Many years have gone and we have all heard about this game and the loud mouth who runs the joint. We have all had our jokes and cracks at their expense. But now that it is out, was it worth the wait? Is it all that they said it was cracked up to be?





2005 Trailer


2006 Trailer


2007 Trailer


2008 Trailer
Trailers


Platform(s): Xbox 360
Developer: Silicon Knights
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Players: 1 player, 2 online
Price: $59.99


Plot: "Norse gods" (cybernetically enhanced humans), aka Aesir, fight and struggle against an invading machine presence that grows and grows and kills mortal men who serve the "gods." You are Baldur, one of the lesser enchanced Aesirs and is encouraged to get more implants creating the title "too human." None of this is exactly explained in the game itself, you kind guess at it.


My Review: The game that most hate and rag one and yet most haven't played is out. Well that is if you don't count the demo, but then if you don't like their game they always say you need to play more than the demo to get a true feel for the game. But what happens when you play more than the demo? Well I did just that, duh, right? For starters, I was a Commando class and played two hours single player, then started over with same character but co-op until we beat it and then replayed it as same character and beat it single player. This is what I found out.


Right off the bet, the opening cut scene is from the demo and you can see that the game looks bad. Maybe they took the old GameCube movies and added some detail...then made it look worse. But it isn't the gameplay parts, just the cut scenes. Maybe their game engine can't do cut scenes properly, in-game action looks pretty decent though. Faces have zero emotion and you are lucky if their lips match the words, but that is a small detail right? Who cares about cut scenes in a...story...driven...game...yeah. Okay, so they have a bit of a fail right there. You can still hear what they say but it isn't much. But onto the more fun(?) part, the gameplay.

Now I had played the demo before and found it frustrating and ok. Nothing innovative, nothing spectacular and a horrible camera. It was probably so horrible cause we are use to all these games allowing us to control it and as soon as this control is taken from us we flip out. But I am sure if there was a third analog stick we would be able to control it. The controls are pretty decked out and filled and besides the camera, they actually work nicely.



Left stick to move, right stick to melee attack, right trigger for gun (left trigger does secondary/grenade attack), and A to jump (pointless?). Those are the basic controls, think reverse dual-stick shooter. The extras are a a dodge/roll, Spider, Battle Cry, and Ruiner. Depending on how you upgrade your character, these extras might be completely pointless. My character was more of a stand off fighter so my Spider and Battle Cry came in handy, the ruiner (explosion around your body), not so much. The only problem I had was that if you don't stop firing or move the right stick while firing you will continue to shoot a dead enemy. Why? Because Silicon Knights hate you. But each class has three different ways to modify your spider to whatever best suits you. Just got to find out what best suits you and your character.

If you haven't played the demo, each class has three tiers and after the first level you pick an alignment, cybernetic or human, where you get two more tiers there. The feeling I got is that there are choices but there is only one really good choice to pick for each class. I mean, why would a ranged fighter pick melee special powers? Doesn't make sense. But I will admit, there is a lot to level up with which is complex and becomes a problem.



It isn't the skill leveling up that is a problem since it isn't too frequent, it is the armor/weapons part. I will say this now and say this again. Too Human is not action adventure, Too Human is a dungeon crawler. There I said it. That isn't a bad thing but you just trudge through overly long levels fighting the same creatures who may or may not take damage from your weapons (more on this later). A lot of the time you will traverse areas that you think you have already been before. If you need a comparison example, it is just like Halo but minus the major back tracking. Straight forward levels with lots of fighting. Now that isn't bad if you are a fan of dungeon crawlers. I am a fan of this genre but in small doses (ie: I don't want to constantly play no-hope dungeon crawlers).

Oh yeah, the problem part! It is easy to see the game is not long (20 hours to beat it two times through). But it is even shorter than that. What makes this a troubling task is the character management. It seems that after every wave of fighting you stop to update your skills and weapon/armor. The only problem with this is that the menus are SLOW and LONG to load. It isn't a quick jump in and out. Though if you do it in the middle of co-op, it doesn't pause the game but leaves your character vulnerable and could lead to death. I believe out of an eight hour game, you could spend almost an hour in the menus, at least that's what it feels like. A trick I found in my single player run though, find some really good armor and strong weapons and trudge through with that. For the most part you won't ever need to change your armor, maybe an occasional weapon change, but once you have set equipment, there should be non looking back to an extent.



