Too Human was a big budget title that quickly fell by the wayside when it received quite a few negative reviews.  Now that it can be found in the bargain bin in most game stores, is it worth your time?

Too Human is an action RPG set in a world based on Norse Mythology from the past, but its in the future.  No, its not some crazy time travel paradox world.  Think of it like this, the Vikings did not die out.  Instead, they continued to thrive and build things like giant robots and lazer guns.  Now for some, this might be really stupid but its actually really cool. Squaresoft has been using Norse Mythology in their games for years, with giant robots too.  Thankfully, this game is not soiled with an Emo protagonist.

The story line follows Baldur being reborn, and set on a mission to kill Grendel.  Now before you raise your hand and point out that this is based on Norse Mythology and not an old english epic, I want you to shut up and stop asking me questions.  This is text,  its not like I can answer your stupid questions anyway.  Grendel does make a short guest appearance, but its mainlyto  teach you how to play the game, and set up the main storyline.  The story line of course being that you kill robots with guns and martial weapons.

Baldur's quest in the game follows  the story of what happened to Baldur in Norse Mythology.  Only the game follows the story leading up to Baldur's death, and in the game it takes place after his death.  So maybe this is a time travel paradox…   Baldur learns that his wife's (and his own) murderer is on the loose, so Baldur decides to go kick some robot ass.  He finds Hod, the blind god(that can see).  Hod continues to call Baldur, Loki, because he can't see Baldur, (he is blind after all).  And thus begins the really confusing story.

In real Norse Mythology, Loki tricked Hod into killing Baldur, because Loki knew Baldur's weakness.

I won’t spoil too much plot in case you do decide to play the game, but I recommend reading up on Norse Mythology so it makes sense.   In all honesty, the plot balances on the edge of the muddy rivers of crap and the epic tales of legend and awesomeness. I found myself really enjoying the plot on the second play through but that was after  I studied up on who was who in the original tales.  Sadly, the game it self does not explain what is going on.  It assumes that you have a Master's degree in Nordic Mythology and a Minor in Robot history.

The gameplay  in Too Human is similar to Diablo and Sacred.  You lay waste to mountains of bad guys learning new skills and finding new weapons amidst the mountain of death you created.  The difference between Too Human and its counter parts is that Baldur is a cybernetic juggernaut on rollerblades armed with a Slap-Chap connected to the business end of a jackhammer that he shoves in the face of all that get in his way.  Ohh, you get guns too.  In fact, once you get your character on a killing streak, it's almost like you're playing a racing twitch game and not an RPG.  For melee attacks, you move your thumbstick in the direction of what you want to kill.  If you are close enough, you will slide on your magically invisible rollerblades to the bad guy and start the killing of it.  What makes the combat ridiculous  entertaining is that once you start your slide, you can thumb stick to a different enemy and you will bounce off the first and ping pong to the second.  With each hit you move faster, do more damage and your slide distance increases.  While it’s a little weird to rollerblade your way to victory, once you get the system down, you will be clearing out larger groups of bad guys and be sad they are all dead before your cat blinked.  

So you have a little say in how Baldur behaves, you get to customize his class, and his skills. The skill system is extremely forgiving, allowing you to respect all your points on the fly with no penalty at all. ( it does cost your character money, but it’s a tiny amount). You can pick between five classes of characters and ultimately have to follow one of two paths which allows for even more character tweaking.  Do you pick the path of the human, or the cyber-robo god? 

This flowchart explains a lot, like the plot of Too Human.

The graphics are good, but nothing beyond what you would expect on the 360. The sound features some cool industrial Viking metal but sounds like they borrowed a large amount of sound effects from the files of id software.  I am pretty sure I counted at least 4 sound effects from Quake in here.   The achievement list is great, and paces you very well,  You will unlock them as you go on, so if achievements are your thing, you will continue to return to this game to get them all. 

On multiple runs on the game, you will find the levels and the momster locations actually change based on your character level.  Furthermore, once you start your second run of the game, you can skip headfirst into the action to speed up the experience.  You will continue to find cooler and shinyer weapons and armor as you go.

Now you may have noticed this review has been pretty nice to Too Human.  Lets talk about the stuff that everyone wants to hear.  The stuff that launched into the bargain in the first place.

Lack of monsters.  The game has around a total of umm,  five things to kill.  Goblins, Elves, Trolls, Leader goblins and Leader Elves.  The last missions adds a few more to the mix, but not a lot of variety here. ( well there are some spider sniper guys that are really annoying too.) 

The AI uses the same tactics every time.  Lots of monsters in the front, troll in the middle, artillery in the back.  You will find your self dying a lot.  Thankfully, the only penalty for death is a cut scene of a Valkrye taking your sorry butt to Valhalla.

The dynamic camera occasionally captures the game in a way that only Alfred Hitchcock could, but when it fails to work it's on par with typical YouTube fair.

All in all Too Human is a great game, but leaves you high and dry trying to figure out what the heck is going on.  The story really does work if you know all the parts they left out and the background of the characters they are based on. Sadly, the guy in charge of the background story kinda left it out of the game.

I give this game 3.5 fists cause its really cool, just kinda weird...