SUMMER NEXT FEST 2025 - Don't Miss Another Bunch of Cool Games!

Phew! The week is slowly coming to an end, and so is my marathon through a deluge of demos that the NEXT FEST blessed us with. I love this event - it is one of the main sources, for me, of discovering new games. And making my Wishlist even fatter than it was before. Already found a few superb titles that I crave, and it seems there are many more in store that will try their best to take hours of my lifetime! Delightful. And so, let us look at another bunch of titles that I had some proper good fun with. Let's roll!

DISPATCH

Holy dang, we are back with Telltale Games! Well, not exactly, but the devs behind this one do not exactly hide that connection, quite proudly proclaiming that the team that cooks this game has experience with those dynamic, story-focused games of decision making and moral quandaries to tackle. Anyway, I am very happy to see this, and hope DISPATCH will be a smashing success, because I am starved of games like the old Telltale experiences. And let me tell you, the demo was fantastic.

First, the presentation. It's stellar. Animation is fluid, and the comic style is crisp and well-defined. Characters are emotive, feel alive. Voice Acting? Top-notch stuff, it took less than a minute for me to find a magnetic connection to our protagonist and the supporting cast. They are each distinctive and fun to engage with. I want to learn more about them. I want to interact with them, and I want to see how our relationships can develop based on our interactions. My biggest hope is that there are meaningful shifts in the story depending on our choices - something that Telltale games of yore did not always have, hiding a linear narrative behind seemingly impactful, but ultimately meaningless choices. Let's hope this sort of cheap illusion isn't going to dilute the experience of DISPATCH.

And an additional thing that I believe is a superb shift in core gameplay loop, is that we now HAVE a core gameplay loop! It's not a purely narrative walk-and-talk experience. As a superhero dispatcher, I have a pretty frantic game to play. Responding to various calls and crimes, sending appropriate team members to tackle them, and using our technical skills to hack, aid, and influence decisions for the best possible outcomes. It seems pretty well polished, too. The situations ramp up, often it feels you never have enough hands on deck to tackle every situation, and you must make do with who is accessible at any moment. Learning and uncovering each of your members' strengths and weaknesses is also a fun narrative bit that aids the gameplay experience. It works like a charm, because it feeds the story as well as expands your fun - the more intimate you are with understanding each hero's capabilities, the better you will be at your job. That's a great feedback loop to play with.

So yeah! The demo was a bit short, but pretty intense, and managed to make a great impression, showcasing all the key aspects of the game. The story bits, the talking, the interactions... As well as the direct game loop of your day-to-day work. Can't wait for the full title, big time.

GECKO GODS

Honestly, I had no idea it would be so much fun. At first, I was a bit dismissive. Brownish game with a simple concept, it had a bit of an aura of a 'my first game' going on - crude and simplistic. Harsh words, perhaps, but I just did not expect much out of this title. I am glad to say I was positively surprised! GECKO GODS has a strong flavour of Ye Olde adventure games, putting my mind in the thoughtscape of early Lara Croft's or Zelda games. It's all about the puzzles, the exploration, the unguided joy of finding another conundrum to solve. While so far none of the puzzles were too demanding or put my mind into a grinding session of problem solving, they were still fun, all thanks to who we are.

As a little Gecko, we have the almighty ability of walking on, well, pretty much anything. This makes the traversal in the game an experience of pure joy as our little sticky feet patter on the stone and clay structures. It also means that the puzzle design can be very... spatial. Since there are hardly any spaces you cannot creatively walk towards, all the bits and bobs, switches, pulls, sliding walls, and moving platforms can be placed in quite unusual patterns. This is the main 'challenge' of the puzzles - thinking in advanced 3D space with very few limitations that the usual pull of gravity puts on platformers.

There are some minor gripes. There is combat, as rudimentary and unimpressive as you can imagine. I'd be much happier if all combat was removed from a game like this, making it more like RIME, with a hard and firm focus on puzzles and mini-conundrums. And then, there's the camera - your true enemy. Since you can crawl your little lizard body into every nook and cranny, the camera very often struggles to follow you, twisting and turning almost to a nauseating degree, trying to keep you in the frame properly. It's not exactly putting my enjoyment down, but it did make me frown here and there. Other than that, though... I had a lot of fun with this game and I will be delighted to finish it once out. Also - must mention it - the music is FANTASTIC. Superbly fitting, serene, eerie, and enchanting, definitely a huge part of my enjoyment with the game.

DUNECRAWL

I can't give you a proper insight into this Demo, as I was playing it solo. And the game very clearly isn't meant to be played that way. Nonetheless, what I've seen was impressive! The game firmly reminded me of a time I had, some decade ago, with GUNS OF ICARUS - this whole idea of a tight, co-op experience with your pals, piloting a singular, ungainly vehicle to glory! Here, of course, we do not pilot a blimp, but a giant crab with weaponized howdah on top. But even tasting it on a single-player romp, I had great fun thanks to the game structure. You acquire your giant crab after a brief combat tutorial, and then quickly realize that the world is quite big and open! Inviting you and your team on a mission of combat and exploration through the dunes, duking it out with other crab crawlers, clay-made artillery, and other dangers.

The fun part lies in how many activities you seemingly have, how fluid the combat can be. It's not merely walking around an empty desert, but a proper exploration for gains. The map is littered with little and big towns, you're welcome to explore in between your crabby combat, finding resources and upgrades, and gaining weapons and tools. Everything weaves together into a very fluid experience, a proper adventure. And the combat can be riveting! The mere fact that you can launch yourself from a cannon onto the enemy walker to take board their platform and bring the fight directly to the enemies while your team can still bombard them from afar is pretty darn cool.

The art style is great, the music is superbly fitting, and the whole time I played, I was sporting a big smile on my face, enjoying every moment of it. I must try to convince some of my pals to give it a go with me, because if it was so much fun when flying solo, I am sure the intended cooperative flow is going to be a blast.