Your Demo Sucks

[Yokai]

The last demo that really made me want to spend money on the game was the Half-Life 2 demo. It opens with the beginning of the game and the cutscene that players of the original will immediately connect with, and then allows you to explore City 17 a little and catch the first glimpse of the story. Then you get to go to Ravenholm, which may not have been the best choice for a demo level as it's supposed to be scary, and demo players who go out and buy the full game won't be as scared if they know what's coming. Regardless of that, though, it allows you to sample the majority of the weapons including the gravity gun, one of the focal points of the game. All in all, you get to experience some wonderfully atmospheric levels and play with some awesome weapons while enjoying the gravity gun and killing zombies with random objects. It lasts about an hour, too. I bought the Orange Box about a week later, and of course, wasn't at all disappointed.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Answer to the last question: Plants vs Zombies.

Okay, so they call it a trial version, not a demo, but still, it served the same purpose.

The difference here though is that the "demo" of Plants vs Zombies is the actual game, it just comes with a 1-hour limit before it stamps a toll booth between you and the rest of the game. And frankly, what better demo than the game itself?

Braid had the same sort of "the demo is the game" model to it. It has the full first world, and about half the next two worlds. I wasn't fully sure if I wanted to buy Braid or not, but after getting done with the "demo" (that was actually just limited access to the full game), I couldn't plunk down $15 fast enough so that I could continue the game.

Also, the game "And Yet It Moves" has a good demo as well. Interesting that it's mostly Indy Developers that are getting the demos right. :/

 

[nimrandir]

I thoroughly enjoyed the Mirror's Edge demo, but I fully intended to buy that game in the hope that EA would continue to do new things. I was on the fence about Too Human, but the demo actually nailed down my purchase. That demo did everything it should -- it even gave the player a heads-up about the goofy camera and unskippable death sequence.

Before that, the Braid trial on Xbox Live had me slavering over the game so badly that I urged every one of my students to go buy it.

 

[samsonguy920]

The demos I've tried of late have been lacking in inspiration of motivation to buy the full game, but the one that definitely comes to mind, wasn't a demo per se, but was the trial period for Eve Online. The trial period gives about 14-15 days to try the game out, I subscribed after 2 hours of play.
Okay, another demo that got me hooked, though I had to wait a bit to raise the funds for, was Left 4 Dead.

Recent good demos: Civilization Revolution, Too Human (BETTER than the full game)....

That gets me thinking about demos that one might have played that was better than the full game. Talk about getting the frosting and then trying the cake and hating it, but wanting more frosting.

Afterthought: A demo that encompasses the first chunk of gameplay, a chapter, first fifteen minutes, or whatever, is a good tool, but might be worth leaving a little bit of something out, that won't take away from the gameplay in the demo, but when the person gets the full game, and goes through that same chapter or timeframe and gets something extra, it does make the purchase that much more worthwhile to the gamer.

 

[sauerkraus]

The last demo that got me to a buy a game was the one for Plants vs. Zombies. It gives you the actual game, let's you play it for an hour, then tells you to buy it.

I hate when that happens in the middle of a really intense level, but it's definitely the most effective demo for me.

 

[HE Starwind]

I agree yeah the Resident Evil 5 demo wasn't that good, but their main selling point was the trailers, I don't actually see why they brought a demo out :/

 

[Abedeus]

Plants vs Zombies doesn't count, does it?


Well, I think the last demo I played was... Holy crap... And Yet It Moves, I think. Good thing I played it, because I didn't buy the game. Too many problems, like the game kept losing my progress and I had to start from the beginning of game.

Before that there was Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, of course, and I think that Steam's Warhammerk 40k beta counts as a demo?

Now I'm waiting for Prototype and/or Demigod demo versions.

 

[khain13]

Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II
The Demo is the intro and first few missions with cutscenes/etc exactly as it appears in the retail release. I loved the first dawn of war and after playing this demo I'll definately be getting DOW2.

 

[HippySecond]

I have been going a little demo mad of late, and been getting everything i can find off PSN. i was originally kinda meh towards overlord when it came out, having not heard much about it, but after playing the demo about a week ago, i just had to have the main game. it seemed light hearted and fun to play, so i spent the next day calling all the game retailers i could think of, even popping into the local blockbuster, but to no avail, just to find a pre-owned copy in the local EB, i bought it on the spot and have loved it ever since.

also about an hour ago i played the infamous demo and while i was originally skeptical of the game, i really enjoyed it, and am now seriously considering buying the full version, well when i'm finished with overlord

 

[InProgress]

World of Goo. The demo was great, offering unlimited time to play (on Steam at least) but you are restricted to the first chapter.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

World of Goo. The demo was great, offering unlimited time to play (on Steam at least) but you are restricted to the first chapter.

