Too Human 1UP review C-

[QUOTE="HiResDes"][QUOTE="BioShockOwnz"]

Too Human is a very good game. It's just fun to play. I also like the story and characters. The game has some flaws, but enough to justify a 5.5 score? I don't think so. I'm on the last level right now, and I'd give it an 8.0, knocking points for a wonking camera and projectile targeting.

BioShockOwnz

I don't know I just feel like the combat really keeps this game from being an 8 level game...Maybe its just me, but I'm so over button mashers nowadays, and I think that game developers should be over them also. Too Human's combat felt even more simple than most button mashers as the character seems to basically home in on enemies, and I don't think a comparison to geometry is at all accurate. In Too Human, you are not going to be doing the same amount of strafing and dogding as the enemy ai is pretty braindead, and neither the shooting nor the melee combat is as dead on accurate and satisfying as say a traditional shooter or a traditional brawler. I just feel like with Fable 2 and Fallout 3 right around the corner, why most time and money on mediocre games like thsi one.

I'm actually a huge fan of the right stick analog combat. Tbh, while Fallout 3 looks exceptional in a lot of ways, it still is being turned into Oblivion with guns, which has a lot of fans up in arms. I'd take Too Human over it anyday, even though I'll still get it at launch. I'm really excited for Fable 2, so I won't say anything negative about that, except that I hope Peter Molyneux can deliver this time. If not, much like Dyack's vision didn't fully deliver on what people wanted, I'll still enjoy what Molyneux tried to do, much like the first Fable. Now, back to Too Human. I'm a huge fan of dungeon crawler hack n' slash games, which aren't known for having deep combat or very good combat, it's the sum of the parts that matter, and I see Too human much the same way. Nothing is perfect, and there are flaws present, which I pointed out already, but the game comes together to create something that feels epic and fresh, imo. I hate button mashers. I skip anything Koei makes because of that, but Too Human is so much more, and deserves more appreciation.

I love dungeon crawlers that allow for exploration, but overall Too Human seems extremely linear, and therefore that takes away from the fun of finding loot IMO as it is all just thrown right in your face.

The difference is with face buttons the controls are more responsive, allowing you to time your moves, thus allowing combos to have more depth. The problem with the combat is that there is no depth, collision detection isn't really there most of the time, and enemies don't always respond to being hit with the right animations and physics, it's FUNCTIONAL but just because you can play it, it doesn't make it great, I guess that depends on the kind of standard we're judging the game on. Why would it even make sense in this day and age to go to a game over screen and then having to load up a save? MANY games have checkpoints where you can respawn WITHOUT loadtimes, for a linear game like Too Human it shouldn't be much more difficult to stream the levels, not to mention when you're spawning near where you die, it makes no sense that the player has to watch the same stupid animations over and over without being able to skip it, it's not like the game needs to load anything that isn't already in memory.EvilTaru

I love dungeon crawlers that allow for exploration, but overall Too Human seems extremely linear, and therefore that takes away from the fun of finding loot IMO as it is all just thrown right in your face. HiResDes

Nah, there's definitely exploration. There's actually an achievement for exploring and getting to the hidden areas.

Yeah while that is true about the face buttons the aspect I like about this setup is that it seems to really be a good way of bringing a Diablo style games to a console because mapping the buttons for a jump button, evade button, battle cry button, and a special attack button work quite well.Archangel3371

Shoot guns: R-trigger
Melee: Y
Jump: A
Evade: B to roll in whichever direction the L-stick is pointed at
Auto-lock: R bumper
Battlecry/special attack: L bumper
Use digital bad to switch between special attack and battlecry

Timing buttons and R bumper modifier moves like R bumper+Y for launching an enemy would have worked better, R bumper+hold Y to go up with the enemy instead of having to jump, use movesets like YYY and Y pause YY, etc to distinguish between combo strings. They've basically taken everything games like DMC, NG and God of War did and took a major step backwards. Who cares if they're trying to sell it as a "diablo clone"? Diablo 2 had 4 player co-op, where's the 4 player co-op in Too Human? PSO had an online lobby, where's the online lobby in Too Human? It's an action game with ACTION GAME COMBAT, the loot and the online certainly were not done better than much older so-called online action-rpgs, neither is the way the ****s are done, in PSO there's a HUGE difference between a magic user, ranger and melee, stuff like juggling and shooting is EXACTLY what they're trying to do but somehow they should be judged by a lower standard because they should be compared to games like Diablo 2 and PSO where they would fail even harder?

