Monster Madness Demo Up On XBL

etoychest

From the Snackbar..."One of our most hotly anticipated game for the Xbox 360 is now available for the sampling, as SouthPeak has announced that a demo of Artificial Studios' Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia is now available on the Xbox Live Marketplace. This on and off-line demo comes ahead of the game's full release, May 15, for the Xbox 360 and PC.

The demo includes a single player version of the game's first level, Zack's House, as well as the Gym level for both same system and Xbox Live deathmatch. The Cemetary is also available for capture the flag style fun online. The demo is exclusive to Gold Members of the Xbox Live Marketplace for the first week, with Silver Members gaining access to the demo Thursday April 19."

If interested, you can read some of my hands on impressions of the game here, as well as a recent interview I had with the game's senior producer, Artificial Studios' Bobby Steele, here.

If you don't know, AS confirmed at GDC during a pitch with Epic that the game will now include Live multiplayer co-op when it ships as well. Cool stuff.

yalborap

Now, when you say 'live multiplayer', do you mean story mode multiplayer or just the deathmatch stuff?

darleysam

might want to change that 'not' to 'now' in the first sentence there. I normally try not to bother people about typos, but that totally changes the whole meaning of the sentence

edit: i shall be playing this either tonight, or over the weekend. Sounds like it could be fun.

etoychest

Assuming you meant the last bit I stated...Jeremy over as AS told us at GDC that Live multiplayer was co-op...which I assume means the story mode. that was not in the build I played a month before GDC however. But he plainly said that everythign was Live enabled now...conflicting....messages....I'm holding out that the addition of co-op into Live is what delayed the game.

edit..fixed the typo. Tee hee.

yalborap

etoychest wrote: »

Assuming you meant the last bit I stated...Jeremy over as AS told us at GDC that Live multiplayer was co-op...which I assume means the story mode. that was not in the build I played a month before GDC however. But he plainly said that everythign was Live enabled now...conflicting....messages....I'm holding out that the addition of co-op into Live is what delayed the game.

Let's hope so. Me, I'll wait for a day or two and see what the people who'll buy it whether it has live multiplayer or not say. If it's there and not too laggy, I'll buy it in a nanosecond.

etoychest

Yea, it's a heck of a lot of fun, but we all know that getting 4 people in the same room is prohibitive, so Live co-op is about the only way this game is gonna be worthy of an investment...plus it gets really goddamn hard by just the second level (fire imps are evil), so lone gunning it is only for the brave or foolish.

yalborap

Quick question for you: Were there any weak, fast melee weapons in the version you played a while back? I want to use Zack, what with the dorkery and all, but the only thing I could get my hands on in the demo, a saw, was all...Slow. Powerful, but I ended up relying on my boomstick more.

Magic Pink

I'm definitely interested in this game but not for 60$. I'll wait for 30$ maybe, espcially with no Wintarnubs access at home.

Renzo

yalborap wrote: »

Quick question for you: Were there any weak, fast melee weapons in the version you played a while back? I want to use Zack, what with the dorkery and all, but the only thing I could get my hands on in the demo, a saw, was all...Slow. Powerful, but I ended up relying on my boomstick more.

A pair of knives in the kitchen when I played as the busty chick.

Zephos

i'm itching for this demo to come available for silver members, i LOVED Zombies Ate My Neighbors back in the day, and i'm hoping this is somewhat of a throwback.

Magic Pink

Comments over at Kotaku pretty much universally lambast the thing. Seems this has ended up being a pretty poor game (or just a very poor demo).

yalborap

Magic Pink wrote: »

Comments over at Kotaku pretty much universally lambast the thing. Seems this has ended up being a pretty poor game (or just a very poor demo).

I'm enjoying it. Though I suck. Those things at the end when you up the difficulty by one kick my ass. I might have more luck with the goth chick or whoever's good with firearms, though. After all, it's boomstick-o-clock.

EDIT: Seems the firearms are not a 'someone is good with them' weapon. Shame.

Renzo

Zephos wrote: »

i'm itching for this demo to come available for silver members, i LOVED Zombies Ate My Neighbors back in the day, and i'm hoping this is somewhat of a throwback.

I was looking for the same thing. It's not really. The game just feels like a big mess.

Pheezer

I remember playing alpha builds for this on the PC that were really great for alpha builds and really showed off a lot of potential.

Then at E3 it was much less good.

Now I'm hearing it's just a mess.

Srsly wtf

yalborap

pheezer FD wrote: »

I remember playing alpha builds for this on the PC that were really great for alpha builds and really showed off a lot of potential.

Then at E3 it was much less good.

Now I'm hearing it's just a mess.

Srsly wtf

I don't really get why people are calling it a mess. I really enjoyed the demo, though I must admit, it is lacking in my favorite elements that have been advertised(the upgrading and the co-op).

Renzo

I think pheezer is referring to my comment about it being a mess. There are a couple reasons for this. The game displays physics everywhere. There is a ton of shit in the house, and it all gets tossed and pushed around. Shit is constantly moving, which makes it difficult to distinguish the fridge from a zombie, and for no good reason. All the shit does nothing. Sure, you can pick things up and throw them, but when there are literally over 100 different boxes and tvs and desks and potted plants in the house, they become a nuisance, not a limited combat resource. And it takes forever to throw anything, while zombies move just as fast as you do. This results in the player constantly backing up while allowing the throw animation to run its course.

The melee blows. I played as a few different characters, both of which like melee weapons. The gothic chick liked the saw in the garage, but swung once every two seconds. The busty cheerleader liked the dual knives, but the attack animations lack punch. She just flails her arms, and you have to guess whether or not you'll hit something by standing right next to it. Meanwhile, enemies are swatting you around the room.

The ranged weapons felt fine. Reload time factors in well: Make your shots count and don't get caught with an empty clip.

I don't like the button layout: A and B switch weapons, dodge and jump are activated by clicking the sticks. I wonder what the triggers other than R do.

They should have focused on the combat and not tons of physics junk flopping everywhere. But these are just my impressions after playing the singleplayer demo. Things could change.

ginguskahn

Renzo wrote: »

I think pheezer is referring to my comment about it being a mess. There are a couple reasons for this. The game displays physics everywhere. There is a ton of shit in the house, and it all gets tossed and pushed around. Shit is constantly moving, which makes it difficult to distinguish the fridge from a zombie, and for no good reason. All the shit does nothing. Sure, you can pick things up and throw them, but when there are literally over 100 different boxes and tvs and desks and potted plants in the house, they become a nuisance, not a limited combat resource. And it takes forever to throw anything, while zombies move just as fast as you do. This results in the player constantly backing up while allowing the throw animation to run its course.

The melee blows. I played as a few different characters, both of which like melee weapons. The gothic chick liked the saw in the garage, but swung once every two seconds. The busty cheerleader liked the dual knives, but the attack animations lack punch. She just flails her arms, and you have to guess whether or not you'll hit something by standing right next to it. Meanwhile, enemies are swatting you around the room.

The ranged weapons felt fine. Reload time factors in well: Make your shots count and don't get caught with an empty clip.

I don't like the button layout: A and B switch weapons, dodge and jump are activated by clicking the sticks. I wonder what the triggers other than R do.

They should have focused on the combat and not tons of physics junk flopping everywhere. But these are just my impressions after playing the singleplayer demo. Things could change.

The L trigger throws Grenades.

I pretty much agree with what you said, if this is £15 when it comes out it might be alright, but really i think they should have taken out the physics and made it a Live Arcade game. It's pretty poor and not really much fun. Might be better if there coop.