Too Human Review
Game Emblems
The Bad
For a Multiplayer Action RPG this game is so under rated, and its only $3.00 used and $5.00 new at Gamestop. Great grab!
A very underrated game. Good game, held back by a few irksome bugs and game play issues.
This action/role-playing hybrid is too unbalanced and too frustrating to recommend.
The Good
- A constant supply of interesting weapons and armor
- Combat can be fun when it gets in a groove
- Skill trees give you a lot of room to mold your character
- Co-op play can be enjoyable as long as both players are around the same level.
The Bad
- The story doesn't get interesting until the final minutes
- Too many elements chop up the pace
- Area attacks and status effects are poorly implemented
- Ranged combat is unsatisfying.
Too Human drops a juicy plot development at the most inopportune time: its very end. It's the obvious manner of setting up a sequel, the infamous "to be continued..." we've come to expect from television shows and, yes, even some modern video games. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it exemplifies the core experience of this action/role-playing hybrid. Too Human is a game of false starts and unrealized potential that infiltrate almost every aspect of the game, from story, to combat, to balance. Its elements feel stitched together, making for a patchwork quilt of a game that's fraying at the seams.
As for the dangling story threads, the disappointment is compounded by the thin narrative that leads to them. Too Human is a retelling of Norse mythology with a cybernetic twist, in which the gods are bionically enhanced humans protecting common men and women from the onslaught of Loki's army of machines. There's some backstory to wrap your head around, and Too Human drops you into the world with little sensible exposition. A good narrative doesn't need to spoon-feed plot points to you, but Too Human would have benefited from a better introduction to its unusual universe. The game does offer a few meaty moments, many of them involving Hel, Loki's beautifully twisted daughter. Yet ultimately the story rings hollow because developer Silicon Knights expects you to fill in the gaps on your own.
You play as Baldur, one of those gods. You'll take on four main missions during the meager 10-hour story and while Baldur has a number of different goals, the process is the same: beat up a bunch of mechanical monstrosities en route to an end boss. The trek is linear, taking you through a series of large environments that cover the usual science-fiction standards. You'll also spend some time in Aesir, your home base, where you're able to purchase weapons and armor, and continue the story between combat sorties. These areas have a commonality: They are too big. This isn't an issue when you are beating up hordes of robotic beasts, but when you aren't fighting, Too Human slows to an insufferable crawl. Aesir in particular is unnecessarily vast and underpopulated. As you make the long, boring walk to find out your next mission, or move to the next wave of monsters, it's hard not to wonder if there was supposed to be more stuff there. It's one of many examples of Too Human's most glaring deficiency: poor pacing.
You'll also make a few trips to an idyllic world known as cyberspace, which you access via glistening pools scattered around the levels. As you explore cyberspace, you will learn new abilities that you can only use there, such as being able to telepathically lift doors or set vegetation ablaze. You unlock new areas in the main world when you visit cyberspace, and you find some interesting loot, but these visits don't flow from the gameplay proper, and they slow things down too much. And, like the rest of the areas that you visit, this pastoral realm feels too large, particularly because you're not really doing anything there except walking and occasionally pressing a button. It's not engaging and ultimately feels unnecessary.
The good news is that when you are in the thick of combat, you'll find yourself having some fun. There are five different classes at your disposal, but regardless of which you choose at the outset, you can use both melee and ranged weapons. Close combat is where the game shines, and in those moments it plays like an action game with a control-focused twist. Rather than mashing buttons to swing your dual swords or bash your hammer, you press the right analog stick in a certain direction and connect with the closest enemy in that area. Provided that you're within range of a target, you will actually slide in that direction; at later levels, zooming among techno-goblins and slicing them up in this manner is easily Too Human's greatest thrill. There are also some other stick-based tricks at your disposal: Using the left and right analog sticks in combination, you can toss enemies into the air and juggle them, or fling magic energy in their direction.
The resulting mayhem looks more like an action game in the vein of Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden, though it doesn't really play that way. Nevertheless, it works well some of the time, and Baldur will slip and slide around as you hold and tap the sticks, carving up lesser enemies without much effort. At other times, you'll swing at nothing in particular, though it seems that you're aiming the stick in the right direction and that the enemy is clearly in range. Although it isn't the heart-pounding array of button-based combos that you'd see in a more traditional action game, you'll still sometimes find morsels of that smooth groove so important to action RPGs.
