Steam Next Fest 2025 Recap: Lecksea's Picks!
With another Steam Next Fest behind us, we are left with an abundance of new games to add to our Steam Wishlists. In case you didn’t have time to check them all out this round, or you’re conserving space on your Wishlist like I am, I’ve made a list of my top 5 favorites that have earned themselves a precious spot on my list.
YAPYAP
Coming Soon
As someone who is a big fan of playing games with my friends (and often humiliating myself by messing up simple tasks like jumping in Lethal Company and forgetting the layout of maps in Phasmaphobia) I am always on the lookout for another multiplayer game. In YAPYAP, you’ll play as a Wizard tasked with causing mayhem and destruction inside a rival wizard’s castle while stealing anything valuable over the course of three days. You’ll start off with a base wand equipped with three spells: Aero-Bis, Temp-Esc, and Up-Dog, which blow a gust of wind, create a tornado, and shoot you upwards. Casting spells must be done with voice, which is one of my favorite features. Spoken spells, along with proximity chat and scary enemies, make for some very funny scenarios when you forget their names and find yourself fervently stuttering out all kinds of gibberish to get out of an intense run-in with an enemy. I think this one is going to be a hit when it releases, so get it on your Wishlist and send it to the group Discord to know exactly when it launches!
REANIMAL
Coming Soon
Since I love a good spooky vibe this close to Halloween, REANIMAL grabbed my attention immediately, and if you are a fan of Little Nightmares I and II like me, this one will be right up your alley. REANIMAL is developed by Tarsier studio, the same developers that brought us Little Nightmares I and II (not III,) and it’s clear that they know exactly what their audience is looking for. You’re dropped into the foggy, dark, and ominous environment to play as The Boy and The Girl, starting on a little boat you’ll need to maneuver to land. We then make our way through a tunnel system and then outside for a spell. The traversal has that familiar and special feel to it, with unique camera angles with smooth transitions that make an otherwise average experience just a little more interesting. The creepy/horror elements are added tastefully, never feeling like they’re just piling it on just for scare factor. Once things start to heat up with enemies, they are plenty terrifying. Those slithering skin suit things? Amazing! I mean, horrible, but also amazing! As this is a Demo, there’s still room for improvement when it comes to performance, and a few animations from the enemies feel a bit clunky, but that’s nothing that would deter me from playing when it's released. If you’re a fan of the genre, this is absolutely one to pick up when released. Don’t forget you can grab a friend to play co-op (local or online) and have a buddy to get the most out of the unique gameplay!
The Last Caretaker
November 6th, 2025
Along with horror, I am also a sucker for a good open-world survival crafting experience. There’s just something so satisfying about building and crafting to survive. In The Last Caretaker, you’ll play as a post-apocalyptic android tasked with saving humanity after the world has been flooded. There’s an incredible trailer to the game that perfectly sets the tone of despair and desperation of the human race as they tried to adapt to their circumstances. I would suggest watching it first for more context! They invented the Caretakers, you, to protect the seeds of humanity until they reach orbit. It feels like a lot of responsibility, but I like that the goal isn’t just merely surviving for yourself. You’ll also start this game on a boat (I promise I did not go seeking this theme on purpose, but I’m not mad about it!) The goal is to execute power and cable management to get what you need out of your vessel. The narrator helps you figure out the basics, but there is plenty left for the player to discover and experiment with. You’ll understand quickly that there are many ways to execute the same actions, and you’ll have to be smart about it depending on what you want. In the demo, you’ll also get a taste of what the enemies look like in the form of dark, blobby masses that appear to amalgamate into bigger masses with a colored, pulsating nucleus. The concept is creepy, but they feel more like a nuisance than a powerful foe, as they can be cleared out pretty easily. The experience was essentially manually creating circuits for certain functions on your boat, almost like a first person Satisfactory, but with more feeling and a sense of duty. This one feels like it’ll need more time to cook, but that’s okay, it’s a demo for a reason!
Final Sentence
Q1 2026
In this unique spin on a battle royale, your typing skills are your weapon! You start the game seated in a dreary room at a vintage-looking typewriter with a very threatening overseer clad in all black standing next to you, along with many others in the same room with the same set-up. Your goat is to type faster than everyone else in the room and avoid typos before catching a bullet from the threatening black-suited overseer figure. As soon as someone gets first place, everyone else is executed rather brutally. If there’s anything that is going to motivate me to improve my typing skills, it’s consequences like these! If you mess up three times, earning you three strikes, you get to play Russian roulette with an added bullet for each time the figure spins their revolver. As far as things to work on, it feels too final when someone has won the round, and it might help to add more complexity to the levels. Additionally, here aren’t very many scripts, even for a demo, but I’m sure this is something that can be easily added. Overall, this feels like the most fun anyone can have if they are aiming to work on their skills as a typist!
Half Sword
2025
Half Sword is a medieval combat simulator with historically accurate XV-century arms and armor. The developers also state in the game’s description that they are “We are not afraid to show the brutal nature of medieval combat with in-depth blood and gore features,” and that is certainly true! As you spar with your opponent, there is no shortage of blood around the arena. Sparring with weapons in a fair and “period accurate” style is fun, but the most entertaining part of the game is figuring out the most hilarious way to absolutely pummel your opponent. Hit them as they are going down? Sword right to the head? Axe to the knee? All possibilities! The physics in this game make it feel like utter chaos, in a very enjoyable way. Might this not be the most realistic in terms of how much damage a body can take? Sure! But that’s part of what makes it so much fun. I can’t wait to see more brutal yet hilarious clips of this circulating as the game launches.
