Micro-review round-up

Two lines each for some demos I’ve played yet didn’t review for various reasons, like being too lazy to think of a whole paragraph of things to say about them.

Micro Machines V4
PLUS Look at the tiny cars!
MINUS The most impressive graphics glitches in a racing game since my GPU overheated in Need for Speed. The rest of the demo doesn’t live up to them.

Devil May Cry 4
PLUS Includes one level of hack-and-slash followed by a boss encounter with a time limit in a neat system to encourage replays. Looks great…
MINUS …but feels pretty retro, and has some control problems with a non-360 gamepad. I couldn’t beat the boss so can’t really review it. Maybe it gives you ice cream if you win?

Darkstar One
PLUS Quite a lot going on in the demo.
MINUS The space fighter combat just lacks that TIE Fighter tension.

Laser Dolphin
PLUS I don’t remember any.
MINUS I don’t remember any. Does this make it a perfect 5/10? Or just very bland for a game about a rampaging interplanetary dolphin.

Defcon: Everybody Dies
PLUS A must-try for the apocalyptic atmosphere. Is it good or bad that humanity can enjoy the strategic challenge of annihilating itself?
MINUS Luckily we can dodge that question because the demo is unbalanced and made too simple by restricting battles to 1-on-1.

Trials 2
PLUS Excellent, compulsive physics-based 2D motorcycle platformer. Rock hard and a bit short of levels but don’t let that put you off.
MINUS Your avatar passes out if his helmet so much as brushes the terrain and you’ll wish you could just get off the bike and walk.

Far Cry
PLUS Classic jungle sandbox FPS with tons of replay value from different weapons and tactics.
MINUS Realistic jungle warfare sometimes means getting realistically murdered by some guy who wandered up behind you.

Llamatron 2112
PLUS Awesome Robotron psychadelia.
MINUS It’s from 1992. If you’re familiar with Geometry Wars the controls will make you cry. Or that might be the epilepsy kicking in.

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
PLUS Combines Bejewelled and JRPGs, two things I can’t stand, into pure addiction.
MINUS Might have given the Peggle designers some very dangerous ideas.

Left 4 Dead demo – for a limited time only

Valve have released the demo for their upcoming co-operative zombie survival FPS Left 4 Dead to pre-order customers, and according to 1UP will be opening it to everyone from the 11th November. Unusually, the demo’s multiplayer mode will be shut off when the game releases on the 18th, giving most players just one week to try it out. We’ll see if this experiment to prevent people sticking with the demo indefinitely causes grief or goes by without complaint; the reaction to the absence of multiplayer in the Multiwinia demo recently caused developers Introversion to relent and release a new online-enabled edition. It’s worth remembering that Valve typically have occasional free weekends for their multiplayer shooters, so other opportunities to evaluate the game should come up.

The Left 4 Dead demo is available on Steam, and the new Multiwinia demo can be downloaded from Introversion. We reviewed the original demo earlier, and found it interesting if not very deep.

World of Goo

World of Goo is a physics-based puzzle game, a sequel to the freeware Tower of Goo experimental game. It plays something like a cross between the Bridge Builder/Pontifex games from Chronic Logic and Lemmings; imagine constructing a bridge a piece at a time from living creatures and trying to shepherd all of your construction materials into the exit gate to complete the level. The game is charmingly and slickly presented in a cartoon style and has some great music, some of which is reminiscent of the Michael Nyman’s excellent score to The Piano.

The demo features the first of the four chapters from the full game, as well as the online high score mini-game. The twelve included levels will take around an hour for the first run through; some of them will probably require several attempts. The difficulty is never an issue though, there are multiple paths through the demo and you can skip failed levels if you really need to. By the time you’ve finished most will seem quite simple in retrospect, although first time through a few had me pausing and staring for a minute whilst thinking how to approach them – an excellent sign of originality. The fundamental mechanic of the game doesn’t change as you progress – the triangle is the strongest shape in nature, so you build a lot of triangles – but the use you put those triangles to is mixed up with every level and new mechanics are introduced rapidly, moving you from a basic goo blob that can make two new connections to lighter-than-air and detachable goos. The demo is highly replayable, the physics tends to lead to messy and organic solutions that you can always go back to and improve. Each level has a completion target and an extra, very difficult advanced target that usually relies on exploiting some twist in the mechanics. In addition to picking up the advanced targets you’ll want to ensure you’ve got as much goo as possible to the exit to use it in the high-score mode. Instead of just recording the amount of material you escaped with the demo gives you access to all the goo you’ve saved and tasks you with building a tower with it, and the height of that tower is your high score.

