ID:33829
 
I just played the demo. Positively AWESOME. AWESOME TIMES TWO. MASSIVELY MEGA AWESOME.


Now you've had a few line breaks to let that info sink in, I'll just say it again; AWESOME.

I was so worried that with all the attention they attracted they would try and make this more appealing to FPS fans (ie, dumb it down), but judging by this demo they haven't. I'd say that it was a very wise move, but it's really a case of not being ridiculously stupid.

Anyway, I'm going to start the demo up again walk you through it with me (for the benefit of those people who don't have 360s, or don't have their 360 connected to the internet). If my TV tuner card was installed, and the quality was higher, I'd make up a movie/photoset to go with it, but it really wouldn't do it justice.
I'm not a very good writer, this was actually meant to be a series of bullet points, but it gives you an idea of what happens.

1960; The Mid-Atlantic.
You've on board a plane, the passenger area is full of cigarette smoke, one of the benefits of 60's air-travel.
Suddenly the lights go out and you wake up underwater, as you swim to the surface you find yourself surrounded by flaming wreckage. While swimming to escape the flames you notice a lighthouse. Once you've reached the lighthouse you look back, between the crash, the water and the fire there's no survivors.
Thanks to the burning wreckage and the moonlight the entrance to the lighthouse is well lit. You step inside, into the darkness, and the door shuts behind you.
As the lights flicker on you notice a plague. "In what country is there a place for people like me?" -Andrew Ryan. Looking up you see a statue of a man, Andrew Ryan no doubt, with a banner displaying a simple statement; 'No Gods or Kings. Only Man'.
Continuing your trip downstairs more lights flicker on, and you eventually find yourself at a bathysphere. Inside there's a lever that clearly activates the bathysphere. Pull it? Why not? You're not going to find anything useful up here.

As you begin your decent you're treated to a film, narrated by the Andrew Ryan himself. He speaks of why his vision of a better world, he speaks of Rapture. As he talks the screen removes itself, giving you a magnificent view of Rapture as your bathysphere moves towards it's destination.
As you're about to arrive you hear chatter over the emergency radio. Someone has noticed your plane crash, as well as your decent into their city, and they're on their way to greet you.

The lobby is almost pitch black. A few flickering lights allow you to make out the silhouettes of two people. You can hear one of them begging the other to just leave. The lights flicker on just long enough for you to see him backed into a corner, then again just long enough for you to see a swing, then in the darkness you hear a scream.
The next time the lights flicker on he's standing on the other side of the door, looking through at you, talking to you, but as they flash off he jumps off to the side. Did he leave? No! He's on the roof, forcing his way inside.

