Though it's not listed on the Age of Decadence Website, a beta demo of the combat system for this turn-based RPG is now available. The download is being served directly from Rapidshare, Megaupload, FileFront, and Sharebee, and there are some details in the AoD combat demo survival guide. Thanks Tacticular Cancer, who pass along the description posted below.

Welcome to the Age of Decadence combat beta! It's set in the arena district of Maadoran from the full game. You'll get to pit your character's fighting skills against various opponents with the ultimate aim of being crowned the arena champion. Becoming the arena champion will not be easy, or even very likely (just try getting life insurance as a professional gladiator), but we hope you have fun trying. The main purpose of this beta is to test the combat system from the full game and tweak it if necessary based on player feedback, as well as detect any performance or stability issues. Some story elements have been added for your amusement, but they don't represent the scope of options that will be available in the complete game. Bear in mind that everything you'll see is a work in progress (the animations are being improved as I write this). The beta allows you to change the screen resolution, shadows and other settings from within the game (either from main menu, or by pressing ctrl-o at any time), but unfortunately anti-aliasing cannot be turned on from the game. This is a restriction of the game engine being used, and can be easily worked around by simply switching on anti-aliasing in your graphics card settings before starting AoD.

A regular demo featuring the entire first location and the full range of gameplay options (factions, multiple quest solutions, large variety of dialogue options, alchemy, crafting, sneaking, thievery, persuasion, diplomacy, lore, trickery, disguise, forgery, and more) will be available upon the game's release.