Too Human is coming in about a month..

[fushkkk]

Anyone else excited about Too Human?

I'm looking forward to this one more so than any other game on the xbox that is coming out in the near future. Although Gears 2 and Fable 2 promise to be really cool, I think Too Human will be the hack and slash game I'm excited to play.

Anyone else thinking about getting this one, or do you think with all the hype, it's going to be a huge dud?

[smokeh]

I liked what I saw before, but this post over at PA has me worried...

And I was REALLY excited for the coop play with my roommate.

I set up a quick round of Too Human co-op with Chris over at GameLife, and I had to leave very quickly, but I was figure out what I wanted from it - namely, something else.

It works, but I don't think that co-op is a selling point on its own. I've tried to follow the game well, but I took "co-op" to mean "co-op through the campaign," and that isn't present here.

The trouble is that with the story hooks excised, the hole is so big that simply adding another player doesn't balance the sheet. I said in the last post that Silicon Knights games are comprised of a three pillar system, and one of them is just gone in this mode of play. There isn't a lot of UI reinforcement for the co-op experience - there's a fairly mild hit-point bar in the corner, and that's it: no map, no player markers. It's really just adding another person into the single-player campaign, only the campaign has been removed, and everything takes place in some vacuum pocket universe where there is only battle. Though I guess that is pretty Norse.

What I like about cooperative games are the moments where I see a teammate doing something incredible. This isn't limited to two-player games by any means: when I see Kiko crest the middle in Valhalla, ruined cyborgs at his feet and the coveted Spartan Laser on his shoulder, the pride is very real. Smaller scale, the things I've seen in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory co-op still rank as some of the best moments of my parallel, electronic life. Too Human has those moments, as well: there is a way to kill larger enemies using a small minigame, and it's something that looks alright when you're the one doing it but thoroughly invigorating when you're watching someone else. It was gratifying to finally show someone the equipment I'd earned, which gave those accomplishments heft. And they've cranked up the enemy spawns so that they are now sufficient to kill two gods - there's plenty to do, and when someone swings in with a good save or knocks an enemy off the map it feels good no matter who is doing it. But I really want more.

If you die in Too Human, co-op or single player, a Valkyrie comes and gets you - they're essentially a kind of mystical Vita Chamber. For this co-op to have some meat, I think they need to reinforce this game's slick arcade heritage and bring back death. Kiko and I used to play a ton of Super Stardust HD, at least until we defeated it, and some of the best moments in its co-op were when the continues had run dry and one person had to earn enough points to keep the balloon in the air.

I'm sure it's too late for all of this, so now we's jess talkin'. As it stands, I'll play this co-op until I'm ready to play another game. It's currently a light, social experience - as Steven Totilo says, "better than a phone call" - because there's no penalty for death, and as a result you can't tell if you're winning or losing. But if they put some meat on it, make it so my partner and I need to go circuit to circuit in each grueling level, with a severely limited credit/continue system based on defeating powerful enemies, everything changes. All of a sudden, tactics, builds, and itemization are absolutely crucial. Communication is essential. You start altering the fundamentals of your play just to traverse a room.

[fushkkk]

Yeah - I hear that one. This is disappointing to read.

[fushkkk]

There is a demo on Xbox live that you can get of this game.

It's pretty straight forward, and looks not too bad. The camera is a bit of a problem, but only in some situations. OVerall, it looks pretty nice.

I think I will pick it up.

[fushkkk]

The combat is pretty neat, as you hack and slash your way through with the right thumb stick, as opposed to the X button. It gives pretty neat control.

[Doc Wattson]

I heard that Too Human was a surprise at E3, much better then people expected it to be

-Gary-

[ThriKreen]

Heard the opposite for me, but it might be the cynical dev in me...

Saw that fight with a mech and the lack of information on how to defeat it was just bad game design.

[fushkkk]

I completed the demo, and I thought it was a lot of fun. You really do get swarmed though, so I'm not really sure how a ranged class will work in this game. I'll give it a go, but I have a feeling that you might need to play this hack and slash style with the dual wielding bezerker.

