Too Human

Ok so I "finished" this yesterday.

It's a really tough one to call because there are things that annoy me in the game and I'll come to those in a minute, but there is something incredibly compelling about it, maybe it's the constant loot or the frequent levelling up but I also find the combat to be really fun, as soon as you're in a groove sliding here there and everywhere, popping explosive enemies in to the air then quickly rolling away to avoid the inevitable explosion, it just makes you feel like a bad ass.

First and foremost bosses (or at least one of them anyway), seriously if I make a melee focused character (Berserker) then I DO NOT want to be forced in to using guns which I am bloody awful with and have no training for to take down a boss, that is bad game design and it's a shame because if you are a melee focused character it makes one or two of the boss encounters a real pain in the ass and sucks quite a bit of fun out of them.

All the rest are minor niggles and it really depends on you if they piss you off enough to dismiss the game completely or just shrug your shoulders and keep on chopping up those robots.

The air combat is really fun and pulling off brutal finishers in mid air feels pretty damn awesome, what doesn't feel awesome however is when occasionally you land on enemies heads and sort of stay there for a few seconds, as I say it doesn't happen very often and it doesn't last very long (a couple of seconds at the most), to be fair the only reason I probably experienced it is because I used air combat so much.

Slowdown, again it doesn't happen very often, only in certain areas when it throws LOADS of enemies at you but it is there, I found the final chapter in Hel to suffer from it the worse (it's a very large area and the sheer amount of enemies the game throws at you in that chapter is insane) but again it's very minor and doesn't happen very often and even when it does it really isn't that bad.

As far as the camera and the controls are concerned I got over all that after flying through the demo 4 or 5 times and this, I think is the games biggest issue, it's different.

The camera works very well if you just leave it alone and let it do its thing, if it does pick a bad angle while you in the middle of a battle just hit LB and bam, it centres itself behind you.

As far as the controls are concerned I actually think they're good, the combat as I've said is really fun as soon as it "clicks". The stick is basically a replacement for the mouse, in an Action RPG like this one on a PC you'd be clicking on enemies constantly to move your character and prioritise the more lethal mobs and the Right Stick is used in exactly the same way in Too Human and I think it's a damn good idea, in fact I think I'll miss it when I play other Action RPGs on the 360 (Sacred 2 for example).

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.

The reason for that is because I didn't think I was a loot drop lover. But I am, and I even finished the game in a view sittings over 1 week. That is also because the campaign I played was 15 hours long, so that is in my 15 to 20 hours I can only play 1 game before I switch over to an other one, range. But I think I will get back on Too Human before 2 Human gets released to level up my level 28 champion up some more.

I totally agree with Jeff his review cause every thing about this game is average, I totally didn't get into the story. All the bugs din’t really bother me more then 5 times that I really got anoyed with the camera and the targeting. And the cyberspace areas SUCKS, the only reason to go there is for more loot drops. But they could have just not made from 20 of the same textures and the same layouts. Wow what was that boring.

To end on a high note because in the end I liked the game and Jeff I’m not afraid to say it. I liked mowing troug hundreds of enemys and the dual stick controle that combind with the loot drops it fun anough to play it trough. And that is with out playing an co-op......

My first experience with Too Human was with the demo. It gives an unusually-honest (for a demo) feel for the actual gameplay. My first time through the demo, I was non-plussed. I twirled my finger in the air and was like, "They really dropped the ball with this one."

I played through the demo a second time (once I'd gotten a better grasp of the controls), and it was much more fun. I didn't feel like I was fumbling with the controls, the camera situation was better, I only saw the Valkyrie (whose 16-second cutscene shows every time you die) once, and I finally figured out how to manipulate runes/charms, all without a hand-holding tutorial. I was having a blast, and couldn't wait for the actual game. Needless to say, I played through a few more times before the game ever came out.

When I started seeing such poor reviews, I was like, "Wow. Surely these reviewers are only running through the game long enough to beat it. They aren't even playing the same game as me." I remembered my thoughts on the demo, and many of the reviews were exactly reflecting my first playthrough of that.

I had also read up a bit on Norse mythology just to see what sort of story ideas would match up. The story would probably be unenjoyable if it was all disjointed by learning controls, dying alot, not knowing what to do combat-wise, etc. I feel I had a much better grasp of the story than someone coming in cold who hadn't played through the demo several times and already had a feel for the controls and which camera view they thought worked best for them.

The Ice Forest (second level) was a wake-up call for my Berserker. Whereas I just flew through the Hall of Heroes, I saw you had to be tactical in Ice Forest. You can't just kill the enemies in any order you see fit and expect to live, much less have an easy time of it. I'm sure that's why some reviewers whined about dying so much. Once you "get it," the game starts to become addictive, and you see the tactical aspect of the combat.

