It's that most demoful time of the year! Another Next Fest descends upon Steam, accompanied by literally thousands of demos. Trailers and streams are all well and good, but nothing quite beats getting a little hands-on time with a game you're excited for, or finding something you didn't know you needed.

Throughout this week, we'll be updating this page with all the demos we've tried and really think you should too. Each one is a recommendation, and we're actively avoiding lazy AI-generated content whenever possible. Plus, we've already got a bunch to start with, as so many developers decided to get ahead of the crush and drop their demos early, so, let's get nibbling on this buffet of gaming snacks:

Home Paige PC

  • Genre: Sonic-style 3D momentum platformer
  • Full Release Date: "Coming Soon"
  • Extended coverage: Demo hands-on

Extremely slick Sonic-inspired platforming set in a world of Little Computer People. Paige and her friend Oliver want to explore outside of the recycle bin they live, so it's off to run, jump and bounce off aerial enemies. The demo features the whole prologue area and a movement playground to practice in, plus a handful of really charmingly animated cutscenes.

The House Before PC

  • Genre: Existential body horror nightmare
  • Full Release Date: 3 Nov, 2026
  • Extended coverage: Demo hands-on

A short demo for what's set to be a short game, but this is an unsettling little nightmare unlike any other. Existential body horror, where you wake up to discover that you are a house. A house with a history, and inhabitants, and very few normal ways of interacting with the physical world. The UI changes as often as the art style does, and none of it feels quite right, which means it's doing its job very well.

Annalynn MD PC

  • Genre: Dr. Mario with a revolving circular playfield
  • Full Release Date: Q2 2027
  • Extended coverage: Demo hands-on

A fun, literal spin on Doctor Mario, adding some interesting new mechanics to an old puzzle formula. The playfield is a looping test-tube, and between rounds you have to choose new medication with advantages and side-effects that change how you'll be puzzling through it. The demo sadly lacks versus multiplayer, but has a good chunk of gameplay to chew on until launch.

Elta: Defy All Gods - PC

  • Genre: Third-person action adventure brawler
  • Full Release Date: 2 Feb, 2027
  • Extended coverage: Round-up mention

A spectacular fusion of the new God Of War games (high-spectacle up-close brawling combat) and Metroid Prime (metroidy progression and platforming), all held together with a gorgeous art-style. Through a combination of smart texture work and shader magic, everything here looks like hand-drawn watercolor concept art. A hell of a step up for relatively fresh indie outfit Afterburner Studios after their debut game, the action roguelike Dreamscaper.

Knuckle Paradise PC

  • Genre: Isometric character action
  • Full Release Date: Q2 2027
  • Extended coverage: Demo hands-on

I love me a good arcade brawler, and Knuckle Paradise has the feel alright. Still a bit on the fence about the high isometric viewpoint (it's sometimes easy for those little character sprites to get lost in the noise), but it does make for some fun high aerial combos, with your chicken partner on call for combo extenders and assist attacks. The story is also extremely silly so far.

Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered PC

  • Genre: Kaiju Fighting/Wrestling
  • Full release date: 3 Nov, 2026
  • Extended coverage: Demo hands-on

They call it a remaster, but this is closer to a full ground-up remake. Whatever it is, it's great stuff. Destroy All Monsters Melee is still one of the best kaiju brawlers ever, and secretly might be one of the best arcade wrestling games in general. It really does look and feel like a classic Godzilla game (echoing the rubber suit era) should. Weighty, responsive, and smashing your way through the city as the military helplessly tries to break up your kaiju rumble is a joy.

Archrebel Tactics PC

  • Genre: Retro Squad Tactics
  • Full Release Date: TBA
  • Extended coverage: Demo hands-on

A retro-styled tribute to Rebelstar and Laser Squad, the '80s squad tactics games that evolved directly into the X-Com series. This is less of a demo and more of a self-contained, gruelingly tough challenge game, which the developer estimates will take even strategy-savvy players 6-8 hours for their first playthrough, and longer if they want a high score and want to explore all the character building options.

Guns of Eschaton PC

  • Genre: Weird Western Souls-Like FPS
  • Full Release Date: 8 Dec 2026
  • Extended coverage: Demo hands-on

I can promise you've never played an FPS or a Souls-like quite like Guns of Eschaton. Set in a world by (sadly departed) Half-Life 2 and Dishonored artist Viktor Antonov, and with gameplay design by the only person mad enough to adapt Pathologic into a board game. I've never found myself sweating every shot in a shooter before, as you need to ritualistically hit each enemy type in multiple weak-points to put them down, giving this a unique trick-shooting feel. If you'd already tried the demo, you might want to give it another look. It just received a major update with some extra content and progression options.

