Published by Microsoft

Developed by Silicon Knights for the Xbox 360

Rated “T” for Teen and contains blood, language, mild suggestive themes, and violence

Too Human offers a futuristic take on Norse Mythology. The land of ice and snow has become a post-apocalyptic world shrouded in nuclear winter. Supernatural monsters have given way to self-aware machines and adventuring gods, blessed with superhuman abilities are now military heroes, enhanced with cybernetic technologies. Where the ancient Scandinavian tales explored the line that exists between mere men and those whose actions would lead them to immortality, Silicon Knights uses the legends to ask if the line between humanity and technology might not one day disappear. Should our species grow and evolve naturally as it has so far or will technology change the course of evolution forever? What is the real natural order? Very early in the game you are asked to pick a side, to choose between representing cybernetics or pure humanity. Neither choice changes the story, there are no different “paths” to explore, just different choices in weapons and armor. The villains are cybernetic while the humans are innocent and the gods you play as rest somewhere in between. Sadly, the game doesn’t really discuss the interesting questions it poses, and quickly falls into the usual battle between Good versus Evil.

The story begins by revealing that the world has enjoyed a kind of balance. A sacred pact has kept the monsters at bay, allowing humanity to keep one city functioning in peace. The mechanical monsters agree to stay out of the walled city of Midgard and humanity agrees to send their dead to Hel, an undead world of reanimation. One day, someone breaks that pact and the monsters, no longer bound to respect property lines, start snacking on villagers as a result. As the god Baldur, you are sent to take care of the monsters and do such an impressive job, that the fates take an interest and unseen forces begin to push you into the deeper conspiracy that’s afoot.

The gameplay that accompanies the story is far less cerebral and is built around exploring metal caverns filled with endless corridors and chambers. Wave after wave of enemies, consisting of swarms of robots shaped like goblins, trolls, and elves attack you and your contingent of cannon fodder soldiers, themselves designed to look like wolves and bears. From a third-person perspective, you react by simply pointing your hero in the direction of the monsters and choosing to have him leap in with a long sword swinging or to stand with guns blazing, letting the enemy close the gap instead. Although there is the occasional switch to unlock and secret area to find, the emphasis is mainly on crushing heads, repeatedly. There are no deep puzzles to solve, no mystical widgets to collect, no eccentric passerby to have conversations with, this is action without adventure, a brawler through and through.

To keep the battles interesting, Too Human offers deep game mechanics. Since your character swings and shoots on his own, you’re free to stack up commands, choosing a sequence of targets for him to slide-and-attack, one after the other. In addition to the usual hack-and-slash, you can have him perform a blade-swirling finishing move, a leaping air attack, a ground erupting “ruiner”, or “juggle” by tossing an enemy in the air and keeping it aloft with shots from your pistols. As you progress you’ll be able to shoot energy attacks from your blade, drop mines, and automatic turrets to help cut down the overwhelming numbers. By mixing these choices successively, bonuses kick in and so the main challenge is to perform long combos. It’s not easy, this isn’t a street fight between two characters, but a battlefield of hundreds and some of the enemies require that you target specific body parts, and the resulting chaos can be difficult to manage.

Compounding that challenge is an extensive growth system. You can choose between five different classes, each favoring a different strategy ranging from extreme close-up attacks to ranged ones; berserker, defender, champion, commando and bio engineer. As you go up in level, you’ll have skill points to assign to make some abilities more powerful than others. You’ll find pieces of armor and different weapons in the caverns, locked by level and alignment, as well as rune stones that you can attach to them for added bonuses. There are blueprints to collect and use to make special weapons and armor and Charm stones that activate only when you reach certain battle goals. Your items have their own stats and will need to be replaced in mid-battle, adding to the number of factors you’ll need to keep track of and as a result you’ll be constantly flipping to the equipment screen.

Too Human’s weakness is its unfriendly nature. Although the massive battles are fun, they are a lot of work and the way the game dumps its complex systems, exposition-heavy story sequences, and mythological lore on you without any guidance is both wearisome and confusing. The names of Thor, Freyja, and Loki have been repeated through oral tradition for thousands of years, but here they are given to characters that are quickly forgettable. Everyone seems resentful and unhappy, spitting lifeless lines of dialogue at each other with unnecessarily commanding tones. Baldur isn’t someone you want to hang out with or learn more about and his city home isn’t a place you’d want to live in or visit. The game’s one attempt at humour, a bitter, talking head named Mimir, falls flat and is more an annoyance that a light-hearted distraction.

The lack of story-telling charisma is a serious problem as the game is intended to be the first in a trilogy and, as expected, ends with a cliff-hanger. Not only is there a hope that you’ll want to follow this world through three long games, but that you’ll want to revisit each chapter again and again. Playing Too Human once will only take you to level thirty. To see the combat system flourish to its fullest, you’ll need to play the campaign a second time to reach level fifty. They’ve added a co-operative mode where you can have a friend join you and between the two of you perhaps you can fill in the camaraderie that’s missing.

Still, there are large dragons to slay, the gates of Hel to storm, and grenade-tossing trolls to bring down, piece by piece. Too Human may not reach its potential, but it is a raucous brawler and a video game doesn’t have to be anything more to entertain.