malek86
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Post by malek86 on Aug 17, 2022 17:53:27 GMT
I replayed Half-Life Uplink recently (due to that HL1 player count challenge), and it came to my mind that it's very rare nowadays for games to offer a demo that is different from the full game, if they even have a demo at all.
So I ask you, what are some unique demos that are worth playing even for those who already played and finished the full versions? Old and new games are equally fine.
Aside from the aforementioned Uplink, I think Immortals also has a standalone chapter as demo? Never played the full game though, so I don't know if it eventually appears at some point.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2022 17:53:55 GMT
P.T.
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Post by Danno on Aug 17, 2022 17:54:20 GMT
Final Fantasy XV's was totally different, and quite strange
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2022 17:55:04 GMT
Actually, if I recall correctly, RE7's demo was more of a prologue to the main game.
Christmas NiGHTS counts as well.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2022 17:56:17 GMT
Final Fantasy XV's was totally different, and quite strange oh yeah. There were two different ones there if I remember correctly. Like there was one that felt like a slice of the main game, then a weird Kingdom Hearts-y which was more of a tech demo than anything else. |
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Post by Trowel 🏴 on Aug 17, 2022 17:59:59 GMT
The Talos Principle demo is worth a play for fans of the full game - a few puzzles of varying difficulty.
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Aug 17, 2022 18:01:18 GMT
Well, there is no full game to compare it to... Final Fantasy XV is right though. Even if the area in Episode Duscae is technically reused almost exactly as is in the full game, and even the main quest is pretty similar (aside from the Ramuh summon, the Behemoth quest is pretty much repeated). The sidequests and combat were different though. I liked the companion quests and photos. The second demo was effectively unique though. RE7 is similar as FF15. Same area but different puzzles. Christmas Nights maybe counts because you get a unique ending, but isn't it exactly the first level of the full game, just with reskinned assets? |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2022 18:07:06 GMT
Christmas NiGHTS had a shit load of unlockable content though, including the ability to play as Sonic, who functioned very different from NiGHTS. You could argue that Reala was a skin as well, but Sonic's unique.
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Aug 17, 2022 18:11:14 GMT
I was going to say Half-Life 2 Lost Coast, but I don't think that's even a demo: it came out late and was only available for owners of the full game, which kinda defeated the point. It was more like a standalone DLC chapter.
Dead Rising 2 Case Zero was also unique, I think, but then it cost money. Much like RE7, it was more of a (paid in its case) DLC prologue.
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Post by Phattso on Aug 17, 2022 18:12:53 GMT
I wanna say that back in the day this was more or less standard? Something tells me that lots of Amiga cover-disk demos like Lemmings, for example, were custom levels/experiences. Possibly even in the Spectrum days too.
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Post by drhickman1983 on Aug 17, 2022 18:15:48 GMT
Warcraft 3 had an unique level in its demo I think.
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hedben
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Post by hedben on Aug 17, 2022 18:16:22 GMT
The Carmageddon PC demo was the entire first level, and the pedestrians had red blood. By the time the full game came out, they’d had to change the blood to green.
(Yes of course everyone modded it back to red, but still)
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Post by deekyfun on Aug 17, 2022 18:27:27 GMT
Didn't the Stanley Parable have different content to the actual game?
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Post by drhickman1983 on Aug 17, 2022 18:42:07 GMT
Magicland Dizzy on the Spectrum had a "demo" called Dizzy three-and-a-half, which was like a mini prequel gave away with Crash magazine
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Aug 17, 2022 18:42:18 GMT
I also remembered the Serious Sam demo used the Karnak level, but because that was a late game level, they almost entirely changed the enemy positioning to make it easier at the start and more of a crescendo. I wanna say that back in the day this was more or less standard? Something tells me that lots of Amiga cover-disk demos like Lemmings, for example, were custom levels/experiences. Possibly even in the Spectrum days too. I don't think it was all that common even in the 90s, or at least, I don't remember many examples. After all, it would have been a lot of work. And once shareware took hold, it was almost always the first chapter of the game. But then I don't know much about the Amiga era. |
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cubby
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Post by cubby on Aug 17, 2022 18:45:05 GMT
I wanna say that back in the day this was more or less standard? Something tells me that lots of Amiga cover-disk demos like Lemmings, for example, were custom levels/experiences. Possibly even in the Spectrum days too. Those days were amazing, I swear I spent more time playing the actual demos than the games. |
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Post by dfunked on Aug 17, 2022 18:47:20 GMT
RE7 and Village had demos that did their own thing. Quite surprising that they bothered with it in a world that seems to have forgotten that demos exist.
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Post by Syrette on Aug 17, 2022 18:51:24 GMT
I miss demo discs. The days of actually being excited for the latest issue of an official mag.
Had and must have binned a collection of 'classic' PS1 discs at one point, Dreamcast too.
/getablog
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hedben
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Post by hedben on Aug 17, 2022 18:51:58 GMT
Yeah I definitely participated in a false economy in both my Speccy and Amiga days. I’d beg for a magazine most weekends just because of the playable demos it came with, and then wonder why my folks were reluctant to shell out for any actual games.
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Post by LegendaryApe on Aug 17, 2022 19:00:39 GMT
The Silent Hill demo bundles with MGS was different to the main game a little...it had the little stabby foetus enemies but upon release they were changed to more generic monsters. I assume for censorship/ratings reasons rather than an actual change in game design.
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Post by LegendaryApe on Aug 17, 2022 19:05:38 GMT
I think the Arkham Asylum demo was also a bit different to the main game, but more in item placement etc.
Could be absolutely wrong though.
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Aug 17, 2022 19:07:42 GMT
If we are talking small differences too, then I seem to remember the Quake 2 demo placed a Tank at the end of the first unit, to serve as final boss for the demo.
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Aug 18, 2022 12:59:16 GMT
Can't remember if the Dead Space demo used an area of the game, or if it was original... pretty sure it was a very small area though.
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Post by simple on Aug 18, 2022 14:50:35 GMT
Obviously RE7 and Village are the recent gold standard with their creepy standalone prologue type vibe but does The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit count as it does a similar thing for Life is Strange 2?
Different characters and a unique self-contained story and a totally standalone release. I suppose its more of a PT separate release than an RE7 prologue maybe but I think it counts.
Its also better than LiS2 as the lead character is better than the whinger from the main game.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2022 14:55:22 GMT
Indie soulslike Hellpoint had a demo that was it's own thing, titled The Thespian Feast. Was pretty cool.
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gamecat
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Post by gamecat on Aug 18, 2022 15:33:30 GMT
SWOS demo on the moon, Amiga Power I guess, I played the heck out of that.
Not many demos about now, I think it's been proven they lose sales. People play them for 10 minutes then nope out, they want you to pre-order instead nowadays, and then find out you don't really like it.
Edit: nope, Amiga Action - Issue 65 - Disk 2 - Sensible World of Moon Soccer (1994-12), there was quite few unique content demos from Sensible Software though.
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X201
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Post by X201 on Aug 18, 2022 15:39:08 GMT
I've got a vague recollection that there was something special about the Viewtiful Joe demo on the GameCube.
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Post by Jambowayoh on Aug 18, 2022 15:40:55 GMT
Man I used to love the ridiculous amount of pc demos back in the day. Although trying to dl a 70mb demo on a modem was a battle before I discovered Mozilla download manager.
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X201
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Post by X201 on Aug 18, 2022 16:09:49 GMT
I only found EuroGamer because of a demo
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askew
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Post by askew on Aug 18, 2022 16:28:05 GMT
I thought Operation Flashpoint was another title with a custom scenario rather than a mission from the campaign
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