Too Human (TH) – it's an awesome sounding title that immediately starts you thinking of its contradictory elements; how's it possible to be more human than human? Insert a troop of mythological Norse gods, a horde of blood-thirsty monsters, and a bleak post-apocalyptic nightmarish future where humanity's very existence is threatened and you'll begin on an engaging narrative that Phillip K. Dick, if he was still around, would have been immensely proud of.

Contradictions course through TH; the aforementioned 'gods' are nothing more than cybernetically enhanced humans lording it over the remaining human population whereas the 'ancient machine presence' are simple, mechanical monstrosities only trying to rid the planet of its organic scum – happy, happy, happy! Particular emphasis seems to have been placed on ensuring the story is heavy enough not to snort at but light enough that it won't sink under its own pretentious weight. Even so, there are more holes within TH's plot than you could poke a stick at. It'd be too easy for me to criticise the game on that, so I remind myself that this is but the first of a trilogy with time aplenty for explanations (a caveat for that coming later though).

After a somewhat longish introduction, you're standing in the doorway of an imposingly Gothic-inspired structure controlling the son of Odin himself, Lord Baldur. Along with a group of pathetic and whinging human soldiers you begin the game on the hunt for a particularly nasty machine capable of drinking human blood. Almost immediately, your group gets swamped with multiple waves of mechanical beasts and not long after that is when you start begin appreciating what TH offers; masses of combat, heaps of sweet, sweet loot but much more importantly, loads of fun.

Speaking of which and this is perhaps the greatest generalisation I've ever made within a review (but nevertheless, here it comes); it's all about the loot. You heard me right. Based on its RPG leanings, it's really not all that surprising. Thing is, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. There's a veritable mountain of loot to pick and choose from which means customisation options worthy of any true RPG offering.

With combat comes XP as expressed by a radial bar that fills with each kill. Not only that but you'll receive a broad range of different types of loot ranging from helms, shoulders, swords, staffs, guns, boots, blueprints, runes and so on and so forth. Each time you level you get Skill Points, which can be dumped into a pretty broad range of areas that can augment your present damage as well as opening up newer and more powerful skills. Items gained can be either used on your character until a better piece comes around (that happens all the time) or be dumped in exchange for bounty points which act as the game's currency. In terms of upgrades, you can either stick with items dropped from kills or the containers littered about the place or go ahead and make your own with the blueprints you gather. These normally cost massive amounts of bounty points but result in gaining the game's ultimate items.

First option you face is choosing one of the five class versions of Baldur. There's the Commando who's the ranged combat specialist but comes with poor melee capabilities; the Berserker being the master of melee; the Champion with a rounded skill-set making him competent in all but master of none; the Defender with his huge armour values and finally the Bioengineer with his well-rounded fighting skills combined with his ability to heal only by fighting making him one of the more intriguing but difficult classes to play.

One of the key aspects that pervade TH is its simplicity. From combat, control system, the many customisation options, it's really no effort to come to grips with. Control-wise, it's a cinch. With the right analogue stick you point and hold towards an auto-targeted enemy within range, making Baldur slide forwards with devastating fury. The trick with to chain these attacks together by changing targets just before the initial blow, resulting in Baldur weaving about the place like a ball in a game of ping-pong. Obviously the different classes have their unique attacks, such as the Champion with a powerful air-melee attack, but all classes get the chance to enter a scripted event when confronting the numerous mini-bosses scattered about TH's four gigantic levels. What's essentially a scripted event, hitting the A button enables you to jump onto the monster while you're trying to maintain balance as the target tries to swing you off. Hitting the left analogue stick in time keeps you balanced while hitting the right stick deals the one-hit death blow.

For the times when you're surrounded on all sides by enemies there's the Ruiner. Based on three levels of effectiveness, the more kills you rack up the quicker the radial combo meter fills up. When you reach the first rank, targets around you get swept away by an aggressive area of effect style of attack. Hold off using it long enough and rank three provides the most devastating weapon in your arsenal.

Early on in the piece and what turns out to be a nice break from all the fighting and loot juggling is what's called CyberSpace. Controlled by the NORNs (Non-Organic Rational Nanosystems), the virtual environment serves as a conduit for deeper narrative, a place to nab some of the best loot (of course!) and allowing Baldur to open up closed sections of the game.

Visually, TH's a treat, showing off both detailed vistas and closed dungeon areas with no visible drop in FPS. Originally utilising the Unreal Engine 3, after a very public battle between Silicon Knight's and Epic the game was finished on an internal engine. The developers have taken to the cyber-Norse theme with obvious gusto as massive statues, ornate stonework and neon infused robots together with the verdant splendour of Cyberspace look appropriately imposing and spectacular. On even keel with the visuals comes the powerful score from Silicon Knight's Audio Director Steve Henefin which genuinely seems to work in perfect partnership with the ceaseless combat.

What makes the whole TH experience just a tad less enjoyable is the clumsy AI, the sometimes strange camera angles, the massive hole in the story big enough the Titanic wouldn't be able to plug and lastly, while not much of a criticism than an observation, is the pervading sense that TH is just, well... too easy.

Camera control is mostly automatic, but players can assign how close or far the camera is positioned. The other controllable aspect is by hitting the left bumper, you can reset the camera behind Baldur at any time. What's annoying and something you just wish you needn't have to worry about is when the viewpoint swings away from the battle at hand, showing you Baldur and nothing but a nicely decorated section of a wall.

AI is a haphazard affair. Baldur's usually accompanied with a squad of human troops who just as well not be there while at certain times enemies either mill about being as effective as a stone column or simply change your position with no tactical sense to speak of. The problem with the plot hole resides in the fact that one of the focal aspects of the entire narrative rest's with Baldur's choice of retaining his humanity or not. Coming early on in the piece, the choice doesn't just impact the plot but the way you play the game. Take the cybernetic route and watch your damage output climb. While taking the human path opens up a series of fanciful and effective combos. Problem is, that's it. There's no further mention of it for the duration of the game. For someone who's potentially sacrificing his very humanity, what gives?

The problem with the game coming across as too easy is perfectly captured in TH's lack of impactful death penalties. When you die (which happens quite often for a supposed god), a robotic Valkyrie descends from the sky, grabbing your carcass and taking it up to the heavens. You get punished with a smallish item endurance hit and restart a few steps back from where you hit the dirt. Nothing much really, especially considering that later on you'll nab some spectacularly powerful items with some crazy-stupid endurance levels. Lastly, the amount of deaths you'll suffer means you'll see that Valkyrie descend and ascend what will feel like a billion times and not be able to skip the process. Small concern I know but painful nevertheless.

What's great about TH is that it's a wondrously easy game to get into. Replay value is very high due to the fact that you won't be hitting the maximum level of 50 the first pass around. If you decide to slog through the game again with the previous character, you can. Just don't expect it to be an easy as the enemies keep climbing in levels with yours, all the way up to 50. Exclusive to the Xbox 360, Too Human's multiplayer is limited to a two-player experience. You can automatically assume one of those characters will be the Bioengineer with his healing skills.


In summary, Too Human's positives easily outweigh the negatives; it's perhaps too easy and the AI can be considered sub-par to most other third-person titles, but importantly, its single-player campaign will give you around 10 to 12 hours of extreme pleasure. What the second and third in the series will offer is anyone's guess but with such a decent start, let's hope it can only improve.