So, Paradise —the game that’s apparently been “ready to release any day now” since last year—decided to drop a demo today… the day before their official launch. And folks, it’s bad. But let’s rewind for a sec and walk through everything leading up to this trainwreck.
A Timeline of Delays, Excuses, and Moving Goalposts
- Originally, the game was supposed to hit Early Access back in November.
- Then December.
- Then, after multiple delays, they settled on April 2nd as the official release date.
Over the past few months, they bragged that tons of people were playtesting the game, claiming it was essentially ready to go. But as gameplay clips started surfacing from livestreams, fans were… not impressed.
Suddenly, the narrative shifted: “Oh, no no, that’s not the game! That’s just a demo!”
They quickly updated Steam and Epic listings, rebranding the game as a demo and promising that April 2nd would be “demo day.”
Surprise! The Demo Dropped a Day Early… and It’s a Mess
Earlier today, out of nowhere, they dropped the demo on a site called GJ (Game Jolt)—not exactly a mainstream platform—and instantly, people started playing. Almost immediately, players realized:
This is not what Paradise promised. At all.
Let’s Break It Down:
🔹 The Apartment
Looks decent? Yeah, that’s because it’s downloaded from the Unreal Marketplace. The character movement is floaty, animations are stock UE4, and the camera controls feel like they were coded in a rush.
🔹 The World… Isn’t a World
Despite years of claiming this is an open-world game, the “world” is just a series of disconnected scenes you access through a menu. That’s right—you don’t even walk between areas. You select locations like levels in a mobile game.
🔹 AI NPCs Are a Gimmick
They’ve hyped this “AI interaction” feature to death—but it’s literally just ChatGPT or 11Labs responses plugged into a basic dialogue system. Shoot an NPC while they’re talking? They just keep going. There’s no logic or immersion. It’s a gimmick.
🔹 The Garage & Cars
They teased driving in promo footage, but all you can do is drive around a tiny garage. The car can’t even leave. Sometimes it just… disappears. It’s laughable.
🔹 The Nightclub
Recognize it? That’s because it’s a barely-modified asset pack that resembles the Malibu Club from GTA: Vice City. Nothing happens inside—no crowd, no music, no mission, no interaction.
🔹 “Missions”
They now claim tomorrow’s version will include missions. But these missions? They’re basic Unreal Engine templates. Literally step-by-step tutorials you can find on YouTube. Sneak past an NPC, shoot someone, pick up a thing—done. Nothing revolutionary. Nothing AAA.
About That “Open World” Claim…
This game was never going to be open world. All the “locations” are isolated asset packs. Paradise hasn’t customized them beyond maybe slapping their logo on a wall. They do not have the skill or infrastructure to stitch a real open-world map together, let alone something to rival GTA (which they claimed).
Let’s Talk Reality
If you have Unreal Engine and about 6 hours, you could recreate most of what they’ve shown. And in fact—some creators have done exactly that as a challenge. This is not the result of years of development or a large team. This is a couple grand spent on asset packs and plugins.
And remember, they claimed partnerships with streamers like Ninja, Loserfruit, and Pokimane—only for their actual managers to publicly deny any involvement.
So no. I’m not buying that “tomorrow’s version” will somehow magically transform this into a good game.
Final Thoughts
This isn’t about hating on devs using asset packs. Tons of indies do that—it’s fine. But Paradise marketed this as a next-gen, open-world GTA killer with AAA features, and the reality is it’s a barely functional slideshow of asset store content and broken mechanics.
They’ve lied, misled, and moved the goalposts every step of the way. And the saddest part? Some people still defend them.
“Just wait for the full version.”
“It’s only a demo!”
Yeah… it was only a “demo” after people called them out. Before that? This was the game. And if today’s demo is the best they can put out, there’s no miracle patch coming tomorrow.
