The Halo: Reach Demo for Xbox 360 was a free trial version of the full game, it allowed players to experience a portion of the game's campaign and multiplayer modes before deciding to purchase the full version. The demo typically included a single mission from the campaign and access to a limited selection of multiplayer maps and modes, giving players a taste of the gameplay and features offered by the full game.
Matchmaking was very limited, as it only allowed 8 people to be in a game with each other. In addition to this, the only map that could be played on was Powerhouse. You could not unlock armour or change any aspects of your spartan, as you needed the full game for this.
Also, an interesting quirk about the Demo, is that since it was released with Halo: Reach at launch, it did not receive the TU update. Meaning that the bloom is more present, as well as armour lock is more annoying.
Now, you might be wondering if this is just a demo. Why does the matchmaking still work online in 2024 despite the actual Halo: Reach no longer having matchmaking support? The reason is because it has so few game types and only one map, it is all stored on the game’s download file, instead of an external server like the full game. So for the demo it doesn’t matter that the full game no longer has matchmaking support, as all the files needed to start searching online are all built into the demo.
In order to play the demo you will need to have a Xbox 360 (it will not work on the Xbox One and consoles after it). You will also need a USB stick to download the demo onto it, which will then need to be plugged into the Xbox 360 to start the demo up.
To learn more about how to play the demo or download it, join the Halo: Reach community Discord server: https://discord.gg/w269yCEMVF.