Probably they bought the rights to the model somewhere and someone just recognized it from something else. Or it could just be a free model. The Epic store is filled with them. Unfortunately, there's a large contingent of Jim Sterling fans who go around to indie games before launch and give the developers a hard time. It's kind of a shame, really.

There was this one indie team from California who was making a horror game called The Lighthouse. They had everything set up. Had a great demo and a great pitch, and they started their Kickstarter campaign, when someone recognized one of the pieces of the cutscene at the beginning of the demo and raised a huge stink over it. Kickstarter even pulled the project. They had actually paid for the piece and sent in the documentation to Kickstarter, who eventually restarted the fundraising, but by then the damage had been done. They'd lost momentum and gotten a shady reputation. They eventually funded the game themselves, but it took them years longer than it would have if it hadn't been for Sterling trolls.

 

[ZedClampet]

A bunch of new demos since Wednesday, mostly indie but one AAA.

There's more than I want to list, so I just picked the ones that looked interesting to me. There are also a bunch of visual novels, some arcade games and one tower defense game that might be worth a look

Hitman 3: I guess people would consider this the big one. Try out this tactical, stealth, strategy game that I'm far too impatient to play myself. Demo button is in the right column above the listing for single-player.

Tinselfly: Cool visuals in a game that "features character-driven puzzles and a visual, intuitive sword fighting system."

HorrorDriven: A story for the road: Atmospheric visuals as you try to reach the end of the road. One of the few horror games these days not created in Unreal's Horror Engine. Not that Horror Engine is a bad thing, but those games, to me, all sort of have the same feel to them.

The Pioneers: surviving desolation: This is the one that interests me the most. Decent graphics. "The Pioneers offers a deep and innovative space survival experience. Build your space station, manage your crew and explore the harsh environment of Io, the innermost moon of Jupiter. Are you brave enough to survive?"

Recursive Ruin: Here's maybe one for @Brian Boru. A first person puzzler. "Lose yourself in the Infinite Realms, a dying, fractal world of strange beauty and mind-bending physics that repeats eternally inward and outward. Uncover the secrets of seven unique locations filled with hidden spaces and strange denizens. Overcome the impossible and use circular logic to manipulate recursive physics and solve challenging, self-referential puzzles."

Intruder In Antiquonia: Very nice looking classic point and click adventure.

Stones Keeper: Yet another good looking game. This one is an RPG with turn-based tactics.

 

[Brian Boru]

one tower defense game that might be worth a look

Would that be FrankenStorm TD Prologue? If not, looks interesting to me—and I play very few TDs.

maybe one for @Brian Boru

Hmm, are you trying to make me crazier? Your ploy is too transparent, Grasshopper.

Very nice looking classic point and click adventure

I used to enjoy the Lucas Arts P&Cs, so I'll have a peek at this one.

Thanks for these, nice bunch

 

[ZedClampet]

Maybe we should have a Pioneers: Surviving Desolation contest. My leadership allowed the crew to survive for 7 minutes! About 2 minutes in, they all started complaining about oxygen and food. The first death was pretty hilarious. The woman collapsed right next to this dude, and he said, "I could murder a pizza right now" like he was hanging out in someone's living room at dinner time.

I may try again later. To be honest, I think I'll just survive 7 minutes again. I have no idea what to do about the oxygen. I only saw one place to search, and that had building materials in it.

Thank goodness I was on "Discovery" difficulty.

 

[ZedClampet]

Would that be FrankenStorm TD Prologue? If not, looks interesting to me—and I play very few TDs.

No, I was only looking at the ones that came out since my last post. This one is called Car Wash TD.

I wouldn't mind finding an old fashioned tower defense game, where everything travels along paths and you just have different kinds of towers to set down and upgrade. I used to play Grub Guardian, which is a browser game, and really enjoyed that.

 

[Brian Boru]

Car Wash TD

Haha looks fun, I'll give the demo a shot.

an old fashioned tower defense game, where everything travels along paths and you just have different kinds of towers to set down and upgrade

The only TD game that held my interest enough to replay a few times was the original Plants v Zombies. Good gameplay and humor. I don't see it for sale, but EA says it's part of EA Play, so maybe on Game Pass. I have it on BigFish, but they don't seem to sell it anymore—doesn't come up on search, altho BFG search is pretty bad.

 

[ZedClampet]

Two older games that I just discovered had demos are Two Leaves and a bud - Tea Garden Simulator and Spiritfarer .

I tried Two Leaves and sort of, kind of, almost tried Spiritfarer. Two Leaves is a city builder, but you are building a tea plantation. Spiritfarer seems like a narrative driven adventure thing, sort of like a point and click game. Not sure. I opened the demo, but immediately fell off the boat and couldn't figure out how to get back on, so I figured Zeus didn't want me playing that game, and I quit. But it has Overwhelmingly Positive reviews, so if you like that sort of game, you might try it out. I just recommend staying out of the water, at least at the beginning of the demo. Had the small boat been lowered into the water, I could have jumped in that, I think. *stops rambling*

 

[spvtnik1]

Strangely, I can't find anything about this game on the forums or the magazine.

I picked this up about a month ago and have really, really enjoyed my time with it. It will even run on a potato laptop if you so please. The developer is totally independent but is offering a quality product; no crashes or glitches in my playtime. Just when you think you've figured out the core gameplay loop, something new will surprise you.

ΔV: Rings of Saturn

 

[Brian Boru]

Intruder In Antiquonia: Very nice looking classic point and click adventure

Played that, got stuck, wasn't interested enough to unstick, uninstalled.

Two Leaves

Looks nice, but too short—~4 hours?—for me to be worth learning its systems—comments also suggest may still be buggy.

ΔV: Rings of Saturn

The Steam videos focus on the visual presentation, and it is indeed visually stunning. Nice relaxing audio too.

The Steam reviews are raving about it, Overwhelmingly Positive, so I'm def going to give this demo a shot.

 

[PCG Jody]

Peripeteia is a bit like Deus Ex via Ghost in the Shell, an immersive sim/stealth-action game where you're a cyborg mercenary in a dystopian Polish city. You take missions, explore the streets, hack stuff, and so on. (It's got one of the only good hacking minigames I've ever seen.)

Full game is due out later this year so the demo is definitely work-in-progress, but I liked it a lot.

 

[Pifanjr]

I tried Two Leaves and sort of, kind of, almost tried Spiritfarer. Two Leaves is a city builder, but you are building a tea plantation. Spiritfarer seems like a narrative driven adventure thing, sort of like a point and click game. Not sure. I opened the demo, but immediately fell off the boat and couldn't figure out how to get back on, so I figured Zeus didn't want me playing that game, and I quit. But it has Overwhelmingly Positive reviews, so if you like that sort of game, you might try it out. I just recommend staying out of the water, at least at the beginning of the demo. Had the small boat been lowered into the water, I could have jumped in that, I think. *stops rambling*

Spiritfarer isn't really a narrative driven point & click. It's described as a "indie management sim and sandbox action game". You sail around finding spirits and you have to collect resources to build and cook stuff to keep them happy until you can help them move on.

 

[ZedClampet]

Spiritfarer isn't really a narrative driven point & click. It's described as a "indie management sim and sandbox action game". You sail around finding spirits and you have to collect resources to build and cook stuff to keep them happy until you can help them move on.

Well, if they had let me back on the boat, I might have figured that out.