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First off, no, I did not get to use the Polar Bear attack.

Anyway, Too Human has received lots and lots of attention over the years, but not much was being delivered. I was starting to believe that Too Human would end up as vaporware, but as it turns out, Too Human is finally coming out this August.

So then, the big question on everyone's mind: How was Too Human? Was it total sex or was it just a "meh"? You're just going to have to click the link that says 'read full story' to find out.

 

Before we got to play, Denis Dyack quickly gave a run down of what we were about experience. He first brought up the fact that Too Human has gone from a four-player co-op game to a two-player co-op game. Denis stated that because of all the stuff that can happen on the screen, it can get really confusing trying to play the game with four players. By the time I was done playing, I kind of understood what Denis meant, but it wasn't that bad. This could easily be a four-player co-op game from what I saw.

After showing off a few tactics players can use in the game, it was time to finally play. You'll have the choice between five different classes each with different skills and attributes. I went with the Champion class, as it was the most well-rounded of the five. A long opening cinematic plays, with your character and a team of soldiers eventually descending into a snow-filled valley and entering a large temple structure.  

After about a minute or two inside of the temple, you and your group are attacked by the enemy and it's time to check out the combat system. You have two main attack systems: your gun, which is controlled by the trigger buttons, and your sword, which you use the right stick to control. 

The guns at this stage are relatively weak, but the sword will take enemies out with ease. I really found the sword combat hard to get used to since it's dependent on the right stick. When you're surrounded, quick thrusts of the stick in the direction of your enemy will have your character hit them, cycling through the enemies quickly. If you hold the stick in the direction you want to attack longer, your character will glide towards the selected target where you quickly slash the enemy and then glide on over to another selected target.  

Doing combos and juggling attacks will get you more skill points, so it's a good idea to flick an opponent up into the air and then take out your guns and blast them until they die. Enemies will drop various items that you can pick up and will go to upgrading yourself and your weapons.  

Other attacks will include a Battle Cry attack, where, once activated, you'll inflict double the damage and your unit will also receive the same extra powers all for a short period of time.

As you go through the game, you receive more skill points that will go into feeding your skill tree. You can have a balanced tree of magic, sword and gun attacks, or focus only on specific skills. Increasing any of these categories will open up new weapons and new skills, which you can use in battle. Upgrading your guns will get you a powerful laser beam, upgrading your swords will get you a giant hammer, upgrading your other stats can unlock Spider Bots, and so on and so forth.

I didn't get a chance to use a Spider Bot, but the concept alone has me thrilled. There can be various Spider Bots, each with a specific skill. One can shoot at enemies, another has an anti-missile gun, and another has the ability to put a shield around you. Although they won't be a big part of the combat, they do seem really fun to utilize.

As you progress through the levels, your character will have flashbacks that give more detail to the story. At least I think they're flashbacks. One thing I still don't understand about these types of events is why these demos are always out in the open with a bunch of other games and hundreds of people around.

Anyway, after the scenes are over, we're put right back into the game and you just continue on into the level. I wasn't sure what the point of the mission was, as I couldn't hear shit that was going on. Eventually I came across what I want to call a mini-boss. The mini-boss is a lot bigger than the regular enemies and has multiple points of attacks. In order to take them out, you need to focus on each limb. 

The mini-boss kept handing me my ass when I went in for melee attacks so I stayed far back and shot the shit out of it. It was here that I noticed that it's a bit of a pain to try and keep the selection on a body part steady. It's very easy to accidentally move your aiming cursor especially when you're running around.

After I took out this creature, it was time to move on from Too Human. A couple of other things to add is that the camera system isn't perfect. The camera will move around a lot when you're engaged in battle and after you're done fighting, it will stay in place where it last was. That's nice in combat situations for it to move, but often times I found that the camera was facing me so as I ran forward I couldn't see anything. Simply pressing the left bumper will reset the camera directly behind you, but I don't see why the camera wouldn't go right back behind your character automatically.