Ballistic.exe PC

  • Genre: Cursed target shooting simulation
  • Full Release Date: 2027
  • Extended coverage: Demo hands-on

Billing itself as "Like Arma without the fun", there's a surprisingly enjoyable game here, if you're up for the gun equivalent of Getting Over It With Bennet Foddy. Starting with the world's worst airgun, hit targets for money to upgrade piece by piece into something that can fire in a straight line, then start looking for big, weird secrets that take you to beyond the bounds of this unsettlingly simulated firing range.

Iron Bramble PC

  • Genre: Bungee-grappling metroidvania
  • Full Release Date: 2027
  • Extended coverage: Demo hands-on

Another older demo updated just in time for the Next Fest, and sequel to the fantastic Rusted Moss. The age of Man has ended. Magic has returned to the world. You are a VERY bored fairy noble, looking for entertainment, and you've heard that there's a giant metal megastructure that might have some humans left. Hugely explorable and non-linear with tons of secrets, even in the demo, with real depth to the physics-driven movement. Rusted Moss might be a better place to start, though.

Ablahshikar PC

  • Genre: Hardcore roguelike sailing mishap sim
  • Full Release Date: 2026
  • Extended coverage: Demo hands-on

A true oddball experience, but fascinating. In an arabesque science-fantasy world, you are the latest captain to acquire the deed to the doomed ship Ablahshikar. You have zero maritime experience. The game then smash-cuts, booming sound and all, to one of the most intimidating turn-based roguelike interfaces ever seen. For a game set on the ocean, this game has a lot of dry humor. Brutally difficult but beautifully written, fans of Caves of Qud and Sunless Sea might find something special for them here. For most though, this one's a bit much.

Derelikt PC

  • Genre: Retro space horror FPS
  • Full Release Date: 2026
  • Extended coverage: Demo hands-on

Looking and feeling like a long-lost PS1 game, specifically in the style of the very underrated Alien Resurrection. You've been sent to a research station on a mysterious planetoid to look for some missing scientists. Within minutes of arrival, all hell breaks loose and you're plunged into tense resource-management heavy FPS action. Not quite full survival horror, but close to it, as ammo is tight.

Magnavale: Eternal Soul PC

  • Genre: Pure Igavania
  • Full Release Date: TBA
  • Extended coverage: Demo hands-on

There are so many strains of Metroidvania around these days, but surprisingly few are fully committed to replicating the look and feel of Symphony of the Night. Magnavale: Eternal Soul nails it so far, from the segmented enemy sprites, to the slick power-walk animation on your protagonist (a tough purple dragon-lady), and all the crunchy RPG-lite stats and gear that you can chew on. Just good stuff, and much as I loved Bloodstained, this is a more visually coherent experience.

El Paso, Elsewhere 2 PC

  • Genre: Gothic bullet-time third person shooter
  • Full Release Date: TBA
  • Extended coverage: Demo hands-on

The demo might not have the first game's fantastic horror rap soundtrack (at least, not yet), but this is a nice first bite of the sequel to the supernatural breakup ballad shooter. The protagonist has traded in his painkiller addiction for vampirism, so needs to stake enemies to drain them to heal, making for more aggressive combat, even as enemies upgrade to using guns themselves.

Casualties: Unknown PC

  • Genre: Medical caving survival sim
  • Full Release Date: 9 Nov, 2026
  • Extended coverage: Demo hands-on

A brutal physics-driven platform survival roguelike, with survival being nine tenths of the experience. Food and water are just your basic requirements. Every injury needs to be tended to as you would in real life. Clean, disinfect, dress, observe. The demo has almost half of the full game's world and biomes to explore, and one of three playable characters - a good amount to chew on and learn to master before the full game lands soon.

We'll be updating this piece throughout the week, but as for the Next Fest page itself on Steam, we recommend waiting a couple days before diving in too deeply. On day one, expect to see a barrage of AI slop and low-quality stuff clogging up the page. But it appears that Valve rank games on the page based on hours played, and that quickly helps sort the wheat from the chaff. Expect to see human-made titles float to the top very quickly.

And of course, the moment the Next fest is over, we're diving straight into the Halloween sale. Prepare yourself, boils and ghouls!