The only problem that I have with this sequence is how it conflicts with Irrational's attempt to create an environment populated by creatures that actually think. As the demo progressed, the developers happened upon a similar situation, and the Little Sister uttered the same exact phrase, then jabbed the corpse in the same spot as before and went through the same drinking animations. That, I have a problem with, only because once I get past the game's spectacular visuals (which I'll get to in a bit), seeing something like that is only going to remind me that I'm just playing a videogame, so I hope that, for the sake of the E3 demo arriving on time, that this was all just placeholder. She absolutely cannot say the same exact thing every time she kneels down next to a body. I mean, she certainly can, but that's something I expect to see on the Xbox, and not the 360.

I was also treated to Splicers, mutated women with great leaping ability. They wander about Rapture muttering unintelligible gibberish (because they're...insane), and when provoked, they jump around and climb walls, lashing out at their enemies with their hook hands. In large numbers I could see them being quite a pain to deal with, but for some reason I don't find them scary.

Weapons in the game appear to be a mix of old and new, devices that, while packing modern conveniences, have been cobbled together using spare parts. The same holds true for objects in the environment such as gun turrets, which are just automatic weapons that have been strapped to chairs. How you deal with these things, though, is particularly interesting. Bioshock is all about choice, so while you can blast away at something such as a turret, there's always another way to deal with an obstruction. In the demo, the main character quickly went behind a bar for cover and ingested a genetic modifier that gave him super speed. Then he popped up from behind the bar and quickly zipped by the turret, and after picking up some ammo, blasted the thing from behind, whereupon which it exploded into numerous fragments.

Speaking of ammo, it's going to be quite scarce, ala Condemned: Criminal Origins. You're not going to find a full magazine of anything. It may just be a single round, so you're going to have to give some serious thought as to when is the best time to use it, and as I just said, there's always another way to get past a situation.

Take, for instance, security cameras. Similar to the Metal Gear games, the cameras have a field of vision, and if you cross into it all hell breaks loose. The alarm sounds and an endless stream of flying killer robots will advance on your location and shoot the holy hell out of you. So to disable a camera, you can shoot it and hope for the best, sneak around its cone of vision, or, if you happen to have an enemy handy, you can use specific implants that cause the camera's attention to be focused on the creature, thus allowing you to avoid the robots of doom and disable the camera/the alarm system, without any threats.

At this early stage, I dig the gameplay mechanics. I'm also quite fond of Bioshock's visuals, which are just outstanding. Irrational has done a wonderful job creating Rapture and making its 1940s architecture stand out. Furthermore, the texture work on all of the characters as well as the fire and water effects truly stands out. It's definitely a showpiece for the Xbox 360, particularly since it looks amazing right now and it's not going to be released until 2007.

Based on the demo, Bioshock could be a horrifying FPS, but it's still too early to tell. The game looks incredible and I like its direction, but the little girl uttering the same lines really bugs me, so I'm going to hold off on gushing like a busted hydrant until I actually get my hands on it. Expect more Bioshock coverage in the very near future.