Kotaku
Silicon Knights' Too Human may be one of the most ambitious console games currently in development, a series that has been planned from the get-go to span three full releases, layering Norse mythology on top of a science fiction setting taking place thousands of years in the past. This is epic, universe establishing stuff. What other game kicks off with a Friedrich Nietzsche quote or has the gall to use the mythic tree Yggdrasil as a conduit to Cyberspace?
Too Human also happens to have one of the more epic development cycles, spanning three generations of consoles and, at times, overshadowed by drama surrounding an ongoing legal dispute with the developers of the Unreal Engine. Regardless of the hubbub attached to Too Human's production and the occasional headline-grabbing quote from founder Denis Dyack, it's the game that matters to most of the majority. And we finally played it.
Following an hour long walkthrough of a near final build of Too Human with Dyack, in which he got us up to speed on the game's varied characters and gameplay mechanics, we're fairly certain of one thing—Too Human can be a gorgeous game. As you may have seen from some of the recently released screen shots, the team is capable of some impressive technical feats.
Graphically, Too Human shows that it has the potential to output some fantastic visuals. The game runs in native 720p with four passes of anti-aliasing helping to create a very polished image. It's got all the candies—lovely textures, normal maps, brilliant lighting and expansive environments.
Unfortunately, that level of detail often comes with a price, as whatever in-house engine is now powering the game sometimes chugged under the pressure. These moments of frame rate sluggishness were most prevalent in one of the game's cut scenes, something in which Too Human is not lacking.
That may be because the story, not necessarily the gameplay—though we'll get to that—seems to be Silicon Knights' focus. The team has built a near seamless storytelling experience with Too Human, with Dyack proudly proclaiming at the start of his presentation "Pay attention to the loading screen, because it's the last one you'll see in the demo." It's true (mostly). Too Human bounces from location to location, timeframe to timeframe without a progress bar in sight, as the team has hidden all that ugly disc reading behind in-game cinematics.
If you really want to see some loading, though, you can. Simply skip the cut scenes—as long as they aren't the interactive ones—and you'll see that Too Human is, well, human after all. It's a good trick, though, and they deserve credit for it.
Some of those cut scenes, however, actually seemed to do a disservice to the impact of the game's massive scope. It's clear that Silicon Knights is taken with some of the work it has done and wants the player to make sure he or she notices every last detail. Some of the cut scenes we saw featured awkward zooms to things like holographic glasses(!) and individually rendered eyebrow hairs(!). Others were dripping with cliched, melodramatic action sequences, like when protagonist Baldur dragged his sword along the pavement for spark-filled effect before back-flipping off a wall and slicing off a robot arm in slow motion. This, just after a John Woo-style super duper slo-mo shoot out with a flying buzzsaw menace, was too much cheese to swallow.
We may just be extremely hard to please. Thirty minutes with the title is hardly a good measure of what's planned to be an epic drama, so let's talk about gameplay.
After picking one of five starting classes—Champion, Commando, BioEngineer, Berserker and Defender—each of which has its own strengths and weaknesses, then setting out, it became clear that Too Human has its roots in a handful of classics. It adopts parts of Devil May Cry's shoot and slash gameplay and Diablo's loot-gathering addiction in an attempt to create an RPG that's friendly to action game types.
Like Diablo, combat is fairly simple. It may not be "point, click, kill, drink potion, repeat" but Too Human doesn't necessarily require the finger dexterity of Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden to play. You'll use the left analog stick to move around, with the right stick used for melee attacks, right trigger for your firearm. Right analog stick slashes and bashes can be chained together, simply by pointing the stick in the direction of the enemy you want to attack, then toward the next, then toward the next, ad infinitum. Double tap the stick and you'll knock them up in the air, setting up enemies for combo juggles and breaking up the monotony.
String enough of these together and you'll build up your super move, known as a Ruiner, an insta-kill explosion that can pull you out of a tight jam. These can be pulled off with a quick tap of the right bumper, but Silicon Knights has also included a few dual-stick moves that add variety.
Truth be told, there was a certain stiffness to the combat, something that action game die hards may sniff at. Baldur's constant gliding from bad guy to bad guy looked, well, goofy and the Troll "surfing" combat tactic felt out of place, just different enough from button pressing God of War-style mini-games to not be totally damnable, but close enough to be annoying.
One of the most challenging foes we must mention is the one you'll never kill, is Too Human's occasionally wonky camera. Despite Dyack's assertion that the camera tech is "intelligent" and one that the player need not control, it definitely got in our way more than once. Shooting off screen enemies while getting smacked from behind by Goblins is something we hope that doesn't make it into the final game. Fortunately, the camera can be panned in and out using the D-pad or re-centered using the left bumper.
Silicon Knights' biggest challenge, outside of the technical ones that could still be ironed out before the game ships (no, we don't know when that is) is bringing all these disparate elements from multiple gameplay types together into a cohesive package. Add to that a storyline that attempts to blend Norse mythology, sci-fi cinema, and existentialist and postmodernist philosophy, and Too Human may wind up being a beautiful mess.
