Game Review for Too Human

Game Review for Too Human
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Screenshots

He’s just a misunderstood guy

He just looks mean

Man or metal

Metal or man

Introduction

Got a god complex? Too Human can let you take your complex for a walk on the wild side of a unique, bizarre, and entertaining ride through a universe where the existence and ultimate future of mankind is threatened by our own inventions. The battle with the machines has grown to encompass even the world of the Norse gods, who have taken the remnants of the human race under their protective wings, and have assigned the god Baldur to lead the battle against the machines. Come with us as we take you on a journey through this universe to see if ten years of development has produced the results Silicon Knights has told the interactive entertainment industry to expect. Well look at every aspect of the game to see if the final results are everything they said it would be.

The good parts (3 out of 5)

Simple to learn and use combat system that rocks at times, with stunning visual combos that are easy to execute, a well written story that takes you through an immersive universe of wonder and awe, and leaves you wanting more.

The multiplayer option is more interesting and fun than the single player option included with Too Human because it actually requires more tactics and strategy from the gamer. In addition, you don’t have to sit through the horrible cut scenes and confusing plot of the single player mode.

The parts that need improvement (2 out of 5)

Too Human is not a particularly finished game considering ten years of development have gone into it, it’s not a particularly good role-playing game, and only a marginally better action title.

Once you get use to the combat mechanics, which are easy to use and learn, taking out enemies isn’t particularly challenging, especially considering the enemy attacks with the same horde-rushing technique and mentality all the time.

The aerial and long range attacks both show the inherent weakness of the one view camera scheme the developers have incorporated into Too Human. They really only work on a very basic level most times, but do occasionally result in a spectacular death.

The story line certainly shows signs of strong writing and conceptual work;it has an unfinished feel to it, like even after ten years they were still undecided about certain parts of the production. While trying to be everything to all gamers, which this game seems to suffer from, they missed the mark on several points. The story needs polish and focus, it reads like a schizophrenic thinks, and will certainly leave many gamers wondering what the story is about.

The game’s graphics (3 out of 5)

Too Human doesn’t come with an overly impressive graphical presentation considering ten years of work and sweat, the characters are plastic looking at times, with not enough details to take on a realistic look and feel of a human face. The cybernetics even looks like plain armor at times, instead of the mix of humanity and machine it was suppose to be.

Too Human can be a glitchy game for one in development so long, the AI can suddenly freeze or spawn over the edge of a cliff, and items would randomly vanish and reappear at times.

Sounds of the game (4 out of 5)

The voice acting was okay, but was hardly top shelf, I kept wondering what they were doing for ten years while playing and listening to the game. I did enjoy the soundtrack, it was appropriately slow in the quiet moments and would pick up speed during the action scenes, and was for me one of the best parts of this game.

The story line (4 out of 5)

A third person epic action adventure was the original goal of Silicon Knights when they started down the road to Too Human, ten years ago, and the story line certainly shows the signs of this ultimate goal, but adds an unfinished feel to the title.

Too Human sets you down in a futuristic world set in the war between humanity and their own machines, a conflict that has left behind a radioactive world covered by a nuclear-scorched wasteland. The machines dominate the majority of Earth; umans are confined to the city of Aesir, where they are under the protective envelope of the Norse gods. The Norse gods have taken up the battle against the machines, enhancing themselves with cybernetic parts to help them in their struggle to defeat the machines. The story follows the god Baldur in his journey for revenge for the death of his wife and to find away to ultimately win the war and save both themselves and the human race.

Playability (3 out of 5)

Too Human has 5 classes; Berserker, Defender, Champion, Commando, and Bio-engineer, all offering strategic and tactical options because of their differences in skills and abilities. The elegant inventory system is a “smart inventory system” that can be customized to sort through the items to keep objects of a certain quality; this takes some of the tedious aspects of managaging the inventory out of the experience and adds to the entertainment value of the title.

It took me 8 hours of intense play time to make it through Too Human, but unfortunately I experienced 3 game-ending bugs during this time, including falling through the ground while in Aesir twice; after ten years these bugs really shouldn’t exist.

The boss fights at the end of each area were too easy to complete, and didn’t really give you a new kind of monster to fight, occasionally you’ll get a nice troll to kill, but usually it’s the same old Goblin and Dark Elf on its way to hell.

The playability of Too Human suffers from the lack of variety in most aspects of the overall construction, you only have 4 abilities to choose from, in fact two of them are identical for all 5 classes in the game, while the other two only come as a linked pair and aren’t particularly useful.

The combat starts out good, fun and enjoyable, but eventually becomes almost boring because of its ease of use and simple mechanics, taking away from the challenge I was looking for.

The bottom line (3 out of 5)

After ten years of development Too Human is a disappointment, and still shows a lot of signs of being unfinished and hurried, which is a surprise. The story line begins with a nice concept, but fails in the end to provide a satisfying product because it ends up being jumbled and hard to comprehend by the end of the game. In fact, I rate the multiplayer experience to be better than the single player, because it requires more from the gamer and actually provides a better challenge.

The problems that exist in Too Human are hard to accept after ten years, the bugs that appeared took away any immersive effect the game had on me at several points. Targeting two enemies with the dual-pistols was next to impossible, and at times the aiming system was difficult to use, making it really hard to pick a target out of a crowd.

All this said, Too Human was still fun, enjoyable, and entertaining most of the time, it’s just disappointing considering the time spent trying to develop the title. I would certainly suggest gamers give the title a try, despite the inherent problems Too Human still provides a level of entertainment above many titles, but then of course none of them were in production for a decade.