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Too Human Info
written by Matt Cabral, 7/25/2008
Its difficult to look at
Too Human and not be reminded of its history; originally planned as a PS1 titleand later a GameCube projectits development began 10 years ago by
Eternal Darkness: Sanitys Requiem developer Silicon Knights. More recently, the long-delayed game received scathing feedback after some poor demo showings at industry press events. And now, on the cusp of its August release, SKs president Denis Dyack has posed an unusual challenge to posters of the popular gaming forum NeoGAF; hes basically said if his game is universally panned upon release, hell tag himself on the boards as Owned by GAF. If the games a success, however, naysayers will have to adopt an Owned by
Too Human tag. With all this pressure, it was a challenge not diving into the games first few hourson a non-final copywithout high expectations. But after experiencing a brief phase of All this fuss, for this? followed by our expectations getting back to a reasonable level, we rather enjoyed our brief taste of
Too Human.
Where most games nowadays pull you in immediately with their next-gen visual splendor,
Too Human doesnt really grab you at all
at first. The graphics, while not bad, are simply on par with most current games and a few notches behind polygon powerhouses like
Call of Duty 4. The gameplay isnt instantly appealing, either; however, an hour into this first entry of a planned trilogy, we were hooked good. And by the time we finished our three-hour or so demo, we were clamoring for the finished product. This slow-building appreciation came primarily from the nontraditional gameplay and controls; using the right stick, you simply point towards the direction you want to melee attack, and protagonist Baldur races in that direction, unleashing a crushing blow upon reaching his enemy. But whats even coolerand what took us some time to masterwas a pinballing effect that saw Baldur bouncing from one baddie to the next, kicking ass aplenty along the way. By inputting an attack before the previous ones been completed, you can string together some amazing combos, and the act of chaining multiple attacks is both addictive and satisfying, especially when you see the loot left in your destructive wake.
This brings us to
Too Humans other most compelling feature; the game is a loot-collecting paradise for players who enjoy the RPG staple activity. The games developers have boasted its near-endless weapon and armor customization options, and after shopping through any given pile of corpses, the claim is easy to believe.
Too Human utilizes both melee and ranged weapons, so a dizzying variety of gunstwo-handed and oneas well as clubs, swords, staffs and hammers are on offer. Combine this with collectible charms and runes, adding a variety of passive and active modifiers to your already-ample arsenal, and youre in for some serious character personalization. The loot system also addresses the classic annoyance of freeing yourself of useless objects; by auto-salvaging, the game automatically keeps your best goodies, and drops lesser items when inventory space gets tight.
After customizing our well-rounded Champion (Berserker, Bio-Engineer, Commando, and Defender classes can also be chosen at the start of the game), my character became adequately skilled with both melee and ranged weapons. We already mentioned the addictive nature of chaining combos by sliding from one enemy to the next, but we soon realized this fast-paced play was only the beginning, as we soon learned to throw juggles into are melee move set, and mix things up with some firepower. Similar to
Devil May Crys rapid-fire style,
Too Human supports a satisfying blend of guns-and-swords combat that had us effortlessly transitioning from bullet-blazing to up-close ass-kicking. The targeting camera felt like it could use some polish, as switching aim from one enemy to another was not always a seamless affair, but hopefully well see this addressed before the final game hits. Wed also like to see Baldur's death animation get a hefty edit; as it stands, when he dies, youre subjected to a lengthy, unskippable scene of an angel delivering you to the heavenskind of a pain when youre buying it a lot during a boss battle.
This bizarre death sequence plays into
Too Humans ambitious narrative of Norse mythology crossed with sci-fi storytelling. Aside from witnessing Baldur's lengthy demise and resurrection over and over again, I quite enjoyed where the storys going, and how it incorporates itself into the gameplay. The first few hours already deliver an edge-of-your-seat twist, and I cant wait to see what the next few hours hold in store. Additionally, the enemies are given their traditional Norse namesTrolls, Goblins, Elvesbut look like something out of the
Terminator franchise. In fact, the creepy creature designs are by far the coolest visuals in the game, so far; the various beasts and baddies, with their menacing metallic exteriors and glowing eyes, are quite a sight, especially when a pack of wall-crawling foes emerge from every corner of a room. There's one particularly slick boss battle we encountered where a giant metallic Troll gave chase, occasionally grabbing us and pulling us towards its buzzing, meat-grinder-like face and chest.
My time spent with
Too Human didnt allow me to dig deep beneath all its features. On top of everything else, there are skill trees to be explored, ridiculous amounts of armor to upgrade, a magical
Matrix-like parallel world, and pet spiders that jump from players' backs on command and unleash a devastating chain-gun attack. Oh, and did I mention the final version will support full-campaign online co-op? Needless to say, I enjoyed this brief journey through
Too Humans epic world, and look forward to diving back in when the final game ships. The titles checkered past may keep it from achieving its full potentialwe can already see the skeptics baring their fangsbut, from what weve seen so far, it holds plenty of promise, and already has me clearing my August calendar. It may not be the mainstream
Halo-like hit Microsoft is hoping for, but it certainly looks like itll more than satisfy the experience-grinding, loot-collecting masses, searching for their next hack-and-slash fix.
http://www.atomicgamer.com/article.php?id=612
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Neuer Blog-Eintrag:
Berserker Unlocked In Too Human Demo Today
Hi everyone,
The Berserker class was opened through LIVE today you can now select this class without any trickery.
The commando will unlock in the future. As many have already figured out (much faster then what we thought possible) that the other classes can be played through other dexterous methods. It was great to see that Too Human was #7 most played games last week over LIVE. This is particularly impressive knowing that many people were disconnecting from LIVE to play the other classes.
We are extremely happy with the overwhelmingly positive response from the demo and look forward to seeing the response to the final game.
If you have not checked out the Too Human demo yet, it is now available for silver accounts.
Enjoy!
Best regards,
Denis.
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Ich habe gestern noch mal den DEFENDER gespielt - richtig geil ... muss mich jetzt echt zwischen den DEFENDER und dem CHAMPION bis zum Release entscheiden.