Another small complaint comes with the death system. When you die, this Valkyrie comes down from the heavens and picks your character up. Now, that's cool at first, but there's no way to skip it and that can get old really fast.

All in all, I'm still not sure what to think about the game. I did like it, but it's nowhere near what the hype was trying to make this game out to be. I also had nowhere near enough time to really get an idea of the potential of the game. It seems like there will be a lot of depth to it and anyone that's into Gauntlet Legends and the Devil May Cry series may like this. 

Luckily, there's a demo coming out prior to the release. Too Human is promising around 15 hours of gameplay, and up to 60 hours if you try to reach the level 50 cap. It'll be dropping August 19th in America and August 28th for Europe.


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30 comments | showing # 1 to 30

FreedomToast's Avatar
FreedomToast at 05/15/2008 21:41
"Polar Bear attack" im gonna yell this in COD4 some time this week

back on topic: cant wait to try this out
EternalDeathSlayer's Avatar
EternalDeathSlayer at 05/15/2008 21:44
So it's finally happening, huh? Well, what you wrote is both encouraging and discouraging, so who knows? What I'm most afraid of is people judging the game based on it's development time and based on the hype, which really isn't fair. We can judge Denis Dyack because he seems to be a prick, but the game should be treated like any other.

I'm expecting this one to be a huge letdown to most people. Like a Mass Effect situation, except worse.
bleep's Avatar
bleep at 05/15/2008 21:51
FEED THE SKILL TREE!
Niero's Avatar
Niero at 05/15/2008 21:56
Between the ho-hum impressions I've been reading that the rumor that Dyack is going to step down, I can't help but already feel that the game is not going to live up to the hype.
Kryptinite's Avatar
Kryptinite at 05/15/2008 21:59
I've been waiting for this write up all day. I'm still very much waiting for this game but not with the same excitement I once had. This seems like the type of game that a demo won't really do it justice. I might have to rent this one before I buy but...I never rent games so....yeah.

Thanks for your impressions :).
Arttemis's Avatar
Arttemis at 05/15/2008 22:14
"It seems like there will be a lot of depth to it and anyone that's into Gauntlet Legends and the Devil May Cry series may like this."

Interesting. I've loved both of those series immensely... I don't know much at all about this game, as I haven't read anything about it until today --- but the thought of a co-op hack and slash with heavy RPG elements really excites me.

Hopefully the issues you encountered will be smoothed out by release time. Of course the demo will be a great indicator of how well it plays out, but I really think I'll pick this up with my roommate (both of us huge Diablo 2 fans) and fuck shit up in game.
Boolean's Avatar
Boolean at 05/15/2008 22:15
Maybe Dyack should have listened to people when they said his game looked boring rather than get his panties in a twist.
Hamza CTZ Aziz's Avatar
Hamza CTZ Aziz at 05/15/2008 22:18
Arttemis: Oh yeah, someone brought up that it's like Diablo 2 in a way too. No clue myself.
Eschatos's Avatar
Eschatos at 05/15/2008 22:22
This does look pretty decent, but I'll need to see some gameplay.
pedrovay2003's Avatar
pedrovay2003 at 05/15/2008 22:27
Well, I like Devil May Cry, so maybe I'll give this a shot. The screens look awesome, at least.

It sucks that it's not 4-player anymore... It's only gonna be 2-player even if you're playing online?
ZanyIce's Avatar
ZanyIce at 05/15/2008 22:29
I don't have a good feeling about Too Human. None of the previews are very encouraging and it just doesn't sound like something I'd like.
Macca's Avatar
Macca at 05/15/2008 22:51
This is a game I'm not too worried about releasing 2 weeks later over here, simply because it will give me some time to read reviews and see what people really feel about the game.
OhJAM's Avatar
OhJAM at 05/15/2008 23:10
Ehh...I've seen too much, and yet not enough. I need about 10 hours of playtime to accurately judge this thing, because while I'm interested, I'm definitely not sold.
JynxShot's Avatar
JynxShot at 05/15/2008 23:24
No more 4-player co-op?