Unfortunately, Too Human never maintains that groove for long. You have guns to shoot--pistols and rifles--but using them isn't as satisfying as using melee weapons, even if you are playing as a commando, the primary ranged-based class. They can be fun when used in conjunction with melee attacks, such as juggling a foe from a distance after launching him into the air with your staff. But the targeting system is unintuitive and sometimes broken, failing to lock on to an enemy even if there are monsters in range and directly in front of you. Should you try to switch targets, you may target an enemy outside your field of view, or find yourself shooting at nothing at all. Oddly, if you keep the trigger pressed after you've killed your target, the reticle stays pasted to the corpse instead of flipping to another target, so you need to switch targets manually, even after your victim has already fallen.
By
Kevin VanOrd, Senior Editor
Kevin VanOrd is a lifelong RPG lover and violin player. When he isn't busy building PCs and composing symphonies, he watches American Dad reruns with his fat cat, Ollie.
59 comments
How the hell did it get a 5.5? It's not even worth a rating. The demo said it all. Bad combat lame story, lamely set out interface. Outdated upgrade system(either stick with the upgrade style like Mass effect or vampire or make something revolutionary). Bad Camera. Terrible voice acting(guy with weird glasses probably best). And over all very lamely put out. Did they expect a good score? I expect to see this in the bargain bin by Christmas. That is if stores even bother. This is proof that graphics arent everything *cough*PS3*cough*...
I was like 1 minute serching for the score, seriously who designed this new site? I think it's Gerstmann's curse or maybe he designed it by some other alias
Norse mythology is awesome and frankly for me it's reason enough to own this game. The game in general I think will be, pretty good. Myself and my friends have not really recovered from the news of them dropping the 4 player co-op, we felt it was the games strongest point. What it really comes down to though is weather or not you enjoy a dungeon romp. One thing that I don't think can be disputed is that this games got a wicked sweet idea. Hopefully the second game will be more fleshed out.
Seriously, play the demo. If you like it, play it. If you don't, then don't play it. Honestly, the only way anyone will truly understand this game, has to know their Norse Mythology. Anyone who is seriously dropping this game, because of this review is lame. Try out the Demo.
guyz when u will understand, this is the news section where we can post comments here too. a new option for users. the actual page with the score is at the reviews section...sheesh
I just want to say that the new design of this site is horrible. You cant even see the score on this page.
Yea i see no score on the review page (though it is 5.5 lawl:3. And it really doesnt seem like this is the end of the review. My bet is it's something to do with the recent site redesign(which isnt good or bad, just got to learn where stuff is again). There should be another page to this review somewhere.
For the special folks among us: This is the news side of the site - look at the URL. If you are signed up to an RSS for Gamespot reviews like I am, you will be directed to a news post like this, basically alerting readers to a new review. You're right, it is somewhat superfluous. It'd probably be a lot clearer that this was news if it just said "We reviewed Too Human - here's the damn link" This is not the complete review. The score is 5.5. Here is a link to the review. Good day. :)
two thoughts, one, try the demo, if you like it play the game. two, stop caring about what someone else thinks and make up your own mind!
why is everyone clamoring for a score as if a 1-10 mean anything. The words are there, judge it yourself.
Was there an error in posting the entire review? It doesn't feel finished with that last paragraph.
yeah the score should really be on this page... it got a 5.5, you got to go to the games main page. anyway, another pass.
first of all, gamespot, where is the score?!?! second, why is everyone bashing g/s for the review when they havent even played it yet. just because you preordered the game and now are stuck having wasted ur $60 on a game that got a bad review doesnt mean g/s is wrong. plus people saying there is a biased, duh!!!! everyone has their own opinions about games including people that review games. thats y you look at the good/bad points and decide how important those are to you. keep up the good work gamespot.
if you want to see the score click more info (top left under the case shot) then full game details
People, there is a score (5.5) and there is a page two on the review... Quit trying to make excuses, it's a mediocre game just except it...
