CRPG goodness meets horror Pokemon in this must-play Steam Next Fest demo from The Witcher remake devs

Steam Next Fest ran from October 9 to 16, and during this week, there were several demos to try out and new information revealed by developers. For anyone interested in knowing what the future of PC gaming holds, it was an event to pay attention to.

The most-played Steam Next Fest demos have been revealed, and I'm not surprised to see what's topped the list. 

The Steam Next Fest just came to a close, but its diverse game demos live on in our hearts. Valve sprinkled a little bit of everything into its recent event, from open-world RPGs to fantasy crafting sims. While many of the showcased demos are still available to play now, others are no longer up as developers prepare for their games’ full release. To commemorate the Next Fest and talented devs, Steam just revealed its most-played game demos.

Steam Next Fest was an excellent opportunity for players to learn about the most exciting and interesting upcoming PC games. However, one game that stood out even among the standouts to become the one of the most-played games from Steam Next Fest was a remaster of a cult favorite strategy game poised to make a solid comeback. Stronghold: Definitive Edition revitalizes the original 2001 game's strategic take on building a kingdom in Medieval Britain circa 1066. Coming from original developer Firefly Studios, the Definitive Edition aims to recapture the scope and story of the original but with some added flair.

City-building game Pioneers of Pagonia has a demo out as part of this October's Steam Next Fest, and it's looking pretty dang good. The fantasy strategy city-builder will release into early access on December 13, 2023, but the demo's showing off some real interesting bones and very understandable, smooth mechanics for growing your city.

God, Ghostrunner was good. I'd almost forgotten how good until I loaded up the Steam Next Fest demo for Ghostrunner 2, which is just Ghostrunner but with a 2 on the end. It's got some new tricks, but it's the same exhilarating first-person action romp under the hood, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Just finding time to play through the best Steam Next Fest demos, let alone all the promising ones that appeal to me specifically, is a tough task. I've had to get pretty aggressive about my selection process this week. If a demo's screenshots and tags don't grab me immediately, it's not getting a download, and if the first five minutes don't feel right, it's getting uninstalled. Life, like Steam Next Fest, is too short. And I was this close to passing on Noreya: The Gold Project, a 2D pixel art Metroidvania from developer Dreamirl, not because it didn't look good, but because I still haven't gotten to demos for some of the event's most popular games. But I'm glad I gave it a shot. The demo is a little rough technically, but I see huge potential in this distinctly post-Hollow Knight game. 

I've seen such sights in this October's Steam Next Fest, but nothing has piqued my interest quite like the demo for My Work Is Not Yet Done, a lo-fi and cryptic «narrative-driven investigative horror game» where you spend quite a lot of time wandering around nature listening to the wind rustle the leaves before going to bed. Trust me, it's fascinating.

If you've ever wondered what a modern day take on the classic, fixed-camera Resident Evil games would look like, an upcoming indie survival horror called Echoes of the Living is pretty much exactly that.

It’s the perfect time for horror games. As Halloween and the spooky month descend, from Resident Evil to Silent Hill, Five Nights at Freddy’s and Phasmophobia, the absolute best that the genre has to offer are bound to make a return to your Steam playlist. But alongside all the classics, there are loads of fantastic Steam Next Fest demos available now that give you a window into horror games’ future. The sheer amount of upcoming games can get overwhelming, so at PCGamesN, we’ve gathered a flashlight and a dusty old map, and trawled the haunted caves to find you the absolute best horrors available to try now.

Rabi-Ribi developer CreSpirit is finally returning to the realm of Metroidvanias after seven years spent on a visual novel, a pure bullet hell game, and side-scrolling horror. Not only that, it's well and truly going back its roots with TEVI, a bullet hell Metroidvania that acts as a spiritual successor to Rabi-Ribi. After a brief beta earlier this year, TEVI dropped a meaty demo in this week's Steam Next Fest, and it has won me over in record time. 

If you're looking for your next cozy farming sim after Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon, I've found one for you to try during this year's Steam Next Fest.