Now if you think of it as an RPG (which it really isn't)"
It's supposed to be an RPG/shooter/adventure hybrid. At least that's what it should be if it's the spiritual successor to System Shock 2. It's being marketed more as an FPS to the "OMG HALO IS TEH BEST GAME EVAR" crowd that never played a Ken Levine game before, but I get the distinct impression that it's supposed to be an RPG, and a lot of the FPS talk is marketing.
And no, as a shooter, it doesn't look impressive to me either. I measure up FPS's to the standards set by games like Half-Life 2, F.E.A.R., Far Cry, and Painkiller, and as a shooter this game is not close. Not that I would complain about that, since System Shock 2 wasn't a great shooter either, but it did have a robust role playing system, even if it was a bit contrived.
And getting AI characters to attack each other is nothing new. You could do it in Postal 2. The fact that this is a controlled demo makes it even less impressive to me.
And honestly it sounds like it has more consequences based on actual choices you make in the game than most recent so-called RPGs do. The character development will be about on par with System Shock 2. So that's a bit lacking in the RPG department...but still more complex than Oblivion was.
What consequences are you seeing to this behavior? Everyone except for Big Daddies are hostile until you threaten him or the girl. There's nothing at all special about that. As far as character development goes, it looks very DeusExInvisibleWar-ish. And you have the ability to change your mind about character development by overwriting your plasmids. So much for consequences.
Like I said previously, I love the art direction and the atmosphere, but I am pretty lukewarm on the gameplay. It reminds me of Inivisible War in a few key ways. Forgive me for being pessimistic. I'm tired of getting excited about games and then later finding out that they aren't very good.