Steam Next Best Game of 2025

Steam Next Fest is an all-digital event where you can do hundreds of demos for free on Steam, so you can find your next favorite game. However, with so many demos to play, the event lasted only a week – ended on March 3, 10pm – knowing where to start.

The IGN team has been downloading and trying out the best and most interesting demos, and we have summarized them below. This is not a comprehensive list of everything you want to check out, more demo lists, you should definitely go to first, if you want more, then, there are hundreds of other options to choose from.

Monster Train 2

To this day, I still play the Monster Train Daily Challenge on my phone, and I just finished a challenge when Monster Train 2 and the demo popped up. So I was pre-engrossed in the Roguelike, a fantasy game series built by deck. But so far, I like my opinion on the sequel. This is not a fundamental reshaping of the idea, but rather layering on something new, like equipment and room cards, you have to upgrade on the flying moore and build resources like the hoard and courage of the dragon are quite different enough from the original version to be refreshing – and Stapleton

God of Dark 2

If you like Fire Emblem, you will love Dark Deity 2. As someone who loves the first game, despite its rough edges, so the second game is shaping, it's a big improvement with more player creativity. The great feature is building flexibility, as each unit has four mid-level courses and four more advanced courses. My personal favorite unit is the hunter, who can choose orangutans, toads, lions or hyenas to fight them. This story makes you the child who is the protagonist of the first game. I really like the sibling dynamics, and Alden, a return character who acts as the cold uncle. The demo also shows some early choices with branch paths that promise a more memorable and replayable adventure. – Eric Zalewski

Invisible

Out of sight, you play Sophie, a blind girl trapped in a mansion and trying to escape. You will see from her teddy bear's eyes that you have to guide her through environmental challenges to help her escape the buildings while avoiding adults who want to leave her there. Sophie takes Teddy most of the time, giving you a first-person perspective while playing. But, in order to climb or manipulate items in the environment, she must let you down and shift your perspective to the third person. It's a clever trick that adds to the bias of this creepy puzzle game, which reminds me of a part of Resident Evil 7, but with enough new ideas to be worth a look. – Chris Reed

Monaco 2

You can never rely on your friends, but sometimes that's what makes them hang out with them. This is a big reason why Monaco 2 is interesting. It's a collaborative invisible experience where you have to rely on your teammates to be caught and react accordingly if inevitable. Monaco 2 is not the next live service phenomenon, but it will be around you when you are eager to dig deeper into the new game with friends. It's fun, and often interesting stealth mechanics, there are many strategies, and an aesthetic that brings everything together. However, this is definitely not someone you enjoy yourself, but who wants to do a robbery on your own anyway? – Tyler Robertson

Note: Humble Games is a publisher of Monaco 2 and shares a parent company with IGN.

Everhood 2

Everyhood, released in 2021, is an incredible independent mashup of Undertale, Yume Nikki and Guitar Hero, requiring players to meditate on life, death, and existence in a world full of mushrooms. I love it and absolutely no business gets a sequel. Yet, we are here, and I have been fascinated by everything that eternal bad is. Dance Wars are better than ever, its quirky cast keeps me stomping on my toes and I don't know where this wild story about soul weapons and thought dragons are, but I absolutely succumb to it. – Rebecca Lover

Hurry: Broken World

If you're looking for the speed of a 3D sound game, its style seems to appear from the Dreamast launch title, that's what Haste: Broken Worlds might be like. The main game mechanic revolves around perfectly landing on the back edge of the slope to fill a meter so you can give yourself more hanging time. From what took me a short time, it seemed to be able to nail the “barely hanging” nature of “fast game”. The soundtrack is also a bop. – Aaron Obstacle

Deep skin

Deep in the skin is the perfect marriage of immersive problem solving and slap in humor, you can protect a group of cat crew from strange pirates who also want you to die. Most of Skin Deep's charm comes from ridiculous scrolling: Don't think about why you are the lonely unarmed human insurance agent on a kitten ship, or why the pirate's head slowly floats back to the point of rebirth. How you can defeat armed pirates while sneaking through a sandboxed spacecraft is totally up to you, but what really makes the skin stand out is that all the tools can also cause harm. Pepper can hit enemies, but you can also give up your position if you sneeze. Windows entering space may be broken to create new entry points, but leave fragments of glass to cut into feet. Helping you will also hurt your motivation, giving you some stage where I can’t get enough unexpected consequences. – Brendan Graeber

Teen Mutant Ninja Tturtles: Tactical Knockdown

As someone who loves turtles but never quite falls in love with a turn-based tactical game, there is sauce in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Cutting. The quick, smooth movement feels less based on turns than other tactical games when you press the button, and the potential of its story makes it one of my most anticipated games right now. Some fonts and UI elements require some work, but that's why it's a demo! This is the purpose of the next festival. – Tyler Robertson

Committed to mascot agent

Described as an “open world narrative adventure mascot management simulator”, the Promise Mascot Agency feels like a side issue with Yakuza, partly because of its kind. As an exile Yakuza member named Michi, your new job is to get financial success, attract more fans, and remove more work by hiring different mascots and sending them to activities that can be as cute as possible. It's a very crazy game, combining numbers is a feeling of managing simulation, but with a sense of humor and cult gameplay, like Yakuza, no more heroes. – Matt King

The Demon King's Maze

I'm the sucker for the old-fashioned, first-person dungeon crawler and devil's maze, and of course it tickled. Demon Kings Maze, developed by the lonely developer, is a fallback to games like King's Field, but like Siren, Jhorror's splash is well invested. As your Lord’s low footsteps, you decide to enter the nightmarish realm of the Demon King, trying to avenge your master. But hellish monsters and nightmarish feudal Japan may not be worthy of your honor. Excellent visuals, classic atmosphere and many styles make this demonstration attract attention. – Matt King

These are just some demos we've played on the next Steam Fest. Check out the game on our list, and again, there are currently hundreds of game demos to play on Next Fest until March 3. So let us know in the comments of the demo you are playing.