Too Human Meets Mediocre Reviews

Earlier this week, the long anticipated action-adventure game, Too Human, was finally released for the Xbox 360. After being in various stages of development for about a decade, the game made its US debut to overall lackluster marks. Gamespot weighed in with a 5.5/10, while IGN gave it a slightly more favorable 7.8. Developer Denis Dyack from Silicon Knights defended the game, saying players didn't yet "get it," and that it was "so innovative that we have put some people off." The game's reception in Japan has been similar.

Comments

Re:Bad grammar

[wigle]

The title follows the conventions of use in English. It won't confuse any native speaker.

Just as films can get "good reviews" and "bad reviews", a video game can get "mediocre reviews".

You know what I "didn't get"?

[shidarin'ou]

One of the worst control schemes I've ever used, that's what I didn't get. I was semi interested in Norse mythology in space, and the visuals were good, but the control scheme was so bad I gave up on the demo in frustration- when my grenade launcher kept auto targeting objects flying towards me that I had no chance of hitting instead of the monster lobbing them at me.

Re:Not at all surprising

[Generic Guy]

I heard so much buzz about this game in the months/years leading up to its publication. Can someone more knowledgeable about some of the history help me understand this?

I think most of the "buzz" surrounding Too Human was mostly about how long the game has been in development and Silicon Knights' very public fallout with Epic. After spending a lot of money on Epic's Unreal Engine, SK then claim it was delivered unfinished and un-usable, and that promised enhancements were ignored while Epic used the time and money to finish their own competing game. Ultimately, Silicon Knights sued Epic and then say they rewrote the game and authored their own complete game engine. The whole lawsuit thing is a bit of a spectacle, especially since no other dev houses seem to have anything bad to say about Epic's Unreal Engine.

I'd say this is less hype about Too Human itself and more about watching this train wreck unfold.

Re:Don't get it.

[Das Modell]

Nonsense.

For both of those titles, Halo kiddies would "get it", they'd just wouldn't like them - just like any other adventure / RPG games.

"Sure, that's nice... but those types of games are slow and boring..."

Those games were innovative in many ways (content, mostly) - but their gameplay mechanics were pretty conventional.

Halo kiddies couldn't play them because they lack the necessary intelligence and attention span. They can only understand pretty colors and shiny objects that blow up. I've seen players complain that the RPGs of the late 90s are unplayable because they are so "archaic," because you need to read an instruction manual to play them and because the graphics are so outdated.

Re:A decade?

[LilBlackDemon]

It's changed significantly since it was announced. Also, it's been on (in order), the PS1, GameCube, and now X360. It also started out as futuristic Sci-Fi, and now it's Gothic Norse.

Re:Innovative?

[Danse]

because since I finished Oblivion, I've wanted something to continue that open-ended realistic world feel, but nothing's come close...

It's called Oblivion + lots of mods! There's a ton of mods out there that add huge amounts of content to Oblivion. They make it into an almost totally different game. Much deeper. Many more interesting quests and storylines. All-around better gameplay and a much prettier world to explore. It's just ridiculous how much new content has been created.

I've played it and it's got potential

[Trojan35]

The problem is it isn't finished.

The Good:
Most amazing armors I've ever seen.
Great new combat controls. Yes, they did get it right for the most part.
The levels are truly beautiful. The main city is ridiculously awesome.
Norse mythology translates pretty damn well to a futuristic world. Great backdrop.
The gameplays and levels are all very finished.

Every single asset in this game is awesome... but why is it getting sub-par reviews?

The Bad:
Only 4 types of enemies. Seriously?
Only 2 player co-op makes many class abilities lame.
All that great gear, and the gear interface is slow and cludgy.
Most of the classes play pretty much the same.
Co-op strategy isn't really necessary, although it makes the game much more fun.
Plays a lot like PSO. You walk into a room, the same bad guys spawn as the last room, repeat.
Death is a major problem. The death mechanic in the game take all of the sense of accomplishment out of boss fights. Wasting my time is a very bad game mechanic as a "death" punishment.
There isn't nearly enough story for an "epic trilogy". Seriously, I got that much story in one mission in Oblivion.

So here's the thing. All the assets are there, they just need to work on making them more accessible and more inviting. Also, they need split screen or shared screen co-op. That would make this a killer game.

Re:Bad grammar

[Skrapion]

Blame Nietzsche. It's a reference to his book Human, All Too Human.