Too Human, Reviewed [Xbox 360]

Too Human makes a lot of sacrifices to achieve its goals. It’s obvious that developer Silicon Knights was forced to make a number of trade-offs to accommodate for it’s clever ideas, and while the integration and execution of them is flawed, it doesn’t stop the fact that Too Human is a hell of a game with a lot to offer action and RPG fans.

Like the similarly minded dungeon crawlers that grabbed loot-lovers by the balls in their PC heyday, Too Human‘s most successful element is in its dungeon drops. Each enemy encounter, while not particularly difficult courtesy of the less than spectacular AI, results in plenty of goods to pick up with which to deck out the game’s protagonist, Baldur.

An incredible amount of weapon and armor permutations will litter the corpse strewn battlefield to the point that it’s overwhelming — perfect for those addicted to newer, better, more awesome looking gear and beating sticks. In exchange for this, however, players will have to suffer with menus that are both confusing to read and sluggish to respond to button presses. It’s a small, slightly annoying trade-off that’s slowly overlooked as you fiddle with shiny new boots and gauntlets to make your hero look like more of a total Viking badass.

Wait, Vikings?

Strangely enough, the story of Silicon Knights’ latest is rooted in Norse Gods and their respective Mythology with a heavy injection of futuristic, post-apocalyptic science fiction. Even more odd is how well executed and fully realized the universe is. Sadly, the game didn’t see fit to clue players in on the named characters and places that are spread throughout the ten hour adventure.

Unfortunate for anyone who doesn’t have a modicum of familiarity with Norse tales, the plot will be completely incoherent. Hell, even with a bit of Viking knowledge some players will be completely confused up until the final moments of the game which unveil more delicious narrative details, as well as pushes character development that wasn’t present at all until the conclusion.

Plot twists litter the finale, and will undoubtedly make players want Too Human‘s sequel immediately.

That is, assuming you enjoy the experience of the RPG. With combat that is equal parts intuitive and fun, it’s a wonder why anyone wouldn’t. It might not offer the depth of Devil May Cry, but with the fighting mechanics tied to the right analog stick — thus sacrificing player camera control and replacing it with a “smart” cam that does an impressive job of keeping an eye on where you need to be — it’s easier than ever to pull off combo attacks (holding in the direction you want to attack) and juggling moves (flicking the sticks) that make you look, yet again, like a total Viking badass.

It’s a bummer that you can’t unlock new moves, though a range of attacks for various weapons and specific “Ruiner” attacks to take out large groups of mindlessly identical demon-robots keep things fresh as you unlock better swords, hammers, lances and axes.

With limited specific abilities, however, you’ll find that choosing which class — and whether to roll  with Cybernetic or Human alignment — to use makes little difference in the end. Skill trees offer too-similar, but ultimately awesome abilities to make it any difference whether you choose the lightning-fast Berserker, the ultra tough Defender, or other indiscernibly different heroes.

While the right-stick combat is like a console-version of Diablo‘s click-heavy action, the lack of real skill will probably fail to impress skeptics. It’s fast paced and in abundance, but the action periodically comes to a screeching halt like a speeding car hitting a brick wall. Entering Cyberspace –  the Viking Internet, accessed through, um, bird baths — or wandering the hub world, Midgard, entails plenty of drawn out walking that is arbitrarily placed to extend the gameplay. While it could easily have been replaced with a cinematic, as the drearily slow pace of traveling across beautiful forests and a Godly city isn’t any fun when there’s nothing to do.

Let me back in to the action — I just want to hop on a 15-foot tall robots back, and thrust a sword in to his cybernetic skull. That, or I want to stab the heart of a Wal-Mart sized demon dog.

Though the gameplay boils down to traversing wide hallways and climbing large platforms to kill hordes of idiotic clone-bots, the fighting and excessive item dropping never gets old. The most grueling thing you’ll experience in Too Human is wrapping your head around the story, but when the climactic finale leaves you completely blue-balled and dying for a sequel you’ll immediately want to relive it again just to see what you missed.

Without sacrificing camera control you’d never be able to dig in to the accessible combat; in exchange for an incredible setting and fully developed world, we get a story we’re tossed in to in media res, and while we’re rewarded with an incredible amount of items for our arsenal, we’ve got to deal with a crummy interface. It’s a great experiment that, for the most part, succeeds in delivering a crazy-enjoyable ten hours to action fans, and multiple play-throughs for RPG nerds.

Too Human is definitely flawed, but what players are offered it worth a try — whether you rent or buy depends on how much you’re willing to invest in the story, characters, and battles. As an unabashed sucker for character modification and someone who loves smashing evil with an over-sized hammer, this was just the fix I needed.

[Rating: 4/5]