Been a while since I delved into a bunch of demos, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Most of these are on the 360, but a few are multiplatform. Before I get too far in, the scores listed below are general impressions by me based on how much fun I had playing them. Average is not a condemnation, but rather that I had a pretty good time, but nothing really spoke to me. Poor means the demo was just not that much fun, and Excellent means I had a blast. The rest should be easy to figure out from there.
1. Force Unleashed 2: Well, it's pretty much more of the same. That's not a bad thing, but if you're hoping for something more like Dark Forces: Jedi Knight, keep on walking. This time around, you get two lightsabers (though that doesn't seem to make much of a difference), and, no real spoiler here, you're a clone. Supposedly. The Unleashed storyline was pretty convoluted and contrived the first time around, but it really just needs to set up a super-powered Jedi doing unmitigated violence to people. The demo was short, just enough to get the basic feel of the game in, but not much else. Given how short the first game was, I'm honestly not surprised. Much more and they might have given you a full level.
Score: Average
2. Castlevania Lords of Darkness: Another game in the God of War style, like Force Unleashed, you play Gabriel, some guy from some Holy Order who's been sent to kill a bunch of demons, but he has his own motivation, apparently. Has an impressive voice cast, with so far the game being narrated by Sir Patrick Stewart. The action was pretty straightforward in the demo, you have a single target attack, a sweep, a limited ammo ranged attack, the ability to block, dodge, and jump. You can upgrade attacks, and presumably get upgrades for your gear. The game's story here seems like it could be either pretty good or pretty lame, depending on how much they focus on it. The demo was pretty brief, about the same length as TFU2.
Score: Average
3. Quantum Theory: Okay, I downloaded this one just because of the name, and man I need to remember to stop doing that. Okay, short version: It's Gears of War with vampires. Or something. World's been fucked, there are these citadels that crank out things called Nosferatu and Gilskins. These things fight each other, and you fight them. No, none of this makes sense. I can give The Force Unleashed a bit of a pass for a lack of coherent story, but at least they try to explain things. Apparently there's this girl there that you fight with and then team up with, which basically amounts to have an AI buddy that does next to nothing until you throw her. Yes, your special move with her is basically a fastball special. You, meanwhile, are a big burly Cog marine, but with weird alien carapace armor and guns. Everything here looks like magic or alien tech based on magic. There's almost no technological feel here at all. One thing they do have is cover that's not perfect. Sometimes it's not even worth going into cover at all, in fact, so you have to use the dodge roll mechanic to survive a few fights. Honestly, I don't feel this game. Maybe it's the nonsensical name, the fact that one second it feels like a direct rip of Gears of War, and the other it feels like it's trying to be a sub-par Devil May Cry. The demo was short, but it felt pretty long because I had to repeat the one boss fight over and over again.
Score: Below Average
4. ArcaniA: Gothic 4: This one was a bit of a dark horse for me. I'd seen a few videos, but beyond that, not much. I was initially a bit put off by the 360 control scheme, but it grew on me once I got used to it. It's an Action RPG in the same vein as Fable and Risen, and frankly, I think it managed to combine the best parts of the two right off the bat, with a few caveats. First off, the animations here aren't exactly up to par with what you'd expect from, say Bioware. Get used to conversations not exactly syncing up with mouths. That said, the voice acting is decent for the most part, though the localization script for English could have probably used some touching up. The initial quests honestly aren't that great, but they throw some clever twists at us and they serve the purpose of getting the story started. Combat is decent, you have the ability to switch between melee, magic, and ranged, and while it's not as immediate or accessible as Fable, it's enough to do the job and do it well. Your inventory doesn't seem to have a limit, so loot everything, even stuff from your friends and enemies. The level up system seems deecnt, and by the end of the demo I felt like I had some badass gear. It takes itself far more seriously than Fable, like Risen, but has the benefit of not being a completely ugly and broken game as Risen. You start out with no idea as to what's going on, but they get you up to speed pretty nicely, and without pandering to the player, a lot of it is shown and not told. This delivery might seem off putting to some, since the character knows things we don't, but that might just be the demo not showing us other things that happened earlier on, either before we get started or in a cutscene. The demo is pretty long, honestly, which speaks well for the final game. This one may be worth picking up if you're looking for a decent RPG, and it's out on PC too, so hey.
Score: Above Average
5. VanQuish: This one I played a while back, but I replayed it again today. The game is out now, but sadly the main game is at best 6-7 hours long. The demo was impressive, visually and game-wise. It's a third person cover shooter, but not like Gears of War. Instead of being a lumbering hulk of a man, you're a lightning quick dealer of death. You can zip between cover using your suit's thrusters, slow down time to lay down witheringly accurate fire, and the more outrageous, the better. I really loved this demo, it was brief, but it had pretty much everything you needed to know. It was an action-packed, anime styled shoot-em up, down to your intel officer's miniskirt and the boss with the glowing weak points. I can't recommend a full price purchase on this one, but it may be worth a rental or waiting until it comes down in price a bit.
Demo Score: Excellent
Full Game: Too Short for $60
6. Disciples 3: Renaissance: This game didn't leave a good first impression when I first turned it on last night. Within five minutes of this vast fantasy world, two characters had said to each other, "Hi, what's up?". Localization problems again, I don't know, but it bothered me. I did actually give it a chance and truth be told, it's not that bad. It's a solid-looking turn-based RPG, characters move on a hex grid, there's benefits to positioning depending on the battlefield, and initiative is determined by each character. It almost feels like a game of D&D in the combat sections, but the maps are very tightly focused compared to your average D&D battlemat. There's also a city-building section, buying spells and upgrades between turns. In the demo I barely used it, save when I needed to, but I would assume it's more integral in the main game. Nitpicking aside about the dialog, it's not that bad, but it's not a game type I have a lot of experience in.
Score: Average