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Posts: 5166
Joined: 3/2/2004 Status: offline
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Well, I haven't done a whole lot of demos. I usually make my mind up about a game through reviews, friends, and other descriptions that I can find. A demo can be useful, but I wouldn't say that it has ever tipped the scale in [I]favor[\I] of a game. In general, a well done demo can be fun, but is not usually the thing that inspires me to get the game. Now maybe I just don't do enough demos, but that's how it goes. I've enjoyed demos (Jagged Alliance 2, X-Com Apocalypse, Spaceward Ho!) and I can't say that they were unhelpful. Demos are more for a negative check on the game for me, I guess. Now the JA2 & X-Com demos were more about a small, custom scenario based on the game engine. It was nice for the wait until the game came out, but I was already determined to get them anyway. Spaceward Ho! is more like SUDG, but it's time scale was quicker than SUDG, so a 50 turn limit allowed more to happen before it quit. A poorly set up demo can keep me from getting the game -- and not always because the game itself turns out to be bad. An example would be the Starfleet Command demo (the boxed retail version of the demo). Now I actually bought it out of the bargain bin for a couple dollars (and of course, the time had expired on the coupon for the actual game, but that's the way the bargain bin goes). The problem I had with that demo was there was no real directions on the interface and how it works in controlling the ship. I played it and blew up many of my ships, but I never really got the hang of maneuvering & combat. Since then, I have seen it on my friend's computer as he played it. It's nice, and I might pick it up in the future, but I would more likely have picked it up earlier if not for the demo. Now, specific to the SUDG demo, it was helpful in the fact that I'm not wild about real time games, and in contrast to maximum_evil, I found the pausing to be quite useful. It would be nice to have the pausing be something that could be turned off for those who don't want it but have it toggled on by default. And like RobertCrandall, the font is hard to read (especially against the dark background) and gets tiresome after awhile. It's just too hard to read on the screen for prolonged viewing. The help was a little sketchier than I would have liked, but I was able to figure out quite a bit as it was, so it was adequate. I agree that the demo is too short. Maybe if you set up a limited scenario of 1 opponent, smallest galaxy, limited ages, and let the play continue it would be better. The other possibility (that of several set, short "saved games" at different spots in the game) would do as well. But 50 turns was (IMO), just a little too short with the timescale of the game. Now, I might just end up buying this game (or MOO3, or both) eventually. And I would have to say that the demo helped somewhat, but that I would just as likely have gotten the game without it, considering the reviews. But, since my game budget has gone to UV (:D), it will have to wait either way. This is a long way of saying, that for me, demos are a so-so proposition. Though, I will say that this demo overall was fun and well done. I didn't hit any bugs or have any problem in installing or running it (which is in comparison to some awful running demos I've tried before).
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