10 Demos That Made You AVOID Video Games
8. Outriders
Developed by People Can Fly and published by Square Enix, Outriders is a looter shooter not unlike the Destiny or The Division games, albeit one built on a much tighter budget. Heavily hyped before release, it piqued a lot of interest in people who were were ready for something a little different than the fantasy/sci-fi/military shooters that dominate the live service space.
The demo itself was well done. Featuring the game's entire introductory sequence and then throwing the player into an early game environment full of side quests, it did a great job of showing off what actually playing the game would feel like.
Unfortunately, that feeling was... well, it was decent.
Similar to Forspoken (another Square Enix published game), nothing about Outriders or its demo was strictly bad - it just fell short of expectations. The gameplay loop of shooting, using powers and collecting loot was fun, but the art direction was drab and the lore needlessly confusing. Dialogue was a little too on the edge lord side of gritty and it felt like these various parts didn't quite fit together.
Outriders did well enough, but definitely fell short of expectations after the reception of its demo.