Steam’s New Hit Free Download Scores “Overwhelmingly Positive” 98 Percent Reviews

A new free Steam demo is gaining popularity, garnering thousands of positive reviews even though it hasn’t even been released in full yet. If you know where to look, you’ll find all sorts of freebies on Steam, from permanently free-to-play games to brief, time-limited free play weekends that give you unrestricted access for a limited time.

Sometimes overlooked, though, are the many game demos available on Steam. They may not be as expansive as the permanently free games, or those that participate in free play weekends, but they often provide an interesting opportunity to test out new or upcoming games like this one.

Bombanana released a free demo on Steam as part of last week’s Next Fest, in which upcoming Steam games allow players to try them out for free in order to drum up publicity ahead of their release. Bombanana quickly became one of this Next Fest’s must-plays, garnering 1,183 Overwhelmingly Positive reviews based on its demo alone.

It’s essentially Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes — a co-op bomb-defusing game where one player only has access to the instructions, and the other only has access to controls — but with a unique twist. You play as one of the see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil monkeys, which alters your options for communicating with your co-op partners.

One player can only see a rough outline of the bomb, with no access to colors or screens. They’re also the only player who can directly interact with the bomb, so they’ll have to do all the wire-cutting and button-pressing themselves. The second player is the only one with access to the bomb manual, but they can’t speak, so they’ll have to communicate entirely through gestures.

The third player can’t hear anything, but can speak to the other monkeys. Their job is to interpret the second player’s gestures and communicate them to the first player, but they won’t be able to take any follow-up questions.

It’s one of those games that forces you and your friends to develop new ways to communicate, forcing you to learn to understand each other through several layers of abstraction. Over time, you’ll work out a unique system of communication that allows you to solve the puzzles put before you, or you’ll die trying.

As a fun little aside, Bombanana also includes a bomb-design mode that allows you to create your own defusing puzzles, then put them to the test with your friends.

Bombanana has already garnered overwhelmingly positive reviews, with many players praising its gameplay and recounting the fun experiences they had with the demo. Many requested more variety, but that’s a task for the full release to tackle. That full release, by the way, is due out this August, but, in the meantime, you can check out the demo for free on Steam.

Brand

Valve

Original Release Date

September 12, 2003