Steam Neo Fest June 2022: a festival of FPS demos

Steam regularly hosts Steam Neo Fest (or Next Fest in the language of the Beatles), events allowing players to test hundreds of indie game demos. The June session is in progress until Monday, June 20 and, in order to see more clearly in this big mess, we offer you a small non-exhaustive list of FPS demos.

If you’re too lazy to read the whole article, we advise you to try Selaco, Trepang², or Metal: Hellsinger first.

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Metal: Hellsinger

Genre: Rhythm FPS
Steam page

Extract of our preview : “Do you like heavy metal that stains and slaughters demons to the rhythm of your head movements? So watch Metal: Hellsinger out of the corner of your eye: its atypical concept, mixing rhythm game and FPS, works very well and flatters the reptilian brain, while its soundtrack is excellent. It remains to be seen, all the same, if it will hold up over time. On the other hand, if big overdriven guitar riffs aren’t your thing, skip it and wait for the more eclectic Gun Jam instead.”

Ripout

Genre: Horror Co-op
Steam page

Extract of our preview : “In RIPOUT, you are a soldier of the future whose mission is to explore abandoned spaceships in order to accomplish different objectives. Only, the places are haunted by mutated creatures that will jump on you at the slightest opportunity. The particularity of the title is to provide you with a “pet gun”, both main weapon – assault rifle, pump or carbine – and both a kind of pet that runs with its small legs to attack enemies and grab modules. (…) It’s very empty for the moment and it’s done in less than an hour. On the other hand, it is very stable and the artistic direction is great. A nice project with interesting potential (…)“

Cultic

Genre: Retro FPS
Steam page

Extract of our preview : “Are you a fan of retro boomer-shooters and you have nothing against sad color palettes? Try the new CULTIC demo. Jason Smith gives us a taste of an old-school shooter, but tinged with modern elements that allow the game to offer pleasant and dynamic combat. It now only remains to know if the experience will be as satisfying over time.”

Selaco:

Genre: Retro FPS Singleplayer
Steam page

THE boomer-shooter par excellence. Entirely built from the GZDoom engine, Selaco is undoubtedly one of the most successful retro-FPS ever. With detailed graphics of very good quality, but above all, a gameplay to the hair against enemies strongly inspired by FEAR, it is surely the most promising game of the selection. The fights are violent and visceral, thanks to enjoyable weapons and a wide range of movements. If you only need to test one demo, this is the one to choose.

Trepan 2:

Genre: FPS Singleplayer / FEAR-Like
Steam page

Trepang2 wants to be the worthy successor to FEAR, a cult FPS from the 2000s. And, for an independent developer, we can only admire the work accomplished: the fights are brutal, the enemies have an almost believable behavior and are not to be green plants, it screams, explodes and bleeds in all directions… The demo is quite short and offers the prologue, a scripted succession of corridors and arenas, as well as a “secondary” level, in reality a horde mode. Everything is rather effective and very promising, but still a little below its model.

Fashion Police Squad:

Genre: Funny retro FPS
Steam page

A retro FPS whose concept is a joke: you are a policeman who is a member of the fashion squad. You have to face and make a whole host of enemies classy, ​​ranging from workers in grayish suits to young people in baggy pants and apparent underpants. It sounds very stupid, and it is, but it’s also quite well done, with a labyrinthine level design full of secrets, rock-paper-scissors-style clashes and grappling hook phases. Nothing transcendent however, but it’s enough to have fun the 20 minutes that the demo lasts.

Keepsake County

Genre: Acid Thief
Steam page

Keepsake County invites you to rob a procedurally generated house and recover as many objects as possible in 8 minutes flat. From the great classic with lock picking, alarms to deactivate and NPC to avoid/tie up/attract with a TV on. Keepsake County pulls out of the game with an artistic direction that is strange to say the least. Grotesque sprites, coarse textures and flat colors, as much to tell you that you shouldn’t be afraid of bleeding your eyes to get started. All that could be nice if the game wasn’t finished in vinegar: textures that appear anywhere (but especially in the wrong place), optimization completely in the cabbage and level design often off the mark. To top it off, in barely 40 minutes on the demo, I already had a strong sense of repetitiveness. No idea where the developers are, but there is still a lot to do to make Keepsake County interesting.

