---
title: 'Steam Next Fest Highlights - October'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=nhAI-Bo6OQI'
video_id: 'nhAI-Bo6OQI'
date: 2026-10-20
duration_sec: 629
channel: 'Mortismal Gaming'
---

# Steam Next Fest Highlights - October

> Source: [Steam Next Fest Highlights - October](https://youtube.com/watch?v=nhAI-Bo6OQI)

## Summary

This video is a Steam Next Fest highlights roundup, where the creator shares a selection of playable demos they enjoyed from the October 2026 event. The video covers a range of genres, from beat-em-ups and CRPGs to narrative adventures and remasters, providing release dates and first impressions for each title.

### Key Points

- **Steam Next Fest Overview** [00:00] — The video introduces Steam Next Fest, an event promoting upcoming games via playable demos. The creator notes there are around 7,000 demos, making it impossible to play them all, and invites viewer suggestions.
- **AI-Generated Demos** [01:43] — The creator observes that there seem to be more demos than usual, and a significant portion may be AI-generated, with some being exceptionally low quality.
- **Elta Defy All Gods** [02:00] — A beat-em-up game releasing on February 2nd, 2027. The combat is described as super smooth, with fun platforming. The creator may review it upon release.
- **The Guns of Eschaton** [02:45] — A first-person souls-like with unique mechanics, including shooting in specific sequences to enhance damage. Releasing on December 8th, 2026.
- **Starfinder Afterlight** [03:24] — A full-blown CRPG using the Starfinder 2nd edition ruleset, set in the Pathfinder universe. Early access delayed to Q1 2027. The demo has been available for a while and will remain up.
- **There Are No Ghosts at the Grand** [04:22] — An updated demo for a game combining musical, narrative, and renovation elements. You repair an old hotel with hidden mysteries. Early access release in December.
- **Emberville** [05:04] — A top-down pixelated game where death no longer has sway. You dive into a dungeon to solve the mystery. Features RPG mechanics, sprite creation, masteries, and button combos. Early access on October 27th.
- **Dreadmoor** [05:59] — A Lovecraftian fishing game similar to Dredge. You are stranded and must collect rare fish to pay off debt. First-person, releasing on November 9th.
- **Warhammer Survivors** [06:50] — A bullet-haven game set in the Warhammer universe. Auto-firing abilities, upgrades, and unlocks. Releasing on November 10th.
- **The Wolf Among Us Remastered** [07:43] — A remaster of the narrative title featuring Bigby Wolf in the Fable universe. Upgraded for modern hardware. Demo available, game releases October 29th.
- **Pools of Radiance: Myths of Draenor** [08:42] — A revival of a classic CRPG by Snag. Releasing on November 6th. The creator is curious and may do a full review.
- **Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered** [09:10] — A remaster of the kaiju fighting game. Control up to 12 monsters, battle or destroy cities. Releasing November 3rd.

### Conclusion

The video provides a curated list of promising demos from Steam Next Fest, highlighting release dates and unique features. The creator encourages viewers to share their own demo discoveries in the comments.

