Steam Next Fest February 2026: Part 3

When checking through the list of games there were a lot of horror games, visual novels, shop simulators, anime games, side scrollers, card battlers, Co op ‘friend slop’ type games, and chill games. It was also the first time I have heard the phrase ‘multiplayer social deduction game’ and there were a lot of social deduction games. There were also a large amount of games with unique art styles that really didn’t appeal to me. In general, there were just a huge amount of games to choose from, the list just didn’t end.

I collated a selection of games that I thought were worth a try. This is Part Three of the games I tried.

SpaceCraft: The Universe is yours. SpaceCraft is an online space exploration and building game. Explore a vast galaxy of solar systems and planets, mine and craft resources, design and build ships, automate planetary bases and interplanetary logistics, trade and cooperate.

The game has promise, but it was clear this is still quite early in the development as there are still rough edges that need smoothing out. There were hitches when entering a new zone or a planet’s atmosphere. The NPC models are all basically the same and there is still a stiffness to much of the game that polish will eradicate. 

The basics of the game are a little No Mans Sky mixed with the galactic corporation indentured servant games like Hardspace Shipbreaker. You ‘win’ the opportunity to pay off your life debt by captaining a starship to mine resources while at the same time adding to said debt. You mine different resources and then process them at the space station (for a small fee of course). Here you can create upgrades for your ship and install them (more storage, better mining lasers and a hyperdrive). The gameplay loop was fun but there are things they can do to smooth out the mechanics and remove many of the grindy elements of the game. An example of this is when you smelt resources. The time it takes to smelt them is too long and would benefit from immediately completing. The amount of smelting and creating of items you will do in the game will add a huge amount of time but none of it will be additive but rather to add time to a game that I don’t feel will need it. I think it will be a good game if they give it a little polish and smooth the rough edges down. 

Cargo Hunters: Cargo Hunters is the singleplayer extraction shooter where you control a humanoid robot scavenging the remains of humanity on an abandoned, dystopian Earth.

I have always wanted a PVE extraction game. The demo has a selection of weapons and other equipment that I don’t imagine you will have access to at the beginning of the game but rather gives you the experience you will have along the way. The shooting feels good and the effects you get when you shoot other robots and you are shot yourself are really good. The aesthetics of the game are reminiscent of other post apocalyptic games. The enemies are interesting and although I never fought one there are bigger stronger enemies in the demo. There are melee and gun enemies and I saw one with a huge amount of armour and a gatling gun. There is only one map I think, but I never completed it as I was a little rushed.This could be a lot of fun. 

Aethus: Explore a vast underground world to mine, refine and craft hundreds of items, then build up your modular surface Outpost to farm hydroponic crops, prospect for gems and automate your resource-gathering in this sci-fi survival-crafter where the story always provides a reason to dig deeper.

You play as Maive who has been working for a corporation on a mining colony but uses her savings to buy her grandfather’s mining prospect site. You and your trusty drone embark on an adventure to see what it was your grandfather wanted you to find. 

This crafting, space exploration game is quite interesting. Being third person adds something to it and the movement is smooth but does suffer from stiffness from time to time. The character gets stuck on rocks or stairs sometimes and it is one of those cases where you have to do a wide arc to get to where you are going. The inventory system and UI is serviceable but really needs an overhaul. I like the clinical clean look to it but an actual inventory screen would be better. The craft from chest is a great QoL that every game should have as standard. A button to add all similar items to the chests would be beneficial. There are a few things that could be tightened up and a group of solid testers who play these kinds of games, or seeing what other games of this type do would be beneficial. I might see what this is like in time when it releases as to whether I play it or not. 

Wanderburg: Drive your Castle on Wheels into battle in this minimalist medieval roguelike of roaming fortresses! Devour entire villages, build your modular arsenal of siege weapons and arcane machinery as you grow with every stronghold you crush.

It is a fresh take on the survivors genre where you are a mobile castle with various defenses and weapons. You select your weapons at the beginning of the run and as you swallow up people, fields, forests and so on, you get to upgrade and add new items to the castle (such as a ram, or more canons or a mine layer). This is a well made game. The castle drives along well and the turning is responsive. There were a few items I could not get used to but I think that is just me. I never clicked with a survivors game. I tried Vampire Survivors and Deep Rock Survivors but the repetitive runs that are the central aspect of the game just got boring and, surprise surprise, repetitive. If you got on with those games and you are looking for another, one that is very well made and tight, then this is one to try out. 

