American McGee Presents: Bad Day L.A. demo

In American McGee Presents: Bad Day L.A., homeless man Anthony Williams is thrust into the role of local hero after a series of disasters hits the City of Angels. The demo offers the game's first level, as French terrorists crash a planeful of zombie gas on the Santa Monica freeway, and Anthony must save injured citizens, cure or kill zombies, and ferry his newfound friend "Sick Kid" to safety. Using cel-shaded animation and dark humor, the adventure definitely has a style of its own. Our only complaint is that we wanted more areas to explore and less of a linear action path.

Bad Day L.A. uses a similar gameplay as other modern action-adventure games such as the Grand Theft Auto series, but the action is not nearly as open-ended. You'll often hear the same cries from Angelinos, such as "My dog is on fire!" repeatedly, and artificial boundaries will limit Anthony's exploration. The characters do use a bit of adult language, and a few outbursts from Anthony could be considered offensive, but the game's threat-advisory level keeps Anthony on the straight and narrow. Helping citizens, curing zombies, and killing terrorists lowers the threat level, and harming innocents increases it.

The demo lets you save your progress, but the limited duration of the provided level means you won't likely need to. Also, the gameplay ends right when you're about to start shooting a machine gun from a moving ambulance. Bad Day L.A. earns big points for its unique style and humor. We were just hoping for more of a good thing.