This will not end well for my social life . . .

by TWODOGSz

©2008 Aaron Bertenetti:

Too Human Final Notes – Parts 5 & 6:

I’ve played the demo upwards of 10 hours. Not the full game. The demo. And as noted earlier I began that journey as a noted cynic who was unsure as to what my final thoughts regarding Too Human would be. Given the circus surrounding it with E3 ‘06, Denis Dyack and NeoGaf front and centre, it was not until the demo was released that I was able to form my own opinions on Too Human’s worth and block out the noise of the anonymous cybernetic sea. And it seems others are doing the same…

The purpose of this multi-part article has always been to seek forgiveness for my earlier judgements. In particular, my personal failure was to judge a book by its cover and by what misinformed others were saying, rather than by the contents within.

It’s an incredibly sad day in this industry when people who call themselves gamers decide to attack a game simply for being different and outside the box of mainstream conventions. I may have been a cynic of this title in the past but I’ve never advocated nor endorsed the disgraceful behaviour of many anonymous gamers who have openly wished for this or any other game’s failure.

Any gamer who genuinely wishes developers to continue to innovate, push the medium and invent new IP should be wishing this game all the best, whether they personally like Too Human or not. Otherwise we may well find a day with an uninspired industry producing one homogeneous product simply because some people’s misguided wishes came true.

My personal view in light of hands on time is that Too Human is like a bottle of fine wine! You could drink the glass and complain about some sediment, or you could drink the bottle and marvel at its unique full bodied flavour. We firmly recommend the “bottle approach” (3-4 playthroughs) before you make your mind up.

It’s an acquired taste, but you won’t know if you’re a wine lover or beer drinker until you give it a go for yourself. Although in Australia we tend to drink both. A lot!

You can revisit my take on the Camera and Combat here

You can revisit my take on the Graphics and Story here

And you can find our Easter Egg guide to the demo here

But the purpose of this particular article is to make my final two confessions and eat the last of an oven full of very humble pie…

Part 5: “Loot Sweets! Loot Sweets! The playable, craveable treats!”

Arguably the backbone of any dungeon crawler’s replayability is the depth and variety of loot. The lure of finding the good stuff is a major component in the success of decade old Diablo 2 and MMO World of Warcraft. Finding the good stuff is what it’s all about. And whilst the emphasis on loot in Too Human is almost immediately apparent, it’s the depth, variety and sheer quality that takes longer to appreciate.

In my previous article on Too Human, I waxed lyrical about how stunning the loot looks. And given that whatever you equip on the menus is immediately visible on Baldur in-game, all the right aesthetic buttons are being pushed. What I haven’t spent much time discussing are the impressive mechanics behind the loot system that ensure that all this gear simply isn’t just a superficial collect-a-thon but rather a core mechanic of gameplay.

Lets Get Physical…

Unlike other dungeon crawlers that are burdened by the Diablo “click, click” syndrome and can only differentiate equipment via a spreadsheet and dice, the emphasis on a dual analogue-stick control system in Too Human opens up a world of difference that extends to the physicality of a character as a result of his equipment. When I initially explained Too Human’s control scheme in a Fight Night analogy I mentioned how classes felt different and as a result played differently. The Berserker feels like a featherweight with quick feet and rapid jabs, as opposed to the Defender’s slowly plodding heavyweight manoeuvres. What’s caught me by surprise is that this system extends beyond classes and integrates loot.

A one handed sword feels faster than a two hander behemoth. A berserker with dual wielding swords moves and attacks more fluidly and responsively to a player’s commands, than when carrying a more cumbersome or heavy weapon. This integration of the loot system and combat system increases the weight and depth of both, as opposed to the more traditional approach of isolated systems based purely on stats and a roll of the dice. Not only does this increase the potential for unique and varied gameplay experiences, but more importantly it increases player immersion. When I’m carrying a hammer and swinging it, it feels like it, and that in itself is a startling achievement for the genre.

“Hey! Hey! Where the Junkies…”

Too Human has the stat and loot junkies well and truly covered. It’s all here. Loot can be divided into weapons, armour, runes, charms, and rare blueprints for crafting of wildly varying styles, colours, levels, names, stats and status effects (ice, poison, fire, etc). The loot naming engine deserves special mention for coming up with some of the coolest (Ancient Magnums of Malice), funniest (Ancient Broadsword of Rooting) and downright questionable (Thighguards of Ventilation) names I’ve heard in a long time.

Further, loot allows player customisation by virtue of 1500 different runes that can be found and inserted into empty slots on equipment to change appearance, statistics, effects, and the physicality of gameplay. The trade off with customisation is that the same runes may be required to activate charms and their effects once their mini quests have been completed (eg. Kill 30 Dark Elves).

All up Silicon Knights estimates there are several hundreds of thousands of combinations.

Given that much of this loot is randomly generated according to your level, skills, combat proficiency and exploration it’s hard to imagine any one will find it all. But thanks to co-op trading and an ingenious automated sorting feature, a player can customise on the fly what they want to keep and what the game should automatically salvage for cash.

If you’re the type of gamer that played Diablo over and over again into the early hours of the morning in looting with mates; goes questing in World of Warcraft for the next elusive and rare item you can’t do without; or simply wants more depth to your dungeon crawling combat where loot actually feels different; Too Human is likely to keep you satisfied on that basis alone well into next year.

Part 6: Classes, Skill Trees and…Ethics?