Deified: Forge your strategy around powerful relics in this turn-based tactical roguelite. Choose your slots, manage their constraints, and face formidable bosses.

This is a roguelike tactics game. You move through the world selecting areas to explore. Some areas give you new relics and others are battles or healing. The combat is grid based with a certain number of blocks you can move. Weapons fit into slots that increase with level ups. 

The art style is once again really nice and reminds me of the new rogue Prince of Persia or Sable. The colour pallet is on the red spectrum from yellow through to bright red of his clothing with oranges in between. It is effective and gives it a unique theme. As with all roguelikes this games success will depend on variety, how interesting the relics and powers become and synergy. 

Denshattack: Flip, trick and grind your train in a fast-paced, off-the-rails ride through a colourful Japanese dystopia. Outmatch rival gangs, wreck a shady megacorp, and take back the tracks with nothing but skill, speed, and style.

The basic premise is you are a train driver who finds out about this train racing and trick competition and being the eager beaver she is, wants to take part. The art style is kind of cyberpunk meets Tank Girl anime. The colours are bright and vibrant and the animations are on point. There are very aggressive comic book style pops and flares but it never felt like they were getting in the way or were distracting but rather they added to the overall excitement of the speeding train. 

This was a lot of fun. Kind of a Skate mixed with a fast paced racing game and the Kinect Sports game where you were on a raft and had to move side to side to dodge rapids and rocks. It is frenetic and there are tricks reminiscent of skateboarding games. There are achievements to achieve as you complete each track along with a scoring system. There are collectables as well. The tricks were intuitive and someone who is usually good at skating games will get a kick out of this. Although the train speeds along it wasn’t that difficult to keep up with the tricks and there was a freedom to what you would like. 

Prime Monster: A card-based political roguelike about surviving in a parliament of literal monsters. Fight for votes, break rules, weather scandals and force through absurd laws to keep the top job in this democratic dystopia of truly monstrous proportions.#

Humans have been removed and monsters are in charge. They decide after a while to turn to man’s greatest invention, democracy. They form political parties and for a government. You are the opposition party leader and you need to increase your political clout and your party’s popularity with the population, oppose laws and get yourself elected as Prime Monster. 

You use card based mechanics in parliament to increase unity within your party to ensure they vote your way and cause damage to your opposition and cause their MPs to either vote your way or at least don’t vote against your wishes. In the demo you go through three tutorialised situations from opposing two laws and then the election. Depending on how you did in the previous two situations depends on how you do in the election. I defeated both previous situations (as I am sure you were supposed to) and won a landslide victory and was made Prime Monster. What happens from there is unsure as the demo ends here but it insinuates that things get more difficult from there on. 

This really could be a fun game. It all depends on the variety and depth of the game. The cards have interesting effects but they need to be varied and have more interesting effects as you progress. There also needs to be positive and negative sides to the cards.  I am interested to see how much variety is and how being the Prime Monster is different or how distinct the other parties and representatives are. 

Tombwater: A Souls-Like Western filled with Eldritch Horror. Explore the Wild West town of Tombwater and lay bare the darkness that lies beneath. Survive blood-spilling combat in this gruesome 2D action-RPG that may just drive you to madness.

The demo is set in the wild west and starts on a train with you and two others trying to steal silver from someone in order to pay off debts. The train seems deserted and there is no silver in the safe when you open it. You and your accomplices make a run for it and you are thrown from the train. You are then tutorialised through the basic controls and attacks. The demo then skips forward to further in the game and the enemies are far more tanky and have multiple attacks and attack sequences. They hit a lot harder, are more numerous and take more to kill. This is where I came unstuck as my limited skill in these games came into play. 

