Demos are typically short snippets of games, meant to give you as full an experience in as short a time as possible. They are delicately balanced so that you want more, but get enough. Deep Silver is taking a different approach.

The publisher announced today that demos for Metro 2033 Redux and Metro: Last Light Redux are available on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. You might be wondering why you would bother with demos 9 months after the titles hit those platforms.

These aren't your average demos. Each includes about one-third of the full game (eight chapters for Metro 2033 Redux and nine for Last Light). Should players decide to purchase at any point, they can continue playing the full version with the save data.

The Xbox One demos are available now. The PlayStation 4 versions will be up when the store refreshes later today. For more on the Metro Redux titles, check out our review.

Our Take

With Dead Island 2 delayed until next year and Homefront: The Revolution's development interrupted by a change in ownership and studio, Deep Silver's E3 lineup and 2015 release schedule is currently thin. Monetizing existing titles will be crucial, and this kind of trial structure is smart.

I hope it works out, because the loss of both of those games in this calendar year stings. The optimist in me wants to believe that this heralds another title in the series from 4A soon.