Too Human Too Short? Hands On Previews Galore

July 01st, 2008 at 1:29 PM Nicholas "bapenguin" Puleo

Ok, I'm sure you are sick to death of us talking about Too Human.  We've covered it over and over.   There were interviews, previews, videos, screenshots; if it was Too Human related we covered it.  It should come as a surprise since the game has been dubbed "the next Diablo" thanks to a killer cooperative mode. 

With less than two months until the game's release date, official hands on previews have been popping up.  Wired is up first with their preview titled Too Human in 10 Hours.  The author goes on to say that Too Human's story is engaging, but unfortunately just when things begin to really ramp up, the game ends about 10 hours in.  

The good news is the game's presentation is top notch; fast smooth frame rates and great cut scenes with almost no loading screens make for a great experience.  Unfortunately this preview (or any of the other ones for that matter) don't really touch on the co-op aspect of it.  Hit the jump for previews from Kotaku and MTV on their experiences with the near final build.

Kotaku has had a similar experience with Too Human in their article Too Human: Six Hours in and Half-Way Home.  The author was a bit puzzled by the fact that a game that was originally set to be 80 hours long and spanning multiple discs could end up at only about 12 hours in length.

But as I hacked my way through the Xbox 360 game's first six hours of the single player campaign — putting me at about half-way through, according to the game's own Stats ticker — I began to mostly puzzled by what it was the team was doing with its time. Too Human seems surprisingly unpolished for a game that's been in some form of development for a decade, delayed multiple times, one due to be released in less than two months. Granted, the letter that accompanied our preview copy of Too Human did warn that our pre-release build was not "final retail code" and may have gameplay bugs that "will be addressed in the final retail game."

This preview is a bit more in depth with talks specific to the controls and camera.  The preview is finally wrapped up trashing the game's graphics and style - quite the opposite of the Wired preview.

Finally up is the middle ground of the previews, MTV Multiplayer's - Too Human Xbox 360 Preview 'In the Shadow of Metal Gear'.  What does Too Human have to do with Metal Gear Solid?  Well Silicon Knight's last game was actually a MGS remake.  But more so, the author states that Too Human's story he found quite a bit better than that of MGS4, a game he was recently playing.

It’s story: distinct yet less ambitiously told than that of “Metal Gear” from what I’ve seen so far. It’s gameplay: more pure than that of “Metal Gear.”

The good news from MTV is Too Human is all about the items - which lends itself well to co-op play.

Dyack’s game will likely also be contentious because it is a game that is meant to be paused — frequently. It is a game about upgrading. Every enemy drops loot: health, bounty money, arms and armor. All of it can be armed, sold, or merged with other items to create something new. The game does little of this management for the player, so only those who won’t mind or who will in fact enjoy selecting the best helmet, shoulder-guards or dual-wield swords — and repeating the process within the next five minutes of play — are likely to enjoy “Too Human.” In three hours, my Baldur, a melee-favoring Berzeker class warrior, gained much power because of how I armed him. His increase was satisfying.

The bad news from MTV is the game has issues with flow and pacing. 

All in all these previews come as kind of a disappointment.  Not a single one even mentioned the co-op aspect of the game.  It's also disappointing to hear that after some 10 years of development and design the game still has rough edges.  Grants SI has been through a lot with the whole engine lawsuit.  We aren't putting Too Human off just yet, but we are going to keep a cautious eye on it.






 



Reader Comments

crambosho at 01:55 PM on 7.1.2008
This puts me at unease for the August 19th release. I've read all the hands-on previews, and well, I am on a bad note for Too Human.

I guess we'll just have to wait and hope.
 
biosc1 at 02:17 PM on 7.1.2008
I don't see how 10 hours is considered too short? Seems like a decent length to me...heck, I have trouble finishing a game longer than 6-8 hours as it is with my busy life. I assume there will be plenty of replay-ability. If this game was twice as long, I'm sure people would complain about "how dragged out it is" or how much "repetition there is".
 
wilder at 02:49 PM on 7.1.2008
I'm really on the fence on this one. At first I wasn't too excited about Too Human (due to the loooooooooong development time it's hard to keep the level of excitement up) but recently with all the info about the co-op gameplay I've been getting a little more into it.

Now with the all the news of a 10 hour story mode (keeping in mind the co-op mode will be shorter due to the cut scenes and such being removed) and a few other issues from the reviews I've read its stock is dropping fast.

With games such as Gears of War 2, Mercenaries 2, Call of Duty: World at War, and Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway (just to name a few) all announced as having co-op modes I think Too Human is going to get lost in the shuffle.

Unless something changes my mind by the time the game comes out at this point it will be a $20 pick up for me.
 
Spigot at 05:23 PM on 7.1.2008
Hmm... A 10 game for $60 has to be absolutely knock-your-socks-off awesome for me these days... Too Human, as cool as it seems, just has a few too many question marks looming for me to likely justify getting at full price. I'll rent it and if it's amazing, I'll pick it up after a price drop or two.
 
rafoca at 05:56 PM on 7.1.2008
It canīt be compared to Diablo if you can beat it in 10 hours.

I was waiting so much for this game, but since they downgaded to 2 players co-op and with no cutscenes (on co-op mode), I started to think twice about Too Human and now, me and my brotherm, donīt even know if we are going to buy it right now.
 
milpool at 01:44 PM on 7.2.2008
Any word if this game will offer local 2 player co-op?
 
bapenguin at 02:33 PM on 7.2.2008


Nope, no local co-op.
 
milpool at 11:19 PM on 7.2.2008
Thanks for the reply bagenguin.

Always a letdown when games don't have local co-op. With the sounds of it they may have not had it to keep the frame rate high.
 
Brainp0wa at 07:51 AM on 7.3.2008
Rats. The lack of local co-op gets this game the wife's veto. It looked good too.
 


Total Comments: 9

Was bored and felt like reviving this old post just to say that I LOVE the premise of this game...wish they had more info availa
I would be up for that, for sure. Let me know what night works best.
Anyone interested in a meet up for some co-op castle crashing? I'd prefer a week night, around 8PM CST or so. Right now Mondays
Castle Crashers has finally arrived, and we couldn't be happier.  Is the game worthwhile?  Do the network issues break the deal?
I thought I had seen that happening while I was watching people at the demo booth, but I wasn't quite sure. It also looked like
There really is no way to have split-screen co-op on the Wii for any game without really shrinking the bounding boxes.But it is
Yeah you can. The hard drive can go in any 360.
The lack of local co-op is a deal breaker for me.

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