Too Human

Too Human is a video game currently under development by Canadian developer Silicon Knights for the Xbox 360. It is the first installment in a planned series of three games. Its current release date is set for August 5, 2008.

Story

The player takes on the role of Baldur, one of the Aesir. In the ancient past, the Norse gods truly existed in the form of cybernetically enhanced humans. Baldur, son of Odin, is one of these gods and it is his duty to protect the human race from an onslaught of an advancing machine presence determined to eradicate all human life.

In Too Human, the story chronicles the ongoing struggle between cybernetic Norse gods, the invading machine presence and mortal men. The story features many Norse gods and characters from Norse mythology including Thor, Loki, Odin, Heimdall, Freyja, and Mimir. The story features Yggdrasil, the tree of life, as a gateway to an alternate world known as Cyberspace that is accessed through the advanced technology of the Norse gods.

The machine presence in Too Human has a sinister purpose that is ironic when considered against the actions of the Norse gods. The human gods are using cybernetic implants to supplement their own abilities, thus becoming more machine. Conversely, the advancing machine army is harvesting human blood and limbs in an attempt to become more human.

Silicon Knights is reluctant to reveal the story details due to the game’s high budget and story driven gameplay. Despite this, a message is contained in the runes on the officially released box art for the game, reading ‘Machine Of God Of Man Of Machine’.

One of the major themes of Too Human is the extent of cybernetic upgrades that the gods use. In their battles against the approaching mechanical armies, the gods must continually enhance themselves through upgrading their cybernetics to keep up with their opponents, thus they become increasingly similar to their machine adversaries. Baldur, the title character is viewed by the other Norse gods as being insufficiently enhanced, thus “too human”.

Influences

In addition to Norse Mythology, Too Human is also influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche, who wrote a book by the name of Human, All Too Human. A Nietzsche quotation, “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he doesn’t become one himself,” is shown in the beginning of a teaser trailer for the game. The same quote was also used in the introduction movie of the PC roleplaying game Baldur’s Gate.

Gameplay

Too Human is a third-person action adventure role-playing game mixing elements of games like Devil May Cry and Diablo. It features twitch gameplay in the form of fast paced melee and ranged combat while also maintaining RPG elements including skill tree progression and dungeon crawling.

As a third-person action adventure game, Too Human features two notable features which are melee combat being controlled dynamically off the right analogue stick (much like Capcom’s Monster Hunter series) and a camera system that is controlled by AI. The right analogue stick controlled combat removes the issues of three dimensional depth perception during combat while the AI controlled camera system allows for a cinematic experience while also being an aid to the story telling.

The RPG elements of Too Human include its story, different selectable classes, customizable weapons, armor and cybernetics, skill tree progression and item hunting. Too Human has 15 weapon classes, including two-handed swords, hammers, polearms, pistols, rifles, lasers, dual wielded one-handed swords and staves. The character is able to customize their armor in terms of color and its effectiveness against certain forms of attacks while also being able to swap armor sets. This game features skill trees unique to all the various classes that can be customized to the player’s liking, this combined with the fact that it also includes item hunting like Diablo greatly increases the replayability of Too Human. As part of a planned trilogy this game features a leveling system which allows the player to progress from level 1 to 50 in the first game, then continue on to the second game with the same character and level up from level 50-100, and in the third the character levels from 100-150.

In Too Human, Baldur and all the other so called “gods” use cybernetics to make them more than human. These cybernetics can increase the strength, speed and abilities of the characters using them. One of these upgrades includes the ability to have a spider as part of your armor that can separate from you and fight for you. A major theme of the game is Baldur’s reluctance to use the cybernetic implants to their full extent and as such is “Too Human”.

Too Human will feature online play similar to Phantasy Star Online which will allow two players to connect over Xbox Live for cooperative play.This includes a drop in/out system so people can join you no matter where you or they are up to in the game. It is expected that co-op players will be able to take advantage of class combinations to defeat difficult enemies and gather rare items. The media releases of gameplay footage have shown an increasing emphasis on teamwork and cooperative gameplay.

Classes

There are 5 classes available in Too Human with more to be added in downloadable content. Each of these classes have their own direction in the skill tree although this can be changed by the player to produce unique classes. Similar to the skill trees of Diablo II, a player cannot max out all the stats of their character, however, players will be allowed to ‘re-spec’ ala World of Warcraft in order to allow players to get the most out of their character, without having to create a new iteration of the same class.

The 5 classes are the following:

• Bioengineer

The archetype healer.

• Commando

A long-distance fighter.

• Champion

The most ‘balanced’ class.

• Defender

A heavy damage taker.

• Berserker

The offensive character.