I really liked the artstyle of this and although twin-stick shooters are not my thing I thought I would give it a go. The only way I can describe this is stiff. The animations are really good and the environments are beautiful pixel art, but the attacks seemed to have a stuntedness about them. Like I said these are usually not my forte so for people who usually play twin-stick shooters and enjoy them, I would like to know how their experiences of this was. It is very much a skill issue for me though and when I came up against an enemy (who had other enemies around him) had a multi-shot gun attack, I felt that I got stunlocked and he damaged me for all of my health with one sequence of attacks. The game seems to be well formed already though and I would think the story should be interesting with Eldritch horror theme. 

Nutmeg: NUTMEG! is a nostalgic football manager game with a deckbuilding twist, set in the '80s and '90s. Relive the days when the tackles were as hard as the mullets were long and football was about football.

This is a fun little card battler. You set up your team, buy player cards, set training dependant on the staff you have and then play one out of five matches a month while delegating the other four matches to your staff. You can set intensity of play and formation for the non-broadcasted matches (the ones you delegate away). The games you play are played using cards that have different abilities relating to the football positions on the pitch (Green for goalkeeper, blue for defence, yellow for the midfield and red for attack). These cards add to the percentage chance that one of the three options will happen. These are based off of your player and their player. By using different cards you increase your chances of success. The cards use up your players stamina and as your players stamina decreases you can substitute 2 players out during the game.I do feel the RNG in it is a bit Xcom as I repeatedly had 60-70% chances lose out to the lowest percentage more often than not. I often lost unplayed games where I had a 60% chance to win and they only had 20%. I would prefer to have the option to play every game rather than delegate four out of the five games. The players being in a sticker album as in the football sticker books that are available is a nice touch. There are plenty of nods to football adjacent things. The pictures of your various scouts, trainers and other backroom staff are very Jones in the Fast Lane style and I find them a humorous touch. Overall a very good game and I can see myself playing this more especially if they sort their RNG out.

The Ratline: A murdered priest. A secret list. Hunt Nazi fugitives across the globe in this gritty 1971 detective thriller. Analyze evidence, follow leads, and make sharp deductions before the trail goes cold. From the creators of Family, Rivals, Conspiracy, Echo Beach and Riley & Rochelle.

I enjoy these sorts of puzzle games. Different from Blue Prince style games and more in the vein of The Roottress are dead. Decipher information from breadcrumb clues and work towards identifying people from limited information. Unlike the Roottrees game there is no internet but a limited information portal and a rolodex of telephone numbers. The game is very tactile as you need to actually use the phone and drag information you have figured out to the board as well as clicking to add the evidence to the board. As long as the game continues to get more difficult but not suffer from any moon logic it will be a good game. The demo is longer than I thought and I never finished it. 

Darkhaven: Darkhaven is a next-generation ARPG brought to you by many of the original creators of Diablo and Diablo II. Explore a procedurally generated and fully dynamic open world unlike any other in this solo or multiplayer adventure.

This is Diablo 2 but modernised. There is jumping, dodging, moving around with the ASWD keys, slotted items, multiple loot, 3 weapon sets that you can switch on the fly with V and terrain destruction. The controls feel a little clunky and the attacks are not as precise as more modern ARPGs like Diablo IV or Grinding Gear Games’ Path of Exile. The UI and menus are serviceable but need cleaning up.

The basic gist is it is the game has potential but needs work. This seems to be the consensus in the Steam reviews of the demo.

Steam Next Fest 2026 Pt 1

When checking through the list of games there were a lot of horror games, visual novels, shop simulators, anime games, side scrollers, card battlers, Co op ‘friend slop’ type games, and chill games. It was also the first time I have heard the phrase ‘multiplayer social deduction game’ and there were a lot of social deduction games. There were also a large amount of games with unique art styles that really didn’t appeal to me. In general, there were just a huge amount of games to choose from, the list just didn’t end.

I collated a selection of games that I thought were worth a try. This is Part one of the games I tried.

1348 Ex Voto: Brave the harsh realities of the Italian late medieval period through the eyes of a courageous noble whose life is about to change fundamentally. Follow Aeta (Alby Baldwin), a young knight errant, on a brutal journey through Italy to find and save her closest one, Bianca (Jennifer English).