I have to admit that the RPG depth of Too Human was never immediately apparent to me. In fact as I discussed in regards to the combat previously, the gameplay videos have been terribly misleading about the nature of this game and until I got my hands on the demo they hid what at its heart is the first true dungeon crawler built from the ground up for consoles. So as much fun as the combat is, and as promising as the story sounds, at the end of the day Too Human is likely to succeed or fail largely based on its success in translating RPG staples from PC titles such as Diablo 2 and World of Warcraft to consoles. Judging that was certainly not the easiest tasks until I was able to play as all classes.

The Class Divide

On first glance there are simply five classes in Too Human. You have the all rounder and air combat expert (Champion); the melee master, dual wielding, speed freak (Berserker); the enemy magnet, slow moving, tank (Defender); the healer, engineer and co-op’s best friend (Bioengineer); and the running, gunning, Smash TV wannabe (Commando). And the more I play, the more I appreciate each class’ respective gameplay pros and cons and change my mind as which class I’ll play first.

Initially I loved the Defender for his ability to take the hits standing and his penchant for Sub Zero references. Then the Bioengineer drew me in with his ability to regenerate and his ridiculously powerful spiders. Not long after the Berserker grabbed me by the cojones with his all-action attitude and pin-balling combos. And this continues to go on the more depth I discover, to the point that I’m entirely shocked to find me seriously considering my initially least favourite class, the Champion, as the first cat off the Too Human rank come release day.

But what about skills?

This is where things get complicated. For each class there’s three skill tree paths that each offer a player unique active and passive abilities for that path. The abilities range impressively across melee, group and projectile skills, including active abilities in the form of spiders (3 per class), battlecries (3 per class) and sentients (1 per class). But what’s interesting, in a Norse fatalist way, is that a player must choose an exclusive path that will exclude the skills available within a classes other trees. This effectively creates three sub classes per class.

Further, unlike other titles where skills may have slight affects on the way classes handle, Too Human revels in skills that significantly change gameplay style and player control. For example, the Bioengineer may appear to be a simple healer at first but when you invest in his skills it quickly becomes apparent that he is a master of incredibly powerful (perhaps overpowered?) spider attacks that put most of the other classes to shame, particularly the EMP grenade.

He also houses unique abilities such as turning enemies into allies through touch. But perhaps most surprising it that he seems to heal more rapidly as a result of attacking enemies, directly contradicting the traditional role of a healer and adding a far more interesting risk/reward balance to the class.

Theses variations are mightily impressive for a console title and far too expansive to print here, so I highly advise you check out the Too Human Wiki for a more complete picture.

“Be careful when you fight monsters, lest you become one”

In addition to the expected classes and surprising skill tree variation are another two paths that open later in the game (not in the demo) when you make the choice of going down a cybernetic or human future for Baldur.

These clearly play off the overwhelming themes of Too Human’s narrative and it’s nice to see that many players may well face an emotional conundrum of whether to pick based on stats or based on personal morals. It also raises the question as to whether such choices will affect the narrative’s path within Too Human or in a more overreaching manner with the proposed trilogy.

These immense offerings of enforced choice not only indicate how differently classes and sub classes will play, but illustrate that there are conceivably 30 sub classes for players to experience. That’s a hell of a lot of replay value, but it’s also inconceivable how anybody would normally get to play all the combinations if they so desired. Thankfully it appears that Silicon Knights won’t punish players for changing their minds and will allow reconfiguring of classes to the extent that a player can afford it. That’s a great move and bodes exceptionally well for co-op!

Levelling Up

Too Human with its loot, expansive skill trees and surprisingly varied classes does the dungeon crawler proud on consoles. There is more than enough for gamers, particularly of the Diablo and World of Warcraft varieties, to spend countless hours levelling up and building skills. Whilst the story may only take 15hrs on a rapid play through, it appears that much like its inspirations Too Human will see levelling and loot junkies playing alone and together in co-op for months after release in search of the rarest of loot and the highest of level caps. In fact there are already WoW like Java applications to plan your classes out!

Too Human appears to have succeeded with the RPG elements of the game, whilst also making it accessible enough for newcomers to grasp the basics. It compares favourably with the depth of other console RPGs such as Mass Effect and Oblivion, and brings levels of depth previously seen only on PC, and then some. The loot is amazing, the depth is arguably unprecedented on consoles and it appears to successfully pave the way for the Too Human trilogy and the future of the dungeon crawler genre on consoles.

Footnote:

That concludes the series, but is merely the “end of the beginning” of my addiction. I’d encourage you to revisit my previous Too Human articles here and here, and play the demo if you haven’t already. You can find an excellent guide to the demo at SarcasticGamer and for all your Too Human needs visit TooHuman.net.

On the eve of release and on behalf of the team here at XboxOZ360-gamer, I’d like to thank Denis Dyack and Silicon Knights for staying the course through thick and thin, along with their supportive partners at Microsoft. We wish them all the best for a successful launch and a promising debut for the Too Human trilogy.

Too Human is released on August 19 in North America, August 21 in Australia, and August 29 in Europe.

©2008 Aaron Bertenetti:

Filed under: 1st Party Titles, Console gaming, Microsoft Games, New Game Information, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 News Tagged: | "Denis Dyack", "Microsoft Game Studios". "too human easter egg", "Silicon Knights Too Human", "Too Human series", "too human story", too human