Too Human

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This article is about the video game Too Human. For the book by Friedrich Nietzsche, see Human, All Too Human.
Too Human
multiplayer

Too Human is an action role-playing game developed by Silicon Knights and published by Microsoft Studios. It was released in August 2008 for the Xbox 360. The game's story is a science-fictional futuristic retelling of Norse mythology that portrays the Æsir, the Norse gods, as cybernetically enhanced humans, tasked with protecting mankind from the onslaught of Loki's army of machines. The player takes the role of the Norse god Baldur, who is less cybernetic than the other gods thus being "too human".

The game is notable for having remained in development hell for almost ten years. It was originally announced in 1999 for release on the PlayStation, but this was abandoned and development switched to the GameCube in 2000 after Silicon Knights and Nintendo announced an exclusivity partnership. Development restarted again in 2005 when Microsoft bought the rights to the game and announced that it would be a Xbox 360 game. It was planned to be the first in a trilogy of games all developed by Silicon Knights.

Upon release, Too Human received mixed reviews from game critics; while the game's story and class system were generally praised, many were critical of the control scheme, graphics, level design, long respawn times, and cliffhanger ending. The game was involved in a lawsuit from 2007 to 2012 between developer Silicon Knights and Unreal Engine creators Epic Games regarding the Unreal Engine 3 engine used in the game. This resulted in Epic Games being awarded $4.45 million and Silicon Knights being forced to destroy all of its products that used Unreal Engine 3, including Too Human. Plans for an eventual trilogy were canceled because of the damage inflicted by the lawsuit, along with Silicon Knights filing for bankruptcy in May 2014.

Gameplay

Baldur "juggling" a foe in the air with a laser cannon

Too Human is an

combos on enemies in mid-air, attack slides, and juggling foes in the air with projectile weapon attacks.[4] Another aspect of combat are "Ruiner" attacks, powerful abilities that can indirectly affect surrounding enemies and can be mixed with other attacks to perform finishing strikes.[5]

The role-playing elements of the game come in the form of advanced

levels back at the Æsir's base of Asgard.[7]

As players progress through the game, they can level up by slaying foes (

skill tree mechanic, where points earned with every level up are applied to improve stats and unlock new abilities unique to each different character class.[8] In the early stages of the game, the player can choose between two alignments; Cybernetic and Human. The Cybernetic alignment allows use of certain weapons like heavy lasers and further cybernetic upgrades, while the Human alignment emphasizes quick movement and improved combos.[8]

Online and multiplayer

Along with the single player campaign, Too Human features a cooperative multiplayer component that can be played over

Xbox Live. Hosts can support only a second player with a "drop-in, drop out" system. This allows players to join games hosted in levels they have yet to complete, as long as the host has, allowing high and low-level players to join games suited for either.[9] Players can use characters from their single- player games and earn experience, levels, and items online that can later be used offline. Cooperative multiplayer features the option to trade items with other human players regardless of their level.[9]

Plot

Too Human is set in a science fiction reimagining of Norse Mythology, wherein the Norse gods are cybernetically augmented warriors worshipped by so-called mortals, which are non-augmented humans.

Before the Dawn of the

anti-matter weapons, leaving a once-lush world frozen in a thousand-year winter. Humanity now teeters on the brink of extinction. Earth's population is now only a few million sheltered in the walled enclave of Midgard. The great sentient machines have prospered in the eternal winter. Humanity, however, is not alone. They pray to the Æsir and faithfully worship the great Organically Distributed Intelligence Network or Odin
for short. As protectors, it is the Æsir's duty to ensure humanity survives. Their cybernetically-enhanced bodies and minds make them far more powerful than mortals, and they are properly revered as gods.

Development

Early versions

Too Human was announced by the developer

E3 that same year.[10] Unlike its eventual format on the Xbox 360 as a single disc, the game was to be released across four CD-ROMs bundled together (a similar format to that of Final Fantasy VIII released in 1999). Also unlike the finished product, the plot, while involving the theme of human cybernetic enhancements, was to be set in the distant future of 2450 AD instead of the alternate science fiction take on Norse mythology.[10]

Development halted when

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, with no further news of Too Human, without any indication of future development being announced until five years later in 2005.[11]

Xbox 360 development

Development once again shifted to the Xbox 360 when Silicon Knights announced a partnership with Microsoft in May 2005, which included plans to develop Too Human into a trilogy.