Yet another example of how it's the Indy crowd that's doing the demos right. Maybe the Industry Fatcats are too worried about giving players "too much demo" or some such BS?

 

[HobbesMkii]

half life: lost coast, wasnt bad

That wasn't a demo for an actual product. That was just a tech demo, to show the gamer the nature of HDR lighting effects in upcoming Valve titles. The demo for HL2 was the "We Don't Go To Ravenholm" chapter of HL2, or at least, the part until Father Grigori fights the headcrab zombies.

 

[ila]

Valkyria Chronicles was the last demo I played that didn't deter me from the game. I wanted it since it was announced in Japan. So I guess I half count? The inFamous demo isn't bad, but once again, I was going to buy it regardless.
As for demos that have stopped me from buying a game, I thank Mirror's Edge.

 

[Link Kadeshi]

Prey had an excellent demo, once you played the demo to completion, if you bought the game, you could load a save from the demo.

 

[KDR_11k]

I think the absense of story isn't a problem per se but games heavily rely on it these days so its absense means the demo is missing a major feature of the game. Overall modern games tend to rely a lot on lengthy setups and stuff, remove that and the game feels terrible but you can't really leave it in the demo either. Some demos just show the first level so half their playtime is a tutorial and then it's the easy first level, leaving the player to guess if the game would become more interesting later on. Games these days just don't tend to be very fun in the raw gameplay department and mostly rely on atmosphere and story to pull you in. Demos just display that more prominently, games no longer throw you right at the fun part, they take some time to build up.

Two demos I'd call good I've played on the 360 are Ninja Blade and HAWX. NB relies a lot on QTEs which lose nothing by being shown as excerpts, the game doesn't need much introduction because its events don't have much context, just the now. HAWX relies on the combat system to be fun, noone really cares what the story is like (especially since it's a Tom Clancy story).

However just because a game is an arcade-like jump-in-and-have-fun game doesn't mean it'll have a good demo, if we look at the horrible demos available for many XBLA games. The arcade ports sometimes end after less than a minute of playing!

The only game I bought because I liked the demo in this entire console generation was The Maw and even then I checked reviews before buying it. I'm considering HAWX too but haven't got it so far.

 

[Cathowl]

The last good demo I played... Hm...

World of Goo. I played straight through the demo, stared at the screen for a couple minutes, then pulled up their website and handed over $20.

I'm not normally a demo player. I buy games from word of mouth, mostly. So the only other demo I can remember playing was for Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. Which I played long before actually getting the game, but it definitely had me interested in the full title.

 

[MarsProbe]

The difference here though is that the "demo" of Plants vs Zombies is the actual game, it just comes with a 1-hour limit before it stamps a toll booth between you and the rest of the game. And frankly, what better demo than the game itself?

Braid had the same sort of "the demo is the game" model to it. It has the full first world, and about half the next two worlds. I wasn't fully sure if I wanted to buy Braid or not, but after getting done with the "demo" (that was actually just limited access to the full game), I couldn't plunk down $15 fast enough so that I could continue the game.

Also, the game "And Yet It Moves" has a good demo as well. Interesting that it's mostly Indy Developers that are getting the demos right. :/

Yeh, that's the way I remember demos - simply the first level or section of a game including all the introductory stuff required for the whole thing to make sense. I don't think I actually played the trial of Braid (note how on X-box Live for the more indy games they refer to them as "trials" but the big games have "demos"), I must have just had faith that the game would be worth it.

 

[Same River New Water]

It's the difference between a "sneak peek demo" and a "tech demo".

 

[Halbyrd]

Perhaps this is slightly off topic, but is anybody else noticing that PC gamers are starting to get the short end of the stick when it comes to these things? Red Faction Guerrilla is only the latest in a long string of games I've seen that are coming out for 360, PS3, "and PC too, we promise!" only to find out that the PC port is months late, inadequate, and there's no demo. Well, the "no demo" part is the only bit I'm certain about for RFG, but it hardly seems fair that the 360 and PS3 get some demo love while the PC languishes. It's especially ironic in this case, given that the original Red Faction was PC only.

 

[Tili]

A demo is a visualisation of an idea, not a game.

Enough said ..