Silicon Knights, and top boss Denis Dyack, is one of those gaming developers that few mainstream people know about. A couple hits here and there over the past ten years is nowhere near enough to make a household name out of the company. Too Human, an action RPG coming exclusively to the Xbox 360, is holding what could be the entire future of the developer in it’s cybernetic hands. The game has been in development for way too long, making it’s debut at the 1999 Electronic Entertainment Expo, over a decade ago. In the time between then and now Too Human has undergone a ton of changes, becoming an entirely new game and from what gamers have seen, it has a real chance to be a quality gaming experience on the 360.
After putting in nearly twenty hours with the title I have whole-heartedly decided that Too Human is a game that I really enjoy playing. Not only did the story pull me in but also the simple, yet intuitive, control scheme had me kicking ass for hours at a time. The one reason I kept coming back to it for a second and third play-through was the deep customization the game has to offer. It’s obvious that not every game journalist out there has the same glowing opinion of Too Human that I do but at the end of the day this job is about finding games that are fun to play and recommending those specific titles to our readers. For me Dyack’s masterpiece was just that game, even with all the disappointments along the way.
The story behind Too Human is way to deep and complex to dive into in this review but basically it’s a story about a hero; one hero in a universe that mixes Norse mythology and your favorite science fiction novel into one fluid storyline. What comes out of the oven is a very interesting “melting pot” of situations that more than once reminded me of the movie Gladiator (probably my top movie of all time). From the beginning Too Human has been pitched as a trilogy and now that I have completed the entire story I can only hope that the trilogy is continued, don’t expect closure at the end of this one. This game is all about decisions, the first one coming at the very second you boot up the disc. There are five different classes to choose from, each with their own unique set of advantages or disadvantages. Make sure to take some time and carefully choose which one to best mesh with your style of gameplay because once the choice is made there is no going back. All five are fairly balanced and beating the game with any one of them is very possible.
As the protagonist of Too Human you will take control of a God, meaning death does not come easy and enemies will swarm you by the hundreds. One of the largest issues I had with the game was the scene that takes place once your character dies; when this happens a 1-2 minute scene takes place where your hero is taken to heaven then reborn. The first and second time this happened it was actually quite cool to watch but by the 30th (literally) time I died in my first play-through it got ungodly annoying. Too Human is broken up into five distinctive levels and one center city where you go to find out what your mission is or stock up on guns/armor. Each of the five stages has its own unique feel to it; one takes place in the snowy tundra, another takes you into the deepest caverns of hell, and one more atop a futuristic space station.
