Weekend Reading: Multiplayer Demos and How They Can Do More Harm than Good

This week saw the release of not one but two demos for major games, in the form of Twisted Metal and Syndicate, both choosing to highlight the multiplayer components of the upcoming titles.

I tried them out and, while they were quite decent, both trials had some major problems that ended up harming my enthusiasm for the two games.

First up, there’s the demo for Twisted Metal, which was plagued by major matchmaking issues earlier this week. This meant that fans eager to try out the combat racing game were stuck with the brief tutorial and a single-player challenge, in which the brutal Artificial Intelligence went to town on beginner players like me.

Sony has issued a few fixes for some of these issues but my enthusiasm in the upcoming combat racing has decreased considerably.

After that, I tried out the Syndicate demo, which doesn’t have any sort of single-player component. Instead, it just throws people right into the four-player cooperative mode with three other strangers.

What’s worse, like I complained in my quick look, the game doesn’t even try to teach you controls or anything like that. It just displays a brief video with all the cool things you can do in the co-op mode while forgetting to mention how you can do them yourself.

Seeing as how I liked shooters, I was pretty interested in the new Syndicate, thanks to its sharp visual style. After getting through this demo, however, my interest, just like with Twisted Metal, has declined.

I agree that multiplayer modes are extremely important nowadays for most gamers and for companies that want to draw in the so-called “Call of Duty” demographic. This shouldn’t make companies rely just on such things in demos, however.

Instead, they might want to take some cues from the upcoming demo for Mass Effect 3. It will have both a single-player mode and one for the cooperative multiplayer. As such, gamers like me, who prefer a single-player experience, can enjoy that part, while those who like online modes can try out the co-op one.

This is just my opinion, so feel free to share your own thoughts on multiplayer demos. Are you pleased with them or do you find them annoying?