Our demo guided us through several unique areas of the ship that displayed a refreshing range of environments when, in reality, the ship is really just one single environment. Sure, our limited demo was carefully selected, but if you're worried about a bland corridor crawler, our brief experience would indicate your fears are misplaced. Peering out the side of the ship, a massive hole torn in its hull, we could see an enormous crater on the nearby planet – the mining site of interest and, ostensibly, the source of the ship's recent ... infestation Beaver tells us. While in that uncompressed space, the audio is frighteningly silent; you don't "hear" it, you "feel" it. A body floats quietly by (I'm coached to shoot it and watch the physics system react); drops of fluid (hydraulic fluid? blood?) fly about in droplets, just like your high school physics instructor told you it would. Someone cracks a "no one can hear you scream" joke.

Gunplay was certainly solid (and surprisingly difficult ... or maybe that was the inversion setting still messing with me), but my first thought wasn't the traditionally slow pace of "survival horror." Beaver later told us that the action-tastic Resident Evil 4 was a major influence in terms of gameplay (he name-dropped BioShock and Mass Effect for story, big surprise), explaining the game's more action-fueled approach to combat. After witnessing the ship's captain converted into one of them, only to have him come lunging through a glass wall while the alien infester scrambled up the wall (what? It doesn't die?) we were done with our hands-on ... but not before Beaver shared one more treat: a miniboss character from later in the game. He let Isaac die, only to have the enormous creature tear him in half in a prolonged death animation. The producers giggled to themselves. "So it's rated E then? " someone quipped.