Well Summer Game Fest has finally concluded. What a week it has been. There was such a whirlwind of announcements, trailers, and demos that I couldn’t keep up. Seriously – I watched, or read about every showcase that happened, cross-referenced the Steam pages for each event, and tried out a whole host of demos. It was a lot of work – I don’t recommend it.

Regardless, here’s a round-up of all my favourite announcements, and demos from across the week long escapade that was Summer Game Fest 2023.

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector

Let’s start off with a bang: Citizen Sleeper 2! The original Citizen Sleeper was one of my favourite games of last year. What, to my mind, makes this especially noteworthy is that the game is almost entirely delivered through text. I have very little patience for games with little to no mechanical complexity, and that’s doubly true when they’re nothing but words. However, Citizen Sleeper’s light RPG elements, and fantastic writing really won me over.

If the sequel fires on all the same cylindars as the original, then I’m sure I’ll have a great time playing it. I’m hopeful that developer Jump Over The Age makes managing your resources a little more challenge though. I was able to do, and see almost everything in a single playthrough of the first game. I’d have liked for the decisions I made to feel even more impactful by locking me out of certain narrative routes. If this is done well in the sequel, I might even end up playing through Citizen Sleeper 2 multiple times. Fingers crossed!

En Garde!

En Garde was one of the first demos I played through, and I’ll admit that I was initially a bit lukewarm. It’s an action game in the same vein as something like Bayonetta. The difference here being that you’re playing as a fencing, Robinhood style character who is fighting the corrupt upper-crust. There’s also a big emphasis on using the environment to dispatch foes. My favourite example of this was kicking baddies into a weapon stand, which immediately collapsed on them. It was some Saturday morning cartoon style violence, and I’m all about that.

The reason I wasn’t immediately sold on En Garde was because the story tutorial didn’t give me a great sense of what the developers were going for. However, upon completing this segment of the demo, I was asked to try the arena mode challenge. I’m glad I did because the arena combat gave me a much better sense of what En Garde was going for, and I had a lot of fun weaving between baddies while kicking them into furniture. This also gave me a much stronger impression of what the developers are looking to achieve, and I’m fully onboard now.

Word Factori

This feels a bit like cheating because I already wrote a full length article about Word Factori, but yeah – I really liked Word Factori. This was one of 2 demos I played over the past week that really stood out to me. The game is so well designed, and I can’t wait to dig into the full release later this year!

Lies of P

This is the other game I played where the demo really left me wanting more. I didn’t have any expectations going into Lies of P, but I can’t wait to play the full release. The parry was so satisfying to use, and made both bosses in the demo intensely gratifying to take down. I don’t know if this game will tickle the fancy of all the FromSoft chads out there, but I’m certainly looking forward to exploring the full extent of what Lies of P following its full release.

Station to Station

I’m going to be perfectly honest – I was a little disappointed to learn that this was actually a game. I assumed that Station to Station was just going to be a simulation where you assembled train dioramas. The full release might have a creative mode like this, but Station to Station is a puzzle game at its core. Each level sees you building stations, while connecting them so that different resources are able to move across the countryside. Players have to manage their money, and also try to connection stations in a pattern that achieves a combo to earn the most points possible. It’s a simple premise, but I like trains so I was ultimately sold on the experience.

Baladins

I’m not even sure what to call Baladins. It’s like a multiplayer, board game RPG? I think? You, and up to 3 friends pop into a game, and run around a map trying to complete an RPG style adventure. What sets Baladins apart is that there doesn’t appear to be any combat. Instead you have to rely on your wit, or charm to get you through any sort of confrontation.

The thing that really sold me on Baladins was the writing. It wasn’t deep like Disco Elyisum, Shadowrun, or Citizen Sleeper though. This was more…cute? Yeah cute feels right. The game was trying to make me laugh more often than not, and I concluded that it was pretty darn endearing. Though, I will fully admit to playing it by myself while controlling multiple characters. I think the ideal experience might be to share Baladins with someone you like.

Bestieball

Here we have the final game I was actually able to play a demo of before I go into a lightning round. Bestieball asks what if Pokémon, but sports? And the answer to that question is eeeeeeh? I really like the premise of Bestieball, but I found the demo so limited in scope that I didn’t get a great feel for what the game was trying to achieve. And unlike En Garde, there wasn’t any additional content that I could muscle through to remedy that issue.

Sooooooo…I dunno on this one.

I really liked the creature designs, but from what I saw so far I’m not entirely convinced if Bestieball is for me, or not. I’ll still be keeping a tab on this one though.

Okay, lightning round: here’s some games with trailers, but no demos. I don’t have a whole lot to say aside from letting you know why I thought they were neat.

Pizza Possum

This game might be the next co-op title I play with Miranda. It is reportedly going to have a demo during the upcoming Steam Next Fest, so we’ll try to play it there to see if we like it. Pizza Possum looks like just the right amount of multiplayer chaos for the two of us.

I Am A Caterpillar

A 3D platformer with some unique looking movement mechanics, and a story about not wanting to change. What more do you need? No one likes being an adult, and I hope I Am A Caterpillar will validate my desire to remain a basement dwelling potato.

Everdeep Aurora

Everdeep Aurora is very much a game like Ender Lilies: it’s the kind of thing that people will see, and ask me about. Repeatedly. It’s a retro platformer, with a moody atmosphere, and you play as a cat. This has my name written all over it.

Crypt Custodian

Another game where you play as a cat – a cat janitor that is responsible for cleaning up the underworld. Crypt Custodian checks a lot of the same boxes that Everdeep Aurora does, though it looks far more chaotic.

Ok. The draft version of this article is approaching 1300 words, so I think that’s where I’m going to call it folks. Those were some of the stand-outs for me from across the Summer Game Fest. While it was a lot of work to go through everything, I really appreciated having demos for several of the games I was interested in. The ones that landed gave me a much stronger appreciate for what the developers are aiming for, and now I’m way more excited to play the full releases.

That’s enough from me – what did you think? What announcements, or demos really stood out to you from Summer Game Fest 2023?