My anticipation for this just dropped a lot. So how's the co-op for Fable 2 coming along?
sexycommando's Avatar
sexycommando at 05/15/2008 23:27
Diablo-like? With only 2 player online co-op? Yeah sure. This game is gonna flop.
Redeye's Avatar
Redeye at 05/16/2008 00:44
It's funny...I read that as 'we're actually up against a deadline now, and the four-player code is a complete nightmare, so we've only got the time to make it two-player."

Add that to his decision to step down as SK president makes me think that yeah, this is actually going to be not-very-good, so someone else will get to face the flak. Colour me unsurprised. :\
Jerkbutt47's Avatar
Jerkbutt47 at 05/16/2008 01:10
I want this game to be good because I like Silicon Knights, but I just can't bring myself to be as excited as I've been for other games.
RAB's Avatar
RAB at 05/16/2008 03:04
i was excited for this


i was damn near stoked on it



but you guys just depressed me =/




i'll still give it a rent tho.

maybe there'll be some big american teetees
Jetsetlemming's Avatar
Jetsetlemming at 05/16/2008 04:10
Man, this game was a whole lot more impressive sounding half a decade ago.
kintaeb's Avatar
kintaeb at 05/16/2008 06:08
It seems almost like a Phantasy Star Online, but with half as many players. As a deep game this is not a good thing, for addiction it is good.
Tuxy's Avatar
Tuxy at 05/16/2008 07:35
JynxShot says:
05/15/2008 23:24
No more 4-player co-op?

My anticipation for this just dropped a lot. So how's the co-op for Fable 2 coming along?

Isn't Fable 2 two player co-op as well?
Professor Pew's Avatar
Professor Pew at 05/16/2008 07:48
Hmmmmmm that sounds pretty meh. I almost had some hope for this game after the last couple of gameplay videos they should, but thanks for ripping that hope to shreds :)
Alfie Haggis's Avatar
Alfie Haggis at 05/16/2008 07:51
If this game is as entertaining as theSpace Haggis Bible then Im a defo NOT gonna pick this up!

Alfie!
mistic's Avatar
mistic at 05/16/2008 08:48
well I'm gonna wait for the demo... I simply don't know what to think of this game anymore...
Trev's Avatar
Trev at 05/16/2008 09:53
So holding the right stick toward the enemies makes them die, or am I misinterpreting how the melee combat works? That sounds really... not good.
Steaming Grits's Avatar
Steaming Grits at 05/16/2008 10:06
Guys, this preview is pointless. He only got to play a little and couldn't even hear the game. This game is huge. You need some time to "get it".
This is NOT DMC or Gauntlet. I thought at least industry people would know by now that the game is like Diablo. It's an item drop, loot collection, customizing, exploration game. Go listen to Dennis Dyack on the IGN podcast. He explains a lot.
TrailerParkJesus's Avatar
TrailerParkJesus at 05/16/2008 10:42
This is a "wait and see" for me.
Chocobo Knight's Avatar
Chocobo Knight at 05/16/2008 10:58
Hmm.. is there no way to shrink the GUI down? It really does take up a good chunk of the screen.
MrSlippery's Avatar
MrSlippery at 05/16/2008 15:11
Im gonna chalk this up to a good looking first try.

I'll still buy the game. I support Dyack for trying to bring something huge to the 360. It could be MS' answer to god of war.

that said, GoW is alot tighter, and just feels alot more polished, from what I've heard, read and seen, it's not as solid overall.

still, looks pretty fun. Heard it's a deep game, so that should keep me going.
Necros's Avatar
Necros at 05/17/2008 00:20
I'm just hoping it's good and lives up to the concept. I don't need it to be the best game ever, just meet that original concept. They'll have two sequels in which to improve it, too.
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