I've always enjoyed loot-collection, and Too Human is no different. You progress not only mentally (learning controls and camera, rooms, tactics) but also physically (new armor, weapons, charms, runes, levels). To me, the gameplay never gets old, and it's enjoyable to replay the story over and over again. You begin to see, even in early cutscenes, little details you missed the first time like a shadow of a character you learn more about later on or another god's reaction to something that was said.

I am now ~80 hours into the game, and the bottom line is: I'm having a blast. It's been the only game in my disc tray for weeks now. Hopefully Silicon Knights will support it really well with downloadable content in the future to keep the game going until the sequels. I can't wait.

• A large array of loot.
• Fairly simple fighting mechanic that makes killing a breeze.
• Co-op is seamless and enjoyable.

• No way to show off your awesome gear.
• Some cheap deaths. (Sorry I couldn't avoid the rocket, I was frozen!)
• Death has no penalty, which gives no motivation to exceeding your ability to play well.
• Story is confusing.

Too Human Review EN ESPAÑOL

Reseña escrita por Jeff Gertsmann, traducción por Darth Stone

Too Human tiene una ubicación original y algunas ideas interesantes, pero no ofrece suficiente variedad para mantenerlo fresco hasta el final.

Te gustan los tesoros? Entonces quizás Too Human sea para ti. Si tienes una sed insaciable por conseguir artículos que tengan estadísticas mas altas que el equipo que tienes, o si te emocionan los accesorios con nombres raros al estilo Diablo,  entonces quizás puedas ignorar los problemas del juego y divertirte. Pero incluso en sus mejores momentos, la monotonía de sus batallas y el acercamiento pasado de moda de su modo cooperativo son difíciles de ignorar.

Por lo menos el entorno es original. El juego esta basado en la mitología nórdica, pero todo sucede en un ambiente futurista y de Ciencia Ficción, así que tendrás a muchos CyberVikingos corriendo por todos lados, y en vez de enfocarte en magia o hechizos, el juego te deja intercambiar implantes cibernéticos en el ciberespacio. Tu juegas como Baldur, uno de los hijos de Odin. El inicio del juego te lanza directamente a la batalla, que esta lleno de Flashbacks para poderte poner al tanto de lo que ha sucedido, pero no lo logra del todo, ya que hay muy poca información para justificar el mundo en el que estas, el porque estas siendo invadido por robots, y quienes son los responsables. Como es una historia Nórdica, no pasa mucho tiempo antes de que figuras como Thor, Heimdall y Loki aparezcan, y como estamos en esta onda Vikinga, hay muchos momentos donde se discuten cosas importantes como el “Valhalla” y “Mead”. A veces todo esto choca con el ambiente de ciencia ficción, pero no deja de ser una combinación interesante.

El juego en si combina inspiraciones de un puñado de fuentes distintas. Too Human es un RPG de acción, con similitudes a Diablo. Vas a recorrer áreas de combate, luchando contra hordas de robots o de zombies, rebanando todo en tu camino. Vas a recoger montones de tesoros con diferentes efectos y bonos  sobre tus estadísticas, e intentaras coleccionar juegos completos de armaduras para aumentar tus capacidades defensivas. Los cuatro mundos del juego y su estructura en general tienen una sensación parecida a Phantasy Star Online, ya que cada área tiene enemigos que causan distintos tipos de daño, permitiéndote preparar un juego distinto de armaduras para cada zona, si así lo deseas. Y también como PSO, al parecer los desarrolladores quieren que regreses múltiples veces a las mismas zonas para que puedas acceder distintos accesorios y equipos. Un corrida directa de la aventura de un solo jugador me tomo como 12 horas y me dejo en el nivel 29, pero el nivel máximo es 50. Finalmente, el sistema de combate del juego intenta traer combos donde suspendes a tus enemigos en el aire, y una mezcla de espadas y armas de fuego que le dan un par de guiños a la serie de Devil May Cry.

Pero eso no significa que si eres fanático de las series en la que Too Human esta inspirado, automáticamente te va a gustar este juego. A pesar de intentos por incluir opciones avanzadas de combate, la acción en Too Human se siente muy superficial. Hay una verdadera falta de variedad en los enemigos, y tu mejor estrategia siempre terminara siendo: “Dispárale a tus enemigos hasta que se acerquen, y cuando se acerquen atácalos con combate manual hasta que los suspendas en el aire y los acabas con un combo aéreo”. No importando la clase que hayas escogido, las tácticas son las mismas. Las clases enfocan distintos aspectos de tu personaje y te dan un árbol tecnológico distinto por donde ir aumentando tus habilidades e ir subiendo niveles. Pero aparte de la clase Berserker, que se siente un poco débil cuando juegas solo, y la habilidad auto-reparadora del Ingeniero Biológico, básicamente estarás presenciando distintos matices de una sola estrategia ofensiva o defensiva.

