7 Free-To-Play Games You Can Try Out At Steam Next Fest

Steam Next Fest is kicking off on Monday, and a lot of games have signed up to take part – far too many for us to actually count. Many of those games will be free-to-play offerings, whether that be MMORPGs, action games, MOBAs, or anything else. All of these are games getting ready to release this year, most of them sooner rather than later. All of them will have demos available during Steam Next Fest. We decided to take a look at what’s coming and find some to share with you. Perhaps you’ll find something new to try out.

Spot Zero

Tarta Tech Limited’s Spot Zero is an anime-style ARPG set in a post-apocalyptic world where humans and yokai live and work together. There are only a few towns left, and it's up to the players to take teams made up of both the humans and yokai out into zones controlled by monsters and set up outposts. Players assemble a team of elite investigators and train them.

Each character has its own abilities based on race and weapon type, and players will need to build their teams in ways intended to take advantage of that, swapping the characters out in combat. During combat, players charge energy to be used to freeze the enemy and bring out the entire group to attack at once.

Eon Rush

Eon Rush is a game designed for MOBA and ARPG players and features endgame-level combat from the beginning. The game boasts no grinding to reach endgame and promises that players don’t need to worry about level to play with their friends. There is progression, but it’s not the kind that restricts players from being able to team up. Instead, it gives players more options on how to work together using the game’s Fusion system.

DreamWorld

If you missed it, we’ve written about this game before. DreamWorld is a sandbox MMO where players can build (or destroy) anything they want. They’ll explore different areas, collect resources, build their bases, and hopefully just have a good time. The game makes use of AI text prompts to aid players in their creation, so players should come up with pretty interesting things.

Drone Zone

Euphoria Machine, Drone Zone’s developer and publisher, describes the game as a mix of tactical shooter and MOBA. The other obvious feature of the game is that players control drones to engage in combat, which probably makes the game a lot more vertical than most MOBAs or shooters.

Why drones? Because the world is a radioactive wasteland, humans have to live underground. So, drones do all the fighting and resource acquisition. Each drone has a variety of skills, such as being able to stun the enemy, generate anomalies, and more. Players can make their own unique drones using the resources they’ve gathered, adding better engines, guns, and the like.

Fate Trigger

Speaking of tactical shooters… a new anime-style hero-based version is on the way. Fate Trigger, by Saroasis Studios, features a roster of characters with varying abilities entering an arena to battle it out in different game modes. The game features Battle Royale, team-based defense, and more. The Steam description doesn’t explicitly state it, but based on the sample gifs on the page, it seems players may be able to switch between third-person and first-person combat. Either way, it looks like it might be a good bit of fun.

Only Animals

Looking for something with fewer guns and more critters? Perhaps Only Animals is for you. The game features a “truly endless world” with ongoing procedurally-generated biomes where players can capture and turn into more than 100 animals. Whichever animal the player transforms into dictates how they go about exploring the world.

Don’t fool yourself into thinking it’s all cozy. The game features massive bosses that players will need to fight. That’s not to mention just surviving in general. The good news is you can team up with nine friends to make things easier.

Crystalfall

Ah. The classic loot-centric ARPG. That’s Crystalfall. Players start out the game as a convict trapped in the dungeons of a ruling organization and fight their way through a world that’s not exactly doing well following an asteroid impact. When it hit, the asteroid scattered shards across the world. Now players must contend with mutated beasts and steampunk enemies – because why not steampunk?

The game features a sizeable talent tree as well as lootable skills with their own randomized trees. And yes, there’s plenty of loot for players to collect, use, and sell. The game offers players seasonal content as well as a full endgame experience.

Of course, this is a small selection of all the games that will be taking part in Steam Next Fest. If you’re looking for something specific, you’ll want to take the time to look through the list when it launches.