[Next Fest 10/24] Assortment of demos released earlier

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Published on ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxVkLcTHFGY



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Streamed live on 13/10.

Texnoplazm Thoughts:
I forgot to turn on the audio recordingj for the game, so I apologize for the silence.
From the dev behind Ghostware comes a game, where the main focus is just styling on your enemies, think Hotline Miami mixed with Devil May Cry and put in that kind of a run down, muted aesthetic of those old piracy commercials from early 2000s. It feels good, but the demo is a bit buggy, such as scripts breaking, forcing a checkpoint reset and blocking geometry in spots you're meant to enter, like the first checkpoint in the subway.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2527710/TEXNOPLAZM/

Gravelord Thoughts:
Oh hey, it's a game from Slovakian brethren, channeling Quake with the addition of a 3-tiered card modifiers per level, including Markie Music doing level designs for the game (yeah boi, he did E1M2 in this demo). Pretty good so far.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1823990/Gravelord/

Butcher's Creek Thoughts:
It's a new David Szymanski horror game, you play as a journo looking for snuff scoops, but get captured and now must escape. The various cassettes scattered around act like your ink ribbons, but instead of just being a limited resources for saves, having multiple of them also increases your health and there are doors that require a certain amount, which lead to better weapons.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2512560/Butchers_Creek/

Randomax Thoughts:
It's a new Astro Port game, with the twist that it has "sudo-rogue" elements, where your weapons have limited ammo, so you must stop at the Argo stations to get new weapons or upgrades. All levels are made by hand, but sometimes bigger enemies and bosses can be randomized, especially when playing on harder difficulties. The demo itself isn't too tough outside of the newly introduced custom difficulty, where you can change enemy aggression, revenge bullets, how much score is needed for an extend and so on. Supposedly the full game will be harder, but we'll have to wait and see.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3096420/RANDOMAX/

Rainbow Fighter Thoughts:
God, this game is dull and euro-y. Flat models, enemies have too much health and your guns do minimal damage (no autofire btw, you have to mash, since holding down the fire button makes the firerate really slow), supporting guns aren't much of a help either, big hitboxes compared to what it looks like + being inconcistent, bullets blending into the background... this is a no-no from me.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2720670/Rainbow_Fighter/

Beaming Stingray:
It's Ikaruga/RSG, but with a time rewind ability, where your afterimages copy your inputs 1:1, which is how you're meant to fight the bosses, but it can also screw you over if you're trying to score, since the "3 of the same color" is present with 3 colors from RSG instead of 2 from Ikaruga. The presentation is nice, but the demo has a few caveats, such as unskippable cutscenes (WHY), the dash only going sideways instead of all 8 directions, which can screw you over on multiple occasions, the back blast I didn't find any uses for, I know it's meant to be primarily for extra score and acting like a backdash of sorts, but it just felt... off to me.
I also need to say that I didn't enjoy Ikaruga, I see what actual players enjoy in it, but it just isn't for me, more power to you if you enjoy it.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2312490/Beaming_Stingray/

00:00:00 - Texnoplazm
00:37:44 - Gravelord
01:12:40 - Butcher's Creek
01:37:15 - Randomax
02:00:57 - Rainbow Fighter
02:13:03 - Beaming Stingray