The Best and Worst of: Too Human

This was a game I had been very excited about during its announcement. Silicon Knights was a company that already proved they could make great games, and the marriage of deep action-combat and RPG seemed intriguing. However, with its August release date closing in soon, there are still some aspects of the game that seem a little off.

The Good:

1. For a long time, Silicon Knights described Too Human as Devil May Cry meets Diablo, as in a hybrid of fast-paced action and deep RPG customization. It's a good concept and the cross-genre gameplay would be sure to appeal to a variety of gamers.

2. Too Human actually has a pretty cool and unique story; setting the tale in a futuristic retelling of Norse Mythology. The title refers to a struggle between the Norse Gods and machines; where the machines are striving to become more human, and the Gods, who feel they are "too human", strive to incorporate machines into their bodies through cybernetics. It's a cool concept that could easily make for a compelling tale.

3. As it stands right now, those looking for hack-and-slash RPG games on consoles (specifically the 360) have had fairly limited choices, and Too Human will hopefully revitalize the genre to a degree.

The Not-So-Good:

1. Silicon Knights has apted to use a right analog stick based combat system, where moving the stick will result in various slashes, swipes, and combos. Not only does this system take camera control out of the player's hands, but analog stick combat very rarely feels as responsive or precise as a standard button-based combat system.

2. Technical problems had plagued Too Human in the past and at past events, demos of the game were known to run at a not-so-solid 15 fps. Though this problem has obviously been improved on, it still stands that the team had serious problems working with Unreal Engine, and as a result, I'd be very suprised if the final product doesn't have at least some slowdown or other technical issues.

3. The developers of Silicon Knights are for the most part, very much into MMOs and offline RPGs. As a result, the amount of menus and customization looks to be daunting to a player looking for something more on the Devil May Cry side of the spectrum. Hopefully, enough tutorials and auto-customization features will be implemented that the more casual gamer will actually be able to enjoy it, but as things stand, I wouldn't be so sure.

The game does look pretty good, and I'd recommend checking it out if you have interest in either aciton games or RPGs, but it's probably worth checking out some reviews or renting the game before actually making a purchase.