The Good and the Great of Demos

[Ganepark32]

Ok, so this is pretty much an idea stolen from Kotaku after they posted an article at the weekend about memorable game demos and it got me thinking about those game demos from years ago that really stuck with me or, taking the idea further, even pushed me to go out and pick up a new game.

Immediately, my mind was brought to the demo for the first Bioshock game. It wasn't a game I was following in terms of news at the time yet when I saw a demo for it on the Xbox Marketplace, I promptly downloaded it to see what it was all about. I remember just how amazing that snippet of the game's opening was and how it got me excited for a game I knew so little about.

From the moment the plane goes down, to stepping into the lighthouse and the door closing behind you and then stepping into the bathysphere and seeing Rapture for the first time, it really set the game up superbly and showed off that incredible art style and the tone of what was to follow.

Crawling around Rapture, taking down splicers, seeing your first Big Daddy and then the ending to the demo, being trapped in that room by Ryan and watching on as the splicers try to break through the glass to get to you while you wait for the door to open behind you. The tension and how it escalated there was genius and as the demo ended, Bioshock had it's hooks into me and I couldn't wait to pick up the game, which I did a few days later and ended up loving the game. It definitely stands out as being one of a small handful that's made me want to go out and pick up the game afterwards and is a perfect t example of what a demo was meant to be.

I also remember the days of going into the newsagents and picking up the latest Official Playstation or Dreamcast magazine and getting home with it to try out the demo disc that was included. There were definitely more duds than anything but at a young age when it wasn't always possible to go out and get new games because you'd have to save pocket money for weeks on end, it was great as it felt as though you'd always have something new or different to play. Those demo discs were a godsend when money was tight as a kid.

One game I remember from the days of the old demo discs was playing Toy Commander on the Dreamcast through a demo disc that came with the console when it released and going back to it time and again because of how fun that was to play. I never did end up getting the game but I just remember flying about the kitchen level and shooting up the cat with the pencils, erasers and all sort of stationery based weapons that the game had. Causing as much chaos as possible was the end game for me playing that and I just loved the freedom of being able to do that in the demo. Thinking back on it, I wish I'd ended up picking up the game.

Metal Gear Solid 2 demo, which came with Zone of the Enders on the PS2, is another I remember well. I think that saw more play from me than Zone of the Enders at the time I got it (I did go back and rectify that years later, though still didn't finish the game). I remember fondly going through the level trying to stealth the whole thing, using only tranquilizer darts and failing over and over as I'd try and hide either in the good ol' cardboard box or in one of the lockers (with the tasteful anime art and photos). Again, I didn't end up picking up the game but as a showcase of what the game was, it was brilliant.

There are undoubtedly other's I'm forgetting but those stand out to me in a time when demos are becoming increasingly rare, replaced by betas with gamers having to take the plunge and ending up being proverbial beta testers for a game that launched far too early. It's unlikely we'll see a resurgence due to the escalating price of development now which is a shame given how many demos have given me great gaming memories.

So what are some of the game demos you remember playing over and over and which, of any, got you to purchase the game or even put you off of a sure fire purchase?

[Happenstance]

I played a shit ton of the first Tony Hawk demo, probably moreso than the actual game. Magic Carpet on the PC is another one that stands out.

[Ganepark32]

I remember playing the demo for the first Tony Hawks a lot as well. Passing the controller between my brother and myself, taking it in turns to see who could grab the high score on the Warehouse level (think that was the first one anyway). Didn't end up playing a full THPS game till the second one on the GBA so not quite the same experience but I loved the he'll out of that demo.

The demo disc that came with the official PlayStation magazine was great for me as it let me try out things like Gran Turismo, Medievil, Wipeout, 40 Winks, Kula World and Tomb Raider when I was more used to playing things on my Mega Drive and didn't really know where to begin with the PlayStation.

I do miss those days though of having the ability to give more or less everything a go through demo discs or even demos last gen. I can understand the hesitancy from some developers as it might have detrimental effects (like say We Happy Few and the alpha not going down well with gamers) but at least from my perspective, it definitely got a few more games on my purchase list than it turned me off of having tries them out before.

[Sméagol]

Deus Ex. Greatest demo I've ever played.

I didn't buy the game immediately, as while I didn't need any more convincing, it barely ran on my then current computer if I recall correctly. Bought it years later when I did have a computer which could properly run it. Downloading that demo took an eternity back then.

I must have downloaded plenty of demos back in the day, when they were still prevalent, but I can't recall any that left as big an impression as Deus Ex did. I can remember playing the demo for Grim Fandango, years after its release I think, since the game wasn't easily available anymore at that time (the time before my online shopping with credit cards).

[Dcubed]

Came into this thread for the Bioshock demo, was not disappointed.  That demo immediately put the game on my radar! Probably the single most effective demo, in-terms of making me interested in buying a game, that I can possibly think of really!

I do love demos that do interesting things too, like give a prologue back-story before the main game (ALA The Stanley Parable).  It's a shame that demos are generally very rare these days.

I suppose with most big games being F2P (or F2P games in disguise as normal retail games) though, there isn't really much of a place for them anymore...

Edited August 4, 2018 by Dcubed

[Mandalore]

One demo that really stood out for me was the original Unreal Tournament. I got it from a magazine demo disk, it was the first thing I played on my families first PC. Morpheus was the standout map, jumping in low gravity between the 3 towers and using all these cool sci-fi guns was a lot of fun. It was amazing at the time, like nothing I'd ever played on the N64. It was also quite a novelty to have demos after previously only owning a SNES and N64.

[Hero-of-Time]

The Sega Saturn had a couple of fantastic demo discs in Panzer Dragoon Saga disc 1 and Christmas NiGHTS. Giving away the first disc of a big 1st party game was insane and Christmas NiGHTS was its own game. 

I won't go into the MGS2 demo as @Ganepark32 has already mentioned that amazing giveaway.  All I'll say is that I loved it and played it to death. The free game that came with it wasn't too shabby either.  Speaking of which, I never did get around to playing ZoE2.

Two special mentions go to these two beauties from my own collection.

Ever since playing the original Resident Evil game on the Saturn/PSOne ( honestly cant remember which version I played first ) I have been a huge fan of the series. I was soooo looking forward to Zero on the N64 and was gutted when it got delayed and made the jump to the Gamecube. Fast forward a few years and I was so eager to play the game that I imported this special demo from Japan.

Me and my friends were so excited for Resident Evil 4 that I made it my mission to track down a copy of this special Japanese magazine that included a demo of the game. I think I got it from Lik-Sang when they were still kicking about. When it arrived me and my friends spent a whole evening just playing that opening section over and over again and every time they came around to my house I always had to put the demo on for them.  

 

Edited August 5, 2018 by Hero-of-Time

[WackerJr]

I remember getting hooked on the original Worms demo on PC. My sister and I spent hours battling each other on the two available landscape types.  Needless to say we finally got the full game once we’d saved up enough!

I also remember downloading the Ghost Trick demo for my DS using the barely-populated Wii-to-DS download option.  He developers created a special one-off Christmas level made just as a demo and not found in the game (although it borrowed heavily from an actual level). I was on the fence before, but after playing the demo I made sure to track down the game and don’t regret it at all, I loved it!

[Hero-of-Time]

PlayStation Access just posted a video that's kinda relevant to this topic.