Too Human is an Xbox 360 exclusive action role playing game from silicon knights, the people who brought you the underrated Eternal Darkness for the Nintendo Gamecube. It is the first game in a trilogy that mixes Norse mythology and sci-fi technology. You play as Baldur, the son of Odin, in a never-ending war against the machines that are trying to exterminate the human race. The story unfolds thorough a series cut scenes with heavy exposition, but manages to stay interesting despite it’s often heavy handedness.
 

The controls take some getting used as they handle like a dual stick shooter (think Robotron, or for the young ones, Geometry Wars). This is not standard fare for an action RPG. The left stick moves you around while the right stick attacks in any direction. Left and right triggers fire primary and secondary ballistics weapons. You can jump and roll to traverse the terrain and avoid enemy attacks.

Too Human has a deep class and skill tree system. There are five classes to choose from; Berzerker, Commando, Champion, Defender, and Bio-Engineer. Each comes with a set of offensive and defensive statistics, and abilities to use various weapons. Within a single class you can use skill points obtained by leveling up your character to further tailor your abilities to your liking.
 

Choose wisely!

There is also an abundant amount of equipment or “loot” to find or buy in Too Human. Depending on your character class you can wield a myriad of different weapons. One handed and two handed swords, staves, hammers, rifles, lasers, and cannons all make an appearance and all seem to have interestingly elaborate names. For instance you may come across a dual-wield sword called “Howling Blades of the Glory Drinker” or a cannon called “Egil’s Cure for the Coward”. Not all equipment is bought or found, however. A series of “Blueprints” can be found that, for a sum of bounty (the game’s currency), can be crafted, or sold off if not needed. Most equipment is upgradeable via runes you find along your journey. These runes add attributes such as strength, dexterity, reload speed, etc. Unfortunately runes cannot be removed once they have been attached, and there is no way that I could find to see the affect of a rune on an item until you attach it.

Online Multiplayer is where the most enjoyment is to be had. Teaming up with a partner and running through levels taking on wave after wave of enemies while planning strategies and relaying real-time combat action using the headset is about as fun as a game gets. Originally this game was supposed to support 4 player online co-op play, but in the final release it is limited to just two players. This kind of sucks because most of the classes seem geared toward group fighting. For instance, the Bio-Engineers ability to heal group members seems all but wasted on just you and one other dude.
 

Skills that pay the bills.

If I had written this review after my first few hours of playing Too Human, it would have sounded something like this: “I have no idea what’s going on. My character dies all the time. My weapons and armor suck, and I have no idea how to make them better. Frankly, I’m not having very much fun.” But I’m currently at just over 40 hours of gameplay and I have a completely different perspective.

This game definitely takes some time to get going. The first five hours are spent trying to master the controls, figuring out the storyline, understanding the equipment and weapon systems, determining which Runes are most beneficial, and how to build and activate Charms. This may sound overly complicated, and to be honest it is at first, but there is a moment when it all just clicks and you can get into a groove and really start to enjoy the game. I found myself coming back for more and more.
 

Uh oh. Badguys.

Loot is the name of the game. Hours can be spent replaying levels, killing bosses, and opening treasure chests just to find that one piece of epic armor, overpowered sword, or powerful charm. If this sounds boring and useless, then Too Human is probably not for you. Of course all that treasure hunting can be ignored and the average length single player campaign is still worth the play through.

Worth playing for this one reason: Blasting the chest armor from a Giant Troll with your laser cannon, destroying the rocket launcher on his back with your Hammer, only to jump on his back and plunge your sword into his neck for a one hit kill feels bad-ass every time you do it.

ComicsOnline gives Too Human 3 out of 5 Runestones.