#FF00AA

It’s finally make-or-break time for Too Human: someone out there has decided that the game’s reputation was so bad it needed a demo — or maybe Dyack just thinks the game is so great it will stand out on its own. And it seems to be a meaty demo; in fact, I have no idea how long it is, because I got bored and didn’t finish it.

I wasn’t starting with as bad a prejudice as you might think (because I hate Dyack and every interview he’s ever given): in fact, I did like the main menu and the character selection screen (as cheesy as it seemed in the preview videos, the overall atmosphere and the music make the thing work). Then there was the introduction cutscene that immediately placed the game back in its tracks: it looks like an upscaled cutscene from an early PS2 game with a little more lighting effects — poor modeling all around and particularly on the characters, and boooring writing without an ounce of humor or cynicism. Welcome to the 1980s of videogame design. “Aesir Corp?” Ooh, that’s funny and insightful or something. Matrix glasses? Why, how modern and original!

Anyway… this is a game, so all can be excused for the sake of gameplay. Only it seems to me that, when you remove the part about leveling up your skill tree and managing your inventory (which I hate and is really not something the general public wants), it’s even less interesting than Assassin’s Creed: I guess that you can try and make more intricate combos of some sort, but there’s nothing pushing you to do it, so the average gamer will just go through empty hall after empty hall (like I said, 1980s) just flicking the right stick in the general direction of the enemies. And occasionally pressing the triggers to use guns.

It’s really a strange combination: with the inventory and all, it’s like Mass Effect without the story (well, maybe Too Human’s story becomes interesting, but clearly the universe definitely isn’t, because it doesn’t feel the least bit real) or the user choices or, really, the combat gameplay. Yet Mass Effect managed to please both hardcore and casual gamers, by offering to auto-assign skill points and largely assisting combat, while giving the option to manage everything by hand and aim at enemies like a real first-person shooter; whereas Too Human doesn’t spare you any minute detail of your character’s evolution (unless I missed an option somewhere) but offers the most hands-off combat I’ve ever seen in a game (and, to do so, inflicts awkward controls and poor camera on the player). I just don’t see what audience can really enjoy this.