Next Fest demo picks: Hela, Hollow Home and Inkblood

With Next Fest landing in Halloween season, many of the games on my list have been spooky and tense. These three include a break from that, and one of them, Hollow Home, is a game I think is a must-play.

Hela: a wholesome open-world adventure as a mouse

In Hela you play as an anthropomorphic mouse with a little backpack, exploring idyllic countryside inspired by rural northern Sweden. Earlier trailers showed fun-looking sandbox exploration, and I've been curious about what you do in this world. The new demo trailer shows puzzling, shooting through targets and lighting up statues, so there's more to do than the sandbox co-op action. You can play alone or with a friend in local split-screen co-op, and the full game is out on December 1.

Hollow Home: a survival RPG drawn from the war in Ukraine

Hollow Home follows Maxim, a child separated from his family who must survive a wartime occupation through a grueling winter. Buildings turn to rubble, districts close for safety and familiar faces vanish. The Kyiv-based Ukrainian developer drew on real events from the 2022 Russian invasion, including radio broadcasts from the country's national broadcaster. This one gets real, and I think it feels important to experience. The full game arrives in January, and the demo offers a taste of it.

Inkblood: a detective game from the Ministry of Broadcast team

Inkblood is one of the more visually striking games here, from the indie team behind Ministry of Broadcast. Set aboard a rattling cross-country carriage, it has you investigate single-screen dioramas and solve puzzles to unravel a death cult sweeping the land. It looks built for a mouse, but the Steam page lists controller support, so you can play it on Steam Deck.