The demo has unusual tactile qualities – at first it’s a bit annoying that when you pick up a bit of goo to move it you have to take it around any obstacles (and can accidentally kill it if you drag it into a hazard) and some levels require speed and precision clicking that are more FPS than puzzle game, although there’s an auto-aim. However, once you start working out how to exploit the physics you’ll love it. World of Goo is a unique, deep, replayable, and thoroughly great demo that will really grow on you. Everyone should play it. It absolutely deserves to be GameDemoReviews’ first 3/3 demo.

3/3 – Drop what you’re doing and play this

Tech Details:

Size: 30MB

System Requirements:1.0 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, DirectX 9 graphics card, 800×600 screen resolution (locked, i.e. no widescreen mode or higher resolutions available) Windows XP/Vista (Mac, Linux versions in development)

GameDemoReviews in review

After two years, 11 demo reviews and a couple of news posts we can come to some conclusions. First, we aren’t very diligent: averaging about 4 words a day – and I hope no-one was waiting for that Micro Machines review we promised in our first post. Second, most demos aren’t that good: we have two 2/3s, eight 1/3s and a zero. Third, not many people are paying attention; despite a fair amount of “how do I know if this demo is worth a 1.5 GB download” comments in places like Rock Paper Shotgun most of the traffic this site gets is people looking for system requirements. Also, not updating for 18 months apparently does something pretty nasty to your search engine ranking. Oops.

So, it’s time for a change. We’ll keep on throwing up demo reviews of games as and when they catch our attention, but we’ll be adding a new format (maybe even two) that ought to address at least some of the problems we’ve had so far. Probably not the diligence problem though, so make sure you have a free half-hour some time in 2011.

Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People: Homestar Ruiner and Strongbadia The Free demo round-up

The first thing you need to do is go to homestarrunner.com, watch a flash video, and see if you can stand the voicework. The regular-guys-doing-silly-voices style has a strong potential to grate so hard that enjoying this would be impossible. SBCG4AP is a point-and-click adventure in the classic style, but cut into smaller slices and presented episodically; this is why we’re reviewing the demos of the first two episodes here together. The tutorial, identical in both, is laugh-out-loud funny, particularly where Strong Bad turns his “wit” on the player. It’s a controlled micro-adventure-game, which keeps the pace up, an essential for laughs. The gag density is lower in the later game sections and more fall flat, but there are still good lines and funny moments like Strong Bad checking his email and the included mini-games, one of which manages to be a mash-up of Double Dragon and Brain Age.

The first demo, Homestar Ruiner, follows Strong Bad’s plan to mess with his friend, Homestar, by beating him in a race. There are several locations and characters, but there’s a worrying hint of familiarity already as some of the motifs seem re-used from Telltale’s Sam and Max games (the phone, the shop). The second demo, Strongbadia The Free, admirably mixes up the conventions in the first demo. It starts with a fairly simple escape-the-room section where Strong Bad has to bust out of house arrest, and then moves to a pastiche of a strategy game: every game location has seceded from the tyrannical King of Town and must be won over (via point-and-click interactions) into an alliance to defeat him. The demo ends as you take your first country, meaning that the setup and exploration of the country map is where you’ll spend most of your time, rather than in puzzling.

The normal adventure game niggles are all present and correct in both, there are vital items that look like incidental detail, there are puzzles that make some sense in retrospect but can only be solved by a real leap of logic, and you’re wearing boxing gloves yet have to engage in elaborate machinations to get past people rather than punching them, which might be your inclination if you get frustrated by any of the above. The hint system doesn’t help much, tending to state the obvious rather than give clues about the more difficult puzzle aspects. Neither demo lets you save, although both can be completed in one sitting without too much trouble.

Neither is a stunning demo, but if you like Strong Bad or adventure games both are worth adding to your inventory.

1/3 – For fans only

Tech Details:

Size: 70 MB, 110 MB

System Requirements:1.5 GHz CPU, 256 MB RAM, 32 MB DirectX 9 graphics card, Windows XP/Vista

Multiwinia

Multiwinia is a curiosity. It’s a lightweight RTS that ignores many genre conventions: no fog of war, no map, unusual controls apparently ported from the console version and only one unit type. All of the variety and much of the skill comes from the use of Mariokart-style power-ups, and by default there is strong rubber-band style balancing. The demo starts off well with great tutorials that are fun to play, because they actually are standard games with hints floating above suggested interaction points. Sadly, there’s not a lot past the tutorials, with a handful of skirmish maps covering two gametypes (zone control and a Pikmin-influenced CTF), and no human-vs-human play. There are a decent selection of options ensuring that you’ll want to play each map in a few different ways, and discovering new power-ups is interesting while it lasts. Ultimately, the Multiwinia demo is more of an oddball than an essential. It’s absolutely recommended for RTS fans interested in what forms the genre can take, but a bit too lightweight and self-consciously weird for most.