Hay mucha personalización que le puedes dar tanto a tu personaje como a tu equipo. Primero que nada, esta el árbol de habilidades, que es distinto para cada clase, y luego tendrás un árbol secundario que se abre mas adelante. Puedes agregarle armas y armaduras por todos lados a tu personaje, y el juego hace una buena labor haciendo que todos los agregados se vean distintos, así que es posible que un par de Baldurs nunca se vean idénticos. También, las armas y accesorios vienen en distintas formas, así que podrías tener una espada que tenga “De raíces” en una punta, lo cual abre una habilidad especial que hace que tus enemigos no se puedan mover de donde están cuando los golpeas. También te puedes encontrar con artículos que tienen ranuras donde puedes colocar distintas runas, mismas que iras encontrando en el camino, todas con bonos y características distintas, como pueden ser las de “Aumentar Armaduras al 5%”, o “Recuperación +10%”, etc. Al colocar estas runas sobre las ranuras de tus armas o equipo te permite aumentar una vez mas cualquier área donde sientas que tu personaje esta débil, pero como regla general, nunca parece mala idea agregarle siempre a tu nivel de armadura.

Las runas también agregan el factor de los Encantos al juego. Los Encantos son artículos que te encontraras en el ciberespacio, y actúan como mini-misiones cuando los usas. Cada Encanto tendrá una misión particular que tienes que cumplir cuando los usas, como por ejemplo “Colecciona 10 planos”, o “mata a 200 zombies”. Cuando terminas la micro misión, te activa una lista de bonos, como la oportunidad de que pongas a tus enemigos a dormir cuando los golpeas, o la posibilidad de que salgan rayos de tus espadas de vez en cuando, etc. Aunque esto asegura que siempre tendrás algo mas que completar, la mayoría de los Encantos no son lo suficientemente interesantes para entretenerte con las repetidas visitas a los niveles. Y además, las criaturas van subiendo de nivel junto contigo, así que siempre tendrás mas o menos el mismo nivel de poder en tus contrincantes de todo el juego.

Lo que supuestamente haría que regreses una y otra vez a los niveles es el modo cooperativo en línea que tiene el juego, que deja que se te una un amigo vía Xbox Live. Los jugadores pueden intercambiar artículos que tengan en sus inventarios, y la combinación de distintos jugadores y distintas clases pueden variar un poco las cosas hasta cierto punto, por ejemplo, las habilidades sanadoras del Ingeniero Biológico puede compensar la falta de defensa del Berserker. Pero aunque sea tentador meterte al mundo cooperativo y olvidar que existe el modo de un solo jugador, debo advertirles que en el modo cooperativo desaparece la historia completamente. Y también deben saber que ninguno de los personajes de Inteligencia Artificial participan en el cooperativo, así que no tendrás a tus amigos de la aventura de un solo jugador teniendo conversaciones al azar durante el juego en línea, y no tendrás películas que te expliquen que esta pasando, y te quedaras simplemente con el puro combate. Considerando que, para empezar, la historia no esta tan bien, quizás eso no sea tan grave, pero hace que el juego se sienta viejo, ya que la mayoría de los juegos de aventura modernos ha encontrado una manera de integrar la historia dentro de modos cooperativos en línea.

Too Human hace que las cuatro zonas de combate se vean apropiadamente distintas, y cualquier acercamiento a tus personajes principales se ven muy bien. Pero en la acción, el combate se ve medio mal. Las animaciones de los personajes se sienten enlatadas, y hay muchos casos donde veras a tus armas atravesando el aire, y tendrás que esperar a que termine la animación para que puedas regresar a estar en control de tu personaje.  Hay pequeños detalles, como la forma en la que las piernas de las Valkirias atraviesan el piso cuando vienen por los jugadores muertos, o la forma en las que las espadas dobles no se adhieren a tu personaje cuando dejas de usarlas, que hacen que el juego se sienta no muy bien terminado. La forma en la que los personajes se deslizan para atacar enemigos distantes también se siente rara, así como los ataques que te dejan suspendido en el aire donde tienes la oportunidad de ejecutar un ataque final, pero al menos eso tiene la excusa de formar parte de la mecánica de juego.

