So over the last week or so there have been more than a few prominent demos released for the PC. Now that I'm done with Bioshock, I had some time to go back and really get into playing them the last few days, and decided that the best thing I could possibly do over my lunch hour at work is to write a long post that no one will read. So without further delay, here's my PC demo roundup.
The Settlers: Rise of an Empire
The latest in a very long line of European-styled "province" level management games, I've been looking forward to this game for some time. I really dig these sorts of games-they find a way to scratch the citybuilder itch while keeping things lively through the detailed way the Settlers do their everyday tasks.
The first thing that struck me when playing this demo was how similar everything felt to last year's lol-we-only-played-it-in-Europe 1701 A.D.-from the sharp, stylized art style all the way to the sound effects and user interface of the game. This is a good thing in my book-that game had a great interface and looked fantastic and modern, which is never a bad thing.
The gameplay was pretty solid-the demo comes with a decent tutorial mission that should get even the most noobie of Settlers players up to speed and there's also a good scenario included that really lets you explore a lot of the different resources and mechanics the game has to offer-I had to restart the latter scenario a few times while I figured some things out, but in the end everything did click quite well and I found the core gameplay very satisfying, although a good bit different than previous Settlers games, which I know has brought out the NMA in more than a few Settlers fans across the internets.
If you're a fan of SimCity or loved the old Impressions citybuilder games but haven't ever tried a game from the series before, now's a good time to jump in and give it a go.
I give the demo four out of five angry Germans snapping at their keyboards on Ubisoft message boards. Worth a look if you are a fan of the city management genre and have enjoyed those kind of games before.
World in Conflict
For this game, I had spent a pretty decent amount of time in the multiplayer beta, and I simply was falling over myself in praise of the game's fresh mechanics in multiplayer for the genre. The official demo had one mission from the single-player campaign, so I downloaded it to give that part of the game a spin to see how that part of the game worked, since I've always had doubts about how it would play out in the back of my mind. How would they capture the scale of the battlefields in singleplayer without overwhelming the player?
As it turns out, I shouldn't have worried. Massive hit a home run in this area as well, based on the single campaign mission that ships with the demo. Taking place in a small town along the southern Washington State coast during a massive Soviet offensive along southbound I-5, you basically play the mission in a manner very similar to the multiplayer mode-you take on the role of an infantry commander, and then work your way fufilling primary and secondary objectives as all hells breaks loose and you struggle to hold the town while tanks, infantry, gunships, and helicopters come pouring into the field of engagement.
It's so awesome. Even with all the chaos, the fact that you are only controlling a six or seven units at a time and focusing on one objective or two (while other AI-controlled officers handle other duties in the town), there's plenty of room for sound tactical decisions to pay off. Putting infantry in buildings or in trees-a favorite MP tactic from the beta-worked beautifully, and the explosions and pacing of the mission were just perfect-frantic at times, tense at other times, capped by a very satisfying "SUCK ON THIS, COMMIES" ending to the mission. 110% awesome.
I was sort of planning to wait a while before getting around to this, but now I just can't resist not getting it as soon as it comes out. The campy, awesome what-if Cold War scenario mixed with terrific, fresh single-player and multiplayer mechanics are too irresisitable.
Rating : Five out of Five copies of Red Dawn on VHS. Everyone should try out this demo.
Medal of Honor: Airborne
This game I didn't have much expectation for going in-even with the airdrop changes and promised non-linearity of the mission design, the series really has become long in the tooth and, after playing something like Bioshock, the last thing I want is to be put in yet another WW2 game.
The game is decent-runs at a great framerate and has good visuals, the weapon design is solid and the level design isn't bad. Overall, though-I'm still running around planting explosives on AA turrets and shooting Axis troops in the head with an Garand.
Been there, done that. I just can't get too excited for this demo because it covers such familiar territory without really doing anything different than previous MoH games.
Three out of Five Omaha Beach Landing Levels. Play it if you like FPS games and aren't burnt out to hell with standard-fare WW2 shooters.
Two Worlds
I hated Oblivion. I downloaded this one in the hopes that it was more Gothic than Oblivion-the game that it is being marketed to mimic-and was both pleased that it wasn't much like TES while still finding the game somewhat lacking.
Unlike the 360 version of the game, Two Worlds on the PC isn't a technical disaster-once you turn on some AA and AF in the driver control panel and play the game, you're greeted with a solid framerate and some pretty decent visuals.
I found most of the game's mechanics to be unsatisfying-combat seemed bland and uniteresting-the worst of MMO-styled hack-until-it's dead design, and the loot to be mostly underwhelming in design, if adequate for the task. I can't help but think that's because the demo put me into the game early on and that I wasn't yet at a point where interesting stuff was dropping and interesting melee and spell combos and enemies were around, so I don't want to belabor these points too much outside to say that I found them underwhelming in the demo.
The story and VA work were passable European design-I can deal with it no problem, and the game didn't seem glitchy or buggy like I was fearing (the demo runs on the 1.5 code level of the PC version). It ended and I felt that if the game was installed I would probably play more, but I didn't get the overwhelming urge to play more like I did when the World in Conflict or Settlers demo was over.
Three out of Five Poorly Voiced Cutscenes. Play if you're hard-up for an RPG and like the Gothic series of games.
