Too Human: Demo Impressions

his past Monday saw the release of a Too Human demo to Xbox Live Marketplace. Though I haven’t been following the RPG dungeon-crawler’s development too closely, I know that there are high expectations from fans as the August release date approaches.

Given the length of time the title has been in development, and therefore the high production costs it must have amassed, Silicon Knights has been guarded with the information it's released. The demo, in true demo fashion, only gives players a taste of what’s coming next month. Many have already declared that this will be a day-one purchase for them, but is it enough to convince those on the fence? It depends. For me — it wasn’t.

Combat with the analog stick:
a flick here, a double-flick there.Nothing really stands out in Too Human. You’ve got 5 classes to choose from, including the Bioengineer, Commando, Champion, Defender and Berserker (though only the Champion was available for selection in the demo). Many of the RPG elements, such as leveling and talent specialization, are taken directly from concepts already established in games like Diablo and World of Warcraft. Not that this is really a bad thing — many of these elements were put together very effectively by their respective creators, and why mess with a formula that works?

After spending the first little while orienting myself with the semi-annoying fixed camera and atypical control scheme, visually, everything seemed quite average. Animations weren’t extraordinary, nor were environments — quite possibly a result of being a game that should have seen release a few years earlier. I was, however, impressed by the weapon and armor models that I was able to find, and we’ll have to wait and see if this detail is carried through to the full release.

Named enemies? There are a lot.The control scheme is not what you’d expect. Instead of having the right analog stick control camera angles, it is the primary method for combat. A flick here and a double flick there will send your character, sword drawn and headlong, towards the enemy. You’ve also got your other abilities mapped to the face and shoulder buttons, which does seem to work well.

Any good dungeon-crawler needs equally good loot. From what I’ve seen in the demo, there doesn’t seem to be any shortage of it. The number of named enemies seemed quite high, and for me each dropped one or two upgrade pieces for my character. Though I can’t imagine too many complaints from those who enjoy this genre, it’s hard to judge how this will scale in the full game, as the demo only saw my character rise four or five levels.

There really aren’t too many glaring negatives in Too Human, at least not at this point. That being said, I wouldn’t expect to be blown away either. Silicon Knight’s hasn’t set out to reinvent the wheel, and I can’t see Too Human winning them too many Game of the Year awards. Everything considered, though they haven’t carved their own path, at least they chose one that’s fun. If online play can deliver, come launch day, you might find me and many others picking up a copy.