A voice asks 'would you kindly pick up that short wave radio?'. You pick up the emergency radio and find out this voice belongs to a man named Atlas. He's offering to keep you alive, let's hope he can make good on that offer.
Time to head to higher ground. You step out of the bathysphere and into the lobby, it would be breathtaking if it wasn't so badly damaged. As you ascend the stairs you notice a message written in what could only be blood, 'you should not have come'.
You hear something, a splicer! Suddenly a spotlight shines down on it, your buddy Atlas seems to have a security device in his control. A small helicopter swoops down, firing off shots at the splicer, scaring him up the wall and out of your hair.
It seems the splicer sealed Johnny in before they killed him, looks like you're going to have to find a crowbar or something to smash the rubble out of the way. A monkey wrench should do the trick.
As you climb through the hole you've made yourself you notice something burning at the top of the stairs. Odd. Just as you get through it comes hurtling down the stairs at you. Thinking on your toes you jump to the side and dodge it.
You can hear the ramblings of a madman as you climb the stairs, this is going to get messy. Good thing you held onto that wrench. Smack, problem solved.
While searching his pockets for anything useful you hear the sound of a little girl over the speakers, it's an ad. Apparently her daddy can do all sorts of neat things thanks to something called plasmids. It might be a good idea to get your hands on some of those.
The door out seems to be broken, better look for another way out. Hey, what's this? It's the store that was being advertised, and they've got some of that plasmid stuff. Electro Bolt? That sounds like it could be used to fry the door switch and force it to open. Let's give it a shot.
As you inject yourself you can feel the electricity flowing through you, you stumble, maybe this wasn't a good idea. Losing your footing you fall from the balcony. You awake to see the feet of what looks like a pair of splicers.
They're talking about you. This is bad. Clank. One of them begins to panic. What ever made that sound must be pretty mean. He scatters, and after wishing you luck his friend soon follows.
Something big plants it's foot right in front of your face. A little girl walks up in front of him. 'Look Mr. Bubbles, it's an angel'. Lucky for you as she waves some sort of needle in your face she realizes you're still alive. 'oh well, he'll be an angle soon' she says as she walks off, closely followed by her giant guardian.
You black out again, and awake to radio chatter from Atlas. Using your new-found electro-bold power opening the door is a cinch. As you step inside the glass hallway you notice something floating down through the water outside, the tail of the plane! It slams through the side and lodges itself right in your path. Water spews in from the hole it's created. You can't go back, looks like your only option is to climb through it.
Running through the hallway you see a connecting hallway collapse. The door connecting the two has locked tight, but it's clearly about to give way to the pressure.
Phew, you're at the end of the hallway. You get inside and the door locks tight. That should hold for a while. A shadow runs past, what the hell did you do to deserve this sort of luck?
Hmm. The electro-bolt may not be limited to frying door controls. Give him the one two punch, a bolt followed by a smack with the wrench. That'll do it. Water is flowing in through the roof, better make a move.
Running up the stairs and into the lobby you encounter more splicers, are you the only sane person in here? As you enter the lobby you see an elevator, engulfed in flames falling down to the ground floor. Out of it steps another splicer, he isn't liking being on fire but he seems to like you even less. Wack. You send him flying into a nearby water feature. The fire is out and so are his lights. Good work.
Getting in one of the other elevators doesn't seem like a great idea, but it beats sitting around in a lobby that's filling up with water. As you rise out of the lobby Atlas tells you his story.
He has been separated from his family, they're stuck in Neptune's Bounty, and you're the only hope he has of seeing them again. Whether or not you'll help him can wait, you've got to think of your own skin for now.
As you exit the elevator you can see the silhouette of a lady with a stroller, she's singing a lullaby. As you walk up behind her she continues talking to her baby, that's when you realize there's nothing in her stroller except a revolver. You notice she's holding a plank of wood as she swings it at your head. Pow. Her lullaby has sent her to sleep.
Atlas takes a moment to explain how plasmids have changed the people of Rapture. Continuing down the path you enter a bar. It was dressed up real nice before everything fell apart. You see a neon sign, 'Happy New Year 1959'.
You hear the voices of two people arguing. They clearly own the place and they're clearly not all there. You grab a discarded flask of whiskey off the table, you're going to need it. As you walk down the stairs one notices you, he jumps the rail and runs at you. Bang! That lady's baby revolver just saved your life.
The woman yells out, 'Charlie, Charlie!'. When you get to the bottom of the stairs you're greeted with gun fire. She ain't happy. You jump out of the way, and the second you get the chance you take the shot. One! Two! She's down. Down to your last bullet you take her ammo, as well as a few dimes from the cash register. It never hurts to have a couple of bucks in your pocket.