## Transcript

What's going on everybody, Mortem here, this time bringing you some Steam Next Fest highlights for our latest Next Fest entry in October of 2026, of course.
And as always, Steam holds several of these next fests over the course of a year, and the intention is to highlight a bunch of upcoming games while also providing you a means to play them via playable demos, which is obviously a good chance to dive in and take a look at them, but that does bear a couple of explanations.
For starters, there's I think like 7,000 demos taking part in this, and even if I played from now until the time the event ends on October 26th, I would certainly not get them all done.
And to that end, if you play any demos that are awesome, I'd love to hear about it. And these are the ones I had time to check out and try and enjoyed on some level and decided they were worth sharing with you guys. and as always, I hope I get some suggestions as well,
and that way I can check them out and figure out things I might want to play in the future. In any event, it also usually bears an explanation that the Steam Next Fest is about promoting upcoming games via these demos.
However, sometimes the games demo has been available for some time, other times it's only available during the Next Fest itself, and in some cases, the demos will continue to be available after the event ends,
and it really is on a game-by-game basis, so you'll have to check in with each one individually if you want answers to one of those specific questions. And in the case of this particular event, it's probably worth a mention that I noticed there were seemingly more demos than usual as part of this one.
And to put it plainly, I think a not insignificant portion of that is likely due to games being made by AI. Some of these demos are exceptionally low quality, So that's probably something to keep in mind if you decide to browse these for yourself.
But otherwise, let's go ahead and get on with it. Starting first with Elta Defy All Gods, which is actually releasing in full on February 2nd, 2027. But in this demo, we get the opportunity to play a sort of beat-em-up style game,
where if the title wasn't a giveaway, you were going to defy some gods while being a champion for yours, this little dragon thing following you around. and from what I played of this demo, the combat in particular is super smooth.
The platforming seems relatively fun, and there's a not-insustantial chance I will wind up reviewing this one when it releases, just because I thought it was pretty cool Next up we have another title I actually taken a look at recently via a dedicated video but this one is The Guns of Eschaton which is an especially interesting game trying to do some unique things
In particular, it is a first-person, soul-like-esque title with a couple of unique mechanics, in particular, not only giving you guns, but forcing you to shoot in specific sequences
against certain enemies in order to enhance your damage and deal as much damage as possible. which made for, again, just a sort of unique experience thus far, if nothing else. But this game is actually releasing in full on December 8th, 2026,
so not all that long to go on that one either. And while I have a couple of grouchos of it, so far I do already think that this is worth taking a look at via its demo, of course. Next up, we've got Starfinder Afterlight,
which is receiving an early access release in 2027, which actually got delayed just a little bit. they were initially trying to make that for the end of this year, but it was pushed back to Q1 of
next year. Either way, Starfinder takes place in the Starfinder universe, which is itself also the Pathfinder universe, and this one is a full-blown CRPG utilizing the Starfinder 2nd edition rule
set, which has some fun stuff going on, and honestly, if you like Pathfinder, this is probably something to be aware of, even if the art style isn't necessarily for you, and the demo is a great place to figure that out, and though this demo has been available for a little while, and I believe
they intend to keep it up as well, and so I have talked about this one at length elsewhere, so we'll go ahead and keep it moving. The next title I want to talk about is There Are No Ghosts at the Grand. Now, this game received an updated demo. It had one available previously, and this new demo expands
upon what was available ahead of this game's early access release in December. I will say I was hoping this game would release in full, but it is either way a sort of odd combination of, like, musical, narrative, and renovation.
As you try to repair an old hotel that has certainly seen better days, but is also clearly hiding quite a few mysteries the town is not willing to talk to you about, which is fun in and of itself, I would say.
So, interesting title. I just kind of really want to see what they do with this one, and I enjoyed the previous demo, so there's that as well. Halfway through the pack, we then have Emberville. Emberville is an interesting little title that I might choose to make a dedicated video about, but I have not done so yet.
And this one is actually releasing into early access very very soon on October 27th so in just a week or so and it takes this sort of top pixelated approach and puts us into a world where death no longer has any sway here Things that die don stay dead
In order to get to the bottom of that mystery, you have to dive into the depths of this strange dungeon, but obviously that is not everything, as it does have some RPG mechanics that you will actually get to make your own sprite and character,
as well as learn masteries and upgrade all sorts of stuff, utilize button combos, the whole thing. So, interesting little game. Again, I might talk about this one more in the future if I have the opportunity to play more of it, but the demo seems
pretty fancy so far. Now, this next entry is certainly a fun one, I would say, and that is Dreadmoor. Dreadmoor is most easily described as being something very similar to Lovecraftian
fishing game Dredge. In Dreadmoor, we're going to bring back some of that Lovecraftian fishing. In fact, it's a little pronounced right in the opening as you see a lot of eldritch things pretty much immediately,
with the gist being that you are initially stranded and in order to get back to civilization and save your life, you have to put yourself into debt for these strange fishermen who then employ you to go about collecting ingredients for them,
which just so happens to be these rare strange fish. It's also first person. You can get up and like walk around normally and everything, so it's probably worth keeping in mind. And this game is actually releasing on November 9th.
So, again, not too much longer to wait on that one. Shifting gears a little bit, however, we then have Warhammer Survivors dropping on November 10th. Now, Warhammer Survivors is, in effect, just one of those, I believe they call them bullet-haven games now,
where you are going to be moving your character to a level and all of your abilities will be auto-firing and whatnot. But this also requires you to upgrade them as you ground experience and level up. and then in between runs, you'll spend your money on bigger and bigger upgrades,
making your life easier as you go, ideally, anyway. However, I'd say the main thing I want to mention here is just that I think the Warhammer universe specifically is a great mix with this particular type of game, and while that genre has always had its audience, mind you,
again, I just think in this particular case, the uniqueness of the IP really adds to the specific genre they're trying to pull off, and you've also got a lot of the Hallmark features, you know, the unlocks, the goals,
unlocking new playable characters, that sort of stuff. So, should be a pretty good time if that is your specific game. However, third from the bottom, we then have a demo for The Wolf Among Us Remastered,
which is a new version of that game dropping on I believe it October 29th However if you never played it The Wolf Among Us is a narrative title that puts us in the role of Bigby Wolf in a world created by I believe it the Fable comics The gist of it being that
Fable is entered the human realm after being banished from their homelands. However, their society is tenuous and fast, and we play the role of their sheriff, the Big Bad Wolf, and you have to get to the bottom of a mysterious murder. Now, as I mentioned, this is a remaster to the original
game, so it's really about upgrading some things, making the experience a little better, getting it running on modern hardware. And while we've been talking about a sequel to this game for quite some time, we have yet to see it materialize. However, if you enjoy games like this patch, this one's a
pretty fun demo to play. Now, an exciting one for our penultimate entry is that on November 6th, we see the release of Pools of Radiance, Myths of Draenor, as it has been brought up to speed by
Snag, who has been breathing life into a bunch of old titles here of late, and Pools of Radiance will be launching on, I believe it's November 6th, which will give people yet another opportunity to play a game that was narrowly lost to time.
I'll be sure to check this one out likely with a full review, actually, as I'm very curious about this one, as people have asked me about it before, as I cover a lot of CRPGs. However, last but not least, we then have a bit of a fun one releasing on November 3rd
With Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered, which is more or less what it sounds like, we take control of a bunch of different kaiju, up to 12 I believe at a maximum, and either pit them against each other or just take turns destroying the cities we find ourselves in.
And there really isn't much more to say, though it is a certain type of silly fun that I think is worth taking a look at, especially via a free demo, and it is releasing very, very soon, again November 3rd. if you want to play something a little more simple, let's say.
Either way, that is pretty much all the demos I had time to take a look at and enjoy on some level or another, and hopefully if you take a look at any of them, you will as well. But to that end, as a little reminder, I'd love to hear about any more of these demos you guys have been playing
down in the comment section below, which is, of course, a good time to mention to say that you should like, comment, subscribe, or that you too jazz, but regardless of any of that, truly, just thank you so much for watching. I really do appreciate it.
May you wander in wisdom and have an amazing day.