Too Human
Step into the world of Too Human
As the cybernetic god Baldur, you are thrust into the midst of an ongoing battle that threatens the existence of mankind. An ancient machine presence has forced the god’s hand. In the first part of a trilogy, Baldur is charged with defending humanity from an onslaught of monstrous war machines bent on the eradication of human life.
In Too Human, players experience a nonstop barrage of action powered by the integration of melee and ranged firearms combat and fueled by breathtaking visuals enabled by the Xbox 360. Battles unfold in awesome scale as players engage with vast numbers of enemies.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Pretty good, but the story is too short for this first installment.
The action is really good. My only real gripe is that it’s seriously meant for you to play with another person. I say this because of how it bases the level of the mobs you face off of your current level. So while it’s doable to do the game by yourself, which is what I did, I do recommend that you play with somebody else. The item system is pretty good. If you’re willing to go through your inventory enough, I suggest turning off the automatic item management. Overall, I’d say rent it before you buy it. You’ll either like it enough to play it for enough hours that buying it is the better option or you’ll not really care for it. Ultimately, the story line is what I mostly went for. Gotta love that Norse Mythology. 
3 Stars Good game, not great
Decent game, but Fragmented story and long gaps in between action cause a stutter step that is never really repaired. Huge level areas work well for battling many baddies but become a pain when navigating without enemies. The story could have been more involved. Multiplayer becomes a session of babysitting unless both characters are the same level.
3 Stars Insert Pun Here
Not great. Most of the other reviewers covered the areas pretty well. Suffice it to say that the camera is awful, the combat is surprisingly fun (though do some research, because they don’t really explain a lot to you), and the story is pretty “rad”, as the kids say. Download the demo first to get a really good feel for what Too Human has to offer. Be warned, however, if mythology doesn’t interest you at all, leave this one alone. You’ll not be impressed. My love of the Norse pantheon really improved my game experience. Also of note is Crispin Freeman as Baldur. Anyone who has watched Hellsing or Ghost in the Shell will recognize his voice. It is an added bonus.
3 Stars Not great, not bad either
This game is fun, nothing spectacular. Expect to die frequently, long cut scenes while you’re resurrected. Just a hack n slash, but a fun time if that’s your thing.
4 Stars Too Human
Let’s face it, hype is no good for any game. All hype really does is infect people with this stupid notion that the game will be the be all end all of gaming; the greatest game ever made. And then, when the game is actually released none of their expectations are filled, and so everyone is disappointed. Especially if the game concept has been in development limbo for years. Despite what most people will spout out, the current version of Too Human was actually conceived three years ago. The *idea* of Too Human was conceived almost 13 or so years ago, but that hardly matters since the Too Human on the shelves is a much different beast entirely.
Too Human received mostly average reviews from professional critics, and even some downright negative reviews, though I have to disagree with everything they have said. In truth I think they didn’t understand the game, nor did they have the time and energy to actually put some time into it. To be fair, the game does no hand holding of the player, and pretty much nothing explained. Heck, even the game manual doesn’t explain much. No, the player is left to their own devices to figure out the game and the strange controls. And I can certainly see why some people would be put off by this. Too Human isn’t your average ‘hack n slash’ game like all the reviews are claiming it is. In fact its quite original. For one, all of your melee attacks are set to your right analog joystick; tap once and your character slides to an enemy in the vicinity and sends them flying up into the air. From here you can jump up with them and juggle attack them for some serious combo damage, or you could pull out your pistols and fire away. Also, the camera is fixed, giving way to some awesome cinematic moments, and some great frustration. By pushing the Right Bumper you can align the camera behind you. It would have been nice to have an option to fully control the camera, but like I said Too Human is not your average ‘hack n slash’. Thirdly, the game places a lot of focus (read: A LOT) on armor and weapon customization. The options are literally endless. Depending on how fast and how skillful you kill an enemy they will drop armor, weapons, powerups and even health (read: loot). The faster and more extravagent you are able to dispatch an enemy rewards you with some awesome loot (good armor, good weapons etc), while the longer you take reduces these chances. Some enemies drop nothing. Its a game of chance, really. But this makes the combat fun, as you never know what treats you will end up with once the smoke clears and your foes are laying in a pile.
Too Human’s story is rather interesting. The game takes place in a world where Norse Mythology and Cyberpunk meet. The world has been wiped clean by evil robots (ruled by Hel and Loki), and humanity has been relegated to a single outpost/city that houses the Gods as well. The Gods are cybernetically enhanced beings and they run the gamot of Norse Mythology. You play as Baldur, brother to Thor. The two main enemies are Loki and Hel (Loki’s daughter). Overall the story is average, with the best parts happening at the very end and setting up what I think will be an amazing sequel.
When you die in Too Human, Valkyrie come down from the sky and take your body to the afterlife. This involves a 15 second death animation, one that frustrated many players and reviers alike, but they probably didn’t understand the reason for the super long death animation. You are supposed to be punished for dying, since it is very possible to make it through each level without dying. Since good loot is set on a timer essentially, when you die you are forced to sit out for 15 seconds, thus worsening your chances of good loot. Its very unforgiving, but hey so is life. The trick is to…not die; To use strategy and to fully learn the controls. If you can’t manage this, then Too Human isn’t the game for you. Remember, it is not your average hack n slash game. You can’t get by with just spamming buttons. You have to know what you are doing.
