Too Human

I got this game yesterday and have pretty much played it all day and night.
To be honest, this game is like marmite. Your gonna either love it or hate it.
I really enjoy the game and its story. But I have given it four stars, mainly because the developers manage to explain everything in the most difficult way.
First things first, I suggest you read the first two pages in the game manual. It will give you a little hint to the story and a few other bits and pieces that will help you enjoy Too Human. Then check out the characters, as its handy to know the names, and will help you follow the story alot better, because if you dont know much about Viking Mythology then some of the names will leave you thinking 'Who the hell are they on about' then your going to be in the dark wondering what the hell is going on.
So read about the characters, as this will help you understand who everyone is talking about in-game.

Secondly, do NOT skip the game intro sequences, where it shows the game developer logo's etc, as the intro scene is at the end of it.

Once you have done both, your now ready sit down with Baldur and knock the crap out of everything.
The story is a bit like a Tarentino film. You get alot of flashbacks from certain events which entwine with the quests that your doing at the current moment.
Its pretty easy to kill everything on the game, you just hold the right analogue stick in the direction you want to attack and let baldur do the rest. You can push forward both sticks and do some special moves etc you also get ranged combat with rifles, dual pistols etc.
So it mixes the combat up well. I played a Defender, and found most of my time bludgeoning the goblin robots with ease, but at times I'd just sit back and let my rifle fire off some rounds and a few grenades.
The combat can be a little 'samey' but somehow it still manages to keep me excited and just watching my character bludgeon everything around me in cool ways with just the ease of pushing my analogue stick forward is amazing. There are of course more combo's and things you can throw into combat, perhaps shooting a grenade into a bunch of goblins whilst running toward them, then sliding into the leftover goblins and putting a cap of smackdown on them.

The graphics are good, but generally are bit jittery in places. The framerate is absolutely fine, I've had no problems with multiple enemies and allies on the same screen smacking each other silly.
The headquarters area is amazing. They've really made the Norse Sci Fi theme a winner in my eyes. The way they've taken old ways ad then just put the futuristic touch. Massive tall statues, huge tall narrow hallways with torches at either side... and the colours are amazing too.

The game is very much loot-based. You'll find yourself crafting some uber armour, with the possibility to buy colours to change the colour of your armour also which is a nice touch.

The sound is amazing when in combat, it really pumps you up for the fights and gets the good ol adrenaline running around.
The voice acting is decent and up to standard but the environment music can be a little.. non existent at times.

Last but not least, the camera angle. No you cannot control the camera, Yes you can change how close up / how far away you want to view your character from.
This has been the issue for most people, yet I find it hasnt really bothered me too much. Alas I'd love control of the camera, but I've been doing absolutely fine without it and its managed to be pretty stable with me. I only encountered a few issues in the Aesire Headquarters.

All in all a great game. Try the demo out, and for all those who have bought the game, I'll see you in Valhalla.

This is an update my review as I actually purchased an Xbox 360 because oft this game.

So my first impression... well when I saw the class selection and layout straight away it made me think of Hellgate London:) and yeah I think they are very similar concepts. Kill lots of enemies, loot and gear up, and they even throw in a team of soldiers to support you. The NPCs just provide an extra hand but I just ignored them and do my stuff.

I do have to agree with one statement, the camera sometimes can be a right pain in the butt:( , I would suggest using the ISO view as it seems to be better.

The online side of it is quite good but you can only play in 2 and only for 1 level then you gotta go back to the lobby and select the next level. Apparently they can support up to 4 players but not implemented, probably something to look forward in the sequel.
Another thing to watch out online is to try and team up with someone who is + or - 5 levels from you. Otherwise you will regret it, the game takes the highest player in consideration, this means you can end up dying from 1 hit or looting gear which you cannot use for levels to come.

I probably regret not getting this when it came out as anyone that preordered the game got a code that gave them some nice epic armours straight from level 1.

No idea about the ending as I haven't finished it yet but if it is indeed part of a trilogy then great, hope they will allow your characters to carry over to the 2nd and 3rd parts.

After downloading the demo, playing it for 20 minutes putting it down and thinking my god what a load of crap. I today came back to it and i am totally blown away i must say, to the people who have said this is a load of crap are wrong. This is a very complex game with amazing controls once you get to grips with it a bit. for the average player one play through won't be enough for you to learn the controls in the demo.

I found the graphics to be top notch and the combat to be VERY intense, put this to some heavy metal and you'll have some awesome gaming moments.

The gear collecting system is as deep as WoW with different levels of gear and their rarity, all the gear has different stats and attributes that effect your character differently - such as increased attack speak extra damage more armour. A deep and interesting skill tree really brings the game to life the ones i've played so far increase damage attack speed and also give new attacks.