I find the stick works good for melee combat but admittingly not as good for ranged targeting as it's frustrating to target a specific enemy from a group and sometimes you really need to do that because certain enemies have status debilitations when their killed so you want to be out of range. Honestly I never noticed anything jarring about enemies responding to hits with the correct animation or physics when I tapped towards an enemy twice on the stick to launch him in the air to do an air attack he went up in the air. I'm not saying the combat mechanics are without flaws but I would say that they are certainly above from being merely functional. Yeah I definately agree that they should have made this death scene thing skippable I'm just saying that there are many other games were it can take a long time to get back to playing and in actuallity it turned out to be far less bothersome then I expected it to be to the point of just being basically irrelevant.

The stick was functional as far as sliding from one enemy to the next because the game pretty much does all the work for you, there's no depth there, no collision-based evasion like ducking under an enemy's attack once you slide up to an enemy, it's basically just trading hit points, juggling feels clunky. Enemies either flop up or flop away with an overuse of ragdoll physics, or they stand there and don't even flinch when being hit, the enemies don't animate when the player hits them, the hit detection is terrible. If you're trying to juggle and the enemy doesn't go up then it would be broken. I'm not sure what kind of standard you're judging the game by here. A 20 second lameass animation that the player has to watch every single time when he dies is not irrelevant, you can ignore it and pretend it's not there, you can say the game is good but having to watch that death animation every time makes no sense when the game doesn't need to load the level since it's already in memory.

Even OXM and Teamxbox gave the game 6.5s, so I don't think sites like 1UP are too harsh on it.

I'm not sure what kind of standard you're judging the game by here. A 20 second lameass animation that the player has to watch every single time when he dies is not irrelevant, you can ignore it and pretend it's not there, you can say the game is good but having to watch that death animation every time makes no sense when the game doesn't need to load the level since it's already in memory.

Even OXM and Teamxbox gave the game 6.5s, so I don't think sites like 1UP are too harsh on it.

EvilTaru

Taru I'm guessing the other hundreds of games in the past with a "Game Over" screen made no sense to you is that right?

Is it me or are you trying to put down the opinion of someone who has ACTUALLY BEAT THE GAME, and shoving your love to hate this game. We know you don't like TOO Human, and you're judging the game by the demo. We know you don't like Dyack, thats all fine and good but don't belittle other people's opinion or trying to imply they're wrong when they have actually completed the WHOLE GAME.

[QUOTE="HiResDes"]I love dungeon crawlers that allow for exploration, but overall Too Human seems extremely linear, and therefore that takes away from the fun of finding loot IMO as it is all just thrown right in your face. BioShockOwnz

Nah, there's definitely exploration. There's actually an achievement for exploring and getting to the hidden areas.

I'm sold, renting this game within the next week, only because I seriously couldn't afford to buy this game.

I just completed Lost Planet. I died about 20 times on the final boss (played on hard). Every time he killed me I would have to wait for about 10 seconds for my mech to fall to the ground from the skies and then explode. Then I would have to wait for the Game Over screen to give me the chance to choose "retry" which takes a few seconds more. Then the game loaded for a few seconds. Then I finally got to try again.

Sounds frustrating? I actually didn't even care about the whole thing. I just realized how easy it would be to take that certain aspect of the game, go to some forum and describe it with some well-chosen words and voilà, I have an easy argument to throw against the game. TBH most of the arguments directed towards Too Human could be directed at Lost Planet: bad animations, unresponsive control, bad collision detection, weird use of ragdolls, awkward story/presentation etc.

I'm sure someone will come up with some really nice reason as to why Too Human is different from Lost Planet but TBH I couldn't care less, based on the demo I'll have just as much fun with both and their problems seem to very similar as well.

I just completed Lost Planet. I died about 20 times on the final boss (played on hard). Every time he killed me I would have to wait for about 10 seconds for my mech to fall to the ground from the skies and then explode. Then I would have to wait for the Game Over screen to give me the chance to choose "retry" which takes a few seconds more. Then the game loaded for a few seconds. Then I finally got to try again.

