Quality Demo

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

A quality demo is what got me involved in this whole affair. I saw a brief preview of MTW in a gaming magazine, and decided to investigate the demo.

Some of my favorite MTW memories come from that demo. Probably because it was so new to me then, but still. Being introduced to your Chivalric Knights (and I didn't realize how uber they were...) and your first enemies, those Almohad Desert Archer scaliwags.

And then more entertaining training missions and then battles to test the skills you just picked up.

And the final battle (Acre? Jaffa) was just a great choice. Difficult, but possible, with some interesting unit selections and what appeared to be insurmountable odds.

Anyway, probably the best demo I've ever played.

Rome's demo didn't really measure up, though I've become jaded. And I had to update my videocard's drivers. But I like the multitude of smaller missions and battles instead of just... two. I also found the BI demo to be underwhelming. Just didn't have that "wow."

Anyway, I hope the MTW2 demo is good. Here's hoping.

EDIT: Jaffa, not Acre, thanks Doc Bean!

[Trajanus]

I believe the MTW2 demo will be pure eye-candy I'm afraid. Still heres to hoping...

[Duke John]

At least the BI demo didn't use scripting. I think it was very misleading of CA to release a demo in which they did not trust the AI to be able to challenge the player and just scripted it and gave control to the player when it was almost too late.

The BI demo was indeed underwhelming and in my opinion that was a good indiciation of BI. So it was a good demo as it did what it was supposed to do.

[doc_bean]

And the final battle (Acre?) was just a great choice.

Wasn't it Jaffa ?

Great demo though, made me buy MTW when it was already quite old (the summer before RTW was released).

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Yeah, it was Jaffa.

[t1master]

after the roman crapshoot, i am basing my purchase or lack of... on the demo.

if it plays like the rome demo did, then i'm not buying. the rome game was no different than the demo imo, and not worth the money.

[Lord Adherbal]

the RTW demo hardly needed any tactics to beat - just a more or less clever use of the uber war elephants and the sacred band cavalry. I remember having a lot more problems with the MTW demo (I was a TW noob back then though): it was a struggle to protect the weaker units of the tiny army you controlled (Jaffa) and even though the s**tloads of saracen cavalry routed often and the temptation of chasing them was big that ofter resulted in tired and isolated units that became easy preys to the enemy's reserves.

[Slyspy]

Yeah, I should have paid attention to my misgivings after playing the RTW demo and thus saved myself £30. I have learnt from my mistake and this time the demo will be all important.

[Orda Khan]

In all honesty, the Jaffa battle did appear daunting but simply placing your small force on hold/hold it was remarkably easy to gain a victory because of the huge upgrades on your units. RTW and BI were much the same, only 16 Romans escaped in one of my Chalons victories. The MTW II demo will not be much different, what would be the point of a demo that is very difficult? Better to make the customer feel he is a Godlike general

.......Orda

[Kraxis]

In all honesty, the Jaffa battle did appear daunting but simply placing your small force on hold/hold it was remarkably easy to gain a victory because of the huge upgrades on your units. RTW and BI were much the same, only 16 Romans escaped in one of my Chalons victories. The MTW II demo will not be much different, what would be the point of a demo that is very difficult? Better to make the customer feel he is a Godlike general

.......Orda
Yes... But most people who tried out that MTW demo, had never played a TW game before. Even I, an STW veteran (including MP) lost a few times initially until I learned to use my units to their fullest. It was very much a challenging battle.

[Weebeast]

That Jaffa battle has some error in the adf file(in the full game). Saladin is supposed to be riding the royal ghulam troop, not Bedouin camel.

I've never played Total War demos. I just bought MTW out of curiousity. At the time (2002) it was pretty awesome to have a strategic game that plays out the battles.

[Duke John]

If the demo is too easy than it isn't exactly encouraging either. With the BI demo I just lazily clicked some units not even thinking about tactics and I won the battle.

[x-dANGEr]

You're an uber hero I guess then.. It took me a while to get a Heroic on it as I remember..

[hoom]

Don't think I remember the MTW demo but the Shugun demon was bloody hard!

You had about 8 samurai archers against 12 or so yari samurai, you were camped on a hill but still odds very much against as its hard getting 8 archers to get kills on 12 :o