Getting an early look at a game removes the sense of excitement and the unknown from a purchase. But I can’t say that these feelings are limited to my past. I felt the same way when I started Prototype. After reading many noncommittal reviews and all those annoying comparisons to InFamous that kept getting in the way, I still had no idea what to expect – but I had to find out. Once I was able to sit down with the game and a fresh perspective, I could enjoy the whole and not feel like I had done any of it before.

I like your example of The Path; Valve did something similar with Half Life: Uplink. It arrived in early 1999 months after the game hit shelves in an effort to continue the momentum of all the praise it was getting as Game of the Year. It was made up of discarded and/or unfinished parts of levels from the game that told a story apart from the main thread. But it did its best to show me all the game had to offer: the weapons, the adversaries and their revolutionary AI, and hints of a story I absolutely had to see the conclusion of. So I went out and bought a Diamond Monster 3D II and Half Life.

But as this example shows a video game isn’t a paperback or ticket to a movie. While some will argue cost is no object in a review, they’ve probably never actually had to make the choice between food or video games. For all that petition for video games as a medium and form of art that should be experienced by everyone, it’s still a pretty exclusive club. Not to mention the multiple platforms that exist to experience The Video Game.

So demos do serve a legitimate and important purpose in the video game appreciation community. Every person should be allowed to try it out for themselves without having to wade through overzealous rantings on both sides of the scale that results in a regrettable purchase. The problem is that the Internet is being leveraged with great force when it comes to promoting a game, to the point where demos are optional. Buzz alone can carry a game to the cash registers, and even make it “review proof” against fans. So is minimal effort put into game demos now? Or is it as I said in the post, they create them to simply entice – not to show?

Of course, having just played the demo for Brutal Legend I see that it’s still possible to give players a substantial preview of a game. I mean they provided a rippin’ guitar solo that unearthed a hot rod and a boss battle. As someone who ignored this game up until last week, EA and Double Fine have secured a purchase from me. I just wish this was the rule, not the exception.

I find that demos kill some of the magic for titles I’m anticipating. Maybe it’s nostalgia, as I remember blowing my allowance on the coolest looking NES game I could find at Toys R Us, then eagerly ripping through the manual on the ride home to try and get a sense of what I had just purchased. I almost canceled my pre-order for Arkham Asylum after playing the demo. “This is the ultimate Batman game? Destroying chattering teeth and crawling through air ducts?”

I didn’t, and the game ended up being quite enjoyable, but I can’t help but wonder if my play through would have been divine had I approached it as a blank page. The first hour or so felt slow because I already knew the controls and primary mechanics. The initial “predator” section was boring, as I had played through it, note for note, the week before.

The best experience I’ve had with a demo was the Path. It was more of a gaiden than a demo… new content using the engine to give an example of what the player should expect from the full game. Even better, the narrative content in that demo drastically altered the message of the full game. I experienced it after finishing the game (about a dozen times) and still found it enjoyable. I’ve recommended it to friends and it cemented a purchase without spoiling any sequences in the full version.

I think what they were going for was something to showcase all the aspects of gameplay (i.e. fighting, stealth and hunting for clues). Unfortunately, they forgot to make it fun. I think the only demo I enjoyed less was the one for Invisible War, although as we know, in that case the demo actually WAS representative of the entire game.

It’s definitely a double edged sword for the industry, but having demos aren’t entirely a bad thing either. Especially, for those games you might find yourself humming and hawing about before you decide to buy them. I think demos unfortunately are becoming a lot like movie trailers, misleading sometimes revealing too much and in some cases not enough. Arkham Asylum’s demo was terrible.