This game is coming out on the 12th March this year. It is interesting but has a lot of rough edges. The combat itself is fluid, but many of the animations are still very wooden and stiff. Hair and clothing physics are a little off putting but they are generally the most difficult to get right. It features a swing, dodge, block and stagger combat system. There is also a perfect strike system where you strike the next blow as the first blow hits and it seems this does more to the enemy’s stagger metre. The voice acting is good with the two lead characters (as expected with Jennifer English) but as the demo was short and to the point, it is hard to tell if all the other voice acting was of the same level. The story in the demo is just through the prologue stage so it really just getting started. It seems the type of game that people will enjoy if they can get past the jank of the animations, that are fine just can be distracting when Bianca’s hair goes through her neck, and I imagine the story will be engaging. Jenifer English is always fantastic as a voive actor but based on the demo I am not sure how much she is in it nevertheless Alby Baldwin was doing a very good job as the lead character.

Wild West Pioneers: Are you tired of the crowded east coast cities? Grab your family and move to the West where there is free land for everybody and claim your future. With fertile soil and abundant resources, you’ll find more than adventure and freedom. This is your chance to be a driving force of the American dream.

This is for all intents and purposes Anno in the Wild West. There are character dialogs, distinct characters with their own individual personalities and the usual base building game buildings and resources to manage. There is an overworld somewhat like Anno and the game requires you to find points of interest on the world map using your scouts. Unfortunately there were some bugs where the tutorial pop ups did not disappear and blocked the screen and after a short amount of time I had a black screen and the game froze. I feel I got a feel for the game in that short time as I have played similar games before. The game has a good feel to it and I think it could become something special if you like the Anno series. It comes to early access this year no date as yet although there is a join the playtest button steam.

GRIMPS: There aren’t any normal weapons, but you can shoot a shark like a gun, hurl stools, and rip your fluffy foes to shreds! Is this the best way to destroy stuffed animals? Probably not. Is it awesome? Hell yeah!

This is exactly as you would think it is from looking at it. It is like High on Life with an annoying pigeon character following you around and unusual guns to fight with. There are enemy arenas with multiple enemies dropping in through portals. You have health and armour to worry about, and ammo drops from most enemies and these are also scattered around the arenas. There are 2 guns I tried a slow gun that you start with and the machine gun that speeds up as it goes along. I didn’t like the shooting as I felt that it didn’t shoot where I was aiming, but rather a little down and to the right. When I adjusted that it seemed to go better for me but it was still off putting.

Starship Crafter:  Take on the role of a starship mechanic and repay the immense debt your father left behind. Upgrade your workshop, craft components, build starships, complete contracts, follow unfolding events through the in-game newspaper, and most importantly, repay the debt before the deadline

This game is a Car Mechanic kind of game but in space. You breakdown and repair ships, buy new new recipes to learn, Buy resources on the marketplace and so on. The game was fun, but the lack of universal storage just adds busywork instead of doing things that would be a bit more fun. You owe a debt to some pirates through your father and need to pay it off. I do think it could be fine, but you need to be aware of that it is what it says on the tin.

War for Bryndor: A fast-paced strategy game where cards offer you strategy and dice determine your fate! Conquer provinces in thrilling battles in an attempt to unite the land. Manage your resources and outmaneuver opponents in quick matches filled with tactical decisions and shifting frontlines. With dynamic maps and a blend of luck and strategy, you won't want to stop. Can you claim ultimate victory?

This looks to be a fun little card battler. I didn’t play enough as I feel I had the basic understanding and if I had more time and less demos to try I would have played more. I liked the art style and if I had more time to work through the cards I think it would be a good game.

House and Hand: Building thriving island cities in this addictive match-3 deck-building roguelike! Place forests, mountains, cities, and more on islands using cards from your deck. Match 3 identical features to combine them into a bigger, better features that scores you points.

House and Hand is a match-3 deck building city scape roguelike. You have card with different tiles you can place (including fields, trees, mountains, robbers and so on) that when three or more are in a row, create a new upgraded tile (pastures for fields, towns for trees, mines for mountains and the robbers upgrade). The round ends when you run out of cards in your deck which moves you onto the next island or if you have no spaces left on your island to place cards then the run ends. Each island is purposefully quite small, but they differ in size and when you get to choose the next island to go for, they have bonuses and hinderances attached to them as well as different tile sizes (4X4, 5X5,6X4 and so on.) At the end of the round if you win you are scored on that island and receive money which you use to either add buffs (you can have a few that persist through the islands on that particular run) or to purchase new cards to add to your deck.