The combat wasn't perfect, but it was pretty neat as you basically fly around whacking everything you can.

[fushkkk]

So...just before I head to bed I thought I'd talk about Too Human. It's been panned by most of the reviewers, and knowing this I got it anyway. So here are my initial thoughts.

Pros:

- hack and slash extreme - tons of baddies to break and juggle in the air. I was really looking for a hack and slash to beat through on xbox, and I was pretty pleased that a dungeon crawler like this became available. So naturally, i was pretty jacked up about it.

- The Melee Combos - they are pretty fun to execute, and it's not hard to keep on moving and just run off 100-200 hit combos like they are nothing. If you are into that type of thing, then it keeps getting cooler.

- The "power up" system. You have an AOE attack called a "ruiner", where you basically instant kill everything around you. It's pretty neat. But you need a combo level to do it. So you need to kill a bunch of guys, get the combo level, and then fire away. If you don't use the level, you can stack up to 3 in most classes, 5 in one and they give you bonuses for NOT using the power up. Your character moves faster, gets more xp and he hits harder. So it's a neat trade off. The power up system can also be used for various "battle crys" or buffs, each class has something different.

- Constant loot and private arenas. Loot comes from everywhere, and it's cool. You can get access to private arenas which allow for even more loot. You've just got to beat the guy in the arena to win the prize. You lose, and it's locked forever ( or until you restart the game)

- The skill trees provide three separate paths, all of which are tailored to different play styles. They aren't as clear cut as WoW, but they provide damage bonuses to your personal style. You get three points per level to spend, and skills max out at 10 points. Most of them anyway.

With my champion, I love knocking guys up into the air, jumping up, juggling them a bit and slamming them around. There is a tree that promotes just that. It adds extra damage to my in air attacks, and makes it easier for me to keep guys there by knocking them up higher.

If you're a player who enjoys a bit of everything, the champion offers a line where you can boost your balistics, involving more guns into your attacks.

And if you just want to cause as much damage as you can, going down the pure melee tree can add additional damage to your weapons.

- Runes and other enchantments allow for weapons and characters to be created as you want them to be. Imagine putting whatever enchantment you wanted on available weapons and equipment? Unlimited possibilities.

- Good multiplayer. I had a blast playing online with my buddy tonight, and it really makes the game a lot of fun.

Cons:

- Certain classes are made for multiplayer. The Bio engineer is purely a healer class, and when you aren't playing with anyone, it is extremely painful to play him. I really enjoy healing classes, but boy does it suck when there is no one to heal but yourself.

- The camera angles - with the joystick being used for melee, you have no control over the camera except for putting it against your back. When you are in the middle of a bunch of guys, it gets really hard to track who is infront and who is behind you. This gets really confusing.

- The multiplayer is good, but not as good as it could be. If 2 Human was say 4 player multiplayer and you really got to see the class compositions this would be a game of the year candidate. But it's not because with only two people, it's fun but it's only a mere shade of what it could be.

- There really is no "penalty" for dying. There is sort of, as in you lose your combo multiplier which allows ruiner abilities, but otherwise that is it. No respawns, no health restores, no nothing. The world stays as it was left when you died. Because of this the game compensates with some almost impossible sequences. The combination of baddies can be brutal and almost impossible to complete without atleast one death. The boss battles feel like you're being "one thousand hand slapped" by E Honda in the corner. You get cheesed a lot.

Overall, I'm enjoying the game. I would recommend renting for the majority of players just to see if you like the style. From what I've heard from my buddies that have it, you either really enjoy it or it's not your cup of tea. Based on the negative comments, I'm pretty sure it will end up being on sale sooner rather than later, and at 39.99, I think it's worth it. At 59.99, it might be a bit much to pay with Force Unleased, Mercs 2 and Fallout 3 so close to release.

