Too Human Review (XB360)

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.

Standing still, the game looks great. In motion, though, is another story. Click to see more images from the game...

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.

Related Links

Too Human Game Guide

Microsoft

Our Final ScoreBad

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