It’s been a long time coming.

If you didn’t know by now, Too Human arrived for the Xbox 360 less than two weeks ago. Of course, the first time we heard the name was in the Playstation era over 10 years ago, and it’s had a colourful history up to this point. Obviously in being developed across one or two generations of consoles, from different publishers and teams, there has been a lot of scrutiny as to whether or not the game could deliver on the back of the developer’s (Silicon Knights) last games Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes both for the Nintendo Gamecube. The director of the game has come out and challenged the media and various gaming communities for the early criticism of the game after a less-than-stellar showing at E3 a few years ago, and the wave of expectations that has been looming.

This is the stigma that has attached itself to Too Human and it is the information we have soaked up in the years leading up to its release. Now that we’ve had time to sit down, play the game and let the whole universe it has presented sink in, it’s time to try and remove the game from all the hype that has surrounded it and see what it really has to offer. The development cycle and controversy around its promises and expectations shouldn’t detract from what the game really is. And the bottom line is that it actually is a pretty fun game, with a really excellent universe to explore, but it does have its problems.

You start off Too Human very confused. If you are not introduced to the canon of the story, it’s hard to discern exactly what is occurring a lot of the time. The game is based on Norse mythology, following the characters in the myths in its own unique way. It’s presented in a very futuristic setting, where a race of people have spawned a world of cyborgs and robots that dominate the underworld of Helheim. There was a pact between the underworld and the Aesir, the Gods of Midgard and Asgard and children of Odin, protectors of the humans. This pact was broken, and now there is a war raging that you must join and fight, as Baldur, one of the Aesir.

The story is very complex, and delivered in a very disjointed way. Your main character is an unreliable narrator, which makes it all the more confusing. However, they seemed to have picked up on the cinematics styles of Hideo Kojima from their work with him on Twin Snakes because some of the scenes are very dynamic and have excellent cinematography. And it’s hard to say that for any game. The visuals, however, can sometimes be lacking and it seems the animation of the characters lags behind some of the sounds and actions. Models seem a bit stiff, in game and in the cut scenes, and it can sometimes detract from the experience. The game’s look is excellent in most places, and the transition from cinema to game is seamless in most spots and doesn’t have any visible signs of loading. That goes throughout the entirety of the game, as well, something that is very rare in most large-scale games these days.

You are given the choice of classes (Berserker, Defender, Bioengineer, Commando and Champion), but it seems that it has minimal effect on how the game is played to its core. The game has very basic controls, using the right stick to attack enemies by pointing it in their direction, and the left stick navigates your character. You are given two sets of weapons, melee (sword, staff or mallet) and ballistics (rifle or pistols) and you can use them in transition during play, switching from long distance to up-close fights very quickly and easily. For anyone who has played Diablo, where the objective is dungeon crawling, clicking on enemies and collection loot, the game mechanics are basically the evolution of that idea, and it works well for what it is. You do indeed fight wave after wave of enemies, most of which are very similar in style, fighting ability and intelligence. You also collect loot, and lots of it, as the item customization and collectibles in the game is amazing complex and expansive. Each character iteration may look completely different, even from the same class, depending on the items and colours you pick up, or how much weapons and armour you can forge from blueprints. And the art and style of each piece is unique and attractive, demonstrating the most polished portion of the game.

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