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| | Title:
Too Human
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System:
Xbox 360
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Genre:
Action/Shooter
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Publisher:
Microsoft
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Developer:
Silicon Knights
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Release:
Holiday 2006
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Online:
Yes
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ESRB:
Rating Pending (RP)
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With so many game titles out there it's hard to find a world that is so detailed, and so enriched with history that it feels new. While Halo, Splinter Cell, and even Oblivion are great games, the worlds they inhabit are pretty straightforward. Halo is largely a science-fiction universe, Splinter Cell deals mostly with an alternate version of our own world, and Oblivion is very much like Lord of the Rings. I'm not saying these are bad things; all these games are wonderful examples of videogame design. But it is nice now and then to come across a title whose world and back-story is so unique, people can't help but notice it. Enter Too Human, the latest franchise from Silicon Knights. (Click the link for a first ever "Developer Review"!) Set to be a trilogy, the first in the series, Too Human, was on the show floor at E3 2006. I managed to spend some time with the game as well as talk with some of the guys behind the franchise, and I can safely say that they have a gamer’s best interest at heart.
The story and world of Too Human is heavily influenced by Norse mythology. While not a lot of details were given out about the plot of the story there were some interesting details nonetheless. One of the big issues Silicon Knights was pushing was the reason the game is titled "Too Human." In the game world there are cybernetically enhanced human beings known as "gods." Players will take the role of one of these "gods." However, the god that players will take the role of is constantly being told throughout the story that he is "too human," and that he needs more cybernetic enhancements. The question becomes: is someone still human after they have virtually replaced themselves with cybernetic parts? The big theme of "Too Human" is said to be in “discovery” so it will be interesting to see how the plot of this game unfolds.
There are some very unique gameplay alternatives that the guys at Silicon Knights are injecting into Too Human. Many of these design decisions come with a very "huh, why didn't someone do that before?" feeling about them, which isn't a bad thing and is actually quite refreshing. The first of these is the camera of Too Human. Camera control is strictly under the guide of the game itself, freeing up the thumbsticks for more entertaining activities (combat). While there have been some very, very bad attempts to create a smart camera, Too Human so far doesn't seem to be suffering from this problem. The folks at Silicon Knights want to create a truly cinematic experience for the gamer while never ripping him or her out of the gameplay with cut-scenes. How they do this is to create truly unique and cinematic viewpoints for each section of the level. Sometimes the camera is pulled back giving a grand, wide shot of the impressive vista, while the next it is up tight for personal hand-to-hand combat. But the camera doesn't stop there. Jump off a high ledge and the camera will pull in tight and slow down time, or pull of a mean combo and the camera will whip in close and circle to give a great view of the massive damage being dealt. Also cool is how the camera will at times act as a "cut-scene". I put cut-scene in quotes because it really isn't a cut-scene but more like an interactive point of view. At times the camera will really go cinematic in that it will have enemies enter an area but do it from their point of view or another dramatic angel. The player, however, can still control the main character and even kill the enemies while the "cut-scene" plays out. During VG Core's time with Silicon Knights at Microsoft's pre-E3 reception one of the gents playing Too Human actually killed an enemy during a "cut-scene." It might sound like with all these various camera angles, time slow down, and enemy viewpoint cut-scenes that things get disorientating really fast. Too be honest I never ran into that problem, both when watching and playing the game. The camera choices were laid out very precisely and so far it seems like they are pulling off the goal of a truly cinematic, non-controllable camera. Even cooler is how each time a level is played the camera angles will be different. So each time a level is played it feels fresh and new. That is a very, very noteworthy achievement.
Because Silicon Knights has control over their camera it allows them to show off the impressive locales that they have designed. Overall, the most impressive aspect of Too Human was the world design. The team at Silicon Knights has really outdone themselves by injecting a good amount of unique content into Too Human. The two levels shown at E3 were dubbed "Temple" and "Ice Forest." The Temple stage was mostly grand hallways with impressive statues lining the sides and corners of the structure. Out of place, but there for a purpose, were the large strands of red cybernetic wires thanks to the enemies who were defiling the temple. It was the player's job to "cleanse" the Temple. The second level, Ice Forest, was the more impressive of the two. Walkways and transparent platforms were built around huge ice trees which had purple electricity arching between them. Crawling through the trees and sometimes on the underside of the walkways were the main baddies of the area. The main character was in the enemies' territory and they weren't very happy about it. To deal with these enemies in the two locales Silicon Knights has given players a very powerful combat system to work with.
Besides the unique camera the other big feature Silicon Knights was talking about was the ease of combat. Silicon Knights wanted to make a game anyone could pick up and instantly become familiar with the controls while at the same time easily taking out enemies. For the most part it seems that Too Human is on this path. Combat is performed mostly with the thumbsticks. The left thumbstick controls movement, while the right thumbstick deals with combat. By pushing the right thumbstick in any direction the main character lunges at nearby enemies and obliterates them. While the combat was responsive the one thing that worried me was the ease in taking down the enemies. There really didn't seem to be much need to even use the left thumbstick (movement) during combat, because the attacks performed would clear any space in between the main character and the enemies. To give a better idea of what I mean, as I watched one guy play, his cell phone rang as he was knee-deep in enemies. To answer his cell phone the guy only used one hand to continue playing the game and never took any damage because he kept moving the right thumbstick around. I hope Silicon Knights fixes this problem and/or makes the game slightly more difficult in future builds, not to mention adding more combat depth that takes time to master. No matter how beautiful the game is nor how deep the storyline and smart the camera, they don’t have much without non-repetitious and linear gameplay.
Even though the right thumbstick was used for the majority of the time the combat system doesn't stop there. In the lower right hand corner of the screen there is a circular HUD that fills up as more and more enemies are killed. It fills first blue, then yellow and finally red. Pressing X when the HUD is filled in with blue unleashes a finishing move on the group of enemies. Pressing Y when the HUD is filled with yellow and B when the HUD is filled with red, gives similar but more deadly results. The two melee weapons that were shown in the Too Human demo were a sword and a staff. While both weapons seemed to do the same amount of damage to the enemies, the staff had a considerably longer reach. In addition to the melee weapons the main character was also armed with a pair of handheld firearms known as glass pistols. These were mapped to the right trigger and by pressing the right analog stick while holding down right trigger the main character could shoot in any direction and juggle several enemies at a time. As a whole the combat of Too Human has potential. Being that this was just a demo, the full breadth of the combat system was obviously not on display and from what I saw it is going in the right direction. I just hope Silicon Knights makes it a little more difficult.
Overall Too Human has an exciting amount of prospect. It has a great unique world, amazing graphics, and while the combat system is a little too powerful there is still time to tweak it. The only real jarring issue was the framerate. It was really slow and due to the heat, a few times the 360's jammed. The game, though, is far from finished so the framerate issues will most likely be fixed before then. Too Human looks like it will be a great addition to the 360 library and absolutely finish its trilogy goals.
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