Too Human combines a hint of Norse mythology with a futuristic cybernetic theme and a first-person shooter. Although it's good to finally see it in stores after a 10 year long development cycle, it's not the triple A adventure we hoped for.
The game focuses on a character named Baldur, who's had his fair share of grief over the years and deals with it through aggressive, unrelenting rage. He finds himself pitted against cybernetic enemies that follow their own code of conduct, and he can either retain his human side and forego any cybernetic additions to make him stronger, or abandon humanity in favor of the machines, thus losing his humanity
For the most part, the story is psychobabble, told through computer-generated sequences that look sloppy and unfinished. The entire game stays consistent with that same lack of polish, displaying unappealing visuals and several glitches. On the plus side, some of the enemies do animate beautifully, especially the complicated fire beasts you'll run across. Above-average voice work and an ominous and moving soundtrack are also of good quality.
The rest of the game becomes unnecessarily complicated. Players choose from five character classes: Champion, Commando, Bio-Engineer, Berzerker and Defender. Each one has strategic elements, such as Commandos perform better in long-range combat and Bio-Engineers regenerate health on the fly. Unfortunately, there isn't nearly enough diversity between them. All of them tie into a bland skill tree system, with not nearly enough branches to extend your attacks with. Even if you make your character all-powerful, you'll barely feel the effects.
That's because the gameplay is sloppy. Multi-directional combat is handled with the right analog stick, which you swivel around to attack surrounding enemies. Most of these foes are downright stupid, mindlessly charging at you. The bosses aren't that much better, save for the occasional beast that actually shows a skill or two. As for long-range combat, you're better off forgetting it entirely. Even after you defeat an enemy and flick the trigger to select the next one, most of the time it stays right on the guy you just shot. The lack of manual targeting is a tremendous pain, to the point that you'll want to smash your gun to pieces.
Using loot, you can level up weapons through a blueprint system, along with your armor. Unfortunately, this system is limitless, so you'll spend lots of time creating this super weapon, only to stumble across a better one moments later and repeating the entire process.
Too Human's only redeeming factor is online co-op play. You can log on to Xbox Live and experience the adventure with a friend, foregoing the crappy story sequences and sticking to cooperative combat. You can also trade items if you feel compelled. Had the developers focused more on this and less on the single-player experience, it might've gone somewhere.
All in all, Too Human isn't good. Its control mechanics are terrible, its presentation lackluster and its leveling-up system has too many flaws. It's sad to see a game that took years to get off the ground turn out so sloppy. This Human errs too much.
Reader Comments (30)
I havent played this game, but since you say it sucks, I know its ****ing amazing, you dumbasses alsways seem to hate the good **** lol, A0l reviews never actually reflect the game.
AoL sucks anyway, no one cares what they think, TooHuman is a awesome game.
N-I-G
haha, *** gets censored even though it was part of a word ***htly k***hts
Im constantly hearing bad things about this game and for a game that took so long to make im not impressed, i will rent it at most, but only if there's nothing else to rent and im really really bored.
I think it's safe to say the guy that reviewed this game is a ****ing tool who has no idea what he is talking about
Sirdude, it's obvious that you've played the demo, but the game is far, far far from easy. Fighting a ground-pounding troll while another troll with a cannon is shoot*** at me, a half dozen dark elves are shooting at me, and a horde of goblins are trying to jump no my back and prevent me from jumping onto the trolls' shoulders to stab them in the back of the head and finish them off... The combat is tough to get used to, but if you play the demo a couple times it's pretty intuitive. The demo itself is about half of the first level, with dumbed-down enemies.
I've played through the demo, I've experienced the game play and its bland to say the least. sure you may think the swordplay is unique but it doesn't really work. the game would appeal the most to button mashers seeing as thats all that really required to get anywhere. the fights require no skill in most instances you can just pummel the triggers till everything dies. the lack of decent camera control also detracts greatly from the game, at times when i was trying to put some distance between myself and the enemies unless they'd already been targeted it was impossible to do so. considering the time put into its development this game clearly fails to support its hype
I think too human was a pretty good game the combat is unique and every different then most button smashers. The graphics while not the best in many places were gorgeous in cut seneces and in many of the lvls. i think many people dont give this game a chance becuase of the nes control scheme but pls play the demo yourself before u make a decision the story line is amazingly indept and the phyco bable as he calls it is very close to the Norse mythology.
bottom line, if it's not rated M for Mature, it's garbage, every first shooter HAS to be M for it to be intense