Leaving the kitchen you find a couple of splicers standing knee deep in water that's leaked in. It's going to get a little tough if they notice you. Atlas shares an idea, electro-bolt plus water equals a quick and easy kill.
The exit seems to be jammed, but you notice a tape player near the gents room. The owner of the theater next door seems to be complaining about a hole in the bathroom that leads into his building. A little odd, but it might be a way out.
As you walk into the lady's bathroom you see what looks like the ghost of a woman, what the heck is going on here? Never mind, she's gone now. What's that, another plasmid just laying in the rubble? Incinerate? Sounds like just what the doctor ordered.
A splicer busts in, FLAME ON! That worked well, although the sink is now on fire. Now where am I going to wash my hands. Oh well, better get out of here.
Wow, that 'hole' in the toilets is a bit bigger than you thought it would be, and it leads straight onto the balcony of the theater. No wonder that guy was complaining!
As you climb across the stage lights, you notice a small girl sitting center stage. She looks familiar. Altas quickly fills you in on her story. Apparently there's more to her than a button nose and pig-tails. She's singing now, and the show just keeps getting creepier.
You travel down stairs, and as you look through the window you can see her again. She's using a device to remove Adam out of a corpse when a splicer starts sneaking up behind her. She lets out a scream, he's been seen! The ground thunders as you hear her Big Daddy coming to her rescue.
The Big Daddy barely notices the revolver bullets the splicer is firing off. It grabs the splicer, throwing him against the walls and eventually through the window to land at your feet. They didn't notice you. The Little Sister runs out the room with her Big Daddy following along at his own pace. If it wasn't for the fact this splicer was a maniac who just attacked a little girl you'd almost feel sorry for him.
Time to move on. You take the splicers gun and ammo, then you whip out your trusty wrench and smash the lock off the door in your way. It looks like the Big Daddy smashed up the hallway as they left. No worries, there's another way out of here.
You walk around the corner and straight into a barrage of bullets from a splicer. After she's taken care of you notice something next to one of the corpses on the ground, a machine gun. Better pick that up.
As you continue along your way you notice some strange lights, security scanners! You duck out of the way just in time to avoid detection. As it spins you sneak under it and into it's blind spot. You wonder if you can disable this thing...
You pull off the main panel and take a look inside, it's tricky and but with your skills you manage to get it disabled just in the nick of time. You've gone one better than simply turning it off, now it will send drones after enemies it sees and leave you alone. New allies are always welcome, even if they are mechanical.
Straight away it spots a splicer crouching on the stairs and sends a drone after it. The splicer gets in a few lucky shots but he never stood a chance.
You go down stairs, past a fallen Big Daddy, hoping what took it out isn't still around. Hey, a deactivated security drone. You might as well have a play around with it's insides and see what you can do. Eureka! You got it working again, and more importantly working for you.
Before you head out you might as well visit the little boys room. Being surrounded by running water is starting to get to you. You notice a machine gun as you walk into the gents, that'll come in handy. As you reach to pick it up you hear something mechanical coming to life.
You leap out of the way just in time to avoid a stream of bullets. Some bozo setup an automated turret in here. You might as well have a shot at hacking it, after all, you really need to go.
Well that didn't go well. If it wasn't for your incinerate plasmid you'd be a goner. Oh well, on with your journey. Just as you're about to enter Neptune's Bounty the security alarm goes off and two splicers come out of nowhere.
Gee, between incinerate, revolver and med-kits this is almost getting easy. Oh no, spoke to soon, more from the stairs! Atlas informs you that the entrance to Neptune's Bounty has been locked off, by none other than Andrew Ryan himself! No time to think about that though, you've got to get out of here. Quick, through the medical section. You'll be able to take an alternate route to Neptune's Bounty through there.
You run into a room and the exits all slam closed. A giant screen displays an image of Andrew Ryan, and his voice begins coming through the speakers.
"So tell me friend... which one of the bitches sent you? The KGB wolf? Or the CIA jackal? Here's the news; Rapture isn't some sunken ship for you to plunder and Andrew Ryan isn't the giddy socialite who can be slapped around by government muscle. And with that, farewell".
'Please Stand By' replaces Andrew's face on the screen, and splicers begin to pour in from the side, slamming at the windows to get in. The windows are breaking, and the screen fades out.

You're then treated to a nice montage which showcases some of the neat things you'll be able to do in the full version.
Kinda sad that ended, was getting interesting.