Too Human

Jun 30, 2008

Too Human is a game that takes a well known core concept in the hack and slash action role-playing game, and tries to do something completely different with it. From what we've played thus far, it's succeeding. The concept itself is a hodgepodge of ideas and themes, . The story of Baldur is drawn primarily from Norse mythology, but also draws from William Gibson's vision of cyberspace, the dual nature of the world from Wachowski Brothers' "The Matrix," and even Nietzschean moral psychology.

Baldur is a tragic figure, a character torn apart internally by grief. His method for dealing with the anger and pain is in seeking out revenge. Early on in this struggle, he'll have to make an important choice: whether to take the human route, forsaking the cybernetic implants of the rest of the Aesir, or going the cybernetic route, casting aside the purity of his human side and embracing a union with the same machinery that he engages in battle.

The Man-Machine

At its core, this is a story of Norse mythology that rings as true as you'd expect from Walt Simonson's Thor comics, only the futuristic slant keeps things interesting. The monsters of lore, the Goblins and Dark Elves, the Trolls and Undead abound, only they're creatures built entirely of machinery. Your refuge from this dark world of cold metal and lifeless red eyes is cyberspace, which transports you to a dream world of lush forests and picturesque vistas -- a vision of this world as it once was, millennia ago. By interacting with the environment, under the tutelage of the intelligent AI known as the NORNs, you can manipulate the real world environment by affecting cyberspace. While Baldur won't spontaneously learn Kung Fu, he will be able to open sealed doors and gain access to secret areas by investigating all that cyberspace has to offer.

Story aside, Too Human is a game that will appeal to fans of fast-paced action and RPG inventory management and character development. Every class can use every weapon in the game (except for cannons, reserved for those who embrace cybernetic enhancement.) The classes are still quite varied, however, and this is thanks to their unique skill trees. Much like those in games like Diablo, Titan Quest or even World of Warcraft, the skill trees in Too Human are the primary way in which you'll customize Baldur's attributes. As a Champion, for instance, Baldur can choose to go down one of three paths after putting six levels in Unerring Strike, which increases critical damage. One path offers increased air melee damage, another route that offers increased pistol damage for more powerful ranged attacks, while the third branch increases the chance of inflicting fire damage.

The skill trees all share the same structure, though, and this applies to each of the game's five classes (Berserker, Champion, Bio-Engineer, Defender, Commando). The first choice will increase a passive ability, such as a damage increase, while the next level of ability will dictate what Baldur's spider will do in combat. Spiders are short-lived pets that can do things like drop explosive mines that inflict fire damage, deploy chain turrets for rapid-fire assaults, deploy protective shields, or slow down enemies.

After dropping a few skill points into your spider, you then can reach the Battle Cry portion of the skill tree, which is your buffing ability. Battle cries can provide all sorts of different bonuses that are tailored to your class role. Bio-Engineers have Battle Cries that heal groups and clear negative effects, while Champions can increase air-melee damage, cause enemies to be juggled, or expose enemies to critical attacks, just as an example.

Following this tier is another set of passive bonuses, generally more powerful than those in the first and second tiers. At the bottom of the skill tree is a powerful ability that summons a spirit into the fray when you click both sticks together. Our Berserker was able to summon a massive bear to cut a massive swathe through a crowd of enemies, in a display that was both flashy and effective.

Combat in Too Human is multi-faceted, and more about developing a rhythm and strategy than mashing buttons. Attacks are simply mapped to the right analog stick, which seems simple at first but is actually rather deep. Primarily, you'll strike at ground-based targets by sliding -- you hold the stick in the direction of an enemy in range, and Baldur will slide along the ground, delivering a blow when contact is made. The trick to handling large groups is to queue up your next slide during the current one, which when done successfully leads to a style of combat that is one part stylish movie fight scene, and one part pinball. The idea is to move around the battlefield fast enough that the enemies aren't presented with a target slow enough to hit.

