Too Human Demo up on XBLA

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It's up, it's 1.1 GB and includes a section of the first area.

Can we please keep the discussion in this particular thread to the actual *game* and not how much of a nutjob Denis Dyack is? Pretty please?

Downloading now . . . this should be fun (both the game and the inevitable cluster-F of opinions)

Cool. At this point, how could I not get this?

Awesome, I'll grab this before I... awww crap! Gold subs only timed release?

*grumble*

I like it! The camera can be a bit weird since you're used to using right analog for that, but I enjoy the melee combat.

OH MY GOD this game is so bad it gave me CANCER.

Just kidding, haven't tried it yet but I'm getting warmed up.

LobsterMobster wrote:

OH MY GOD this game is so bad it gave me CANCER.

Oh noes! We've Killed Lobster!

Got it started now. By the time I get back from my first service call, it should be done. Eager to get about 15 minutes in with it for some initial impressions.

cuebert wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:

OH MY GOD this game is so bad it gave me CANCER.

Oh noes! We've Killed Lobster!

"We" as in the Canadians? It all makes so much sense now!

...Time. It's so f'ing slow. 7 more hours to go before I get home and play the demo. Sigh, I woke up a bit early to get the download going... amazingly enough it was done in 20 min, and there I had a choice. Quickly try the demo or got to work a bit early. I've been kicking my self for the past 3 hours for not trying the demo!

I've got it downloading as well... I'm pretty jazzed to try it out.

Nei wrote:

...Time. It's so f'ing slow. 7 more hours to go before I get home and play the demo. Sigh, I woke up a bit early to get the download going... amazingly enough it was done in 20 min, and there I had a choice. Quickly try the demo or got to work a bit early. I've been kicking my self for the past 3 hours for not trying the demo! :(

Your avatar seems so apt to your distress. I'm not sure missing an entire work day is justified for a demo. Maybe the full game, but the little enjoyment you might get out of a demo for all of the lost wages.... Ah hell, half days all around!

So I've managed to play through the demo once. It's a good length and you definitely get a good amount of play and narrative for the 1.1GB. Initial impressions:

1. Not the worst looking 360 game but definitely not the prettiest. Environments are very unique and creative but the character models have some Oblivion ugliness to them. Enemies are cool looking. Colour palette choices seem odd in some places but I think they were intentional to create contrast in the environments. The UI is neat and not intrusive but I can't stand the Crackdown utilitarian font they use.
2, Frame rate is fairly consistent during gameplay but can get chuggy during in-engine cutscenes. It's pretty clear that SK had to throw their Unreal engine alternative together fast.
3. Animations are a little stiff but serviceable (this was expected based on the videos.) The character still does that slide thing between enemies which looks a little weak but I can also see the gameplay reasons for why they do it.
4. Music is good but sound design is merely OK. On my system, there were volume equalization issues in places (this could be a home theater problem as I've had it elsewhere too) and sometimes if you move too fast, you'll end up cutting radio dialogue. Voice acting is standard video game ham and cheese.
5. The semi-automatic camera feels weird at first but you get used to it after a while. There are multiple camera angles you can use as well depending on preference.
6. The character customization appears to be very deep. I can see a lot of potential for variety here.
7. I really like the two-stick & triggers combat controls. It's a lot of fun and makes combat feel visceral. I could see it not being for everyone but I really had fun with it. It gives just the right mix of computer-assisted target locking and manual control. I really like being able to target multiple parts of a boss creature. That you can continue to walk around your own way during certain cinematic moments is cool too.
8. I'm not sure if the story is going to hold water or not. Some interesting things happen in the demo but nothing really gets explained. I don't expect it to as this is a small slice but the narrative could be cool or it could just be a unique way of creating Bald Space Marines. We'll see.
9. No co-op in the demo unfortunately.

My bottom-line at this point: If you're into kill & loot games like Diablo and can deal with the spotty presentation, you'll probably like this. I went in knowing not to expect visual miracles so I wasn't let down. If those kinds of games don't appeal to you, the uniqueness of it might still resonate but it might not. I'll probably be buying it. Definitely worth downloading and checking out for yourself. Go into it with an open mind and you may be pleasantly surprised.

Thanks for the write up PA. I'm hoping to take the demo for a spin later tonight.

once i got my first blue items and started killing goblins, the demo was over. I want more!! From the demo, it has made me want to buy this game on day one.

mkmage wrote:

once i got my first blue items and started killing goblins, the demo was over. I want more!! From the demo, it has made me want to buy this game on day one.

Wow, sounds great. Also, let me be the first to welcome you to Gamers With Jobs... Mr. Dyack!

Also, let me be the first to welcome you to Gamers With Jobs... Mr. Dyack!

Let's not start that stuff... We're a better forum than that.

