Demo Dive #2 - October '25

Spooktober is in full bloom! Rains are falling, trees are turning orange at last - reminding me that once my ravaged body feels better, I should hit the botanical garden. And of course, games are coming out! More and more every week. One can only dream of not having to work to be able to try them all out, but alas, that is a pipe dream for most of us, proles of the earth... And so, I am bringing you a sampler! A dive into recent demos to check out, to see if the games are worth your time. Without further ado, let's roll!

SWAP MEAT

See, I am always on the lookout for a fun, low-stakes co-op game for me and the boys to play. I have a dedicated support group of mighty ogryns with which I played DARKTIDE for over 2000 hours, but of course, no game can last forever... SWAP MEAT seems like it might just be the next title to organize out evening funtimes with! It has all the ingredients I am looking for. It seems quick and easy to pick up. It's goofy as heck, zany even, basking in absurdist tone and comedic premise of, well... Meat. You are a shoddily made meat person. You go on meat farming adventures. And you beef it out with various organic critters to harvest their fun parts and integrate them into yourself.

That's the fun bit of the game - all weapons, all traversal abilities, all skills really are connected to your very malleable body of loosely bound protein. You can 'take' bits of your enemies to craft your very self into a new amalgam of meaty mayhem. But Lo! And Behold! Some nasty, gnarly, eldritch horror-shaped nasties want you to chicken out because they find you delicious. They will try to invade your runs to taste your supple flesh. Ouch!

What sold me, however, on the demo and the game is the structure of the missions. It's somewhat... HELLDIVER2'ish. You have your primary objectives, yes, and the need to secure the coveted Meat Core before you and your team can extract on a hilariously burger-shaped escape pod. But to grow strong and reap rewards, you're quite enticed to wander around the arena looking for trouble. To tackle the side objective, defeat mini-bosses and level up so you're ready for the encounter with the Hunters, as well as the final set of waves that will try to lay their claim to your meat. In short, it was hella fun. Strange, bizarre even, and yet packed with juicy entertainment and moment-to-moment excitement of its squealchy combat. Hope to play more of it once it's out!

CROPDECK

I wasn't sure if I should talk about this game. After all, it's not technically a demo, but sort of an open playtest. But since there was no NDA included and nothing signed, I decided to go for it. CROPDECK is hella fun. A roguelike farming romp? I mean, sure, why not. I didn't know what to expect out of it, but I must say I am impressed. It's not an easy game, to be sure. It took me a few tries to get the gist of it, but once my boardgaming experience kicked in, I finally started pushing through and even scored a few wins! See, this is a deceptive game, because it is as much a puzzler as it is a deck-builder. You have very limited time to score your gold, and due to the core mechanic of crops needing time to grow and develop, you do need to plan ahead. A lot. Organizing your deck is crucial. You need just enough plowing cards, watering cards, and, of course, synergistic crops to keep generating income at a pace that can outstrip the looming goal.

Fortunately, there are plenty of fun bits here to make your run work. Scarecrows act as relics, giving you a variety of passive bonuses to make the task easier. Every single card in your deck can be upgraded to become more powerful, and there is more than one upgrade path for each card to further customize your approach. Like in plenty of other deck-builders, you'll quickly realize that a bloated deck won't work - hurting your chance of drawing key cards is a tremendous waste of time. You want a streamlined, sharp deck of your best performers! Add to that variety of biomes that add some pesky modifiers, different difficulties of each little grid farm, and the ever-growing taxation, and bam - you have a fun formula that just works.

CROPDECK is an interesting case for me, because it doesn't reinvent anything on the surface, and yet its key mechanics are both fresh and immersive. The whole time to grow matched with a need to keep your plants watered is such a simple concept, but it shifts your focus and your planning in unexpected ways. Because in most card games, you play your card and that's it - get the effect of it right now. Here it's all about planned, delayed reward, and every misplay might cost you a precious day. It's a great twist on the formula, and I was having lots of fun trying to figure out my combos. Can't wait for the full release.

TRUCKFUL

I have been following the steady development of this title for long, long months. Maybe even years! Not even sure why, it just... Has it. If you ask me what is this 'it' I would not be able to formulate a cohesive answer. There is some particular charm to it. The game style is gorgeous, a strange blend of vibrant, cosy visuals that look shoddy in a very deliberate way. It's not shoddiness derived from lack of skill, but rather crafted meticulously by someone with an extreme level of skill, talent, and vision. The gameplay itself, this whole ride through the woods and fields on crumbling roads, for reasons unspecified, gives me a nostalgic twinge of games from the SNES. Maybe because of its linearity. It is a small focus, a close-up lens on the tiny bit of the world. The vistas are gorgeous, and the sunlight can be felt through the screen. The eerie darkness of the night, the soundscape of summer bugs buzzing... Damn, I can not stop glazing over the whole feeling that this title already captures. It's uniquely spectacular.

See, that's a strange thing considering how TINY this demo is. It's like... 15 minutes of play. A tiny slice of what's to come, hopefully. But those 15 minutes sell the concept well. The sweet sense of a cosy ride through the empty fields and lush forest. The little tension of balancing the wobbly cargo on your ramshackle vehicle. The cute sheepies that refuse to yield your right of way, forcing you to find a side route. And the chilling terror of running away in the dark forest from an infernal giant truck blaring its horrendous horn at you. Yeah. This game ain't as soft and cuddly as the initial visuals would like you to believe! There's darkness in the ancient woods, and you'd better get good at swift turns under pressure. So yeah - this is a small morsel, a tiny bite of the game, but I am completely sold and crave more. It's going to be quite an adventure.