Sounds frustrating? I actually didn't even care about the whole thing. I just realized how easy it would be to take that certain aspect of the game, go to some forum and describe it with some well-chosen words and voilà, I have an easy argument to throw against the game. TBH most of the arguments directed towards Too Human could be directed at Lost Planet: bad animations, unresponsive control, bad collision detection, weird use of ragdolls, awkward story/presentation etc.

I'm sure someone will come up with some really nice reason as to why Too Human is different from Lost Planet but TBH I couldn't care less, based on the demo I'll have just as much fun with both and their problems seem to very similar as well.

inoperativeRS

My sole problem with Too Human lies with the huge wide open open empty spaces, and the combat which I spent between 3 and 4 hours trying to warm up to (damn prepositions)...I don't like long sweeps the main character makes, which seem to act like some sort of homing mechanism onto the enemy, it feels all to simple and all too easy. And therefore it seems like the gameplay relies mostly on getting good loot and equipment, and much less on any sort of strategy or skill. Lost Planet is in no way comparable to Too Human, it plays like an old school shooter realized in the 3D, and is impossible to get through with any passivity.

[QUOTE="inoperativeRS"]

I just completed Lost Planet. I died about 20 times on the final boss (played on hard). Every time he killed me I would have to wait for about 10 seconds for my mech to fall to the ground from the skies and then explode. Then I would have to wait for the Game Over screen to give me the chance to choose "retry" which takes a few seconds more. Then the game loaded for a few seconds. Then I finally got to try again.

Sounds frustrating? I actually didn't even care about the whole thing. I just realized how easy it would be to take that certain aspect of the game, go to some forum and describe it with some well-chosen words and voilà, I have an easy argument to throw against the game. TBH most of the arguments directed towards Too Human could be directed at Lost Planet: bad animations, unresponsive control, bad collision detection, weird use of ragdolls, awkward story/presentation etc.

I'm sure someone will come up with some really nice reason as to why Too Human is different from Lost Planet but TBH I couldn't care less, based on the demo I'll have just as much fun with both and their problems seem to very similar as well.

HiResDes

My sole problem with Too Human lies with the huge wide open open empty spaces, and the combat which I spent between 3 and 4 hours trying to warm up to (damn prepositions)...I don't like long sweeps the main character makes, which seem to act like some sort of homing mechanism onto the enemy, it feels all to simple and all too easy. And therefore it seems like the gameplay relies mostly on getting good loot and equipment, and much less on any sort of strategy or skill. Lost Planet is in no way comparable to Too Human, it plays like an old school shooter realized in the 3D, and is impossible to get through with any passivity.

Believe me, it isn't easy. The demo was easy. The first level is easy. Wait until you reach the second level, though. There is a HUGE spike in difficulty, and I mean HUGE. There's an achievement for dying 100 times. I'm on the last level and I have that achievement. :P So I've had to watch that Valkyrie cutscene 100 times. :| Seriously, the game gets hard.

I finished Too Human this morning and have played through the first level again to check out some of the other classes.

It's awful. There are a few satisfying moments in the combat, and some of the weapons make a nice thud when you hit enemies, but the story is terrible (and it's told in a disjointed way with lame dialogue), the right stick combat is almost totally unnecessary and the difficulty goes berserk the second level onwards and most of the time you die you won't be able to help it. You'll die mid-combo (unable to dodge because you're locked in a canned animation), you'll die in mid-air, you'll die shortly after spawning because the game decided it would be a good spot to plop you, and you get to watch the valkerie animation over and over. It feels much longer than it actually is.

Also, the levels are very repetitive, and feel like they're randomly generated in the worst possible way. I don't think they are generated randomly, but someone will probably correct me. I HOPE they're randomly generated, because I feel bad for the level designer if they aren't.

Loot gathering isn't as much fun as I thought it would be because there's very little aesthetic difference between armor pieces and there's little to no obvious difference when installing runes. Also, the rune page is a horror to navigate and most of them are utterly useless, especially as you'll find a nicer piece of armor minutes after you just finished equipping and runing another one, or spending ass-loads of money building an orange blueprint.

