Too Human had a tough road through its development cycle and release. Beginning with major delays and issues with game engines which escalated into internet message board wars and backlash, Silicon Knights’ action RPG hasn’t received the best reception. Many people got caught up in the negative hype and didn’t give the game the credit it deserves. There are issues, but ultimately, Too Human is a fun experience with a whole lot of loot.

First and foremost, while this is an action game, there are many deep RPG elements. You will be spending a good deal of time upgrading your character’s skills, equipment, and armor. Just running through the game without making these necessary changes will ultimately lead to failure and frustration. I think this is part of the problem the game has encountered. When I first played through the demo, I didn’t go into the menus and make changes to my weapons and armor based on the loot drops my character was picking up. This meant that, while I was leveling up, my sword, guns, and armor were still of low level and not dishing out enough damage to the enemies I was encountering.

Too Human follows the story of Baldur, an Aesir, who are the protectors of humanity. Hel has unleashed robotic beasts that are killing and devouring humans for nourishment and Baldur decides this needs to be stopped and embarks on a quest to find out what exactly is going on to stop the madness. The game uses a mix of Norse mythology with Cyberspace, which is somewhat odd, but it actually works. That’s the story in a nutshell. In the full game, this is very well explained in an opening cinematic that is missing in the demo. This cinematic really brings the story into perspective. During the game, you sadly never feel that visceral connection with Baldur that really makes you care about how things transpire. There is a twist at the end, which is really when you start to care. With the game being a trilogy, I’m excited to see how this pans out.

The voice acting in Too Human is some of the best I’ve heard in a long time. While the visuals aren’t the best during cutscenes, the actors portraying the characters did a terrific job. Other sounds in the game are done well, especially the metal on metal clang you get with cutting through the robotic enemies. Graphically, the game has its ups and downs. The action is fast paced with minimal slowdown and the environments are nice, albeit repetitive. For some reason, the cutscenes and close-ups don’t work out as well. There is some visible screen tearing in areas while others show jaggies and low-res textures.

Too Human does away with the button mashing you would expect in this type of action game and uses the right thumbstick for attacks. By pressing the thumbstick in the direction of the enemy you want, you will run or slide over to them and strike with your primary weapon (be it a sword, axe, staff, or something else altogether). You can also shoot opponents with the triggers (right trigger if you have one gun, both triggers if you have two). While shooting, you can use the right thumbstick to change your target. Sometimes, the game has an issue getting the proper target, so shooting from far away can often be a frustrating experience. Melee attacks have some similar issues in targeting, but not as bad as ranged attacks. When in combat, you have to realize that just slamming on the sticks isn’t going to give you the best outcome, meaning you’ll die a lot. There is strategy involved as you plan your air juggles (double tapping the right thumbstick towards an opponent), Finishers (press both thumbsticks towards opponent), Ruiner attacks (right bumper), Spider attacks (Y button), and Battle Cries (X button). By mixing your attacks and moving in and out, you’ll have a much better gameplay experience and won’t be seeing the Valkyrie every few minutes. Speaking of the Valkyrie, I really wish you could skip the death sequence where she comes down and lifts your body into the sky when you die. After seeing it a few times (even though I don’t die often), it’s still an annoyance.

Camera issues are somewhat of a moderate problem in Too Human as you cannot control the camera during gameplay. You can press the left bumper to re-center the camera or hold the left bumper and look around with the right thumbstick if you aren’t moving around, but there will be a few times where enemies you need to attack are off-screen. While it works most of the time and not having to control the camera is nice, when you want to control it and can’t, frustration sets in and you may end up dying.

You can play through the game with any of the five classes are characters available and get each to level 50, which presents a tremendous amount of replay value. Co-op is available for two players over Xbox Live, but not locally. If you’re on the first play-through, I highly recommend doing this on your own as all cut-scenes and story elements are missing during co-op, for whatever reason.

Too Human does have some glaring bugs. You’ll fall through the floor and get stuck Superman 64 style and sometimes sounds just don’t manifest themselves, especially during co-op play. These are all fixable, but it’s a disappointment to see these types of issues existing in a game that has been in development for such a long time.

I you put away your prejudices for Too Human and actually play the game, you’ll have a good deal of fun. There is plenty of loot to be had to upgrade your character, which is a lot of fun for RPG players. In this respect, the game feels a lot like Diablo II, which is one of the best dungeon crawler loot games ever made. If the game didn’t have so many large bugs, the score would have been higher. It’s worth it to give Too Human a try, even if it’s just a rental. Good times will be had.

Overall: 7.75 out of 10

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