US$ 60-100 million.[13][14]

As well as releasing many other promotional videos[15] Silicon Knights was involved in the making of a fictional documentary titled The Goblin Man of Norway.[16] The film was reported to be produced by the "Norwegian Film Committee", and is in three parts, with each part being released sequentially. The first part - Excavation - relates the discovery of a high technology mechanical man possibly tens of thousands of years old found encased in a glacier. The second part, titled Examination, contains pictures of the discovery as well as a stone found nearby with a message of doom or curse runically inscribed. The third part, Exhibition, shows the release of the find to the public and includes reactions from various people as to the impact the technology could have on society.[17]

The demo was released on

Xbox Live on July 14, 2008 as part of the Microsoft "Bringing it Home" E3 Marketplace content. The demo included the Champion class, and gameplay was restricted to part of a single level with cutscenes included, which was only playable in single player. The demo also featured an easter egg where the Commando and Berserker classes become playable by setting the console date to 2009. Later, as of July 25 the Berserker became available for the demo without any clock modification, as did the Commando class later on August 11. The Too Human demo exceeded 900,000 downloads according to Microsoft. It said the demo has "been downloaded more than any other action demo on Xbox Live Marketplace in its first week of availability and [had] been one of the top played titles on Xbox Live overall".[18]

Unreal Engine dispute

Further information: Silicon Knights § Lawsuit with Epic Games

In May 2005, Silicon Knights and

Unreal Engine 3 for all of their next-gen projects.[19]
Early development of the Xbox 360 incarnation of Too Human began on various incomplete versions of the engine.

On July 19, 2007, Silicon Knights sued Epic Games due to "breach of contract", including "inadequacies" of Epic's support, service, and cooperation with Silicon Knights concerning Unreal Engine 3. Among claims, Silicon Knights accused Epic of missing the deadline to provide a fully functional version of their engine.[20][21] In August, Epic Games counter-sued Silicon Knights for copyright infringement, breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets.[22] Epic Games prevailed in the lawsuit and won its counter-suit for $4.45 million on May 30, 2012.[23] As a result, Silicon Knights was forced to recall and destroy all unsold copies of their Unreal Engine games, including Too Human.[24] This resulted in Silicon Knights canceling upcoming games that were set to use the Unreal Engine as a base engine.

In January 2013, Silicon Knights served a recall notice to Microsoft to remove Too Human from the

Xbox Marketplace (now known as the Xbox Games Store). Despite this, in June 2019, Microsoft re-released Too Human on the Xbox Games Store as a free title and made it backward compatible with the Xbox One.[25]

Reception

Upon the game's release, Too Human received a mediocre to fair reception from critics with an average review score of 68.59% at

NPD Group reports that the game sold approximately 168,200 copies during the month of August 2008 in North America; it was the eighth best-selling game in the region during that time.[40] Too Human "sold around 700,000 units" quoted from Denis Dyack in a Joystiq interview.[41]

The game's concept of mixing science fiction with Norse mythology was praised by critics with

Game Revolution echoed by stating "the game begins strongly with some stunning art design throughout the first level" before becoming too familiar.[33]

Response to the game's unconventional use of the right analog stick for combat was mixed. Some critics, like GamePro, found it to make the game more "slick",[32] while GameTrailers called it "broken", likening it to button mashing.[15] While Game Informer liked the idea, the change, it felt, made other aspects of the game worse, notably the camera control and lock-on system for projectile weaponry.[31] In general, most critics dislike the analog stick configuration, arguing that it removes manual camera control.

A common criticism was directed at the death sequence where a Valkyrie collects the player's body as being too long.

1UP.com found the addition of cooperative multiplayer made the game more entertaining.[28] While agreeing, Edge concluded: "The irony is that many of Too Human's problems wouldn't exist if another pair of human players were allowed to enter the fold (as was originally intended)", referencing the previous feature of four player multiplayer being absent in the finished product.[29] GameDaily declared Too Human the "Underperformer of the Year" as they "expected the years of development time to turn out something better than this".[42]