Day one purchase for me.

I have been looking forward to Too Human for ages now and downloaded the Demo as soon as i could.

First playthrough i was very dissapointed, sure the cutscenes were nice but the combat was boring i just slid from enemy to enemy and finished easily.

Second time i started i got the hang of the combat and the armour and weapon cutomisation. Once you learn how to do the finishers and juggling the combat become addictive and fun.

Hoping the full game lives up to the demo.

PS all characters are available in the demo. Disconnect from the internet and set your xbox to 2009 for the beserker and commando. The defender and bio are unlucked by quickly pressing A then moving to an available character, loads of guides on how to do this online.

I'll be the first to admit that I like playing bad games (much to the chagrin of my girlfriend), I don't know why I just do. If you were to look at my gamer card pretty much every rubbish movie tie-in, lame kiddie game and Japanese oddity will be all present and correct. The problem we have here is that there's bad and there's Too Human. I was really quite looking forward to this game and was expecting an epic action RPG in the same vein as Mass Effect, with an excellent story, slightly ropey combat and a wealth of customisation options. Unfortunately, none of the above elements have been implemented in any way shape or form. I get the impression that throughout the development, nobody actually stopped to play the game and see if it was any good.
Allow me to elaborate;
Combat: the right analog stick is used for melee combat while the triggers are used for primary and secondary fire on your equipped ballistic weapon. Use of the right stick for melee could have worked very well if it weren't for Baldur's sluggish movements and clumsy swordplay. It's actually possible to stand flailing your sword at nothing while an enemy bites your arm off. The ballistic weaponry (ie. guns) is terrible. All weapons are hideously underpowered and the auto lock-on is, as usual, terrible often prioritising dead enemies over the living ones. The combination of melee and ranged weaponry should have allowed a great deal of flexibility in taking down targets but with more than a few enemies on screen at any one time makes the whole gameplay experience messy and frustrating. The most annoying part however, comes along in the from of the Valkyrie, which ascends from the heavens to whisk away your battered body every time you die. This might be OK if it were skippable, but it's not and it gets very, very old very, very quickly because you will die A LOT. There also seems to be no punishmennt for dying other than this little 30 second cutscene. All enemies in the area you've vanquished remain dead and all EXP wou gained before stays in tact.
Story: Silicon Knights should be commended for doing their research but not for the scrpting. The characterisation and dialog are awful, the Gods are severely ungodly and generally very annoying with Baldur regularly coming across as a whining mummy's boy who's lost his favourite teddy.
Graphics: Are actually pretty good, all the environments look solid and there's a great sense of vast open space in all of the locations. Character models are well designed (although the Goblins look like a massive rip-off of DOG from Half Life 2), but unfortunately other than the bosses there are only about 5 or 6 enemies, which are repeated throughout the game, which leads to the combat feeling dull and samey.
Overall Too Human is a stinker, one of those games that punishes you repeatedly for playing it, almost as if Silicon Knights hate gamers and want them to suffer greatly for the £40 they forked out for it. I finished it (bad games and all), but if it weren't for trade-in value I'd burn it!
3/10

played the demo...cant wait for the real thing, some humor, great game play a good mix of close combat and ranged combat....i cant really comment on graphics as im on a crt standard tv but ive just ordered a hd ready tv as well a hdmi cable...just in time for this awsome game...if you have a look on youtube there is a video which tells you how to use the defender and commando on the demo :P.

A dungeon crawler in the Diablo mould, Too Human is a much anticipated 360 exclusive that has now become a running joke in the gaming world, no thanks to the comments from a certain Mr.Dyack. Too Human is fun... if you're expecting very little, the combat is clunky and unintuitive. However, the graphics are good(think Mass Effect) and the story isn't the worst I've endured, you can follow it quite easily. But, a dungeon crawler lives and dies by its combat and levelling. Unfortunately, this is where Too Human dies because levelling up and buying new skills can be confusing and the combat is very frantic and cluttered. When lots of enemies crowd the screen, it's difficult to know who you are and what exactly it is that your doing. This had so much potential but ultimately joins the what if pile.

Everyone, I'm an RPG fan. KOTOR, Mass Effect etc are my favorite games. Too Human is not a real RPG. Xbox classify it as "Action/RPG" but really it only has a few elements of an RPG, leveling up with new powers, better weapons and armor etc, lacking any side missions at all.

Whats good? Graphics are great, sound track is excellent.

Issues with the game (hence why i've given it a 2/5) Silicon Knights read!