And you will probably die a lot, that is if you just barrage through the game without learning the controls, effecively managing your weapons and armor, runes etc. In fact, a good chunk of your game time will be in the menu screens, swapping out armor, checking stats, and changing weapons. This may sound boring to some, but Diablo and Balder’s Gate loot lovers will love this aspect. There is nothing greater than getting an awesome loot drop after an epic battle; The spoils of war. When you die, your armor and weapons take damage, so if you die a lot you will have to keep swapping out your weapons/armor because once they reach a certain point they will not work so well. The trick is to keep from dying, like in any other game.
For enemies, they come at you in hordes. You will almost always find yourself up against 10 – 15 enemies at once, sometimes including really tough mini bosses. Some of the enemies shoot arrows and some shoot rockets. Many times you will find yourself faced with 15 + enemies, all the while rockets and arrows are flying at you. It can get pretty tough, but if you know your controls then you will have no problem.
In Too Human there are only four enemy types: Goblins, Dark Elves, Trolls and Undead. While this may seem very limited its actually pretty awesome. There are different variants of each enemy type. Some will be aligned to a certain element, like Fire or Ice, Poison or Energy, while others will be aligned with none. Then there are the light/dark variants which are immune to certain attacks (light enemies are immune to ranged attacks while dark enemies are immune to melee). All in all there are enough enemy variants to keep things very interesting, and the real trick of combat is to figure out the best approach and the best attack.
Too Human is broken up into four maps (dungeons or levels, if you will), and one main hub, which serves as the city or town for the game. Here you will be able to buy/sell/repair weapons and items, use the weapon/armor blueprints you find during missions to make new weapons, and further the story along through cutscenes. The one thing I didn’t like about Too Human was that you cannot interact with any of the city/town folk. They are there to pretty much serve as scenery. Sometimes they will engage in conversation with one another and you can listen to it, but it would have been nice to be able to actively talk with them like an RPG. There are only four levels/dungeons/missions, but they are pretty long. Each mission has 3 – 5 stages in it and a final boss at the end. Not to mention the myriads of mini bosses throughout. The level design is pretty awesome. Eerie cyberpunk-meets-mythology level design and some really good looking graphics make trudging through each level a visual joy. On each level there are ’secret battle arenas’ that can be entered by finding a secret passageway. In these arenas you will be faced with either a time challenge, or simply a massive amount of enemies. Defeat all the enemies in the time alloted (for the time challenges), or succesfully kill all the enemies (every other challenge) and you will be rewarded with great loot. However, if you die in the process you will lose the arena and not be able to access it again. Like I said, Too Human is very unforgiving. In addition to the secret arenas there are “cyberwells”. These wells lead to a place called ‘cyberspace’ where Balder can learn powers and interact with objects to make things happen in the game world. The powers you learn will only be useable in ‘cyberspace’ and are more puzzle oriented than anything. Basically, you will go into cyberspace and have to find a way to open a door or a bridge which corresponds to the in-game world. Once you do this, you can advance the level. While it could have been a neat concept it really comes off as filler (think the explorable planets in Mass Effect).
On to the loot: There are thousands of different weapons, armor and power ups to find in Too Human, and you will definitely not find it all in one play through. Every weapon and armor item is leveled, and each has its own buffs and perks. The best weapons/armor in the game are called “Elite”, which offer up the best stats. Its also the hardest to find. Alternatively you can find blueprints for Elite armor and weapons but it costs a fortune to make. There are so many weapon/item customization options that the possibilities are literally endless. Now, being that this is a fantasy game the weapons and armor have hilarious names like ‘Jotun boots of blinding speed” etc, but its really fun collecting all of it, selling what you don’t need, and getting the truly awesome Elite armor/weapons.
Your character levels up with experience points as well, and each time you level up you will get two points with which you can distribute amongst a skill tree. You can add new abilities to your character or buff other traits, add skills to weapons etc. At one point in the game you will be tasked with choosing whether or not you want to be a Cybernetic (which focuses on cybernetic enchancements) or a Human (which focuses more on natural enhancements). Both ways are equally powerful and offer up two different ways to play the game. In addition to this there are 5 different character types to choose from : Commando, Champion, Bio-Engineer, Defender, and Berzerker. Each have a specialty (i.e the Champion is a well rounded character, the Bio-Engineer can heal himself, the Berzerker has aggro), and each class offers a whole different playing style opening up much replay value.
Long enough review yet? This is why I say that gamers, reviewers and critics did not give this game a chance, nor could they. Too Human is not the type of game you can play for one hour and write a comprehensive review on. There is just so much going on, so much to offer and many, many ways to play through the game. I’m on my second playthrough with my original character and I have yet to reach level 50 (the maximum level), and I have only found one mish mashed set of Elite armor and weapons. And I will definitely be playing through it again with the other classes.
With all the loot to collect, secret battle arenas to find, cyberwells to activate, character classes to choose from, alignments to choose from, and achievements to unlock Too Human is easily a 100 + hours of gameplay, and then some. And honestly, Too Human takes brains to play, so if you don’t have em’ I’d suggest staying away. Diablo I and II and Balder’s Gate fans rejoice, the Xbox finally has a dungeon crawler worth of the name!
Buy/More Info
