Too Human

I went into playing too human a little skeptical because I had read most of the reviews online for the game and they were almost all less than spectacuar and bashed down pretty hard on the game, but nevertheless I went out and bought the game.  i had so much fun with the demo that I couldn't let the game pass me by.

The Good

The Combat - I have to say that I really love the combat in this game.  Althought it may seem very simple at face value, there really is some skill to it.  All you do is hold the right analog stick where you want to attack and the game will automatically lock on to the nearest enemy and bring you too them.  This may seem easy, but if you intend on staying alive as long as possible then you have to work on your timing, and sometimes is can be a real callenge with hoards of enemies are crowding around you.

The Loot - I have to say that after playing this game, I have become a loot JUNKIE.  I keep playing and playing trying to find new and better armor, weapons, and blueprints.  The game has just so much of these weapons and armor that your caracters look is constantly changing and you are constantly using a variety of different weapons.  This is a defintely a big plus when playing on line because both people playing online are playing as their character in the game, and this loot system enables almost virtually every character that you encounter to look different.

The Setting - The setting and this whole Cyber-Norse theme was a really great choice on the part of Silicon Knights.  It is new, interesting, and great to look at.  At times the game can look Halo-ish, but overall it works in the games' favor.

The Graphics - This game my not be Uncharted or MSG4, but the game does look good.  The character models are nicely done, and the character animations seem to move very smoothly.  The backgorund of the game and the your character's armor and weapons have a great amount of detail in them.  There may be some room for improvement here, but the game is no slouch either.

The Bad

The Story - To me the story was just bland.  Like I said above, I like the whole Cyber-Norse setting, I just don't like the narrative that takes place around it.  I felt like I was watching a futuristic Viking soap opera.  I just never really got invested in the characters enough to care.  Plus there were only really storyline elements in-between the longer gameplay levels, so I kind of lost interest in the story everytime I went to a new level.

Death Valkyries of Doom - Every single time you die in Too Human you have to watch an uskipable cutscent that depicts a Cyber-Valkyrie come down from the sky and take you away to some Norse God paradise where they reivie you and throw you about 30 feet away from where you were taken away.  This cut-scene lasts about 15 seconds and is the MOST ANNOYING part of the game, literally.

No Death Penalty - On top of the unskippable death cut-scene, you don't even have any pentalty for death (well that is if you don't call the horrendous cut-scene a penalty).  You just pop back up in the game with all your experience intact and you just keep on playing and playing no matter how many times you may die.  Now, for some this may seem like a pro instead of a con, but to me it doesn't give the player a reason to want to live in the game, and spoiled the game just a little, but I just played like their was a penalty (and really there was *coughdeathcutscenecough*).

Despite the minor annoyances of Too Human, it is an insanely fun and addictive game.  I caught myself playing it for 4 or 5 hours at a time, and I never play games for periods of that long.  I reccomend this game for any Xbox 360 owner who wants a long distraction until their most anticipated fall game comes out.