There is no block, only a dodge button. The problem with this is that it never takes you far enough away to be able to mount a counteract.

There are no side quests! What is the point in having an 'open world' RPG if you have nothing to explore minus the main quests. If i am a god, why can't i go and assist mere humans with some task, far beneath my godly status? Or why cant i kill a few of them and nick there money? WHY SILICON KNIGHTS WHY! ITS NOT AN RPG WITHOUT SIDE QUESTS TO BUILD YOUR ARSENAL AND CYBERSPACE DOES NOT COUNT.

Lack of exploration: There are 4 levels, each taking 3-4 hours to complete. Apart from that you have 6 other locations in one ship to visit, a prison, a tree, repair weapons, repair armor, feasting hall and the bosses office. THATS IT! No other exploration expect cyber space which nothing happens in.

The Story: You start straight into the action, nothing wrong with that and a small bit is introduced during the first level. Through out the game though, you have no real understanding of the past prior to the game and why this war is happening. It makes it hard to buy into it when your never really sure what the hell is going on. And i don't want to have to go on a University and study a course to understand the methodology.

Gameplay: The fiddly controls start to work as you get used to the combo system. The problem is that its not easy enough for novice or casual gamers to get to grips with and this creates a problem for the game, the developers aren't going to make enough money if just the serious gamers buy it, they need a cross section of the gaming community to buy into it.

Re-spawning: O my god, this took 1 star off straight away. At first, its a nice re-spawn, getting lifted into paradise but after you've died countless times it just gets boring and extremely frustrating. I hated this part of the game and you can't fast forward it.

Targeting System: Its awful, to pick out a single enemy is to fiddly its unreal. During the final boss battle, to pick her out amongst the mass of constantly re-spawning zombies is so dam difficult. This was extremely annoying and quite an obvious flaw to anyone who tested it.

Mega Powers: Its useless, you get one power attack per leveling up! Useless, by the end it takes over an hour to level up at 20 ish level, so no powers! Your meant to be a god for goodness sake, its simply not enough that when you jump and land, your feet make a loud noise and enemies near by fall over theatrically. Thats it, its useless and took another star off the rating.

Level Design: All the levels are effectively the same, long corridors where enemies just spawn in front of you as you wonder around pointlessly killing machines and zombies. You just wonder around, i feel this doesn't work again because of the lack of any side missions.

Finally, the game is boring! I'm sorry, some people here like it but the story is not gripping and actually quite dull. The great games that have become trilogies, e.g. Halo are rarely designed to be 1 of a trilogy, they have to become a trilogy because the game was so popular.

Overall, this game feels really rushed which is ironic considering its probably one of the longest games stuck in development ever.

I probably should have researched this game before making my choice to splash out almost £40 on it. Nevertheless, based on a couple of previews and trailers I decided to give Baldur a whirl.
My first impressions were good, the game has a somewhat steep learning curve with the unusual controls and combat mechanics and the game doesn't like to to give much away, however, with a little experimentation, I was soon dashing left to right dispatching robotic goblins with consumate ease.
That brings me to one of the games finer points, at times, it can look stunning, in terms of both animation and character models, the designs are excellent. However, its a double edged sword, one particular animation that will stick with me is of an angelic figure resurecting you each and everytime you die, this sequence is completely unskippable and lasts a good 15-20 seconds, whilst impressive the first time you see it, by 15 replays you will want to remove the disc from the xbox and eat it out of sheer frustration.
This, among several other odd and seemingly wasted mechanics, make the game, albeit frustratingly, fall short of its great potential on 2 counts:
As an RPG the game has enough gear and weapons in constant supply to keep even the most avid loot-hoarder happy, however, the alarming lack of spells and abilities at the ready make the game just plain dull.
As an action game, the title delivers some impressive sequences and challenging fights, however, the difficulty and atmosphere is completely lost on you when death means simply being teleported only metres away from your grizzly demise to continue where you left off. The combat itself is very limited, with only a few stock moves at your disposal, the charm of the impressive animations you'll experience again and again soon begin to dull as the game never reaches the dizzying heights of say, God of Wars brutal action.
All in all, a bit of a dissappointment, the story is essentially like piecing together a jigsaw with only half the pieces in the box, the combat feels disjointed and mildly exhilirating at best and the visuals are let down by the fact that after seeing that same animation again and again you'll be praying for the Valkyries to come and take you to Valhalla.

I got this game thinking it will be a great game but I was disappointed when I first played but I kept on playing see if would get any better but it didn't the controls are rubbish the plot could be better even the graphics are crap this game is just one big disappointment. Save your money and get something better which won't be that hard.