[360] Too Human

Anyone own/play this? Thought? Reactions?


I've been following this game for about 10 years ever since I saw a preview of it in EGM. I eagerly awaited it and even found some early gameplay footage of the Playstation version online. For its time, it didn't look too bad. Now after another false start on the Gamecube it's finally out. Of course the game was never without controversy. From the poor reception at its E3 debut to the Epic Unreal lawsuit and Denis Dyack speaking his mind and replying to posts on message boards, how does the game hold up?


Overall, I do enjoy the game its fun but it is definitely without its faults. This game is so far one of the cheapest I have ever played. It's not really hard, it's just very fucking cheap. It could be that I'm playing as a Berzerker, which has low defenses but talking with my friends who play as well and as different classes experience the same issue. Where it's most noticeable is in the Ice Forest. There are areas where you're surrounded by goblins, Dark Elves and Trolls. A variety of Dark Elves are spider like which shoot energy bolts from a distance and perform a smash attack up close. There are two troll varieties, often there at the same time. One has a hammer used to smash the ground and the other lobs grenades from a distance. And you're surrounded by dozens upon dozens of goblins which some also have projectile abilities and they're all firing at the same time.

You try to get to Dark Elves first because they are most dangerous but you have a wave of Goblins in your way flanked by a Troll who is smashing the ground. And oh wait you died. Any enemies you kill rarely drop health pick ups, which with just a few more would make the game far more enjoyable rather than hair pulling frustratingly cheap. That's just one area. There are far more.

Of course when you die you're treated to a 30 second unskippable death sequence. It seems cool at first but gets annoying especially when death occurs so frequently. From a Denis Dyack interview it's not there to mask a load time, but as a penalty because you don't lose any items, experience points or have to travel far to return to the fray. I suppose. Again this could be offset with just a bit more frequency of health drops.

There are other issues like Aesir being sparsely populated and the population not reacting to your presence much. Invisible collision and some pretty bad animations plague the art.

Are these issues stemming from Silicon Knights' inability to make the Unreal 3 Engine work how they wanted it and had to create their own engine? I don't know. This game seems to lack some amount of polish.

Some good though. The co-op is insanely fun. Going around bashing enemies and creating a team that works well together is again fun. It's a shame that four player co-op was scrapped. Using the right analog stick in conjunction of the left really works and makes it feel like you're not just spamming the X button. There is a ton of loot and items dropped which give your character hundreds if not thousands of customization options. Plus the armor looks cool, sometimes even when its mismatched.

For me the main issue with the game is the unbalanced gameplay. I can forgive the graphical errors more than the unbalanced gameplay. I'm sure there will be people who despise this game, and hopefully some who love it. Either way, vent or praise or whatever.

Jam it back in, in the dark.