Normally when you think of Norse mythology you think about ancient mythical monsters such as trolls, giants and Nidhog (You know, that Norse dragon), and old age gods like Odin and Loki. Well forget the orthodox views upon Norse mythology; thanks to Too Human you'll be experiencing all of these in a vastly contrasted fashion. Too Human is a game heavily inspired by Norse myths but with an ever so slight twist, it's set in a nano/futuristic themed setting with high caliber machine guns, lasers and evil robots. But does this unique take on this sparse world offer a great gameplay experience as well as just being… different?

Gameplay:

In Too Human you'll be playing as Baldur, the son of Odin, one of many gods which you'll encounter throughout the game. Here the gods take on a physical being; they are cybernetic enhanced humans who lead the humans through a corporation called the Aesir. The name 'Too Human' comes from Baldur, as they see him a lesser cybernetic being to the other gods, hence he is 'Too Human'. The story will follow over three games exclusively for the Xbox 360 following an on going struggle between the gods and humans and an invading machine army, also themed by Norse mythology. You'll be fighting along side characters such as Thor, and will be encountering others like Odin, Freyja and Loki. Although most of the story is new and made up by the developers, you may notice some references to Norse subjects, which is a nice addition. So Too Human isn't just an interesting take on Norse mythology, it creates some of its own ideas and situations and interlinks them with some actual Norse myths. Too Human's unique subject and theme doesn't stop there though, it also has a unique way of playing. It has a very different way of controlling your character in battle, this game focuses very much on hack and slash action fused with some RPG elements of leveling and collecting equipment. Think Diablo meets Ninja Gaiden in genre. So for controlling your Ninja Gaiden based moves and attacks you wont be using your standard 'A' or 'R2', your main attack is with the right analogue stick. All you do is hold the analogue stick in the direction you want to attack and your character will swing at the nearest enemy in that area, you then move it away to bounce off that target and swing at the next enemy, rinse and repeat, and that's the general basis of melee combat. It may sound all very simple, yet it gets a bit more strategic as you delve further into the game. Depending on what character you choose (out of five including the Berserker, the Defender, the Champion, the Commando and the Bio-engineer) you'll be using Baldur quite differently. The controls stay the same, generally, but you'll have different abilities and specialties, so you may find yourself using other weapons more occasionally, such as the long ranged weapons. You can shoot your weapon using the 'R2' trigger, and this time you'll be using the right analogue trigger to aim, this is where things get a little messy. Continuously jumping between guns and melee, which will happen often, can be irritating as you have to let go of your right analogue when you've finished aiming, otherwise you'll attack by accident and be left vulnerable for about half a second. This may seem like nothing, but timing and keeping pace is essential in this game, if you tend to make mistakes then you're going to die a lot. You may find yourself avoiding shooting as well, simply because aiming when shooting doesn't always work out, even more so when you've killed an enemy and it stays locked on to that dead target. You have the ability to wield two pistols, and to look even cooler you can inevitably attack two enemies at once, but with having only one aim you'll find concentrating on one enemy at the same time almost impossible. Unfortunately for Too Human, the brave stab at the control scheme has had its setbacks, these problems aren't even the worst either. With the right analogue stick now being used by your standard attack you can't manually change where your camera is aiming, this being a third person hack and slash and having you moving about the screen almost all the time, you have to rely on the camera to stick with you and what you're looking at. The automatic orientating camera tries its best, but you will be throwing your controller at the screen in a boiling rage because you had died when the camera decided it wanted to be fancy and take a forward glance at your character while you're charging in to combat. In the middle of a frantic fight you'll be frequently pressing the 'R1' for default view just because the camera takes a side pan, you will get used to this, but the first few hours of play you'll be dying because of it. This is damn right unacceptable, the controls could have been easily modified for letting the player manually aim. Don't get me wrong, it won't ruin the combat