1/3 – For fans only

Tech details:

Size: 50 MB (preloads the game)

System Requirements: 2 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, 60 MB disk space, 32 MB GeForce 6 series/Radeon 9600, Windows XP/Vista

Spore Creature Creator demo

The Spore Creature Creator is part of the upcoming Spore game. It allows you to create alien species which you will manage, play with, share, and perhaps use to conquer the Spore galaxy. A demo version of the standalone Creature Creator is now available, it comes with a fraction of the parts used to put together creatures and no online functions – although you can easily export pictures, video or creatures for sharing outside the game. When putting together your cartoony creatures you start with a spine and can attach various limbs, heads, sensory organs and miscellaneous bits like spikes or nubs. You can follow this up with a paint job and a choice of a few skin texture themes. The whole thing then comes to life in a test arena, where you can order your creature to jump, dance or emote whilst you admire your new pet (or are disturbed by its too-close legs clipping through each other when it walks). The lack of anything to really do with your creatures is unsatisfying, there’s no game here aside from testing the capabilities of the tools. Still, as a simplified and nicely presented 3D modelling program it makes a fun toy until your imagination runs dry, but only people looking for a creative outlet yet willing to stay withing Spore’s enforced aesthetic will really get much from this.

1/3 – For fans only

Tech details:

Size: 200 MB

System Requirements: 2 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM (768 MB for Vista), 128 MB Video card with pixel shaders 2.0 (GMA 950 requires a dual-core CPU), Windows XP/Vista (OS X version not yet available)

Sins of a Solar Empire UK demo: any differences?

Aside from a new publisher splash video, no. Same three maps, same race, same tech and time limitations. It doesn’t appear to be based on the latest patch either. Evidently the UK demo release is purely so the UK publisher could put their fingerprints on it, and there’s no absolutely no reason for anyone who has the previous version to get it. Of course, if you haven’t played the demo before, we found that it’s well worth a look.

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice Of Darkness: Episode One is a hybrid RPG/point-and-click adventure game that follows the characters from the Penny Arcade webcomic as they take on a Lovecraftian quest. The demo is limited to the tutorial section of the game, and consists of a handful of fights against repetitive enemies, plus a few cutscenes and some dialog “trees” (actually, all the branches arrive at the same place). This is coupled with the standard adventure game pursuit of clicking on every available object, which rewards the player with funny dialog or descriptions, occasional bonuses like concept art, and items like heals and potions. These latter objects are useless in the demo, as the enemies are too weak to be a challenge, particularly since the real-time combat system allows blocking their attacks. Not only that, but the demo refuses to let any of the characters die, healing them if they take any significant damge. Only the final fight is at all interesting, managing a party of three against a full gang of opponents can be enjoyably hectic. The presentation is great; fans of Penny Arcade will get some laughs and appreciate seeing the characters and style in another format. Non-fans won’t get anything from the demo.

1/3 – For fans only

Tech details:

Size: 210 MB (preloads the game)

System Requirements: 1 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, 64 MB GeForce 5200/Radeon 9500/GMA 950, Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Linux, OS X 10.4/10.5

Kane and Lynch: Dead Men

Do you like clichés? If so, then we have the demo for you. Kane and Lynch ticks the standard third-person shooter boxes; it has a standard loadout of guns and grenades, a cover system, AI team mates, regenerating health, and waves of generic enemies to gun down. The four combat scenes are based on a Heat-esque assassination mission, and are scattered with pillars that fly apart Matrix-style under fire. However, the game shows some sophistication between the swear words, even if the demo doesn’t allow time for it to develop: rappelling down a skyscraper neatly foreshadows the gun battle in the street below, and the characters at least have a hint of originality – putting a bald spot on the player character in a third-person shooter is a brave idea, and getting mortally wounded brings your character’s subconscious to the surface for a few seconds and lets you hear their inner turmoil. If you do get brought down, your teammates will revive you with a shot of adrenaline, and only dying repeatedly will overdose you and end the level. However, those team mates will gun you down if you’re not careful, and the enemies will also often behave oddly – failing to react to being flanked or set on fire. There were even several full-on animation glitches, overly re-used character models, and the controls and cover system are flaky. Despite all this there’s some fun to be had here, getting your team together and charging through gets the adrenaline going, and leaving them behind and beating the level solo using only your pistol gives the game some challenge (needed, as there’s no selectable difficulty, and it’s pretty easy). The demo also offers split-screen co-op, but it requires an Xbox 360 controller – my Dualshock 2 with a USB adaptor doesn’t work – so I wasn’t able to test it.

This demo is basically nothing special, and has some problems with the controls. If you have the kit and the companion required for co-op it’s probably worth a go, otherwise only fans of third-person shooters or cinematic pretension should bother.

1/3 – For fans only

Tech details:

Size: 600 MB

System Requirements: 2 GHz CPU, 1 GB RAM, 128 MB GeForce 6600/ATi X1300, Windows XP/Vista, Xbox 360 controller for co-op