Too Human – 360 – Review

Too Human has been in development
for many years. It is the first part of a trilogy exclusively made for the Xbox
360 by the developers at Silicon Knights. Over the past few years the developers
have been giving little tidbits of this game to whet gamers’ appetites, and they
accomplished their jobs. The problem is that after all the hype, the final
product disappointingly fails to live up to it. While the game is decent for
what is offered, it could have been much more if not for some serious design
flaws.

Too Human is using “Norse” mythology
as its background, while adding a nice, cybernetic twist for good measure. The
gods people worship are actually cybernetic enhanced humans – basically,
immortal humans. The gods’ job is to protect humanity from the Loki, a fellow
God, and his malicious robot army. Players take on the role of Baldur, the
youngest Aesir and Odin’s favorite son. Baldur has recently lost his wife and
players are out to find out what has happened to his wife while trying to save
humanity from Loki.

Once players load up the game they
will be pleased to find five different character classes, each with their own
strengths and weaknesses. The Champion is a well-rounded fighter that is best at
air and critical attacks. The Berserker is the best for melee.  He can dual
weird melee weapons, but has less health. If players are looking for a tank,
then the defender is right up their ally since it has higher armor and health,
but it is slower and does less damage. The Commando is best at ranged weapons,
but has lower melee damage. The last class is a healer called a Bio-Engineer. 

Explosions Galore!

The customization in this game is
epic; players will be able to customize just about everything with their
characters. Once players make their class selection and are thrown into battle
they will find that they can customize everything from the skill tree to the
weapons/armor they carry. As players progress through each mission, enemies and
certain devices will drop random loot (weapons and armor) to enhance their
character. While having the huge amount of spoils is nice, it also comes at a
price. Certain items require the players to be at a certain level, so players
might find an amazing sword but cannot use it until later in the game. When that
time comes the sword will be obsolete. Another obvious issue is that no matter
how many times player’s upgrade, their character is never “enough.”  Enemies
level up just as fast. This means players never experience an “overpowering”
feeling when they are going through the game, they always feel ordinary.

The first thing that players will
notice about the game is how the controls are set up. The left analog stick is
used to move Baldur around, and triggers are used for firing the ranged weapons,
but the melee is completely different. Instead of using the face buttons for
melee attacking; it is all mapped to the right analog stick. This will take some
time to get used to, but once players get the hang of it, they will come up with
impressive results. Various jaw-dropping combos can then be created to fend off
the enemy.

That being said, there are a couple
of issues with this control scheme. First off there is no manual lock-on for the
enemies. This means that the AI will automatically pick the enemy to fire upon,
which might not be the one you want to take out at that time. The next thing is
the lack of depth for the melee attacks. There are various advanced maneuvers
players can pull off but at times they are hard to do because missed (or one too
many) flicks of the stick will ruin the move. Lastly there is no direct camera
control, and this is one of the biggest issues players will have with the game.
The game controls a “smart” camera that will keep up with the action and players
can hit a button to line up the camera with them. The problem is many times the
camera needs adjusting during the midst of a fight; many times players will be
looking at a wall or at the wrong end of a battle, and getting pummeled for it.

Playful word banter ensues?

One of the most puzzling aspects in
this game is the way that death is handled. When a player dies, the weapons they
are using will take damage and they will be deposited in the nearest checkpoint.
Unlike most games, all the damage that the players dealt out to the enemies will
remain, so players will be starting from the same spot they left off, except
with a whole health bar. The only form of punishment players receive is sitting
through a cut scene where a Valkyrie descends and takes Balder off to Valhalla.
This cut scene is very appealing but the problem lies in that every time a
player dies, they are forced to watch it and there is no way to skip it. Having
to watch this cut scene many times over throughout the course of the game is
torture. Also this really invalidates the Bio-Engineer class, since there is no
real form of punishment from dying, why bother using a class that’s main focus
is healing?

The biggest problem with this game
is the pacing. Players are let loose in huge levels with very little to do.
After each mission players are transported to Aesir, the home base, to get more
information for the next mission. Aesir is a huge base, but the problem is that
it feels empty and under-populated. As players go through various sections to
upgrade their weapons and armor, they will be walking (at a very slow pace) to
each section. It is a drag to do this as there is little to no interaction along
the way. It almost feels like there was supposed to be more stuff in this
section of the game, but there was no time left in development. Regardless, this
really breaks up the fast-paced action of the missions.

The graphics for this game are a
mixed bag. First off the art direction and level background are breathtaking.
The developers did a good job of making players believe that they are in a
tech-heavy world but therein lies a problem as well. One of the biggest
complaints that have is the world is devoid of life and gets extremely
repetitive. All four stages have the same basic look and feel toward them and it
hurts overall. The only break in this tech-heavy world is when players go into
cyberspace where everything is budding with organic life. It would have been
better if there were more breaks into cyberspace just for a change in scenery.

Sword Slashing Fun

The character models are pretty
decent, but it is the animations that really shine in the end. Players will love
seeing Baldur do the various moves as they cause devastating damage to the
enemy. The only problem with the character models and animation is that other
games that have been recently release do the job better. This is not a “knock”
to the graphics here, it is just a shame when something comes out later that
looks more primitive than several games released previously.

The musical score for this game is
great. It will carry players though each level as they face numerous enemies
trying to take Baldur’s life. The voice acting is also top-notch. The only shame
is that the dialogue is lacking and this ruins the high-quality voice acting.
Also there needs to be more variety in battle calls as players will be sick of
hearing the same ones frequently. The sound effects get job done with plenty of
explosions and gunfire to keep players happy.

Multiplayer is where this game
really excels as well. Player can login to Xbox Live and create or join a co-op
match. Once logged in players will find that there is no story mode to deal
with, just straight action with more randomized enemies. Playing with a friend
is a lot more fun than just playing the single-player mode. This mode also
allows players to trade items with friends and exploit certain skills that can
only be utilized with a group party. More players should be able to play in a
single game. The last criticism is the inability to play this online and not
over a network or on a single box.

Too Human is rated Teen.

Gameplay: 5.1
The gameplay if fun, but it does get repetitive.
There are three definite things that kills the gameplay: lack of camera control,
the combat is not that in-depth, and the upgrade system works (always upgrading
your character but never getting the feeling that you are very powerful).
Hopefully these things will be solved in the next game.

Graphics: 7.9
The graphics are decent, but lack real variety in level design hurts. The
character models and animations are good, but other games have done it better.

Sound: 8.5
The voice acting is good, the only complaint with it is the lack of
variety in battle cries. The music is epic as well and will stay with players as
they go through the various levels.

Difficulty: Easy
The way that this game deals with death makes the entire game a breeze
to go through, since there is no real punishment.

Concept: 8.1
I loved the idea of the developers going out of the “norm” and using
another setting (Norse Mythology) for the game’s background. This is a breath of
fresh air in the gaming world. The only problem is the developers really didn’t
flesh it out as much as I would have liked. Hopefully they will do this with the
next two games. This is the only reason the score is not higher.

Multiplayer: 8.1
This game contains a Co-Op mode and this is where the game really
shines. Too Human plays a lot better when players are enjoying the game with
their friends and it offers a more rewarding experience. Hopefully the next game
will allow up to four players to play at one time instead of just two.

Overall: 6.3
Too Human is another game that falls in the “could have been much more”
category. Even though this game has been in development for many years, there
are just too many design flaws that keep it from becoming a “must have” game.
Hopefully the next game in the series will fix many of these flaws and become
the game we all hoped it would be.