Finally, the hub level and the silly cyberworld areas are a pain. The hub level is far too large and the icons are not easily identifiable for each area - at least there's a rudimentary map everywhere, so obviously they realized everything looked the same.

Even the enemies look the same. For the first 3/4 of the game you fight the same four robots over and over and over and over, while running down a linear path that goes on and on and on. That's Too Human right there - you run and push the right analog stick forward for eight hours and then you're done. Then you can say you survived Too Human.

I finished Too Human this morning and have played through the first level again to check out some of the other classes.

It's awful. There are a few satisfying moments in the combat, and some of the weapons make a nice thud when you hit enemies, but the story is terrible (and it's told in a disjointed way with lame dialogue), the right stick combat is almost totally unnecessary and the difficulty goes berserk the second level onwards and most of the time you die you won't be able to help it. You'll die mid-combo (unable to dodge because you're locked in a canned animation), you'll die in mid-air, you'll die shortly after spawning because the game decided it would be a good spot to plop you, and you get to watch the valkerie animation over and over. It feels much longer than it actually is.

Also, the levels are very repetitive, and feel like they're randomly generated in the worst possible way. I don't think they are generated randomly, but someone will probably correct me. I HOPE they're randomly generated, because I feel bad for the level designer if they aren't.

Loot gathering isn't as much fun as I thought it would be because there's very little aesthetic difference between armor pieces and there's little to no obvious difference when installing runes. Also, the rune page is a horror to navigate and most of them are utterly useless, especially as you'll find a nicer piece of armor minutes after you just finished equipping and runing another one, or spending ass-loads of money building an orange blueprint.

Finally, the hub level and the silly cyberworld areas are a pain. The hub level is far too large and the icons are not easily identifiable for each area - at least there's a rudimentary map everywhere, so obviously they realized everything looked the same.

Even the enemies look the same. For the first 3/4 of the game you fight the same four robots over and over and over and over, while running down a linear path that goes on and on and on. That's Too Human right there - you run and push the right analog stick forward for eight hours and then you're done. Then you can say you survived Too Human.

DJ_Lae

THank you so very much, thats what I was most worried about.

Well, to make a long story short -- I played the game for a good five hours. A friend of mine went out of the country for a week and a half, so I borrowed his copy while he's away. And while I think there are many, many valid complaints about the game, I think this has been one of the worst case of knee-jerk dumpings on a game I've seen in a while.

Actually, knee-jerk isn't right -- because a lot of the criticisms leveled at Too Human are totally valid. It feels floaty, it lacks some polish. The combat is good to great (depending on the circumstances), but could be better. The enjoyment from the game might be contingent on which class you choose. The campaign seems a bit short. There are some graphical inconsistencies. Some of the levels feel pretty same-y. The loot you get doesn't always feel rewarding, and is occasionally worthless by the time you've built it up. The controls are sometimes spotty, and sometimes veer into "not so good" territory. So far, enemy variety seems to be lacking. The inventory system is pretty unfriendly, too.

All these complaints are completely valid. Here's where the ******* BIG HOWEVER comes in: the game is still pretty fun, and at the end of the day, that's what matters. The other BIG HOWEVER is that every single criticism I've just oulined above? It can be leveled at Mass Effect -- a critical ******* darling.

I never drank the Mass Effect kool-aid -- I saw it for what it was, and I gave it the 7.5 it deserved. That's about what I'd give Too Human so far. Two completely different games, both flawed, both still pretty damn fun to play in spite of their shortcomings. Commence the whining and teeth gnashing.

EDIT: Oh yeah, two more things:

The game has a weapon called the Klobb, which Goldeneye fans will surely appreciate.

The Norn girl totally looks like Ted Price wearing a hoodie. Compare videos of the two and tell me I'm wrong. :P

THank you so very much, thats what I was most worried about. HiResDes

I should clarify that section a bit - I only died a few times by being respawned right in the cluster of enemies. Most of my deaths have been caused by a lack of health drops and the game's total lack of a block button. You can dodge by rolling, sort of, but it throws your momentum off and you'll probably just get hit again when you finish your roll. This goes for normal enemies, since rolling will dodge any area of effect knockdown (yet jumping does not - go figure).

