I know this is old, but I remember when this game came out and how excited I was for it. Then I played the demo.
Not unlike the first time I ever tasted Stephen Segal's "Lightning Bolt" energy drink (it does exist), my first thought as I played through the demo was "oh, christ. This is *really* bad."
When a player outside the project...even a casual player like me...gets that feeling in the first ten seconds, you know that something has gone terribly, terribly wrong.
The melee combat especially...like Yahtzee said. It flows like a river of bricks.