It was a fun little game. Hopefully for the full release they have numerous cards and combinations to keep it interesting. This game reminds me somewhat of Dorfromantik in its mechanics and although I loved that game, I found it got repetitive after a while and I don’t think this game will be any different for me. If you like match-3 games and enjoy finding strategies to work your way through then this will be a great game. The sprites are well done, and the game runs smoothly.

Mirealle: A world has split into thousands of floating islands. A forgotten history is hidden in ruins. Mirealle is a touching puzzle adventure set in a cozy universe. It is about the search for hope where a lost part of the world… and of oneself… are hidden in every detail.

Mirealle is a cute little puzzle game. My daughter would probably enjoy the game as the graphics are charming. The puzzles were not difficult on the 3 maps I played. You start on your home island and your pet gets ill. You decide to travel to another island to seek help. On the island you discover a stone that takes you across to further islands. There are sections on the maps that show you past memories that add to the story. As you walk around the island, while rotating them 90 degrees at a time, you get little pop-up speech bubbles that give you context as to why these islands are uninhabited. These speech bubbles change their perspective to keep their facing in order for you to read them which was a nice touch. There have been similar games but this game should stand on it’s own.

Imago Season: A true narrative roleplaying experience. Explore an alien city inhabited by human-insect hybrids. Roll dice, join a revolution, become a mutant yourself. The choices are yours, but so are the consequences.

This was a good narrative game. The characters were interesting and the world was unique. Humans metamorphosing into bugs via a choice system was interesting. The history of the world is something I would be interested in learning more about including the robots that seem to have taken over the world as their leaders.

You start in the world being told a story about what you are felling and where you make choices that direct said story to some small amount. There is much about this game that reminds me of the way Disco Elysium tells its story. There are dice rolls that are affected by your skill set and failure in these rolls does not always mean failure in the game, but rather a different path through the story. As in Disco Elysium there are dice rolls that can be repeated after a skill increase and ones that cannot. I feel the demo was rigged to ensure you passed certain tests in order for the demo to progress. I enjoyed the game, but I am not sure if I would play it when it came out purely down to the number of releases that come out but I feel they have something interesting here that will tickle many people’s fancy. The demo is worth your time if you find it at all interesting.

Commie Block: Survive as the newly appointed manager in an expanding communistic regime where our purpose is to produce more and more resources for the glory of motherland! Manage the workforce & optimize output of buildings to survive against unrealistic demands as long as possible in our own commie block

I think there is a gem of a game here, but the tutorial is minimal and explains what you would already know if you have played any of these games before. There is little information on the buildings you put down. The apartments don’t add workers but add personal storage which I have no idea what it even does. I repeatedly failed my quotas because I just couldn’t get enough resources out of the buildings quick enough. I tried many buildings with few workers and few buildings full of workers. In the end the game became frustrating. I played the tutorial and was trying to figure out how to get more workers and other than research and random rewards for meeting quotas, there wasn’t a hard and fast way to do so. I feel I missed something important in the tutorial but even a second run through of the tutorial did not remove any confusion. Good idea but it needs more direct explanation or a deeper tooltip for the buildings to explain to stupid how they work.

Cursed Blood: Cursed Blood is a brutal 1-4 player co-op melee roguelike. Play as vengeful Samurai Apes fuelled by rage, unleashing a whirlwind of lightning-fast combat. Spill blood, sever limbs, and claim your vengeance!

I really enjoyed this demo. It is a twin stick melee roguelike. It is visceral and bloody fast-moving melee combat with powerups and curses to dictate how you play. I played singleplayer but it is up to 4 player co-op. I only played 2 of the characters and they did not deem to play that different. The second character had kunai but I never figured out how to use them. You also pick up guns with limited ammo along the way that onced empty of bullets you can throw. There are multiple curses along the way that you can collect at alters that give you a bonus in return for the curse. Overall this was a well presented, well thought out well made game. I just wish I didn’t suck at twin stick shooters.