However, with a quintet of character classes, a deep skill tree and a World of Warcraft-style loot system—you'll pick up equipment with names like Sacred Tactical Visor of Opportunity and Harrowing Lance of Wrath, some socketable with runes a la Diablo II—there should be plenty of replay value in Too Human, at least for those who don't quibble as much as we do. Add to that a four-player co-op option (that we sadly didn't get to try out) and a crafting system, and we suspect that the game will resonate for a long time with gamers.
Others, however, may find that other games have done what Too Human is attempting to do before (and better) and may just want to wait for the novelization. Or at least until the trilogy is finally complete to enjoy the ride in one epic slog.
Comments
eh?
unless this game ever gets raving reviews I don't think it will be able to do very well. Too much bad press.
Meh. I wasn't interested in this game to begin with. I am glad they got some bugs removed; I hope its good enough by the time it releases so I can at least look at it again.
This had better be a goddamn short trilogy. I'm waiting on Eternal Darkness 2.
WOOT
looking very much forward to it...looks great, has dungeon crawler and rpg elements, and the blood sweat and tears of a dedicated team on a difficult dev cycle...can't wait.
When it comes to backflipping off a wall and cutting a robot in half in Slo-Mo... There can never be too much cheese
Sounds alright. Certainly not the slideshow it was at E3, but I don't think I'm picking it up. It's just a personal preference though, not because I think it will be bad.
I can't wait, wait, yes I can, forever infact. I will do as you reccomend, wait for all 3 parts, this is gonna be amazing 2020.
I want Diablo 3 :(
BTW, How long did it take for Denis to sound like an annoying vacuum seller knocking at your door? Or is Jehovas witnesses more apt?
PS: I know, I'm mean when it comes to Too Human and denis.
"What other game kicks off with a Friedrich Nietzsche quote"
Beyond Good and Evil
Low balling my expectations, so I'll be blown away.
Seems to be a trend with this gen's games. :/
Epic loot indeed. I watched a vedeo on another site that showed the game and the team talking about it.The game has lots loot to be had and people like loot.THe amount of armor and weapons seem staggering.To me it looks like a MMORPG with good graphics. That is not my type of game but it does look like a lot of fun.
so is this game like diablo?. SoJ runs and whatnot?
I really don't give two cents about story nor this trilogy bullshit.
Does it offer the nostalgic endless loot runs in current-gen?
My faith in this game will never be the same. I pray that SK can pull through and make this game as awesome as they wanted it to be.
"Others were dripping with cliched, melodramatic action sequences, like when protagonist Baldur dragged his sword along the pavement for spark-filled effect before back-flipping off a wall and slicing off a robot arm in slow motion. This, just after a John Woo-style super duper slo-mo shoot out with a flying buzzsaw menace, was too much cheese to swallow."
Oh yeah, they had that as a downloadable video on Xbox Live Marketplace for one of the Bringing it Home events (either X07 or E3). It was very over-the-top and very cliched.
Anyways, the gameplay sounds pretty good. Still, I'm hoping for a demo just so I can be sure that its a game I'd want to spend money on.
I wonder what everyone looking forward to this game will think if it gets bad review scores. Kinda reminds me of Lair...
I just hope it will be good.
Although I still have 0 clue as to what the hell the game is suposed to be about.
But these SSes look good tho!
As soon as i found out that there was going to be looting, i was all up ons.
Hopefully, the slow-down and camera arnt bad enough to prohibit any of said lootings.
Is this a console only game, or will it be for PC as well?
@Gian: haha, good call.
pretty thorough impresses ions, sounds like the scope is large enough to easily get lost into the "beautiful mess" territory discussed, i guess we'll see if the crew has enough time to tighten things up.
im trying to think of the last time a GDC impression sighted control/etc issues that actually got addressed before release, and im drawing a blank.
@josh924: yeah, same impression of said video. struck me as Woo's take on Berserk or something.
@champ24 vamp_24(psn): If they (the people looking forward to Too Human) like it, they won't care about bad review scores. All that will (or should) matter to them is that they like it. I wonder, though, what would happen if Too Human happened to get good review scores. It wouldn't affect the people who are looking forward to it, but I wonder what the other people would say (the people who aren't impressed at all by the screens and vids).
Nearly every area seems to have issues. That's not a good sign for a game that took this long to be released. I fear that this game will really be flooded with cutscenes. I'm not really impressed with anything I read in these impressions, but it does provide me with a good scope of what to expect and that's appreciated.
The game will no doubt sell, even with these potential flaws. Afterall, like Cliffy B said, games rely on the hype machine, and Microsoft will certainly be riding this title all the way to the bank.
Btw does this game force you to play as a sausage character or can you also make a female character?
Since as stated before Im a bit tired of bald men and space marines running around in my games.
Heh, I forgot this was being made.
Wait, did they settle their beef with Epic? Just asking, I don't recall how that turned out
Bleh.I watched 2 trailers and felt that it looked kinda weak.The combat(the main focus of the gameplay)looked pretty crappy,as did the animation.Also from what I saw,the frame-rate chugged alot more often than "sometimes".
Well, I've never taken an interest in the game, but it definitely looks alright. Still, so many games have been in development and they turn out to be surprisingly mediocre. Not terrible, maybe better even than years before when they were almost releasing and they postponed it, but still nothing spectacular.
