Too Human

E3 2008 Preview

Playing Too Human on the floor of this year’s E3 was a lot different than when I had the chance in 2006. The game wasn’t chock full of bugs, it ran much smoother and it was practically 100% complete. But after thirty minutes with the game, I’m still not sold on the title.

Granted the game has an interesting narrative that’ll unfold, but with only thirty minutes on the demo, I couldn’t walk away determining if the storyline was quality or not since the game promises to be over 10 hours long. Following the path of Baldur, players are out to protect the human race from the onslaught that is coming from advanced machines threatening the ever presence of life itself.

Having included many Norse mythology regulars such as Thor, Loki, Odin, Heimdall, Yggdrasil, the tree of life, and much more, Too Human has enough for the plot to be thick of twists and turns for the players to enjoy.

When jumping into the demo, it was hard to hear any of the voice-overs within the game due to the show floor noise, so I’ve practically missed out on the dialogue and story advancements within my thirty minutes with the game. What I did get from the demo was hands-on impressions with the combat system.

The combat system incorporates the right thumbstick as the main method for melee attacks. Flicking it in a certain direction will have Baldur attacking enemies wherever they may be. The problem with only having thirty minutes with the game is that the combat didn’t come naturally to me and I was stuck doing short combos that didn’t last longer than two to three hits. Players who invest a lot of time with the combat system should come away impressed with the game, but for now, I just couldn’t get into the flow of the things with Too Human.

After tinkering around with the melee combat, I opted to try out the guns. The right trigger is used for primary fire while the left trigger is for secondary fire from the gun. The guns within the game are basically your transition from combos on the ground to combos in the air. The guns will usually pop the enemies up in the air and players can follow it up with juggling them for as long as they can. It’s a neat idea, but once again, I couldn’t take advantage of the combat to destroy my opposition as I had hoped.

The biggest attraction to Too Human for me was the role-playing elements that have been included. Players will be able to change their weapons and armor with better equipment that you’ll find as loot from enemies. Players will also be able to level up in five particular classes such as the Bioengineer, Commando, Champion, Defender and Berserker. Having seen the skill tree, there’s a lot of room for players to customize their character and create a unique experience for themselves.

Another additional role-playing element that should intrigue RPG fanatics is the ability to play through the game several times and continue to level up. The first time they finish the game, players can reach the max of level 50 and can continue to level up their character to level 100 in the second run through. The level max announced currently is 150, so players who love to invest every waking moment playing video games should love the ability to play Too Human and level their character up.

Planned as a trilogy, Too Human will release on August 19 on the Xbox 360 with two-player co-op through Xbox Live.

For All E3 2008 GZ Previews