Team Xbox is doing a monthly exclusive segment called "The Gods of Too Human", where they cover in detail each of Too Human's four gods over the next four months. It also appears that Too Human won't be hitting shelves any earlier than August, as shown by the parts I have bolded in the second paragraph, and the fact that IGN has changed it's release date for the US to "August 2008".
In this, the first installment of four monthly exclusive looks at the gods of Too Human, we take a closer look at Thor, the god of thunder. To give us a better idea of how Thor and the other gods are utilized in the game, we talked to Ken McCulloch, Director of Content for Silicon Knights about the inspiration behind the design of the characters, and what we can expect to see when Too Human debuts on the Xbox 360 later this year.
Thor is one of the more familiar gods from Nordic mythology, having appeared in movies and comics, etc. How is the Thor of Too Human different from those representations?
Ken McCulloch: Thor is rarely depicted as a character of substance, and frequently depicted as a stupid oaf. In “Too Human” we bowed to tradition with most of our characters in terms of matching the mythology, but we need the player to take them seriously at a deeper level in order to convey our messages and themes.
Thor is a warrior who lives for battle’s sake. It is testament to ODIN’s engineering that Thor excels at what he is. He is boisterous and jocular, living for the thrill and glory of battle - pretty much everything else is inconsequential to him. He rarely lets his more “level-headed” side come through unless it is a matter of dire consequence. We hope that this level-headed side of Thor makes him more of a real character, someone with stakes in the overall story. Thor has a sense of justice, a code of honor and, more importantly, a conscience. He can be as thoughtful as he is reckless when the situation calls for it.
What was the inspiration behind his visual design? Did you go back to scratch from Norse mythology or did you try and create something entirely new.
Ken McCulloch: We tried to combine both modern and primitive in Thor. He is a warrior who is as proud of his heritage as one of the Aesir as he is of his actions on the battlefield. He wants to proudly display his tattoos and the scars earned in battle. The tattoos echo the mythology themes – in some ways they hint to what is to come in the trilogy Thor’s armor was designed to be bulky and straightforward, since Thor is a man of little subtlety. He is “blatantly unrefined”, impulsive and sometimes socially inept, as evidenced by the bared skin to show off his scars.
How do you interact with him in the game? What influence does he have specifically in the world of Too Human.
Ken McCulloch: For the most part, Thor is your “older brother”, giving advice and commentary on your actions and events in the world. However, there is an opportunity to go hunting with him, discovering a dark secret lost to the world for eons.
His hammer. How big?
Ken McCulloch: Oh, it’s big - but size isn’t everything. Thor’s hammer, “Mjolnir”, satisfies through the application of highly explosive, armor-penetrating shaped charge warheads, so that Thor’s might can be felt exactly where it is needed.
Stay tuned as we will continue to provide exclusive coverage of Silicon Knights' Too Human!
I hope this game turns out well. It looks really interesting.
