8 Self-Contained Video Game Demos That Are Actually Prequels

While this entry could see noses turned up at it by Half-Life purists who deem it not to be canon, the fact that Half-Life: Uplink is comprised almost entirely of cut content that would have made it into the final release but couldn't due to time constraints surely makes it at least worthy of evaluation.

Here stone-cold scientist and lover of punching people with his science fist Gordon Freeman must help repair a relay device so that he can send a signal to an outside source in order to escape the facility they're trapped in.

As you might expect from anything with the Half-Life branding, the gameplay here is second to none, liquid fast and pretty scary in places as headcrabs leap at you from the dark.

It's actually such a polished experience that you might wonder why it was cut in the first place, yet it's only when you see the ending of this short scenario do you fully understand what's going on.

Depressingly, the action cuts just when it looks like Gordon is about to meet his maker, and we then see the G-Man assess that they need more data before disappearing into the dark.

Turns out we weren't playing a slice of our Gordon's struggles, but an alternate reality in which he failed! Therefore you could count this as a prequel, sequel, and parallel demo all at once!