completely, it may do for some who find the controls fiddly, but for others who are used to the hack and slash type they may just be able to put up with it. And if you do, the combat can be very addicting and a nice break from the shooters that we all know. It's interesting to know that there are no difficulty levels in this game, I suppose you can call the enemy levelling a difficulty though. As you level up through out the campaign so will your enemies, this will anger some as you may be thinking 'what's the point in levelling if your always going to be on par?' well, levelling gives you control over skill points rather than anything else in the game, your stats level up automatically and you'll unlock the ability to use other weapons and armour, so you will have the edge over your enemies as you level, it just means they will be more of a challenge too. If that makes any sense. The skill points are added to a skill tree every time you level, each character will have a different skill tree with different powers and passive abilities. Think of the skill tree from Diablo, as you get to a certain number in one skill it will unlock the next node on that path, and there are three paths to go down. This will add a variety as not every play-through will be the same with the same character type, the next play-through you could concentrate on another skill path and you will have slightly different stats and powers. Later on you will be given another smaller skill tree, chosen between two sides, which mixes it up even more. So there is a strong influence of RPG elements in Too Human, and this combined with the hundreds of different types of equipment may entice RPG lovers. Hopping back to some of the issues in this game, setting the title back again the bugs are a plenty. It seems a little strange that a title which has been in development for so long, even though it has been on and off, has featured quite a few bugs… some more serious than others. One which is most frequent is the magical disappearance trick played by enemies and allies. There has been a couple of times when I thought one of the larger enemies in the game, the troll, and half way through killing it it would fade away. This might not seem like a problem, but it is when you're hoping to find some very decent equipment and now you can't because your target has just vanished. Another bug has happened only once, but again worth mentioning, is with clipping. In fighting another large enemy I had jumped got stuck on the enemy and after it had been killed I fell through the floor and fell through cyber space, literally this time. Let's just thank god that the game saves frequently. Other bugs include converted enemies still being able to attack you, and invisible allies on certain occasions during co-op. This all can be fixed from a nice patch, but that isn't the point, some of those bugs are highly noticeable and should have been tended to before hand, this does effect the immersion and the experience you'll have with the game. Last but not least, a feature that is essential to some of the greatest moments in this game is the co-op. It's good to see many developers are supporting this feature all of a sudden because for some titles it just makes it that much better to play. Essentially the co-op in this game is the single player experience without the cinematic clips and with a buddy jolted on, but there is one component that makes it all worth while, the trade ability. Like Diablo and many other RPG's we've all seen, you can go right up next to your buddy and with a push of the button you can hop into the trade menu, here you can show off your great gear you've collected from the single player, but more importantly, you can trade some of your items. So, if you pick up an item that you can't use or you don't need, just hop into the menu and trade it for another. So not only now will you play the game for leveling and killing enemies, you'll be playing it for the collective loot as well. This gives the co-op its own purpose and increases the longevity by at least double the campaign time, which is around ten hours. Although the trade ability is probably the most exciting feature, the co-op does naturally force you to work together as well, so there's that teamwork element. One player may be having trouble during melee, and so the other player may use his gun at a distance to pick off the smaller enemies. Also, some of the abilities you unlock will benefit allies too, such as the healing auras from the Bioengineer class. There is only one real downside to the multiplayer, and that is there is no split-screen, this is a shame, however due to some of the minor framework issues this game has I can see that being a problem to implement. To put it simply, without the co-op element in Too Human I wouldn't warrant this game a purchase and at most a rent. It basically saves its life.

