Your Demo Sucks

[Moeez]

There are plenty of recent demos I've liked, that have told a story or represented the final game. Too Human's demo got me to buy it because it was the whole 1st dungeon and no restrictions, even though the pacing of the 1st dungeon is still the best. Plants vs Zombies was an excellent demo, just giving you a 60min timer, but no restrictions.

RE 5's demo definitely turned me off from thinking of getting the game. I didn't see anything that I would want to explore more. Shoot and melee, rinse and repeat?

Demos work really well if they give you a whole "scene" of the game, or a whole level. Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, was a surprisingly long demo where you could play around a lot with the pacing.

 

[Moeez]

I dont know if you know this, but RE5 is one of the most downloaded, popular, and well-received demos over the world of XBL. It became a top selling game, and got shitloads of those people who have never touched and RE game before to buy it. It gave the player weapons that they dont even get yet at that point of the game, placed them in action packed areas, and even online co-op for replayability.

In a demo, I want to jump in, kick some ass, and then get out. If the game fails at making that fun, then I wont get the game. That is how a demo should be looked at.

That's great for you who's familiar with RE, but what about the uninitiated? I've never played a RE game, and that demo turned me off. That's maybe because you've come to expect such from demos, but what for demos of games that aren't popular franchises like RE? Developers shouldn't deliver a vertical slice, they should give a tease or flavour of the final game, and give some context, so the player might want to explore further by buying the game.

Do you have any stats on how many people who've never played RE before, bought the game because of the DEMO?

 

[xChevelle24]

Demos I liked:

Battlefield: Bad Company
Call of Duty 4 (or maybe that was the beta)

 

[xChevelle24]

I dont know if you know this, but RE5 is one of the most downloaded, popular, and well-received demos over the world of XBL. It became a top selling game, and got shitloads of those people who have never touched and RE game before to buy it. It gave the player weapons that they dont even get yet at that point of the game, placed them in action packed areas, and even online co-op for replayability.

Narrative is not always the best part of a demo. Having a game that doesn't suck is the best part of a demo. If I wanted narrative, I will go to the game's main website for drop down menus on the story, and bios of the characters. For example, I was not a fan of the Bioshock demo's intro, because I already know that I crash into Rapture, so why the hell would I want to spend minutes swimming to shore, finding the wrench, then getting a power? I would rather just have whatever powers from the start, then run in and mindlessly kill people. Dont get me wrong, I think that story is one of the top things in a game. But in a demo? All you can do in a demo is offer a snippet, then leave a cliffhanger to piss the player off before you give out a spoiler in the full game.

In a demo, I want to jump in, kick some ass, and then get out. If the game fails at making that fun, then I wont get the game. That is how a demo should be looked at.

I never played Resident Evil, and when I played the RE5 demo, I never wanted to. The controls sucked. Your character couldn't move and shoot. You had no ammo. It was just pointless, and stupid. I, along with many others, thought that this demo was the worst demo I have ever played.

 

[ultimatechance]

That's great for you who's familiar with RE, but what about the uninitiated? I've never played a RE game, and that demo turned me off. That's maybe because you've come to expect such from demos, but what for demos of games that aren't popular franchises like RE? Developers shouldn't deliver a vertical slice, they should give a tease or flavour of the final game, and give some context, so the player might want to explore further by buying the game.

Do you have any stats on how many people who've never played RE before, bought the game because of the DEMO?

If you want a backstory on the franchise, you should go on wikipedia and then look up the plot synopsis. A demo should never have to brief you on what happened in the past installments, or even how the past gameplay elements were, thats something you need to do in your own time. It also has nothing to do with RE being a popular franchise. ANY demo with good gameplay can appeal to me, even if it is a first in the series.

I never played Resident Evil, and when I played the RE5 demo, I never wanted to. The controls sucked. Your character couldn't move and shoot. You had no ammo. It was just pointless, and stupid. I, along with many others, thought that this demo was the worst demo I have ever played.

