I had been waiting for quite some time to play Too Human, the X-Box 360 game that is known more, perhaps, for being in development for a decade than for its gameplay; and its legacy, I’m afraid, will be as a mixed-reviewed game that didn’t live up quite to the hype. The mainstream gaming press have not been kind to this title, seeing it as a game with so much potential wasted. I humbly disagree with the mainstream gaming press, as I have so many times before (Assassin’s Creed and Mass Effect were not the second coming of the Gaming Messiah). Too Human is not the best game of the year, but it has enough depth and variety to fill countless hours of game play, and its story–a science-fiction spin on Norse mythology that tells the story of the young god Baldur as Ragnarok looms on the horizon–is engaging if not a bit thin.
The much-heralded fusion of action game play with role-playing elements is a seamless blend of the instant gratification one gets from plowing through swarms of enemies and the satisfaction one feels when they see their once-weak character growing into a walking war machine. In so many RPGs, either traditional or more action-based, the game starts out hard and gets easier as your character grows more powerful; in Too Human, enemies scale to your level and more powerful items are available as you advance. So while your weapons and armor (highly customizable thanks to the game’s “rune” system) more than balance the odds in your favor, enemies can stand toe-to-toe with you when it comes to sheer fighting skill, demanding more from the gamer while still empowering them; however, thanks to the incredibly deep skill trees available for the game’s five classes, skilled gamers can endlessly tweak their character build and will have no problem making scrap out of the screen-filling enemy packs with whom Baldur does combat.
All of the carnage is presented grandly, with breathtaking visuals of extraordinary detail. High-ceiling rooms, wide vistas, and towering statues create an epic feel for the settings, giving the impression of the technologically advanced society in which the game takes place. Every setting feels alive–even the eerily-quiet cyberspace–and there are more than a few moments that will send chills down the spine of gamers-from the first moment a robotic troll crawls out from under a pile of wreckage to the frightening silhouette of a great dragon gliding underneath a crystal lake to the twisted, soulless halls of Helheim. Too Human may not win any awards for game play, but I fail to see how any game, even Grand Theft Auto IV, can outshine this game when it comes to graphical detail and aesthetics. Each of the five classes (the damage dealing Berzkerker, the armored Defender, the long-range fighting Commando, the Bio-Engineer with healing abilities, and the well-rounded Champion) feel unique, and nobody will have the same experience with their first playthrough.
As much as Too Human does well, there are things it does poorly, however. This is the first game with any kind of RPG elements that I have ever played that does not allow any power-ups or character abilities to self-heal, save for the class dedicated to healing. There are health orb pick-ups, but there is nothing that the gamer can access to boost their health when they really, really need it: such as after a long, exhausting battle or right before (or in the middle of) a boss encounter. Granted, there is no strict penalty for dying (which, in turn, makes many of the more difficult battles more a test of patience than skill), but there is no telling how much game play time was wasted simply because I kept dying. The game’s story is grand and rather well done, but it could use more fleshing out. True, I’m of the school that games should be games first and story-telling mediums second, but if you’re going to try something–well, we all know how Yoda feels about trying. The game’s camera can be annoying, but it does earn points for rarely failing me during combat, and there is a minor glitch that makes Baldur stand on an enemy’s head if they are underneath him as he comes to the ground after aerial combat; this makes combat frustrating and disrupts the flow of action. The controls have a bit of a learning curve, and even after hours they feel a tad sloppy and inaccurate, especially with ranged weapons.
Despite all of its issues, however, Too Human is pure addictive fun with massive replay potential.This is the first game of a trilogy, and I”m sure it will do well enough to guarantee it being continued. I would love to find out more about the story (despite feeling shallow throughout, it ends on a great cliffhanger, with one of those memorable images I was speaking of) and see some of the game play errors corrected. I haven’t tried online multiplayer yet (largely because I’m lamenting the lack of four player co-op; it’s hard to take full advantage of a wide variety of classes with only two players), but I can imagine that its just as much fun as playing solo.
Too Human is not going to change the way the gaming industry works, but it is a satisfying game play experience set in an immersive world populated by brave heroes and repulsive villains; it’s why we play video games in the first place.
