Well I'm afraid I feel this demo is a huge let down, I mean truly and heres some of the reasons why:
GTA, True Crime and Driver all use the Triggers to stop and go. I understand the trigger is replaced to allow shooting, but honestly, I and I am sure more others will see this as a little nerve-recking to get used to. (Although braking is still on the left trigger which helps) but I like controlling my speed. Also, I hate the way cars stop, honestly, must the car always turn to stop and does it always take so long?
The way the guy runs bothers me a bit. I also believe he should run a little faster and more realistcally.
The way missions are handled are the same as GTA. Would be nice if maybe they incorporated something a little more less linear. Like it would be very nice if instead having madetory missions (Like your automatically in Saints against your will and must handle missions from them) that we are instead given choices. Such as we have a choice to choose between Group W,X,Y and Z. W and X are at war with Y and Z. As we do missions for W and X, Y and Z begins to hate you and soon your standings change accordingly. And with each group, new missions/storylines emerge adding more to the realism and allowing replay value greatly.
Framerates are a problem, but suure that it will be fixed.
Graphics: Top notch for a demo and honestly this demo gives you an awesome feel of how the game may be.
Cops: I don't know about you, but I kept killing people and stealing cars, no cops came at all. Maybe none were around, but maybe this is good/bad. In GTA the cops were lax but in Driver cops would chase you for just crashing. But I don't really know how the cops handle in thia game though, but I would perfer if they were more challenging and added more to the realism, such as pit meanuvers, cops don't just mindlessly hit you, but instead use actual tactics, more roadblocks, spikes and maybe some more care for the being of the general public u know like in real life? I am sure no cop will kill a pedestrian to capture you. If they make cops a little more realistic, we'd see some more interesting getaways and maybe it will require us to think and be on our toes aswell..
Weapons: Some typical weapons in your arsonal. I am sure many more will be in the full game. Don't really know what to say I mean I am sure they want realism and guess using your typical weapons is the only way.
Overall: Some will say just another GTA knockoff for the Next Gen while other say this is a game all on its own. It borrows many elements from its predecessor while (maybe) incorporates some of its own. There is quite a bit of realism in here. From what the demo shows, if you want a GTA expierince(With no flying and prettier graphics) to keep you busy til more info on GTAIV is unvieled, this game is for you. But for the rest of us, keep playing SA and just wait, trust me, there are much better games in this genre on the way and I am sure it won't even be from R*
I give the demo a 6/10 (Mediocre)