Slip and Slide

To mix things up you'll throw in other combat techniques between slides. You can double tap the stick to juggle an enemy into the air, which you can jump up and (sliding in mid-air) hit with a combo. Juggling multiple enemies is not just a possibility, it's a crucial tactic for dealing with some groups. You can also push both sticks in an enemy's direction to unleash a fierce attack, which includes a ranged component that's useful for clearing out groups and gaining some breathing room. Fierce attacks are weapon-specific, and each has their own uses. With a sword, the fierce attack will launch a fireball, while with a hammer, you'll actually toss the hammer forth into an arc, after which it returns to your hands.

By chaining attacks together, juggling enemies, and basically hitting baddies before they hit you, you'll build combo. Your combo meter powers your Battle Cries, allows you to pull off Ruiner moves (think: finishers), and also provides a nifty experience bonus. You'll have to make a choice as to when to spend your combo, and when to let it accumulate, though using it intelligently will often lead to generating more and more of it.

Mixing and matching weapons and armor is important, and more than just a style choice, as each weapon type and piece of armor will have unique attributes that can be set up to provide tangible benefits in combat. The amount of loot and the number of different attributes that can be modified in Too Human is just staggering, and if you're the type of player who enjoys collecting rare weapons and armor, it's not hard to envision there being near-infinite replay value coming from the itemization alone.

For example, take the Charm system. You can equip two charms at a time, charms being trinkets of sort that bear a rune. Each Charm is tied to a specific quest, like defeating a set number of trolls, or destroying containers. You're rewarded for completing these quests, but the charms themselves are their own reward, as they can provide passive bonuses like the ability to hit an enemy with fire damage, or slowing an enemy when they make contact with your armor. These charms can also be filled with runes, and there are a huge number of different runes to choose from, offering up additional strength, more weapon damage, increased loot rates, bonus experience, and much more.

There are aesthetic reasons to change up your gear, though, as there are many different weapon and armor graphics to discover. You can also purchase colored dyes from the rune store in Aesir, allowing you to customize the look of your equipment.

The itemization will end up being a selling point for many, since there aren't many console games that offer this kind of experience. There are weapon sets to collect with set bonuses, and multiple tiers of rarity to sift through. The game also offers an automated loot system that allows you to sell off anything underneath a certain threshold, so you can automatically vendor anything green or under, for instance, or just the grey stuff if you're picky about what you throw away. It really cuts down on the inventory management once you've found a comfortable option that suits you.

We recently had the chance to play Too Human online as well. The general idea with Too Human's online co-op is to pop in, join up with a friend or stranger, and proceed to smash enemies for experience and loot. As previously announced by Silicon Knights, the game only supports two player co-op play, not the four that was planned during the game's initial development. Cooperative play is also only available over Xbox Live, not offline.

It's really easy to get an online game going -- you just set loot rules like round robin or free-for-all, decide what map to start the game in, and wait for a willing partner to find your game in the custom game option or find someone through the quick match. You can take the same single-player character from your campaign online, and this option should make for a nice change of pace from the solo experience.

Cooperative Too Human over Xbox Live differs from the single player campaign in a number of key ways. The story sequences have been stripped out entirely, removing all of the game's elaborate cut scenes and making for a more streamlined, action-oriented experience. Too Human also takes a page from Diablo's playbook, with randomized dungeons that stick to a standard overall design, but mix things up in terms of map layouts and creature variation. This way you can go through the same areas several times and experience different encounters on each run.

Players can trade loot between each other, which can help when you're cursed with the luck of always picking up weapons meant for another character type. Getting that +healing gear over to your Bio-Engineer friend as soon as possible will be a good idea. Maybe he'll even have a nice two-handed sword to trade for it.

Too Human is at once trying to appeal to die-hard RPG enthusiasts, as well as those who like fast-paced action games. In both of these areas, the game appears to be shaping along quite nicely. Be sure to check back for more on Silicon Knights' latest, due out this August.