Another problematic part are the enemies. Usually you can just attack the enemies how you want but then you will come across a bunch that don't want to die. It is at this point that I recommend you press right on your D-pad which pulls up the damage meter. It tells you how much damage you are doing/getting. This way you know when you are not hurting your target and need to switch tactics like a different type of weapon or melee. You can look at their health bar but that would be too easy. I wonder if this is to break up the monotony but seems off for a ranger fighter to try to duke it out, does it not? Also, slow menus are slow.

So now it is time to hit another biggie, another problem. If you didn't know already you should find out now. If you play co-op there is no story. That's right, Co-Op mode has ZERO story. All story elements (cut scenes, talking, etc.) have been removed. As well as all instructions are removed from the game. Probably the biggest selling feature of the game was the co-op and it feels tacked on. Not only no story, but no ending and you don't play every part of the game. You can't access the store or fix your armor/weapons (yes, your armor and weapons can be damaged and can break) or anything. It feels gimped. After you beat a level, it just goes to a loading screen and then to the multiplayer lobby. Why was this done? I guess it was an after thought. I mean the second player even plays as Baldur's twin brother Baldur. Not really, I just made that up but you two are identical. So a game BIG on story doesn't have story in one of it's key features. Who needs story when you have friends right? Make it up as you go along!

Alternatively, if you play single player you are given computer buddies to follow you. Not a twin but seemingly random troops ranging from foot soldiers to robots to another "god." But they are all rather meaningless since they just stand around watching you die while do little to no attacking. The co-op is supposed to make battling tough enemies easier with strategy but I think it was easier single player. I know it was an easier task to plow through them by myself.



Speaking of dying, expect to do a lot of it. It is a dungeon crawler afterall! They expect you to die so much that they give you an achievement for dying 100 times. Woo-hoo? But dying is another horrible part of the game. There is relatively no consequence, your weapon/armor take a bit of damage and you might have to start off a little ways back leaving you to hike back to the action. There is no consequence and there is a huge one, sitting through the death/respawn animation. It is truely excruciating to keep watching that valkyrie fly down! It may not seem like it at first but it will eventually get to you. In co-op it isn't as bad cause you can quickly access your inventory and equip new items while the sequence goes on, but in single player you just have to wait it out. I think that is the punishment in it of itself.



How about more punishment on the story front? This is the third iteration of this game. The first two attempts (PSOne and GameCube) at the story were more akin to Blade Runner. This new route is probably for the better, but it doesn't make it any less hurtful. Playing the single player mode allowed me to view the cut scenes and see what all these years of planning were about. It was eh and predictable. I know they are set up for a trilogy but why not give more story and less long levels. This could've easily been turned into a two parter and that way we can have it be over before Xbox 1080. I seriously felt a lack of story. And at the end there was supposedly to be a big surprise twist that was completely expected. One of the gods you come across, named Hode, has no eyes but an eye visor. Something is wrong with the visor and there are two signals in there. During gameplay you see a flash back/cut scene of him talking and killing someone named Loki. When you fight him in the game he calls you Loki and show his point of view misintrepreting you as Loki. So why is it a suprise that it was you he shot? All this momentum built up for something that should've been known at the end of level two, fail. You get shot in the head, die and get resurrected even though the government/other Aesir ruling the mortals say resurrection is bad. Really? This is the story you are giving us? You give us four levels (yes they are long but still only four?!) and this substandard plot that isn't clever or exactly new. And then try to excite us for the sequel with Loki finding a giant god/robot akin to something out of Shadow of the Colossus? I wasn't too pleased with it. Granted the end did look cool and I'd give the next one a try if it is ever made but if the next game is going to have the lacking plot like this one, it doesn't have to be made.



Conclusion: This is not what a 10 year game should be like, no matter what anyone says. Too Human isn't bad, but isn't great. It did grow on me but it is not a epic product by far. It is a decent futuristic dungeon crawler. It has its frustrationg parts but it is by far NOT the worst game ever. I think you expect much from a game that has been in development so long and there is no way it could've lived up to it all. Had Dynack not been talking so much and it only taken three years (completely possible), this game probably would've done better sales.

If I hadn't pretty much demolished the game in two play throughs, I'd think about picking this up at a fair price...being $10.


My Rating: 7 - Decent Dungeon Crawler that the story falls short.