Steam Next Fest February 2026 Discussion

[Johnway]

Had a quick blast on Parasite Mutant.

Parasite Mutant on Steam

This is a bio-horror RPG featuring a retro third-person semi-fixed camera and an ATC combat system that blends real-time and turn-based elements. You play as Nova, a Psionic Agent sent to investigate a mysterious abandoned city-island, ultimately uncovering the hidden truth and rewriting fate.

store.steampowered.com

if you've played parasite Eve (the first game on the PSX) you have a rough idea of the mechanics of this game. Played about 30 minutes and was suitably entertained, i liked PE1 and this one plays just as well. visually its pretty good, even on my aging 1070. i didn't get far into the game or much of the story tbh. It just starts with your character stuck in city filled with monsters. not much bad to say about the game, maybe a bit more tutorials on using your PE powers (if you weren't aware, your character has a self heal ability, so you can save the consumables for later). i would suggest one or 2 things though, minor niggles is perhaps the camera angles aren't quite perfect. some enemies telegraphing attacks for some enemies might be improved and perhaps don't do dickish level design. How does getting ambushed on a catwalk sound like fun? it makes dodging near impossible and when the whole thing with PE is being able to dodge and move about.

 

[Pifanjr]

Everything is Crab: The Animal Evolution Roguelite Demo on Steam

The Animal Evolution Roguelite. Hunt, Flee, Scavenge and Thrive in a living ecosystem. Choose from 100+ Evolutions and Specialisations for unique creature combinations in every run. Adapt to survive the natural curve in order to beat carcinisation... or get Darwin'd trying!

store.steampowered.com

Another game featuring evolution. This time it's a top-down action roguelite where you get to pick a new body part to evolve every time you level up, which you do mainly by eating food. Each body part increases your stats and occasionally unlocks a new ability, like being able to throw stones or spit acid.

I only played one round, but it seems like there is a lot of variety in possible builds. While you can play it as a pretty standard action game with a dodge roll and a melee/ranged attack if you play as a predator, it seems you can also play as a prey animal or a scavenger. Though the game occasionally locks you into an arena with a boss, so I don't think you can just be a peaceful vegetarian.

I quite liked it, though I wasn't a big fan of the boss fights. I'm not very good at these kinds of games and prefer a careful, opportunistic approach, but being locked into an arena with a boss that keeps charging at you makes that an unviable strategy.

 

[Johnway]

ok one last game played, this time its Romestead.

Romestead on Steam

Rome has fallen! Rebuild civilization in this action-adventure survival game for 1-8 players. Fight, build towns and earn favor with the Roman gods! ...or just farm your crops.

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The game is stardew valley with more focus on combat. Whilst you do spend time building up your settlement and building a living town, you will get involved in a lot of fighting. Either this is through quests or from the roaming monsters and undead. As you explore you find various dungeons and monster camps and even boss fights against mythical monsters.

I quite like it. It seems like there is some pretty indepth and fleshed out ideas. but that said, i did struggle to get my head around some of the mechanics.

The first was trying to get wooden logs. I had an axe but couldn't use it to chop a tree down or use my pick axe on stones. it turns out for the wood, you had to attack trees with your regular weapon. The axe is only used to turn logs into timber planks - which you do by picking up the log, putting it onto a tree stump and the axe is used.

i put in a solid 2 hours into it and i'm still abit stumped as to what to do. i couldn't figure out how to organize the npcs to do work. perhaps i didn't have the right tech buildings in place or they were locked in the demo or i needed to kill the boss to succeed. Which is a bit annoying as grinding exp takes forever.


but that said, i have wish list the game. i think its going to be good. Who knows? might be some big updates down the line.

 

[Johnway]

So... thoughts on this Nextfest? There was a lot of low level slop if i was being honest. A lot of AI used stuff and filled with gimmicky stuff.

So out of everything i played, only 3 games i want to play. The first being hark the ghoul. the second is Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! and lastly Romestead. i'm sure there was other games i might have liked, there were a few 2d platformers that caught my eye but decided not to play as i'll probably get them later.

 

[Pifanjr]

So... thoughts on this Nextfest? There was a lot of low level slop if i was being honest. A lot of AI used stuff and filled with gimmicky stuff.

So out of everything i played, only 3 games i want to play. The first being hark the ghoul. the second is Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! and lastly Romestead. i'm sure there was other games i might have liked, there were a few 2d platformers that caught my eye but decided not to play as i'll probably get them later.

I got a jumpscare when I reloaded the page and your avatar suddenly changed.

I didn't see any particularly good demos this time. The ones I tried were okay, but I didn't wishlist any of them.

 

[Pifanjr]

Everything is Crab: The Animal Evolution Roguelite Demo on Steam

The Animal Evolution Roguelite. Hunt, Flee, Scavenge and Thrive in a living ecosystem. Choose from 100+ Evolutions and Specialisations for unique creature combinations in every run. Adapt to survive the natural curve in order to beat carcinisation... or get Darwin'd trying!

store.steampowered.com

Another game featuring evolution. This time it's a top-down action roguelite where you get to pick a new body part to evolve every time you level up, which you do mainly by eating food. Each body part increases your stats and occasionally unlocks a new ability, like being able to throw stones or spit acid.

I only played one round, but it seems like there is a lot of variety in possible builds. While you can play it as a pretty standard action game with a dodge roll and a melee/ranged attack if you play as a predator, it seems you can also play as a prey animal or a scavenger. Though the game occasionally locks you into an arena with a boss, so I don't think you can just be a peaceful vegetarian.

I quite liked it, though I wasn't a big fan of the boss fights. I'm not very good at these kinds of games and prefer a careful, opportunistic approach, but being locked into an arena with a boss that keeps charging at you makes that an unviable strategy.

I played a few more rounds today and discovered the bosses have a timer and if you survive until it runs out it counts as you defeating them, so it's definitely viable to play as a pacifist. In fact, my last round I was basically a tiny, speedy hedgehog that just scrounged for food and ran from every predator and it was the only run I won.