Too Human

Videogaming Marmite, says Stevie

On a side note, because it really doesn't play such as massive role in this episode of the trilogy, Cyberspace is the home of the NORNS, a trio of inseparable, mysterious women who dwell in a strange data stream environment that exists alongside, and can directly influence, mankind's real world. Often used to aid Baldur's progress, Cyberspace is open only to the Aesir through special portal wells, and appears as a lush world awash with trees, rivers, canyons and plains, but is in fact polluted by a life-consuming power that rears up and blocks Baldur's path and prevents him from reaching certain areas and item drop monuments. The NORNS duly task Baldur with seeking to rid Cyberspace of this curse and to also activate as many wells as he can find - promising him great rewards in return.

The NORNS also intermittently help Baldur as he seeks to unravel the mysteries of his own past, but possible spoilers mean that we'll say no more about this particular aspect of the game.

Visually, Too Human won't be remembered as a standout title, but its environments do deliver a solid blend of gritty futurism and mythical grandeur, which is at its prettiest when wandering beneath the high-vaulted ceilings of Midgard, and it's most impressive when moving through the industrially-influenced necropolis of Helheim, eternal home of the dishonourable dead. Character animation is strong throughout, as are battle sequences, which manage to maintain a stable frame rate despite confrontations that throw literally 20 to 30 enemies at Baldur at any one time.

The game's audio makes up for the graphical lack of oomph. Mechanical death screams and the entertaining chit-chat of Baldur's trailing team of human Wolves provides balance against the incessant battering clash of weapons on armour, the thumping resonance of Troll hammers, and the deep reverb of hand canons, laser rifles and grenade launchers. More impressive is the soundtrack, which is wondrously anthemic from start to finish, throwing itself forward whenever Baldur engages in battle and subsiding to an anticipation-building drum beat accompaniment during each brief break in the action. Even the lilting, melancholic lament that accompanies Baldur's all-too frequent ascension to Valhalla is difficult to grow displeased with.

Despite the game's plus points, there are still a fair smattering of failings that attempt to haul Too Human down. In a visual sense, the game suffers from some pretty hefty flashes of texture popping - although not to the same extent as Mass Effect, which is perhaps the Xbox 360's main texture pop offender. Also, surprisingly ugly character models and appalling lip movement and track synch during dramatic explanatory cut scenes don't help smooth out Too Human's rough edges, which are encapsulated by Silicon Knights' apparent inability to render stiff hair that looks like anything other than filthy, matted straw.

The cut scenes themselves, while well paced and never overly long, also fail to convincingly convey Too Human's storyline, which, while serving as the opening act of a much more ambitious over-arcing plot, cannot help but be fractured and confusing due to it obviously existing as mere structural groundwork for a much larger narrative web.

While it could be attributed to imminent hardware failure (Too Human is an Xbox 360 game after all), this reviewer suffered through at least two inexplicable game freezes during cut scenes and also countless 'disc unreadable' errors upon load-up and during gameplay. The onscreen HUD also disappeared completely at one point, and wouldn't return despite having its own dedicated directional pad prompt, while the game also had a tendency to resurrect Baldur forward through an environment at times, which led to a sense of temporary disorientation at the suddenly unfamiliar surroundings.

Regardless of passable graphics and thrilling music, the core pivotal point of assessment for Too Human rests with its battle gameplay and its RPG elements, the latter of which are deep and involving, while the former rewards players willing to pump in the necessary hours that it demands.

Too Human's character-building aspects are, of course, centred on offensive and defensive combat abilities, and it offers a massive amount of options to fiddle with, actively encouraging the player to experiment in order to find the best set-up for their chosen class. For example, level points assigned to the Skill Tree can be unequipped at any time (in return for a Bounty penalty), enabling the player to pursue a completely different direction across the Tree and reap the battle benefits that come with it. It's a degree of flexibility that the majority of RPG titles lack, but in Too Human it enables welcome experimentation and drives the player to tweak and mould Baldur into the perfect all-powerful warrior.

And with 50 character levels to be reached across the game, which each unlock progressively more potent weapons and effective armour, the gameplay pay-off is well worth suffering through the initial floundering that plagues the opening hours. Plus, considering Too Human requires around 25 hours of game time to see Baldur evolved to where the Skill Tree is all-but maxed and battles are never anything short of Godly bloodletting similar to the action experienced in the demo, investment is again the key contributor that rewards the player in kind as the narrative builds to its abrupt finale.

More pointedly, once beyond level 35, players will find that slashing through the near-relentless rush of undead souls flooding from Helheim becomes almost a ballet of destruction. Baldur rushes from one foe to the next with ease at this point, a blur of unstoppable flailing blades imbued with ground-based and mid-air combinations, Battle Cry and 'Spider' support attacks, Sentient Weapons, and hugely destructive 'Ruiner' finishing moves. And, more importantly in terms of execution, all of the above can be delivered with subtle nudges and sweeps of the right analogue stick and single presses on the controller's face and (right) bumper buttons; an initially unresponsive control system rendered liquid and rewarding in every battle thanks to... you guessed it... investment.

The bottom line with Too Human is that there's unlikely to be a sense of indifference woven through its critical and consumer reception, there will be love, and there will be hate. Those who hate it will throw down the controller a long time before the ass-serving and seemingly shallow controls give way to fulfilling battles and a truly awesome character; while those who love it will stubbornly plough forward from death to death, ever-reaching for the next level, and the next level, in order to experience the sheer visceral pleasure of directing Baldur in his almost invincible dance of death.

88%

By Stevie Mostyn