Welcome to the forum mkmage.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Wow, sounds great. Also, let me be the first to welcome you to Gamers With Jobs... Mr. Dyack!

That would be awesome... but, just to note, Denis D. always post under his real name.

Well...just finished the demo. Got to say, I think it might just have hooked me.

I kinda liked it - reminded me of Hellgate in some respects (which I also quite liked), the story had some points of interest and I'm interested in the customisation, hopefully with a decent manual or tutorial to assist my aging brain.

I think I need to work out how to use guns as well

The fighting was a little awkward at first and I don't have all the skills down like throwing enemies in the air and using special abilities (if you even could in the demo), but I really want more. I don't really care if it is repetitive if I can participate in more of that fighting, especially co-op with a friend.

I dig the skill system, the weapon drops are varied and you are consistently getting cooler gear. The combat is more advanced than simply "push the RS toward your enemy", which is what I was fearing it would be. It's not as complex as Ninja Gaiden or even Devil May Cry, but the skill system and varied loot make up for it. The camera still feels a little sluggish, and the gun aiming isn't as consistent as it is in DMC, despite being pretty much ripped straight out of it, but they are minor quibbles.

This game rocks. Can't wait to see some of the more advanced moves/gear!

lol, people think im dyack cause i like the demo. thats funny.

Not people. Just the lobster.

edit: lol, lobster thinks im dyack cause i like the demo. thats funny.

I can see me getting addicted to this game. It is a lot of fun, and I love collecting loot. I still need to figure out these combos though.

I wish the fighting had a little more umpf though.

Alright, actually took the time to play through 2x and see what other gear/options I could find.

+ Loot is good, we all agree on that right?
+ Will auto-salvage loot for you once you start upgrading

- Character models are just awful: The machines are somewhat passable, but the more human a character looks the more painful it is to have them on screen. They all have this permanent look on their faces that's somewhere between surprised and confused.
- Poor animation: The way characters move is very unnatural, this may have been a little south of average pre-MGS, but now it's just flat out unacceptable
- Combat gets old quick: By the end of my second playthrough I felt like I'd seen all there was to see with the combat, it had already begun to wear on me and feel repetitive. Mastering some of the advanced moves was fun at first and lifting multiple enemies simultaneously felt rewarding, but the constant skiing from enemy to enemy loses it's appeal quickly.
- Dialogue: Umm . . . hackneyed to the point where it's almost insulting
- Shallow Skill trees: I was really expecting more here. Most of the skills in the tree are passive and the options where much more limited than I'd hoped. I really thought there were two more pages of skills to scroll through ala diablo. Nope, that's it, what you see on that single page is what you get.
- Equipment menus: For a game so centric on constantly upgrading gear I thought the menus would be a little easier to scroll through. While just a minor pain during single player I see this as being a real show stopper during co-op when your partner has to shuffle his skills and gear around.

So there you have it, your official negative nancy review

I found those 40-second challenges to be impossible. I just couldn't kill stuff fast enough. I also found the controls to be a little frustrating, like if they're going to go with something as intuitive as thumbstick attacking it should be a little smoother. As it is, I ended up jerking the stick in another direction while waiting for one attack animation to finish up. Combat felt a little better once I got my first hammer. I also invariably swung my weapon whenever I stopped shooting, and it took me a long time to break the right-stick-is-camera-control habit. I got sick of getting blown up by rockets and found the lack of variation in enemies to be underwhelming as well.

The cutscenes were pretty and I liked the art style but man they were boring as hell. I get it. It's cold, there are robots. Let me fight. Oh, an oracle chick is hitting on me. K...

All the female characters looked slathered in makeup, too. Little hard to take them seriously like that.

Still... I felt that loot bug biting. Gonna have to give it another look.

I played through it once, and it's definitely at least a rental. I think if they had managed the 4-player co-op, i'd be more excited about this game. But i'm interested in trying all the classes and seeing more loot drop in front of me.

Nope. - Certis

jonnypolite wrote:

I think if they had managed the 4-player co-op, i'd be more excited about this game. But i'm interested in trying all the classes and seeing more loot drop in front of me.

Looking and listening to the class descriptions made me wish more that this game was 4-player co-op. Some of them seemed more geared towards that, then just 2-player co-op.

This game makes me think you could make a really fun melee system with the right stick like this, and you could really run with a techno viking setting, but Too Human doesn't really do either. It's way to stilted, using canned animations instead of just letting you move the sword around. Many of the animations have the sword clip through enemies without doing any damage. Often after jumping after a juggled enemy Baldir would just hover in the air for a minute. That was odd. Also, we need a camera system that's a helluva lot smarter or a helluva lot dumber. Preferably dumber.

I feel bad for the goodjers that get something out of collecting boots of 2% more bootiness. It's like developers are abusing players' sense of accomplishment in order to make up for a mediocre game.

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