Graphics:

One of the main points of complaints for Too Human has been for its graphics. If I remember rightly Too Human was originally meant to be using the Unreal Engine, however due to a disagreement between Epic Games and Silicon Knights that idea had been scrapped, so Silicon Knights had to use one of their own in built engines. This could be a benefactor of why the game looks like it does, but anyway, this isn't the biggest problem, or a problem, of Too Human. There seems to be a mass crusade of confusion with defining 'next gen', not all games need to have great graphics to be 'next gen'. What Too Human attempts to offer is next generation gameplay and next generation ideas in the sense of an innovative story and a new way of gameplay, and although it doesn't do it perfectly this is where the game shines the brightest. Looking at the game you can definitely tell there's an inconsistency in certain details, for example; some characters are more detailed and better to look at than others. Baldur, being the main character, is probably the most detailed and clearest character and other main characters such as Thor and Freyja don't look too bad either, it's just some of the minor roles look a tad fainter. I suppose this is a common attribute, it's just more noticeable with this game seeing as it isn't the best looking of games. Too Human gives across a very gritty and dim outlook; I suppose it suits the dark story of the game, although it contrasts with some of the neon armour and weapons. Some of the equipment looks like it's come out of some neon themed disco from the eighties, okay maybe that's over exaggerating, but some of the bright colours do not fit. That doesn't go for all the equipment though, as there is a ton of it. There's no lack of choice in this game when it comes to good items. But when you're looking at graphics you must think about the artistic direction as well as the technical improvements, and here unfortunately it's also a mixed bag. Now, the structures and environments have great themes and they do a good job of setting an ancient plus nano twist on everything, it's just they could have come up with a better layout with some of the levels so it showed off some of the great artistic visuals that this game offers, because it is there. Most of the time you're indoors in a temple or cavern of some sorts, and you're always looking down at the floor and moving towards the next fight. Instead of frequently heading into those cyber space portals it may have been more interesting to break up the gameplay by walking through a room looking at some great statues or stain glass windows. Variety is the key.

Sound:

The soundtrack of Too Human has a fitting flavour to the style of game it is, and completes the package. Most of it is Norse inspired music of classic orchestra and choir, and it all plays at the right times and places, mainly within the heat of battle. When you pick up a potentially great item the choir will sing, so you definitely know when you've gotten something good. Unfortunately though you find great items on average about every ten minutes, so expect to hear that choir quite a lot. In between epic moments though you'll basically hear nothing music wise, maybe the constant one liners and pointless jibber jabber from your useless allies who follow you about, which is extremely irritating by the way. The worst one is when you have a particularly irritating fight, you've died about ten times and you're relieved that you've done it all and then one of the soldiers say "And I expected something more!" it really makes you want to wring their neck. Also, the repetitive one-liners from the main characters in the game, Thor who you hang around with midway through the game, who's also useless, repeats the same phrases over and over again. The cinematic clips which you'll experience between and in amongst missions are generally fine, some even pretty impressive. Of course it's a bit cheesy some of it, but you can let that go in a game. There are some technical issues, or just some unnoticed problems with the soundtrack, when you finish a fight relatively quickly the music fades out a bit too fast, which is a tad annoying seeing as the music is really good and then it just ends, this destroys the immersion a little. Also, one boss battle had one very short soundtrack repeat itself quite noticeably. Other than that, everything is merely okay.

Longevity:

The campaign length may be a magnet of complaint for some 'true' RPG lovers as if you played from objective to objective, straight through it will take you on average about ten hours. It doesn't sound very long at all for an RPG, but if you think about it, you could probably complete Diablo 2 in that time, but what makes an RPG re-playable? The loot and leveling of course, in Too Human you will want to take your time to level up the best you can. You have the ability to replay a mission at any time which you've completed, so if you're finding the current mission a bit of a challenge, just go back and level up a little, find some great items then return to the mission, doing this could easily double the gameplay time. One tad annoyance about replaying the mission, is the enemies which you'll find the first time are different, but after that one time, they're basically the same, they're not as randomized as some other RPG's making it a little stale after a few play-throughs. A feature that you'll keep coming back to, and has almost unlimited replay value, is the co-op mode. If you don't have LIVE I would recommend looking else where to be honest as this is where most of the gameplay will lie after you're done with the single-player. Of course with co-op you can help lower levels out, get helped out yourself or trade for some great items, it's also more engaging playing with a buddy, as it always is.

Overall:

Too Human is a controversial title at best, it really isn't as bad as many people are making it out to be, but it's nowhere near a flagship exclusive like Gears of War. What this title is though is a breath of fresh air to the common shooter on the Xbox 360. I do feel that any RPG fan or hack and slash genre fan should try this out, but it is definitely the title you should 'try before you buy', the gameplay style is very different and not completely consolidated as a genre so you really have to play the game to find out if this is something you'll enjoy. It has its major control issues, and the occasional bugs such as the disappearing enemies, but if you can get over the design flaws and hold on to the hope that there will be a patch, then Too Human might just be the title for you.