It's similar, there's no denying it. Especially the car driving stuff is pretty much stolen from HL2. The demo gives the wrong impression about the game btw. It's the old PAX demo and they have clearly polished the game up a bit after that. There is also a shitload of little meaningless stuff you can do within the levels. You can play pinball, slots machines etc. A lot of interactive stuff to play around with.
And yes, you can pick up turds from a toilet bowl.