But all of that is gameplay. If you dont like the gameplay, you most likely wont get the game. Thats the most controversial part of releasing a demo, as the major risk to the developer is if the player simply doesnt like the gameplay. The only thing that the developers can do to help with that is to make the gameplay fun in the demo, not giving a good narrative. Thats exactly why the started you off that were filled with enemies, and gave you extra weapons than you usually should have. The problem you have is basically with the game's gameplay, and has nothing to do with the demo. Only thing they could have done to impress you is to make the game to your liking.

 

[Joey245]

Indie games usually just cut a snippet of the finished product and release that as a demo, and they're much better than most other demos.

Only 3 demos made me want to buy the full game: Aquaria, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Torchlight.

 

[brunothepig]

I actually avoid demos, for this reason. Plus, demos can still lie to you. Although the tred these days seems to be to encourage people NOT to buy it, I have seen demos that made a game look much better than it actually is. Also, what happened to those demo discs that used to be on Playstation. They were fairly good to have.

 

[Earthbound Engineer]

I think a demo that contains all of the features of that game, with a time limit or progress limit, makes a better demo than one that contains only a fraction of the real features of the game, but can be played eternally, through the entire plot or section. At least that's what entices me to buy the game, because it makes you want to play more, while in the other type of demo, you play for so long that you get bored and couldn't care less about the game anymore.

 

[Tzekelkan]

Just yesterday I tried out two demos, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Just Cause, because of the Steam package that included them both was on sale.

I have to say that the Batman demo was really short, but made of pure awesome. I was asking myself why didn't I buy the game sooner? Simply great, you met a few characters, you tried out the combat and the stealth and you found out that the awesome graphics can run on your poor little laptop rig(very important!).

On the other hand, the Just Cause demo was almost just like Shamus described... drops you in the middle of the action, with just some annoying tooltips instead of a tutorial (in a game you control with WSAD and the mouse, why is pressing ENTER the only option to end a tooltip popup? I hate lifting my hands from my very optimized gaming positioning). It does showcase the spectacular action, but I found it very poor because I had to redo every single part of the mission (thank God for autosave checkpoints) several times.
Every time I jumped from a moving vehicle with my parachute (awesome!), I only missed my intended landing zone ever so slightly, but because of the stupid mission design this meant I had to walk at a really slow pace to where I wanted to get and the guy I was supposed to kill got away! There's very little room for error in the clunkily-controlled demo and if it's representative of the full game, it sucks! It wouldn't have convinced me to buy the game by itself (even if it did end on a cliffhanger as you drove off an exploding bridge while chased by cop cars and helicopters).

Oh well, I was grateful for the demo nonetheless. I mostly wanted to try it out to see if it worked on my computer. I bought the package for Batman alone but I'll probably at least complete the story missions in Just Cause at some point.

 

[Da Ork]

The last demo that made me want to buy a game was need for speed underground...one of my rules with demos if I can't stop playing the demo I need to buy the full game. In fairness there has been one more recent game with a pretty reasonable demo which was left 4 dead 2...it didn't start you at the start of the game but it told you how to do everything you needed to know and set you loose on zombies...which really is the purpose of the game...well that and good teamwork.

 

[ghostrider409895]

The inFamous demo was really good. I was already looking into it, but after playing and exploring Empire City for a while, I really wanted to get it.

I also want to say Batman: Arkham Asylum had a really good demo for sample story and gameplay. Mirror's Edge had a demo that made me look into the game. I also really enjoyed the Just Cause 2 demo, though I did not like having to restart from the begining every time I died because the in-game map took a long time to get from one place to another and it was a timed demo. I also enjoyed the Uncharted 2: Among Theives and Fear 2 demo.

 

[Hyperactiveman]

Resident Evil 5's demo also talked me out of buying the game... Because it also showed me nothing but the raw gameplay mechanics... Funnily enough imo they sucked arse so I was so put off from it that I even recommended that my friends shouldn't get it.

If anything when I see games being featured or marketed the gameplay is overlooked until later on and not shown to me until I get excited about it like in recent developments Power Gig: Rise of the Sixstring, Kane and Lynch 2 and Vanquish.

I would be more pissed off to be talked into buying a game which showed me only its good storyline, characters and setting instead of its crap gameplay, controls and camera movement.