Also, I'm sick of promises of "We were too lazy to program a proper Camera system, but you don't need it, because the camera is smart enough to know where to look!" When, surprise surprise, it ends up being a pretty crappy camera. Only game to pull of camera angles with grace was God of War(I've only played 2, can't judge 1) and there were a couple odd glitchy spots towards the end of the game, where the angles didn't quit work out. But otherwise, the controls moved in sync with the camera perfectly.
So I'll check Too Human out. I think the reviews are going to be critical. If it gets even a couple raving reviews, at all, then I think a ton more people will buy it. If everyone agrees it's mediocre, then I think a lot of people on the fence are going to figure it's not worth it.
Can someone open a "Camera Clinic?" Jeezus. It should be the first concern of every major company producing this slag for our demonic appetites. Second should be not talking crap about a game that will never own up to expectations....
Robot Thor Attack! Coincidentally, I won't be buying this "epic drama".
@darkroomdemons.com: I can't wait for the 1up podcast this Friday when Denis Dyack is on it, and impressions of the game will have been posted all over the internet. So Denis, does every developer still think your game is the best ever like they said last gdc behind closed doors for your ears only?
@Witzbold:
PLEASE get on with banning the idiots that just say "eh" or "woot", its really annoying -_-
/off topic
playing a demo will make or break this for me, but im still going to definatly wait for more preview (although kotaku ones do seem to hit the nail on the head most of the time ;])
I had enough playing as man-pretzels in armor (Halo 3, Gears of War, the orange box, and COD4) so I'm gonna pass. time for me to play something fresh...maybe Folklore.
Though I really like Silicon Knights and this sounded good for a long time, I definitely don't think Too Human will push the envelope on genre blending. I can't imagine why, but I guess putting the "intricate" two/three button fighting techniques of your Gaidens or your Crying Devils with the ability to pick stuff up and later sell it for other, more exotic stuff is impossible.
You went into the hands-on expecting to be disspointed, isn't that doing a disservice to the community?
Its a good thing the game is playable at GDC. I hope Dyack gets some good feedback and spruces up the game. Other then the minor issues listed above, I think this game is going to be a epic combination of storytelling and gameplay. Can't wait to get my hands on it.
i dunno what is up with sillicon knights, but they seem to overdo the action cut-scenes. remember how they effed up The twin snakes. That was just ridiculous. Kicking a freaking gernade into a tank and jumping on missles. Whoever does there fight coreography really seems to be digging devil may cry, but just not pulling it off with the same... finesse. So close, but yet so far.
sold!
. . .
i'm only being about 52% sarcastic.
"That may be because the story, not necessarily the gameplay-though we'll get to that-seems to be Silicon Knights' focus."
So you missed all the developer diaries huh?
"Others, however, may find that other games have done what Too Human is attempting to do before (and better) and may just want to wait for the novelization." You got that from a 30 minutes play through? Really? No, I mean REALLY?
@Gian: Baldur's Gate 1 as well. It actually had the same quote as this game.
Wanky Camera's are my pet peeve, if this is too awful to ignore I'd sell my copy asap. Yes I will buy it though.
@gogoranger: I think you have to be Japanese to pull off that kind of nonsense fight choreography. "Aww...those kooky Japanese!"
Reminds me of that scene from the Transporter (that they ended up cutting, I believe) where Jason Statham deflects a missile coming straight at him with a metal tray. Ri-damn-diculous.
Screw the skeptics. I'll love me some Norse action sci-fi when this comes out.
Judging by how poorly the press rated Lost Odyssey, and seeing your review, I feel like I'm going to go with my gut again as a gamer. LO's detractors pointed out the stupidest things as excuses to mark the game down, and completely missed the game itself. They want game production to be this hegelian process where all of the good things in videogaming past get swept into the development undercurrent and become self-inclusive in all games henceforth. The thing is, it's what they feel are good aspects of a game. Lost Odyssey has technical issues, but not enough to keep me from thinking that the game is more dramatic and involving than all of the post-snes FF games to come out of square. I guess zippers and belts warrant an extra 20 points on the rating scale.
I definitely respect mcwhertor's response- it's better to infuriate Dyack with negative press during the final testing stages of the game rather than wait until release and then say, "remember when I gave you good press? That's because you paid me to." Mcwhertor points out all of the salient points of the game that can still be fixed, to avoid a slipshod release that could really effect ratings, and therefore sales.
Having said that, I will buy this game. I trust dennis dyack, and I can tell that by the tone of the article, I really have nothing to worry about.
Thanks for the very well done impressions, Mcwhertor.
@masterisosceles:
I had to comment for a fellow kotukite who actually said "...more dramatic and more involving then all post-Snes squaresoft products", because thats exactly the thought that crossed my mind when playing LO.
"What other game kicks off with a Friedrich Nietzsche quote or has the gall to use the mythic tree Yggdrasil as a conduit to Cyberspace?"
Baldur's Gate kicked off with with 'He who fights with monsters should be careful that he does not become one. And he who looks long into the abyss should know the abyss looks into him.'