It's tough to single out ranged enemies sometimes, so what a lot of the game boils down to in later levels is taking out as many of them as you can before you take too much damage and die. Then your repeat that over, and over, and over again.

All these complaints are completely valid. Here's where the ******* BIG HOWEVER comes in: the game is still pretty fun, and at the end of the day, that's what matters. The other BIG HOWEVER is that every single criticism I've just oulined above? It can be leveled at Mass Effect -- a critical ******* darling.Shame-usBlackley

What about the story? The story and characters in Too Human are all awful. :P Mass Effect had lame combat, bad level design, and poor AI, but the writing more or less saved it from being a terrible game. I do think it's overrated to an extent, but I'd feel bad putting it in the same category as Too Human, which is an all-around mess.

[QUOTE="HiResDes"]THank you so very much, thats what I was most worried about. DJ_Lae

I should clarify that section a bit - I only died a few times by being respawned right in the cluster of enemies. Most of my deaths have been caused by a lack of health drops and the game's total lack of a block button. You can dodge by rolling, sort of, but it throws your momentum off and you'll probably just get hit again when you finish your roll. This goes for normal enemies, since rolling will dodge any area of effect knockdown (yet jumping does not - go figure).

It's tough to single out ranged enemies sometimes, so what a lot of the game boils down to in later levels is taking out as many of them as you can before you take too much damage and die. Then your repeat that over, and over, and over again.

I'm really glad I chose Commando by the sound of things. As a Commando, you can pelt dudes until they're whittled down from a distance, and use melee to finish them off. Also, the Commando's alt-fire grenades are great for crowd control (usually sends enemies flying), and the gatling-type laser weapons can mow entire lines of enemies down. I'm at the end of level 2, and I think I've died around fifteen times throughout the entire game.

[QUOTE="Shame-usBlackley"]

All these complaints are completely valid. Here's where the ******* BIG HOWEVER comes in: the game is still pretty fun, and at the end of the day, that's what matters. The other BIG HOWEVER is that every single criticism I've just oulined above? It can be leveled at Mass Effect -- a critical ******* darling.DJ_Lae

What about the story? The story and characters in Too Human are all awful. :P Mass Effect had lame combat, bad level design, and poor AI, but the writing more or less saved it from being a terrible game. I do think it's overrated to an extent, but I'd feel bad putting it in the same category as Too Human, which is an all-around mess.

It definitely had a better story, but is that the line everyone is going to draw between a game getting ******* dumped on and one ending up with a 93 metacritic rating?

I mean, I'm not trying to win hearts and minds here, but if after playing both games, the only thing that people can say Mass Effect did better was its story, then...... :P

Really what the whole thing says to me is that the gaming press is no more trustworthy than any one of us writing up impressions and reviews on forums. Objectivity is framed by subjectivity, and standards vary wildly from one game to the next.

[QUOTE="DJ_Lae"][QUOTE="Shame-usBlackley"]

All these complaints are completely valid. Here's where the ******* BIG HOWEVER comes in: the game is still pretty fun, and at the end of the day, that's what matters. The other BIG HOWEVER is that every single criticism I've just oulined above? It can be leveled at Mass Effect -- a critical ******* darling.Shame-usBlackley

What about the story? The story and characters in Too Human are all awful. :P Mass Effect had lame combat, bad level design, and poor AI, but the writing more or less saved it from being a terrible game. I do think it's overrated to an extent, but I'd feel bad putting it in the same category as Too Human, which is an all-around mess.

It definitely had a better story, but is that the line everyone is going to draw between a game getting ******* dumped on and one ending up with a 93 metacritic rating?

I mean, I'm not trying to win hearts and minds here, but if after playing both games, the only thing that people can say Mass Effect did better was its story, then...... :P

Really what the whole thing says to me is that the gaming press is no more trustworthy than any one of us writing up impressions and reviews on forums. Objectivity is framed by subjectivity, and standards vary wildly from one game to the next.

Thats a huge part: dialogue, characters, plot, all of it is better in Mass Effect from what I've heard...Mass Effect has way better graphics also, and the gunplay and cover system were pretty decent.