Too Human

Xbox 360
To err is human
10 years since conception, and apparently 4 years in the making, Too Human’s release feels like it has been a long time coming. Its development has been a fairly public one too, with troubled previews and internet squabbles thankfully all behind us. Now that it’s here, does it live up to its promise of epic tales and multiplayer rpg combat?
Essentially, Too Human is a traditional dungeon brawler – a game of frenetic real time action with an rpg backbone. Clearing room after room of enemies while tweaking stats, unlocking abilities and pimping equipment is the main time sink of the game, with online multiplayer available to spice things up.
Too Human’s twists on this however are in controls and theme. Taking cues from twin stick shooters like Geometry Wars, the left stick handles movement while the right stick handles directional melee attacks (with the addition of triggers for guns). All you do is point the right stick in the direction of a robotic beastie and Baldur, the cybernetically enhanced god, does the rest.
Moves are context sensitive, depending on the distance of enemies or whether you hold or tap the stick, and although it initially feels wrong due to an instinctive urge to use the stick for camera control, once grasped, it’s a particularly satisfying and strategic system that provides a surprisingly welcome respite to button bashing.
Steeped in Norse mythology, Too Human is essentially a sci-fi rewrite of that rich but underused folklore that features the well known gods Thor, Odin and Loki. Reinterpreting gods as cybernetically enhanced humans, and monsters (goblins, trolls etc) as malevolent robots, Too Human’s greatest success is a thematic one, with plenty more to offer in games to come.
Despite these successes however, it’s let down by a lack of polish. Extra time could have ironed out the bugs, sorted the graceless camera, fixed the twitchy targeting, and removed the pointless cyberspace sections that make opening a door that little bit more tedious.
Add to that the lack of drop-in multiplayer and you have a game that strives for much but doesn’t quite deliver, and in doing so, isn’t quite as legendary as its source material.
7/10