Our first look at Capcom's Dark Void was bittersweet, as the company let us look, but not touch. Last week, however, we finally got our hands on the Xbox 360 controller, and despite a choppy frame rate, it plays as good as it looks.

GIVE... IT...TO ME!!!

Dark Void casts you as Will, an overconfident pilot who flies through the Bermuda Triangle and winds up in another dimension. He soon meets The Survivors, fellow humans who also got sucked into the void, and together they battle aliens known as The Watchers, a bunch of evil robots armed with laser guns.

Combat takes place from a third person perspective as Will runs around and also uses his jet pack to hover and clear impossible jumps. Watchers come at him from all angles, unloading hot death and taking cover when necessary. We responded in kind by unleashing bullets on our foes, pelting them with gunfire and watching as their metal bodies surged with electricity and exploded into shiny pieces.

Right away, Dark Void's fighting impressed us. Although we don't know much about our enemies, we still had a blast turning them to scrap metal with not only Will's machine gun, but also The Watcher's laser weapon. We also enjoyed the melee grabs, which let us get our mitts on our foes and crack their artificial spines.

Furthermore, we really dig the vertical combat system. This lets you battle bad guys from different perspectives, such as hanging on the side of a mountain. Not only can you shoot up, but you can adjust your positioning to fire down as well. As an added sick perk, you can even grab your enemies and yank them off their perch, thus plunging them to their dooms.

After battling aliens on foot, we tested Will's jet pack. It took us a moment to get used to it (our first attempt resulted in Will crashing into a wall and exploding), but once we got our bearings, we soared through the air and eventually grabbed onto a UFO. What ensued was a fun action sequence where Will must rip open a panel while avoiding a turret, so whenever the gun charges up, we got the hell out of Dodge.

After completing our objective, the UFO's pilot erupted from the cockpit and attempted to knock us off, but some quick left analog stick maneuvering allowed us to blow our enemy's head off. From there, we jacked the UFO and performed barrel rolls during our joyride. Like the jetpack, it took us a few seconds to get used to, but once we did, we thoroughly enjoyed the controls as well as blasting other spaceships.

Actually, the only thing we didn't like about the demo was its length. After eight minutes of flying and shooting, we wanted more Dark Void, but the screen faded black and we graciously gave up the controller. Bottom line, this game is good and we can't wait until the game arrives in 2009.