Steam's Turn-Based RPG Fest has discounts and demos you can download then play, in that order

95% off XCOM 2 is a steal

"Turn-based" games are, as we know, all derived from Turn, the strategy game about a dog digging for coins released for the BBC Micro in 1987. Prior to this, all actions in games simply took place simultaenously, as fast as the player or players could make them.

Fast forward to today and many games are now "turn-based", from Tactics Ogre Reborn to Age Of Wonders 4 to chess. In celebration of their orderliness, Steam is currently running a turn-based RPG fest featuring discounts and demos for "turn-based games where you grow stronger with every battle".

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is 40% reduced, Age Of Wonders 4 is 35% discounted, the recently released Tactical Breach Wizards is 10% off, Octopath Traveller 2 has been slashed by 40%, and XCOM2 is an absurd 95% taken-offed. I'll stop there because I'm obviously out of synonyms for "on sale".

These genre specific Fests tend to attract fewer pre-release demos than other Steam events, particularly this close to the more demo-centric Next Fest, which happens in a couple of weeks. The most downloaded demos of the fest so far are recent releases such as Multiverse Loot Hunter and Backpack Battles, and recent-ish staples like Dragon Quest 11 S and the aforementioned Octopath Traveller 2.

Still, browsing the menu did introduce me to Silence Of The Siren, which released in Early Access just a few days ago. It's from the developers of Project Hospital and it's a sci-fi strategy game in the vein of Heroes Of Might & Magic. Looks neat! You can grab the demo from its store page.

The Turn-Based Fest runs from now until October 7th. Turn developer Stephen "Turn" Turner would be proud.