Someone asked me the other day why did a video game needed to be called Too Human, there were much more macho and absurd names full of testosterone and adrenaline than that available in the market. “Too Human” sounded as if someone was begging for an apology for a grave sin.
I did not have the guts to tell the illiterate soul that Silicon Knights probably named the game after themselves by acknowledging the fact that this game was almost on the verge of being vaporware, spanned across three generations and had a nice legal battle with Epic to top all of that. As I spent my hours nitpicking on the things that made Too Human so human, I found within the game a deep level of addiction that I was unable to get rid off so instantly as it lingered on like a red letter day.
Too Human puts you in the shoes of a cybernetic god from the Norse Mythology called Baldur and it is his duty to protect mankind from an onslaught of machines that threatens to wipe out the very existence of mankind (Matrix anyone?). The story felt a bit disjoint at places since I was playing a preview build which was around 3 months old, but it did manage to convey a sense of a deep mystery waiting to be unfolded. Though the game demonstrates heavy signs of philosophical queasiness, it isn’t quite Metal Gear, but it would make a lot of sense to those who’d love digesting videogame operas and thereby unraveling the true meaning of life.
The gameplay mirrors any traditional action role playing game that has been released during the years. The player can choose Baldur’s character class which ranges from Champion (Paladin), Bioengineer (Druid), Commando (Necromancer), Defender and Berserker (Barbarian). Each class has its own edge to the game, I finished Diablo II with the Paladin, so I fell into the swoon of the Champion class and thus my quest to achieve glory and Victory began.
The first part of the act takes place inside an cave where you get attacked by mechanical beasts who are desperate to fling their goods (nuts, bolts and lasers) out. This level has also been in the recently released demo, so if any of you has not yet tried and tasted Too Human, check out Xbox Live for a healthy dose of hack and slash.
Too Human takes sometime to get used to in the absence of a user controlled camera, the left thumbstick controls Baldur’s movements whilst the right one controls his melee weapons that range from battle axes, swords and mighty hammers. The triggers are used for projectile weapons like pistons, cannons and assault rifles, right for standard fire, left for alternate fire.
This micro management system of weaponry classification has been lifted straight off Blizzard’s crowned Diablo II. Each weapon in the game has a threshold limit after which it just becomes obsolete and cannot be traded or salvaged. New weapons, armor and runes can be purchased in the city at your local weapon god who also gives you philosophical advice on the repercussions of war on the surviving human race.
The skill set is also deep that requires you to level up your character when you have successfully battered all the nuts and bolts across the screen. The set is divided into three, Melee, Projectile and Special power, distributing points across three skill sets unlocks further skills that may be required to wield a weapon of your choice and transform your character into the perfect killing machine.
The equipment screen is also quite detailed enough to spell out the vital stats of each weapon, armor, runes that Baldur carries. Runes work just like in Diablo and other action RPGs; they can be inserted into swords giving them specific strengths against classes of enemies. Everything within the game can be upgraded to their maximum level giving players’ ample mount of time to replay dungeons (or alien worlds in this case) to transform Baldur into a cybernetic god in the true sense of the word.
Gameplay is pure hack and slash with minimal strategy, and this is where the game feels a bit awkward, for the control scheme somehow feels clunky as far as combat and movement are concerned. The variations in moves can hardly be felt whilst pulling them off using the analog stick, collision detection with enemies also seems a bit far fetched. It sort of reminds me of Bart Simpson’s line “I was swishing my sword/axe/hammer in air, and you pesky robots accidentally crossed my path”, but I guess this will be resolved once the final game arrives.
The enemies come in hordes, I had quite forgotten what Diablo felt like for a number of years and Too Human just put me back into place. The scale of the game is huge with opponents land up from every end of the screen. Most of the enemies follow a Diablo pattern as well, there are Minion droids and there is a Shaman droid guiding these minions, take the Shaman down and the minion Droids fall weak. The larger opponents in Too Human are a tough battle and sort of have a quick time event to destroy them completely. Although this should allow gamers to feel good about their button mashing skills, the camera messes it up.
The game has a pre-rendered camera with minimal adjustment levels. I spent a good 20 minutes with a huge enemy because I could not quite see where I was aiming at. Silicon Knights have never made a game with movable camera angles (Eternal Darkness, Metal Gear: Twin Snakes) so I guess they have don’t quite have an idea of allowing users to fix the camera angle for themselves. This makes most stuff in the game cumbersome as mentioned before and this major gripe which might pull down the game’s final scores.
Death also has a quirky edge in the game, Being a God, the player is never supposed to die in the first place, even when the player dies in the heat of battle, a cybernetic angel descends from the sky and transports Baldur’s body to the last checkpoint. This system which is quite innovative in the beginning tends gets annoying after a point especially since you cannot skip the whole angel descending from the sky and it starts to get on the players nerves.
This method of revival is similar for all your squadmates who accompany you in your dangerous quest for survival. The AI for the squad is pathetic, often they love to stick to a waypoint instead of following you and helping out with objectives.
The game brings you back and forth to Aesir, which is like the city in the clouds, Man’s last sanctuary where the threat of war looms across the corridor. This is where Baldur returns after each quest to progress with the storyline. In addition to his regular weapon upgrades Baldur can also upgrade himself as a god, the two choices that are put in front of the player in the beginning of the game are Cybernetics and Human. Cybernetics unlocks abilities for Baldur which are more combat and projectile oriented, whereas Human abilities focus more on magic and cyberspace.
Now the term cyberspace is sort of an oxymoron in the game, unlike William Gibson’s Neruomancer, cyberspace in Too Human represents Man’s utopian world that he sacrificed for a genetically and mechanically enhanced machine world. Baldur is required to traverse through this world off and on to progress the game at all times, this world is inhabited by witches who know a lot of Baldur’s past and help him to decode his own purpose as a god. Much of what I came across in Cyberspace required me to push a rock and break open a door, which would in turn open another door in the real world and help me finish my quest.
The visuals in the game would remind the player of Mass Effect, this might the result of the Unreal Engine syndrome, but some of the set pieces will also serve a strong reminder to many players of Mass Effect. Baldur in fact also carries himself like the male version of Shepard. The frame rate remains pretty solid in the battle and rarely shows occasions of slowdown. Too Human is far less buggy then Mass Effect which had an absurd sense of freezing on different occasions.
Too Human is set for release in August and as we speak the game is already set to ruin a lot of social lives with its intense level of story and gameplay. Do check out an official review in a couple of weeks to get the final word on the game.
- By Neelesh Mukherjee