Sker Ritual:

Genre: Co-op horde mode
Steam page

Imagine Call of Duty’s Zombie mode, except you replace the zombies with ragged Welsh. There you go, that’s Sker Ritual. You are stuck in a level facing growing hordes. With each enemy killed, you earn money that will allow you to buy weapons or open doors to unlock new corners of the map. From time to time, it will be necessary to accomplish some specific objectives (destroy a generator, recover an object…) in order to be able to move forward. It’s not really exciting, the enemies all look the same with a few exceptions, the weapon balancing is missing and the atmosphere is a bit sad… But it pretty much works. By cons, beware, it is not very beautiful and it rows.

Retchid

Genre: Broke FPS
Steam page

In the near future, UAC the TEC has installed a station of research of mining on March Titan. Unfortunately, the mega corporation has lost contact with the facility, so they’re sending you to see what’s going on. Here is the basic pitch of Retchid, a Wish version of Doom 3. Everything is there or almost: the futuristic station, the PDAs, the interactive screens, the possessed/zombified employees… Now, it only lacks a DA, a feeling and a soul, to hope to look like something other than a game tinkered on FPS Creator.

Deadlink

Genre: Cyberpunk roguelite and arena combat
Steam page

Deadlink is an FPS with a roguelite component that takes place in a cyberpunk universe. However, playing this title from Gruby Entertainment, it’s hard not to think of DOOM Eternal. As in ID Software’s masterpiece, you’ll chain fights in the arena, use and abuse your grappling hook, dash in all directions, and be constantly low on ammo, life and armor. To refuel, Deadlink will force you to take risks and go towards the opponent, just like what you had to do at the controls of the Doom Slayer. Want ammo? Go destroy orbs floating in the level. Are you short of HP and Kevlar? Mark enemies with your grenades to restock when they die. Deadlink’s fights are therefore dynamic, quite nervous, and rather pleasant. The title of Gruby Entertainment could turn out to be a good surprise, to be reserved all the same for people tolerant of life bars and roguelites.

Perish

Genre: Mythological Co-op Roguelite
Steam page

On paper, Perish promises to be an original roguelite, with a mythological universe with many references to ancient deities and many weapons to unlock. In fact, we get lost in labyrinths, accomplishing obscure objectives while being chased by a handful of mobs reappearing ad infinitum. And to top it off, the game imposes a constant stuttering on us that hits the system.

Mortal Sin

Genre: Retro Roguelite with melee weapons
Steam page

With its retro style in contrasting colors and its melee or melee combat, Mortal Sin offers an experience refreshing enough to interest roguelite enthusiasts. Nothing revolutionary in its mechanics, but several small subtleties make you go back there without complaining. Several resources to collect (to recover his health, repair his equipment or buy something to open a chest), different possible blows with his melee weapon depending on the duration of our click and a small dose of dismemberment to manage for certain enemies. There are just these harmless and not really scary jump scares that I didn’t quite understand, but nothing too bad. The demo will keep you busy for a good hour or more.

SCP: Secret Files

Genre: cheap horror walking sim
Steam page

SCP: Secret Files is a horrifying flashlight walking sim, dozens of which are released every month on Steam. But in addition to suffering from a flagrant lack of originality, the game is incredibly cheap, whether in terms of dubbing, sound effects, or the general realization. It also has the luxury, for the moment, of not offering a menu of options worthy of the name, and you won’t even be able to change a parameter as basic as the resolution. To be reserved for the most hardcore fans of the SCP Foundation, who would be fans, for some reason, of QTE and heartbreaking jump scares based on mannequins.

TIMESTRIDE

Genre: Nasty FPS
Steam page

TIMESTRIDE is an FPS supposed to be original, because we have a watch that allows us to switch between two temporal dimensions. Convenient to avoid soldiers, but less practical when you realize that the other side is populated by humanoid monsters. We can go from one to the other when we want, but in reality, it has no interest, because we are pissed off in both dimensions. Neither the gunfights nor the hand-to-hand combat is well done. It really sucks.

VR REQUIREMENT

Genre: DIY FPS in VR
Steam page

Originally presented as a co-op survival against zombies, the demo offered here is a deathmatch beast against other humans. However, it’s pretty fun trying to knock out opponents with anything and everything, from a rake to a parlor lamp. There is a crafting system to create bombs and other traps, and you can handle firearms. You can also combine several weapons to make one less practical more effective, if we can find some tape. For the moment, the maneuverability is very perfectible, so it quickly turns into a cripple fight, but at least it’s fun when there are people on the server.

Here are the demos tested by some members of the editorial staff. We obviously probably forgot some of them, so don’t hesitate to share your experiences in the comments!