Steam Next Fest - June 2025: Part One
From Baby Steps to Holstin, a lot of new demos came out during the June Next Fest on Steam. Join me in taking a look at the highlights.
Here we are again, at the second Steam Next Fest for 2025. There are a lot of games to check out this time around so I've split up the load. This is merely the first lot of demos I've tried out. There are more to follow, but these are the ones I am most excited for. This article is long enough as it is without an extensive prelude, so let's jump into it.
Baby Steps
Release Date: 09.09.2025
This has been on my radar since it was announced way back in 2023. From the sick minds who made Getting Over It and Ape Out comes a brand new nightmare. Baby Steps is an open-world game that features 'physics based walking,' a 'mountain-sized mountain' and a 'dynamic onesie soilage system.'
The demo is an honest introduction to the kind of game this will be. I spent about twenty minutes attempting to climb one cluster of rocks because I kept falling back down. It's the Dark Souls of walking, and that's a good thing. It makes exploration feel a lot more rewarding when every step you take has to be intentional.
The writing is frenetic but dialogue is sparse—it's packed with lines that made me laugh out loud. It looks surprisingly good too, considering everything else about it. The foliage is dense, the atmosphere is excellent and the onsie soilage system is indeed very dynamic. I hate that this game made me write those words, but I damn well respect it.
Wander Stars
Release Date: 02.08.2025
Let's get the obvious out of the way. This game looks amazing. The art style is very clearly inspired by the art of the late great Akira Toriyama (鳥山明) who is famous for Dragonball, Dr. Slump and the Dragon Quest series of games. Wander Stars nails the aesthetic and built a solid game on top of it.
A turn-based RPG where you combine "words" to build attacks. It's all very anime but it is a lot of fun when you can pull off an EXTRA SPECIAL SUPER FIRE KICK and obliterate an opponent. Encounters are a fairly straightforward affair, with the twist that it's beneficial to not completely defeat opponents.
After reducing an opponent's health to their "breaking point" you can actually choose to "peace out" and you'll even gain "pep ups." That was a lot of jargon to essentially say: leaving your enemies conscious after battle powers you up. I love a game that actually encourages you to not kill everything you see, and it's a perfect fit for the light-hearted tone in Wander Stars.
TROLEU
Release Date: TBD
I might not be East European but TROLEU makes me really *understand* East Europeans. As a trolleybus conductor, you'll need to serve tickets, take payments and punish rulebreakers when the need arises.
At its core, this is a stress-inducing management game. You'll be scrambling to deal with as many customers as possible before a ticket inspector boards the trolley. If he finds a customer with no ticket, it's goodnight conductor. The demo was a lot of fun, and the full game appears to have a lot more crazy shit going on in it.
TAMASHIKA
Release Date: TBD
More of a meditation than a video game, TAMASHIKA is a fast-paced twitch shooter about concentration. Timing is everything, so be mindful. The developer sells this as being a lot more pretentious than it actually is. That's not a bad thing, I prefer when games aren't pretentious, personally.
This is almost a therapeutic experience with a jaw-dropping aesthetic, banging music and a really tight gameplay loop. Procedurally based levels that change on a daily rotation packed with vibrant colours and violent baddies. The levels are nice and short with generous checkpoints. They're built to be these bite-size challenges that require a burst of focus which is perfect brain training for someone like me.
Ferocious
Release Date: TBD
If I said this is Tomb Raider meets Jurassic Park you'd probably think "That's just Turok" and I can see why you'd think that. I should be more specific, this is 2013's Tomb Raider reboot crossed with Jurassic Park 3. That should clear it up, right?
This a shockingly good-looking game with some good shooting and thankfully understated survival mechanics. You'll mostly be using items you find out and about in the world but you gather materials to craft spears, matches and bandages too. While you mostly fight humans in the demo, the dinosaurs are what sell it.
Market Garden
Release Date: TBD
The impassioned developer behind Market Garden has one clear mission: to create a game reminiscent of the 'golden era of WWII games.' The demo is a bit rough around the edges but there is some crazy ambition behind it.
The AI is a bit wonky—one moment they're running around in circles and the next they're aiming precisely where you are behind a wall. I also had some issues with the game, such as not recognising the keyboard and mouse due to a controller being connected (albeit, off). There was also only one or two bits of repetitive music throughout.
Despite these issues, I'm glad I worked it all out. I agree with the developer that there aren't enough 'classic, linear single-player' shooters these days. It's a coincidence that two of the games that seem to be trying to revive this lost art are both about "gardens" (see my review of Metal Garden). The demo for Market Garden has me excited to see the full release. I just hope there's a bit more variety to the music.
Metal Eden
Release Date: Q3 2025
I must have been living under a rock because I'd never heard of Metal Eden until the Next Fest. With some very clear cues taken from the most recent Doom games, play as a "HYPER unit" as you platform, shoot, rip and tear your way across a monolithic dystopia.
To state the obvious, this is a gorgeous-looking game. Unreal Engine 5 is being used to great effect here. It does have the telltale problems of an Unreal Engine game—inconsistent frame timings and stuttering. It was noticeable but didn't stop me from getting sucked into the adrenaline-pumping action.
In the demo, you jump and wallrun your way between arenas which is immensely satisfying. The arenas are claustrophobic, contrasting the much larger arenas in games like the Doom reboot. This isn't a bad thing, it works well here, even on regular difficulty enemies are always breathing down your neck. It's enough to get your blood up without being too punishing. I really enjoyed what I played in the demo and couldn't stop playing it either, I eagerly await the full release.
Holstin
Release Date: TBD
It wouldn't be a Just Good Games article without mentioning survival horror games and this is shaping up to be a good one. Holstin is an isometric game for the most part, but the real trick is when you get into combat and the entire perspective shifts to third-person.
Being a Polish game set in Poland, tonally, it's very bleak. There are monsters and strange growths all over the town, but the inhabitants you can speak to act like it's any other day. It's all very strange, and it's an immaculate vibe. In terms of gameplay, it's a mix of your standard survival horror fare and an isometric adventure game like Little Big Adventure (terrible pull, I know).
A more contemporary comparison might be something like Disco Elysium, but I don't want to compare Holstin to a big, sweeping RPG. This is a far more streamlined and focused title, with all the hallmarks of a great survival horror experience. The demo was a bit buggy, but bugs can be fixed, and there's something special at the end of this monochrome rainbow.
After Inc.
Release Date: 18.06.2025
If you're my age, you might have played a lot of Plague Inc. growing up. It's a game that was available in browsers, on phones and of course through Steam. The whole point of the game was to craft a boutique virus or infection that would overrun the entire world. After Inc. is the spiritual sequel to this, where you rebuild society after the plague.
It's a very casual, almost relaxing take on the survival city builder. The gameplay is clean and stripped back but still satisfying. Visually, everything looks great—the UI is slick and well thought out and the art is vibrant. While it feels very accessible to casual gamers, there are options to tinker with the difficulty and there's added depth with scenario modifiers and multiple leaders to choose from too.