Too Human tiene una verdadera carencia en la variedad de enemigos, y los primeros niveles te enfrentan a lo que parecen ser dos tipos distintos de robots, un par de tipos de robots mas grandes y quizás algunos que tienen distintos colores lo cual significa que tienen distintas capacidades especiales. Y además de esto, las graficas del juego tartamudean en ciertos lugares. Too Human tiene varios momentos de esplendor visual, pero son pocos y distantes. El juego usa una música dinámica, que se acelera cuando comienza el combate, y desaparece cuando nadie te ataca. Pero los momentos de no-combate son muy breves, resultando en una música dinámica que siempre esta arrancando o se esta apagando. Cuando llegas a escuchar mas de una estrofa musical, la música esta buena.

Como el inicio de una planeada trilogía, Too Human no hace un buen trabajo para establecerte las cosas. Si algo significativo sucede en este juego, aparte de establecer a un villano, a mi, sinceramente se me fue. La única cosa interesante con la que me quede es una curiosidad de visitar paginas de Mitología Nórdica para ver que libertades se tomaron los chicos de Silicon Knights con las historias, y ver que cosas podrían esperarme en un futuro con esta misma línea. Como un juego, la acción es demasiado sencilla para su propio bien. El enloquecido coleccionista de tesoros que tengo adentro se la paso bien descubriendo nuevos artículos, runas y planos para nuevas armas, pero incluso eso no se siente tan profundo como probablemente esperabas. En pocas palabras, muchas partes de Too Human se sienten como que fueron diseñadas para la ultima generación de consolas, no para la que tenemos ahora. 

Too Human has been shrouded with bad press. With gaming forums talking both the game and Denis Dyack down, it could of been easy to put this game off to the side. I went into the game with a lot of negativity, but it quickly flew out the window. Too Human, at its core, is a very fun game. With an interesting story, addicting gameplay, and so much loot to wrap your head around, Too Human is absolutely worth giving a shot.

The game’s story is based around Norse mythology but is set in the far flung future. You’ll play as Odin’s son, Baldur, who is basically a Cyber Viking God. Throughout the story you’ll be fighting off hordes of robots and eventually zombies who are attacking your city. The first half of the game will have you watching flashbacks to catch up on what’s been happening. This God named Loki has escaped prison and is out to kill the rest of the Aesir Gods. The whole story will last just over 10 hours and remains pretty interesting throughout, with an ending that sets itself up nicely for a sequel.

Besides the single-player mode, there’s online co-op. You and a friend can fight through hordes of enemies, trade items, and collect loot together. Unfortunately you won’t be able to view any cut-scenes while playing co-op, which might lead you to wonder why you’d even want to do that. The answer is simply the game’s five different character classes. From the Berserker; who specializes in melee combat, to the Champion; a well-rounded fighter, to the Bio Engineer, who acts as a healer class. These different classes all work well together, as one class can always benefit from another. No matter which class you choose to play through in the single-player campaign, it won’t make much of a difference since you’ll mostly be hacking through hundreds of enemies.

As I previously stated, an interesting aspect of the game is that quest for more loot. Almost every piece of loot looks different, something sorely needed in more RPGs, so no two characters will look exactly alike. As you start to ascend to higher levels, the armor and weapons start to look more impressive as you’ll improve on your God-like status. Aside from the loot looking cool, the character models look pretty good themselves. On a close-up shot of Baldur, the blue lines on his face look great. On the down side, facial expressions seem to be non-existent, which hinder in the telling of the story.

The four environments you’ll travel through look pretty good for the most part. One part that sticks out in my mind is the beginning of the last level. Fighting through a horde of zombies while these huge tanks in the background move around and try to shoot down a wall was pretty impressive. Not everything looks good in Too Human though. Some stiff animations, visual clipping, visually rough-looking levels make the graphics seem a tad dated.

The gameplay isn’t very challenging due to the lack of a real death penalty. When you die you’ll be forced to watch a beautiful Valkyrie come down from the sky and carry you up to Valhalla so you can resurrect. This whole scene will take about 10 seconds. Once it’s over, you’ll continue exactly where you left off in the battle. Personally, I’d rather watch that than start over at a checkpoint and re-clear a room. In single-player, you’ll be be teamed up with some AI teammates. They aren’t very smart or useful. Instead, they like to stand back and tell silly jokes about the situation.

The musical score in the game is nice to listen to, but it can become misleading at times. Sometimes when you pick up a certain item or are just running through a room, some over-the-top epic music will start playing, making you think something important is going to happen when, in reality, there’s nothing going on. To help with the lack of facial expressions, the voice acting is good for the most part, but nothing really memorable.

Too Human is not a bad game. It could give you 20 hours of enjoyment if you’ll just let it. It’s best to put all the bad press aside and give the game a shot to see what it’s all about. With downloadable content and a sequel clearly on the way, I recommend giving Too Human a shot.