Too Human review


Ten years in the making, Too Human, was long touted as a groundbreaking game by its own director, Dennis Dyack. As the first game in a planned trilogy, we need to know one thing—is it worth playing? And more importantly—is it worth waiting anxiously for the sequels?

Too Human follows the adventures of Baldur, son of Odin, after his rescue from Helheim. While taking some liberties with actual Norse mythology, it does follow the mythos rather faithfully. Norse mythology buffs will really enjoy Silicon Knight’s retelling, as long as they can get past the extra story elements that were added. While those in the know might enjoy it immensely, it is unfair to expect players to be familiar with the source material and the supporting legends behind it to be able to follow the story. As a relative noob when it comes to this mythology, I found the story incomplete, hard to follow, and confusing. Superimposing a sci-fi setting over a well-known mythological setting is just plain weird, and for me was a real let down. A similar game set in Viking times would have been of far more interest for me.

The game is very light on the story for the uninitiated (i.e. not reading between the lines and getting the rest of the story from elsewhere). The main characters are all well characterised and fit the setting well, which is a definite plus. The dialogue is superbly written, even though the influx of names and terms can confuse players at first. Clocking in at roughly ten to fifteen hours, the story feels short with an abrupt end, but that can be easily attributed to the episodic nature of the game. I didn’t really get into Too Human’s story, but I would like to see how it continues, nonetheless.

One thing that the game does really well is that Baldur can be customized in many ways. While his physical appearance is static, his armor is fully customizable (style and color). This means that even in multiplayer, a player’s Baldur can be unique. Baldur has the choice of five classes when starting out—the Commando, Defender, Bio Engineer, Berserker, and Champion. Each specializes in different weapons, and the Bio Engineer can even heal himself or his teammate. On top of that, Baldur can specialize his class by spending points he earns when levelling in one of three skill lines. Each skill line will give his Spider an ability (the Spider is a portable robot that can be used as a stationary turret, amongst other things) and a warcry (a party buff). At the bottom of the tree, Baldur will earn his class’ powerful sentient weapon skill (the Berserker got a combo-boosting skill). Most skills will passively increase his stats with only the aforementioned skills being added to his repertoire.

Poor goblin...

Partway through the game, Baldur is forced to make a decision between embracing cybernetics and keeping his remaining humanity intact. Each choice gives him a second skill line that further allows him to customize his stats. Furthermore, his decision will determine what kind of equipment he can use for the remainder of the game. Cybernetic equipment is far heavier and requires the added cybernetics to be used. While some weapon types are class-specific, Baldur will still have a large selection of armaments to choose from. There are swords, hammers, staves, rifles, pistols, and cannon, amongst others. Melee weapons can be two-handed, dual-wielded, or one-handed. Ranged weapons also come in various damage types: laser, plasma, and slug. Ranged weapons also have alternate fire modes.

Too Human is all about collecting equipment, much like Diablo II is. Over the course of the game, Baldur will collect hundreds of different items and it is a good thing that the game provides a good loot management system. This system can be set to auto-salvage (sell) equipment below a certain quality level or just whatever is of lowest value, in case of his inventory filling up. Equipment is level based, which leads to one of the game’s flaws. Cool looking equipment will also be above his level and usually end up being only average when he is finally strong enough to wear them. For example, the best equipment I found requires level forty to wear—and I finished the game at level twenty-seven!

Over the course of his adventures, Baldur will also pick up charms and runes. Runes can be used to change the color of his gear, as well as to add abilities to pieces with open rune slots. Charms give Baldur little side quests—they offer special abilities, but only once special conditions have been met, such as killing one hundred foes, beating a specific boss, etc. This added customizability allows players to design equipment to match their play style. So how does Too Human play? The game takes place in four dungeons. Each dungeon has entrances to Cyberspace where Baldur can solve simplistic “puzzles” to open up paths within the real-world dungeon. While the dungeons look like a cross between Norse ruins and ultra detailed sci-fi, Cyberspace is an idyllic natural environment that isn’t otherwise seen in the rest of the game. Each dungeon takes about three hours to beat and are very linear to the point of frustration—Baldur enters a room, the game saves, the way back is blocked, a ton of enemies charge at him, rinse, and repeat.

Spiders and lasers... they actually do mix!

Combat is fast and furious. Baldur’s attacks are controlled with the right analog stick—pushing it will make Baldur strike in the direction pressed, and depending on how long it is held the attack varies. By using the left stick for movement and the right stick for attacking, Baldur has many attacks at his disposal. A personal favourite is the slide attack—Baldur dashes at the enemy at flash-step speed, knocks the opponent away or into the air, and quickly flashes over to another enemy. Only by learning the ins and outs of this system can Baldur learn to cope with the enemies he will be facing. While the smaller enemies are almost effortless to dispatch, any larger enemies will be much more difficult to deal with. And that is when they aren’t fighting at range, in groups, are bosses, or all at once, of course.

Which, of course, is immaterial since the game has almost no penalty for dying. Get swarmed by dark elves and die? Baldur will simply respawn at the last save spot. Die again? The same thing will happen. Too Human is painfully difficult, but this incessant respawning will make even the most difficult battles trivial. So what are the penalties? The player’s equipment will get a tiny hit to their durability (which can be repaired in town or simply replaced with something else, which happens frequently anyways), they’ll be forced to watch a twenty second cutscene of Baldur being revived, and they’ll never be forced to learn to play the game. To make matters worse, there is no real healing, except for the Bio Engineer. Other classes will rely on random health drops, which means Baldur will die—often.

As he hits things, Baldur’s combo meter rises. By default, his meter can raise three levels. These can be used to perform ruiner attacks (devastating area attacks), and warcries. Furthermore, keeping this high will result in Baldur performing better in many ways. Careful use of the combo meter is a good strategy to help keep Baldur alive.

Finally, the challenge is affected by the scaling of the game to meet Baldur’s level. All the enemies will be at his level, regardless of when he levels. It has happened to me where Baldur levelled, and then proceeded to get beaten into the ground by enemies he just beat up easily. Gear helps offset this, but it means that Baldur will just never feel really powerful compared to his foes, which can be a real downer at times.

Too Human has a multiplayer mode for those with a Gold Live account. In multiplayer, two can play the game together—all the action with none of the story. Items can be traded with other players which is nice. Otherwise, it is a fun way for those that want to get more out of their purchase. Of course, finishing each other’s combos is a lot of fun! Technically the game is rock solid with only a couple of flaws. The visuals, animation, cutscenes, level design, models, music, and voice work are all excellent. The few problems come in the form of a terrible camera that can’t be controlled with any level of precision, the occasionally bland textures, and the obvious lack of anti-aliasing in some areas. All in all, Too Human is a solid visual and aural feast.

For fans of Norse mythology or those that love to grind for loot, Too Human will likely be a hit, but not so much for those that don’t. While it is indeed frustrating due to its incredibly imbalanced gameplay, there is something special in Too Human, but it can be hard to find at times. Even though I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I would have had if I had more knowledge of the source material, it was still fun—sliding around in large groups of enemies, taking down giant bosses, and finding the next best piece of equipment. That being said, while I was not overly impressed with many of the design decisions taken here, I believe that Too Human is indeed a good stepping stone for the second part—if Silicon Knights listens to what the fans say about this one, and fix it accordingly.