References

  1. ^ a b "Too Human finally given a date". Eurogamer.net. Archived from the original on 2012-10-01. Retrieved 2008-08-25.
  2. ^ Kubba, Sinan (September 11, 2012). "Silicon Knights ordered to destroy all unsold games using Unreal Engine 3, award to Epic Games doubled". Engadget. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  3. ^ a b c Silicon Knights, ed. (2008). Too Human instruction manual (Xbox 360). Microsoft Corporation. pp. 10–11.
  4. ^ Silicon Knights, ed. (2008). Too Human instruction manual (Xbox 360). Microsoft Corporation. p. 14.
  5. ^ Silicon Knights, ed. (2008). Too Human instruction manual (Xbox 360). Microsoft Corporation. p. 15.
  6. ^ Silicon Knights, ed. (2008). Too Human instruction manual (Xbox 360). Microsoft Corporation. p. 8.
  7. ^ a b Silicon Knights, ed. (2008). Too Human instruction manual (Xbox 360). Microsoft Corporation. pp. 16–17.
  8. ^ a b Silicon Knights, ed. (2008). Too Human instruction manual (Xbox 360). Microsoft Corporation. p. 9.
  9. ^ a b Silicon Knights, ed. (2008). Too Human instruction manual (Xbox 360). Microsoft Corporation. p. 18.
  10. ^ a b Sam Kennedy (May 5, 1999). "New Too Human Screens and Info". Retrieved April 20, 2007.
  11. ^ Kohler, Chris (July 26, 2005). "Silicon Knights' Denis Dyack Goes 360". Gamasutra.com. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
  12. ^ a b Tor Thorsen; Tim Surette; Ricardo Torres (October 4, 2005). "New 360 games unveiled at X05". Archived from the original on January 23, 2013. Retrieved November 24, 2008.
  13. ^ "Top 10 most expensive video game budgets ever". DigitalBattle. 20 February 2010. Archived from the original on 19 May 2012. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
  14. ^ "10 Most Expensive Video Game Budgets Ever". knowyourmoney.co.uk. Notice Media Limited. 21 August 2008. Archived from the original on 6 November 2013. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
  15. ^ a b c "Game Trailers Too Human Review (Xbox 360)". Game Trailers. 2008-08-21. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
  16. ^ [1] Archived July 9, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ [2] Archived July 15, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  18. ^ "Too Human Passes 900,000 Demo Downloads GamePlasma.com :: Gaming to the Next Level! :: GamePlasma Live BETA". Archived from the original on 2008-08-12. Retrieved 2008-08-01.
  19. ^ "News". Epicgames.com. Archived from the original on 2010-05-08. Retrieved 2015-05-22.
  20. ^ "Engadget Gaming - Engadget". Biz.gamedaily.com. Retrieved 2015-05-22.
  21. ^ "Breaking: Silicon Knights Files Lawsuit Against Epic". Gamasutra.com. 2007-07-19. Retrieved 2015-05-22.
  22. ^ Brightman, James (August 9, 2007). "Mark Rein: Epic Games Did Nothing Wrong; Silicon Knights is Stealing". GameDaily. Archived from the original on November 22, 2007. Retrieved November 9, 2017.
  23. ^ Stephen Totilo (30 May 2012). "Epic Says Epic Has Won Lawsuit Battle With Silicon Knights [UPDATE: Epic Awarded $4.45 Million]". Kotaku.
  24. ^ Cook, Dave (2012-11-09). "Silicon Knights ordered to destroy unsold copies of all Unreal Engine games". VG247.com. Retrieved 2015-05-22.
  25. ^ Lawler, Richard (June 10, 2019). "Microsoft's Xbox, Xbox 360 backward compatibility list ends here". Engadget. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  26. ^ a b "Too Human rankings". GameRankings. Retrieved 2009-09-03.
  27. ^ a b "Too Human rankings". Metacritic. Retrieved 2009-06-07.
  28. ^ a b Giancarlo Varanini (2008-08-18). "1UP Too Human Review (Xbox 360)". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on 2010-01-05. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
  29. ^ a b "Review: Too Human". Edge-Online. Archived from the original on 2012-09-04. Retrieved 2011-08-25.
  30. ^ a b Dan Whitehead (2008-08-19). "Eurogamer Too Human Review (Xbox 360)". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on February 21, 2013. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
  31. ^ a b Andrew Reiner (September 2008). "Game Informer Too Human Review (Xbox 360): WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN". Game Informer. Archived from the original on August 22, 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
  32. ^ a b Cameron Lewis (2008-09-04). "GamePro Too Human Review (Xbox 360): All you haters take note: Too Human is a blast!". GamePro. Archived from the original on 2008-08-28. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
  33. ^ a b c "Game Revolution Too Human Review (Xbox 360): Hack-n-Slash-n-Loot-n-Hack-n-Slash-n-Loot..." Game Revolution. 2008-09-03. Archived from the original on 2008-12-01. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
  34. ^ a b Kevin VanOrd (2008-08-19). "Too Human Review (Xbox 360): This action/role-playing hybrid is too unbalanced and too frustrating to recommend". Gamespot. Archived from the original on 2008-12-11. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
  35. ^ a b Erik Brudvig (2008-08-18). "IGN Too Human Review (Xbox 360): Amidst impossible expectations, a decent experience". IGN. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
  36. ^ a b c Andrew Hayward (2008-08-19). "OXM Too Human Review (Xbox 360)". Official Xbox Magazine. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
  37. ^ a b c "OXM UK Too Human Review (Xbox 360): To err is human. To forgive divine. Sadly, a God wasn't available for the review". Official Xbox Magazine UK. 2008-08-19. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
  38. ^ a b Tom Price (2008-08-19). "TeamXbox Too Human Review (Xbox 360)". TeamXbox. Archived from the original on 2008-12-23. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
  39. ^ a b Adam Sessler (2008-08-24). "X-Play Too Human Review (Xbox 360)". G4. Archived from the original on 2008-11-22. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
  40. ^ Remo, Chris (September 12, 2008). "NPD: Industry Growth Slows As Madden Dominates Charts". Gamasutra.com. Archived from the original on 2009-05-11. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
  41. ^ Gilbert, Ben (May 4, 2011). "Silicon Knights' Dyack on Too Human: 'we do plan on finishing the trilogy'". joystiq.com. Retrieved 2011-05-04.
  42. ^ Radd, David (2009-01-07). "Chart Toppers: Year in Review 2008". GameDaily. Retrieved 2009-01-08.
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