11 Fantastic Free Demos Not To Miss In February’s Steam Next Fest

Kathy Rain is finally back, eight years after her last, fantastic adventure. She’s now working full-time as a PI, but it’s not going well, money is about to run out, and she’s betting everything on solving a series of local murders by a serial killer called The Soothsayer. The demo gives a good chunk of game, and some excellent puzzles. — John Walker

Release: TBA

If you thought Steamboat Willie’s entering the public domain was just going to secure you a few terrible horror movies, think again. It’s also going to score one of the most astonishingly disturbing games I’ve ever played. And I’m pretty sure it’s good? Bad Cheese’s demo is a monstrously upsetting first-person...something, in which you play a bloated, morbidly obese Mickey Mouse, desperately trying to find pills for his mutant dog-like father-creature. Oh god, even the sound effects make me curl up to remember. — John Walker

Release: TBA

This twin-stick shooter does more interesting things in its demo than so many games offer in their entirety. It’s a game where your health bars are also your ammo, so attacking makes you vulnerable, and that’s a damned fine idea alone. Then it gets more complicated. — John Walker

Release: TBA

Bad Cheese isn’t the only disturbing black-and-white demo we’ve found this Next Fest. Kiddo is a monochrome point-and-click adventure in which you play a masked figure who lives in disgusting solitude, finally spurred to leave his couch by the disappearance of his dog. In the demo, you’re mostly focused on trying to clean the toilet. And it’s so good. — John Walker

Release: TBA

Race around collecting golden gears and other stuff in a beautiful seaside world where you surf around with the flare and ease of an animated ‘90s cereal mascot. Demon Tides is a follow-up to Demon Turf: Neon Splash. There are only about five short levels in the demo so it’s only a taste, but I already want more. I’m cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, I mean Demon Tides. — Ethan Gach

Release: TBD 2025

Set in Quito, Ecuador in 2001, Despelote is an urban walking sim where you learn about a neighborhood and its residents by kicking a soccer ball around. Its collage art-style is evocative, the music is beautiful, and the dream-like exploration of someone else’s mundane memories is affecting and hard to shake. — Ethan Gach

Release: May 1, 2025

Colorful, fast-paced parkour in a whimsical world that’s constantly falling apart around you. That’s Haste: Broken Worlds in a nutshell, a very neat action platformer that can feel like a mashup of Sonic and a Studio Ghibli movie. I love it. One YouTube comment put it best. “They actually made the ‘Awesome Parkour Guy You Watched Out The Back Seat Car Window When You Were a Kid’ game.” — Ethan Gach

Release: TBD

Mashina is a stop-motion strategy sim where you play a robot digging through the earth to harvest resources and repair the world around you using machines. Think stripped-down elements of Minecraft and Factorio wrapped around a cute, child-like adventure. The demo is super short and gave me ToeJam & Earl vibes (complimentary), and the mixed-media visual style is top-notch. — Ethan Gach

Release: TBD 2025

Is This Seat Taken is the perfect kind of puzzle game. It has a simple setup—sort out differently-shaped people correctly—and so excellently and confidently nails that premise that playing it feels like someone injecting dopamine directly into your brain. I burned through the demo so fast that I was sad I have to now wait to play the full game. — Zack Zwiezen

Release: TBA

The latest game from XCOM creator Julian Gollop isn’t what you might expect. Chip ‘n Clawz vs. The Brainioids is a third-person shooter tower defense strategy game that features colorful visuals and large open maps to explore. It’s like someone mixed together Ratchet and Clank with Orcs Must Die and added a tactical vision mode, too. Sounds a bit odd, but it’s really fun and feels great even in this unfinished state. — Zack Zwiezen

Release: TBA

TMNT: Tactical Takedown is pitched as a turn-based beat’em up and while that sounded strange, after playing the new demo, I’m totally in. This new TMNT game is turn-based, sure, but moves fast thanks to the fact that every few turns part of the map falls away. So you are forced to keep moving through crowds of enemies and use each turtle’s unique abilities to fight while picking up pizza for health. It’s a little harder than I expected, but I think this is something special. — Zack Zwiezen

Release: TBA