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Steam Next Fest – TheOverMatt’s Five First-Person Festival Favorites

Steam Next Fest Event Logo

First-person games have been going through something of a renaissance. With more and more developers casting off the shackles of military shooters, we have a new crop with plenty to offer. The massive variety on display during the most recent Steam Next Fest is proof of that.

While there are literally hundreds of great games to discover, here’s my pick of which ones you should immerse yourself in next:

Severed Steel

by Greylock Studio
Link to Steam Store Page

Take the mission structure of Superhot, but make it play more like a combination of Titanfall and Max Payne, and you get Severed Steel. Each mission has you fending off endless enemies in order to accomplish your objectives, but your ace up your sleeve is that you’re invincible whenever you’re performing a myriad of parkour moves. Add in toggle-able slow-motion, thumping beats and a slick cyberpunk aesthetic, and this game is an easy favorite. Points too for featuring an amputee protagonist.

Boomerang X

by DANG!
Link to Steam Store Page

How could an arena shooter with only one weapon possibly be fun? By making you able to teleport to wherever you throw your weapon with the push of a button, that’s how. Much like Severed Steel, what makes Boomerang X addictive is that every action you pull off feels awesome. Combined with a unique visual aesthetic, this made for a demo that left me chomping at the bit for the full thing.

Agent 64: Spies Never Die

by Replicant D6
Link to Steam Store Page

A love letter to the Nintendo 64’s shooter classic Goldeneye 007, Agent 64 is all about the nostalgia trip. Everything here, from the animations to the level design and objectives, feels right at home in 1997. That said, it also has plenty of modern touches to make it feel much more playable. Of course, missions add more objectives as you increase the difficulty, and there are par times to beat on each level.

Mortal Sin

by Nikola Todorovic
Link to Steam Store Page

Taking a break from shooters, we have Mortal Sin, a game that evokes Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, but if it was animated by Ralph Bakshi. A Rogue-like hack and slash with strikingly grim visuals and lots of combat options, the game feels like being dragged into the D&D campaign of your worst nightmares. Especially interesting is the fact that you need to dismember your enemies to fully kill them, not unlike the combat found in Dead Space.

Industria

by Bleakmill
Link to Steam Store Page

This one wins out for its interesting premise and superb world-building. A Cold War-era shooter where you’re transported from East Berlin to another world, Industria is fascinating. The surreal industrial environments mix with fantastic writing and voice acting to create something like Half-Life if it was designed by David Lynch. Also worth noting is the excellently atmospheric soundtrack.

Did you play any great first-person demos that I missed? Let us know in the comments!