[smokeh]

my ****ing 360 RRoD on thursday (right before my 4 day vacation) so I didn't bother picking it up.

actually, i wasn't planning on honoring my pre-order anyway, since the reviews were all universally awful, and sounded a lot like yours. It's a game I plan on renting, and enjoying for 5 days, but it didn't sound like there was nearly enough depth to justify a $60 purchase. Really quite a shame, because the game looked spectacular.

Fallout 3 will be bought for my PC, no questions asked, Mercs 2 didn't look that great, and force unleashed... that will be a buy-when-released for the 360.

Also, WAR comes out on the 18th of sept, and Spore is in there too.

[fushkkk]

Don't take my review as negative - I just tried to point out a couple of things about the game. I hate stamping my seal of recommendation on something when there is obviously a factor for failure. I just don't want any of the people on here that I like, yourself and a few others on here to come on and trash me about my poor taste in games. So i took the high road.

One other notes about this game:

-Scaling enemies - I originally thought this was going to be horrible, but it's not at all. My fear was that as you levled up, so do the baddies and you never truly feel powerful or godlike as you think you should. This couldn't be farther from the truth. It sucks when you're using a level 5 weapon at level 16, but once you finally do get a weapon at your level, you don't miss a beat - you're a bad azz. So I'm now okay with scaling enemies.

[smokeh]

Well i finally tracked down a copy of Too Human to rent, and I must say I've been pleasantly surprised. The story line is really quite decent, i'm enamored with the art work and style, and the gameplay elements don't really bother me.

It suffers a little of the same problem Mass Effect did as far as loot management. Getting into your loot menu, finding your gear etc etc takes a long time, and really brings you 'out' of the game. it's much simpler in PC games when you can click and drag etc.

Also, you are replacing gear practically every fight, so it can really ruin the immersion.

All in all it's pretty good, I might wait to pick it up when it comes down in price, or I may just extend my rental for a week.

[fushkkk]

Your defender and my champion will be a nasty combination.

I found the same thing, so I made a rule only to check drops if my inventory was full, or at the end of the level I was playing. If not, it simply takes too long.

[smokeh]

yeah, at this rate I may end up buying Too Human and not buying SW: TFU. We shall have to see.

The story line is actually really quite engaging. They did an amazing job crafting their universe, i've been very impressed so far.

[fushkkk]

I doubt you'll put that off. Too Human is good, but it's only basically 4 levels long. Takes someone like you maybe15 hours to beat, and that includes all the time spent loot whoring.

It becomes a bit of a "grind" once you've beaten the story mode. Online play however is a huge improvement and you get to skip all that cinematic stuff because you've seen it already.

Once you get a bit closer to 50 we should be able to get going.

[smokeh]

yeah, i beat the game, I liked the story, but i'm going to return it. it was fun, but I have no desire to grind through it all again.

those levels are ****ing LONG.

[fushkkk]

yeah, i beat the game, I liked the story, but i'm going to return it. it was fun, but I have no desire to grind through it all again.

those levels are ****ing LONG.

the levels get shorter as you play better....seriously. I'm not being a dick by saying that, but your gear sucks, and you have very little resistances I'm assuming. Deaths really tack on to the time of the game play.

Personally, i'v efound that there are parts of the game that are designed to kill you. They are pretty much impossible. I find these in HELM and in the ICE forrest. I can't beat those without dying...

[smokeh]

i'm not even talking about dying, which is the STUPIDEST mechanic I have ever seen.

the game decided to not design quite as many levels, and just extend the ones they have. quite a few times while playing i wondered if I was just going in a circle somehow, because everything looked the same.

Or when you emerge from a long hallway filled with death, into a large room lined with statues, and a dais up front with glowing spheres translucently haunting the walls, and you thinkg "finally, i'm at some sort of boss/story sequence"... and then you are beset on all sides by crazy robot creatures, and have a giant spider shooting arrows at you... again.

it got kind of old. I would have liked shorter levels, more actual mini bosses, not just the same 3 types of 'elite' creatures over and over again, and more end bosses.

but with the way death works in this game, there is no real difficulty for any of it.