Wow... such a short review he didnt even touch on the multiplayer? Does that mean he didnt have access to the full game? Or he just didnt play the full game? Am I the only one that was looking forward to the co-op?
EvilDarkGon I agree with you. They dint finish the review and they did not post a score. It can?t be that bad. The only thing that I can agree with on the review is the gun part but I only played the demo and it was not that bad. And really stopping in the sinter of the review I?m going over to IGN or G4TV now good by game stop.
More to the point this game scored *lower* then Two Worlds? A game that is in fact barely playable by most accounts. It's also hard to take crituque like "Abrupt" "Weak story" and "short" without noting that A's Creed scored something around the 9 mark with those same short comings.
Score is 5.5 ... I give the review score finding accessibility of the new interface a 1.5 out of 10, Gamespot.
That's a very abrupt ending to a review. Did Kevin choke on all that bile he was spewing and pass out mid-review? And where's the score? I give this review a 4/10.
We'll see, I myself have a week before I try it myself. Nevertheless I feel as if this game is taking some of the "rap" for games that produced stellar scores alledgely because of "hype". Assasin's Creed in particular.
This review inspires my confidence in you GS. It's good to see that you aren't over rating games anymore that got allot of hype like you did in the past with games like Halo 3, Gears and PDZ.
i completly agree with EvilDarkGon my respect for the Gamespot reviews and the site itself has been going steadily downhill for a long time now.
Dang this game looked so good to me, I gess I will have to rent it and try it out for myself before I buy it or not
Thank you gamespot for not giving in to the hype and giving an honest review. Though come on give us a score.
this game has got a 5.5 from Gamespot and a 7.8 from IGN... something seems out of place. And if this game takes 10 hours to play it took at least 1 hour to play the demo... (confusing and horrible)
im down all the way,this game spans into a triolgy that will allow u too port your char into games 2 and 3. so ten hours for a rpg is short but in this title it works for me. the wait for too human 2 will be long i hope not 10 years long
10 hour game? I spent almost an hour and a half on one play through the demo. Though competing against pals to get better armor and kill more stuff in co-op than them should be fun. They seem to overlook how much the competitive factor will provide for this game.
You know what Gamespot? Screw you. Screw. You. You didn't even post a score. Whats wrong? SK didn't pay you enough in advertising? Screw you and your overly negative reviewers. Screw you and your inability to be a legitimate source of information without tainting public opinion. Screw you for giving Too Human a bad rep from day one. Screw you for releasing such a negative and damaging review, THE DAY BEFORE THE GAME EVEN HITS THE MARKET. Screw you and your parent company, CNet, who has no business owning one of the most prominent gaming sites on the net. Ban me if you like. You're an abominable and irresponsible bunch of morons who are too jaded and bureaucratic to be in the field that you are. Screw you. Screw. You. The industry deserves better. Silicon Knights deserves better. WE deserve better, and you just aren't good enough. Screw. You.
You know what Gamespot? Screw you. Screw. You. You didn't even post a score. Whats wrong? SK didn't pay you enough in advertising? Screw you and your overly negative reviewers. Screw you and your inability to be a legitimate source of information without tainting public opinion. Screw you for giving Too Human a bad rep from day one. Screw you for releasing such a negative and damaging review, THE DAY BEFORE THE GAME EVEN HITS THE MARKET. Screw you and your parent company, CNet, who has no business owning one of the most prominent gaming sites on the net. Ban me if you like. You're an abominable and irresponsible bunch of morons who are too jaded and bureaucratic to be in the field that you are. Screw you. Screw. You. The industry deserves better. Silicon Knights deserves better. WE deserve better, and you just aren't good enough. Screw. You.
I don't agree with Gamespots Review. I didn't really see any content in the review and it just seems like they rushed the review out to be the first to be negative about Too Human. I am buying the game and have long since been weary of Gamespot reviews. The reviewer talks more about the story than anything else and thats pretty sad. Talk about the gameplay because thats where we are spending 90% of our time. Lame review. I have played the demo numerous times and I think this game will sell great.
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Too Human
Not Following
- Downloadable Game
- Publisher(s): Microsoft Game Studios
- Developer(s): Silicon Knights
- Genre: Action
- Release:
- ESRB: T
Too Human Navigation
