7. The Bourne Conspiracy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBAy3WVrpH4 Offering three whole levels from soon-to-be-released Bourne Conspiracy, each showing off one of the game's three main mechanics - fighting, shooting and driving - but there was only one that you would find yourself playing again and again. The first level of the demo centred around Jason Bourne punching and kicking his way out of the embassy from the first film. In an attempt to manufacture the thrills of that movie's creative hand-to-hand skirmishes, the fighting system would allow for environmental takedowns. At the press of a button, Bourne would bounce his foes off of whatever happened to be closest: a whiteboard, a desk, whatever's to hand. That experimentation and the satisfyingly crunchy combat, made players return to this just to see what else they could pull off. The demo included two other levels too: a gunplay section and a driving one. These, when packaged with the demo, were relatively fun. The driving part was very short, more of a bonus extra than a full level, and the shooting was interspersed with more fighting anyway. The problem was, when playing the shooting and driving sections in the full game (and they took up a substantive chunk of the game) players realised they were incredibly weak. The targeting system crippled the accuracy of each weapon and the lock-on systems only worked for a frustratingly short time, wasting the 'Bourne instinct' that you built up. Driving was an arcady affair and not in the fun way; your car able to smash through some buildings without feeling a scratch, but spinning out of control at the slightest bump from any opposition. While playing the demo Bourne felt full of promise with elements that you hoped wouldn't overshadow the good stuff - sadly, that was exactly the case in the end.