Crackdown

Like Zone of the Enders, this is a game many people would not have bought except for the highly-anticipated game demo that came with it at the time (Halo 3). Unlike ZoE, it has also enjoyed a healthy amount of success on its own right, because it is a charming little game. While games like True Crime had already tried a good-guy take on the Grand Theft Auto sandbox formula, Crackdown takes that perspective and adds a robust RPG-like system of leveling up individual attributes. More than that - leveling up doesn't just make you powerful, it makes you amazingly superhuman. This is a sandbox game where you can become a supercop that leaps over buildings, and tosses SUVs at gang members. I honestly don't know how deep the game gets, but the basic gameplay has me sold already.

Progress: Tried the demo