Looking back, we'll call this period a renaissance for games that are kind of a pain in the ass. Stalker 2, Kingdom Come, Atomfall on the horizon—the gaming public of 2025 wants nothing more than to die face-down in the mud, victims to clockworld worlds that have their own rules and obey them unsparingly.
I couldn't be happier, and in my Next Fest meandering I think I might have found the true king of the genre: Peripeteia, a cyberpunk immersive sim set in an alt-reality Poland, whose developers were brave enough to ask the question: 'What if Jucika had a gun?' Its demo is also, well, not actually part of Next Fest, though I can't recommend strongly enough that you try it anyway. The game hit early access last week, and I'm eager to see where it goes.
