I am starting this series of articles with Too Human. Hopefully I won't completely fail and actual continue to post similar articles to this. I am planning on going through several titles that are slated for a 2008 release that I really want to be good, but has a significant chance of sucking big time. So I am starting with Too human.
What I have heard about the story of Too Human so far makes me wanting to find out more. It sounds like an idea that hasn't been done before, having a good fresh story is always something that I enjoy. Not enough video games have really good stories with interesting characters.
The game is supposed to follow the entire Norse mythology very closely while adding a sci-fi spin to it. You play as Baldur, son of Odin, a God that has been given the task of protecting the human race. The three main forces are the Norse Gods, the human race, and an invading machine presence.
The title of the game comes from one of Friedrich Nietzche's books titled, "Human, All Too Human." The general idea is that the Norse Gods are really more of a cybernetically enhanced humans. The ironic thing is that the Norse Gods are humans that use machines to become more powerful while this evil machine force is harvesting humans to become more human. Something interesting to note is that Baldur is literally a silicon knight.
Nietzche is again referenced in one of the teaser trailers for the game in using his quote, "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he doesn't become one himself." Not much else in known about the game as they are trying to keep the details limited until the games release. One more tid bit is that on the box art that was released there is text in some sort of runic characters. When translated it says, "Machine Of God Of Man Of Machine".
This game sets out to do something very different in regards to controlling it as well. On the surface the game looks like a button masher akin to God of War or Devil May Cry but it is far more than that. Firstly, the fighting is steering just by using the right control stick, no button pressing. I can only assume this works by pressing in the general direction of the enemy and the combat is then done through AI.
The game also has a full fledged RPG element to it. There are several different classes in the game, each of which having a fully detailed and unique skill tree. On top of that there are different cybernetic enhancements that you can obtain to add to your character. I think it will be a lot of fun to be able to take your same character through all three games and be able to pick up exactly where you left of in the previous game.
Oh, did I mention that there is four player coop over LIVE? That is right, online coop play. This is the type of game that just screams to be played on line with friends and the developers are going to be delivering big time on that front. The only thing better than playing a through a game by yourself is playing through a game with a friend or two.
I would try to explain this next part in text but I would do a terrible job. The ideas of Flow and Engagement Theory in video games sound very cool and it seem like something every developer needs to make a concious effort to create. Watch this developer diary below to find a few more reasons as to why I have very high hopes for this game.
Its not all good news with Too Human, it has a shaky past. It suffers from massive delays and system hopping. It was almost released on the PS1 on a 5-disc set but was delayed due to a partnership with Nintendo to bring the game to the Gamecube. But that never happened.
The game eventually got pushed back far enough that when Silicon Knights got back to it, they saw that they could put it on the Xbox 360. On top of that the developer has had some difficulties in working with the Unreal Engine 3 and legal complications with Epic.
This game might also suffer on falling short on everything they are trying to do. It is one of those games that might be biting off more that it can chew. It is attempting to change video games on more than one front and that can often result in being average on all fronts.
But in the end, I have faith in this game. Every new bit of info just makes me that much more interested and I very much look forward to getting my hands on a demo of the game. When that happens I will be able to know whether or not this game is going to live up to hype.
