Too Human - Hands On Preview

Rome wasn't built in a day, it took Michelangelo four painstaking years to paint the Sistine Chapel's ceiling, and New Wembley just went on for far, far too long... nevertheless, some things are worth waiting for.

Stretching back to 1998 as a PSone four-disc exclusive, Silicon Knights and Microsoft Game Studios will surely be hoping Too Human falls into this category when it eventually makes an appearance on the Xbox 360 next month.

Baring very little resemblance to what was originally shown nearly a decade ago, Too Human has undergone several shifts in the jump from PSone to GameCube, before finally ending up on the Xbox 360 exclusively. Many lesser games would have fallen by the wayside with such a tumultuous development period, however, it seems Silicon Knights are determined to get their trilogy out there - just don't mention Unreal Engine 3!

TVG recently put a near-finished build to the test and came away eager to swing the axe once again and swat up on Norse mythology.

Don't Believe The History Teacher

Assuming the role of Baldur, a legendary warrior of the Aesir, Too Human offers a compelling blend of Norse mythology and cybernetic sci-fi with strong influences from the German philosopher Nietzsche. Quite a collection we're sure you'll agree, but this is Silicon Knights after all.

We'll save the details at this stage, but it's safe to drop a Nietzsche quote, "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he doesn't become one himself." Accordingly, the humans are enhancing themselves with cybernetics, whilst the invading mechanical threat is harvesting human blood and limbs in an apparent bid to become more human.

Too Human's depiction of Norse Gods as cybernetically enhanced humans tasked with saving humanity from the onslaught of an invading mechanical threat, may go against what the history textbooks tell us but there's no denying that it serves as an intriguing backdrop for Baldur's adventure with the likes of Thor and Loki.

A hardcore Western RPG in the truest sense of the word, Too Human is shaping up to offer a deep and rewarding experience for fans of Diablo and other dungeon-crawling RPGs. Five different class choices await players upon starting the game for the first time: Champion, Commando, Bio Engineer, Defender, and Berserker, each offering varying setups depending on your style of play.

A skill tree operates in a similar manner to traditional RPG's, allowing players to customise Baldur with new moves and abilities across four tiers before culminating in the final Spirit of Fenrir technique. The way in which the skill tree is structured makes it impossible to unlock and maximise all abilities, although the option to reallocate skill points is available should a sudden desire to start again arise. Additionally, hardcore dungeon-crawling fanatics will squeeze every drop out of the game, with a different skill tree for each of the five character classes that feature in the game.

With hordes of weapons, armour and runes to discover, Too Human covers the fundamental aspects associated with any dungeon-crawler worth exploring. Weapons span a wide variety of types, including two-handed swords, staves hammers, rifles, lasers, and dual-wielded pistols. Elite sets of combined armour will appeal to the RPG fanatic who loves crawling through every inch of the map to collect every part of the set.

Of course, Silicon Knights couldn't have created a game based upon Norse mythology without runes, which feature significantly throughout the game. Providing further levels of customisation and enhancement to weapons and armour, collecting and using them in Charms is the ingenious key to unlocking Too Human's array of side-quests.

A depiction of Yggdrasil the World Tree serves as an equally important device as it did for Norse mythology. Providing the link between the real world and the cyberspace, where players are tasked with objectives such as blowing open doors and knocking down trees to cross barriers they represent in the real world. It's also the area in which key plot developments are unravelled, via meetings with the three Norns who rule the fates of the mythology.

Following the likes of Knights of the Old Republic and subsequent RPGs, Too Human features an Alignment choice. Instead of the Good/Evil split, Too Human's lies with the central concept of choosing between Human or Cybernetic, which in turn brings various skill advantages and disadvantages. Whether or not this will play out in the plotline in a similar manner to Knights of the Old Republic, however, remains to be seen.

Diablo May Cry

The combat system is entirely in real-time and is where the emphasis of the game lies. Far more intense then most offerings in the genre, Too Human's combination of guns and swords looks to hold its own with the likes of God of War and Devil May Cry.

Using the shoulder triggers to shoot dual-aim guns independently (or the secondary function on a rifle), Too Human effortlessly switches between melee and ranged combat. Full 360-degree sword-slashing action is controlled with the right thumbstick, which takes a little time to get used to but hints towards a more refined implementation than many other games that have used it in the past.

Putting the emphasis on rotations of the thumbstick as opposed to flicks to carve through the legions of cybernetic foes that stand in the way, Too Human features a satisfying slide mechanism that allows Baldur to dash across the battlefield taking down opponents with skill and precision. Comparisons to slightly more action-orientated games soon become apparent, with large doses of shooting opponents thrust into the air and suspended mid-air attacks that would satisfy even Dante. TVG just hopes the setup is tightened a little further during the final stages of polish, as attempting to target individual targets with dual weapons is a little clunky and the only real issue in what will otherwise be a comprehensive combat setup.

Building up combos allows you to take advantage of special Ruiner techniques along with additional special moves, and also appears to provide extra benefits as the combo increases, lending Baldur a stronger, faster, fiercer demeanour as he becomes increasingly embroiled in the fight. Further still a Spider-like gadget that accompanies Baldur on his back can be used throughout combat, assisting with different techniques dependant on the way in which the skill tree develops.

Whenever Baldur falls in combat, a Valkyrie drifts down from the skies to recover his body. But instead of taking him to Valhalla, Baldur is thrown instantly back into combat at the last checkpoint. There is a possibility that the setup will make Too Human more a test of perseverance then genuine skill; however, TVG is hopeful that in the weeks since this build Silicon Knights have balanced the setup a little to make the cost of weapon and armour damage a little more punishing upon death.

Time To Polish

Hopefully Silicon Knights will have time to tidy up a few of the game's rough edges. The menu system in particularly looks dated and the lack of an accommodating tutorial system leaves many of the game's features up in the air until stumbling across them - we're still not entirely sure whether imbuing runes or completing objectives activates the Charms mentioned previously!

Equally there's a handful of areas in the game that could do with further refinement, particularly in terms of invisible barriers that make traversing the environment feel slightly awkward. Although we've yet to see Too Human's conclusion, an early boss encounter with Hod felt a tad generic and a little underwhelming on the Xbox 360. There's no time to address such issues at this late stage and so we hope that later encounters will provide the drama and tension they truly deserve.

TVG also expects the camera system to cause a few complaints upon its release. Because the right thumbstick is used solely for combat, Too Human employs a fixed camera system that at best feels clunky and archaic, and at worst thoroughly frustrating. The fixed camera fails to provide the drama and presentation associated with modern games, and requires the constant use of the left bumper button to realign the camera behind Baldur.

Silicon Knights determination to release each chapter of the trilogy is evident with the planned concept to import Baldur between the different games, although TVG hopes chapters II and III won't be as hard for Silicon Knights as the first! With a challenge that's likely to offer between 10-12 hours of gameplay, it's impossible to maximise Baldur's level on the first run through the game. Instead, players will have to play through a second time if they wish to achieve the maximum level of 50 in preparation for the second chapter.

What we couldn't test at this stage was the introduction of a two-player co-op mode across Xbox Live. Stripped down from the original intention to provide four-player support, this feature should nonetheless make those solitary treks through caves and icelands feel a tad more affable, providing Silicon Knights can balance the difficulty accordingly and you find somebody worth playing with.