| starcraft said: "All in all – I’m an optimist, with some tweaks in the graphics department and a rethink of the camera system, Too Human could still be enough to send us to gaming Valhalla." Reviewer 1 "The defining moment is when you first walk down a hallway flanked by pairs of spear-holding guards. As you pass, each falls to his knees and bows. They worship you. It’s too early to say, but if Too Human really does make you feel like a Norse god, then it’ll be worth the money." Reviewer 2 Well Spartan. You've successfully taken a small, Australian gaming site, completely misled people in the thread title, and blatantly cherry-picked an article to hell.  Certainly this set of previews doesn't make the game seem like a Halo 3/Bioshock/Mass Effect/Gears of War/MGS4, but it doesn't exactly seem like a Haze/Lair either. And before you say "but they said it was gonna be like Haze," read it again. They asked if it wasn't going to be at the beginning of the article, then resoundingly answered the question with N and O. |
There were three separate previewers. The first and third weren't quite as favorable as the second. Particularly the third:
Even Gods have flaws.
For the first ten minutes playing Too Human, it was like drilling poisonous Sting Ray barbs into my fun bits. It really has a whack control system that is most reminiscent of underplayed PS2 Jet Li actioner Rise to Honor. You move about with the left stick, and the right stick is used to swing your sword about, leaving the traditional attacking buttons of the triggers for the gunplay. The camera is therefore controlled by the software, which is always dangerous and rarely works. You can learn to deal with it in Too Human if you persevere, but it can’t hold a candle to the likes of God of War, and certainly doesn’t facilitate fun gameplay.
The game also seems to suffer from an identity crisis. It seems to pitch itself as this rad action game in the vein of Devil May Cry, or Ninja Gaiden: you run from area-to-area and face-off against swarms of monotonous beasties by combining an endless supply of bullets with ferocious old-school weaponry combat. But in our 2hrs with the game it didn’t seem like a very good action game at all. It is just very repetitive and requires little skill. And with no control over the camera position, it is also tactically limited.
Yet it is also pitching itself as an RPG, with deep character customization, skill trees and narrative depth. Obviously this component is a lot harder to test in a brief playing session and I really hope it comes up trumps in the final game. At the moment though it seemed like a second cousin to the lacklustre action. Think of it as Mass Effect, if it was selling itself as a squad-based shooter with a bit of RPG on the side. Too Human isn’t as good as Ninja Gaiden, just as Mass Effect is no Rainbow Six: Vegas.
The bottom line is, if Too Human released in its current state and I picked it up and played it for two hours I would be damn disappointed: so-so visuals circa early 2007, repetitive beat’em up action and puzzles that annoy rather than reward. Not exactly what I was expecting… and I caught wind that this code is 90% complete! It gets better in co-op, but doesn’t everything?
But, and this is a John Candy-sized butt, this is no review. I’m not giving up hope. I should be getting code in the next few weeks to take in-house and really get a solid impression on the broader elements of the gameplay. But as a first up reaction, this isn’t the exclusive X360 fanboys were hoping for.
