Valve officially kicked off the first of three annual Steam Next Fest 2023 events on February 6th. It's a tribute to upcoming titles on Steam, offering users a chance to try out new upcoming games in the form of demos. Additionally, it provides a much-needed boost to demo culture at a time when game publishers have slowly drifted far away from it. With this year's Steam Next Fest welcoming more than 100 developers to showcase their hard work, we're rounding up the 15 best game demos you should try.

The first Steam Next Fest of the year officially started on February 6, 2023 and will end on February 13, 2023 at 10 PST. Much like all previous Next Fests, the event allows developers to showcase their upcoming titles in the form of demos for players to send feedback. On the other hand, Steam users get hundreds of game demos to try, giving rise to the nostalgic demo culture. Here are the demos you should check out at February 2023's Steam Next Fest.

Developer Ironmance is back again with another brand new demo for Dark and Darker, a first-person PvPvE dungeon crawler with a shrinking circle. The new demo brings in new features such as a redesigned assembly hall, VOIP system, Karma system and much more. There are tons of improvements during the December 16th Alpha playtest. It's a solid recommendation if you like titles like Escape From Tarkov but want a more D&D inspired setting.

After enjoying early access for over a year on the Epic Games Store, the sequel to rogue-lite RPG Darkest Dungeon will leave early access and make its debut on Steam on May 8, 2023. While there's still some time for the game to launch, Red Hook Studios launched a brand new demo that gives players a taste of what to expect.