Top 10: Ways to make Too Human 2 amazing

OK, we’re sure it’s not going to be called Too Human 2, that would just be silly. But we do know it is coming, and that’s because Too Human, Silicon Knights’ 360 exclusive dungeon crawler, is planned as a trilogy. Given the hype, we couldn’t help but feel that the first game was disappointing, despite it retaining a healthy addictive quality. But there are plenty of flaws in Denis Dyack’s loot hunting game, which leaves us plenty to get our hands dirty with our Top 10: Ways to make Too Human 2 amazing. There’s a lot we like about Too Human, but there’s also a lot we don’t. And we’ve got a few ideas to help sort that out.

10. Optimise!

With nearly 10 years to make it we’re not sure how Too Human ended up feeling rushed, but it does. The game is full of technical issues and suffers dramatically from drops in frame rate. It’s noticeable in single-player, especially when goblins fire multiple rockets on your position and the game struggles to cope with the explosion effects. But in two-player it’s even more pronounced. For the next game we want a properly optimised experience, that runs at least in 30 frames per second at all times. This is especially important if we’re going to have four-player-co-op (see number three).

9. Fix the damn camera!

Because Baldur’s attacks are controlled with the right thumb stick you have almost zero control over the camera. While it does have its moments – usually when you’re walking along a platform and Silicon Knights demands you take notice of a huge statue or an impressive vista – when the going gets tough and you have scores of goblins and dark elves on your arse the camera suffers from random bouts of mentalism. It won’t get stuck, it just doesn’t show you exactly what you want at all times. Fingers crossed Dyack and co spend some time fixing what is one of the most important features in any third-person action game.

8. Tweak, but don’t completely re-write the combat system

We quite like the combat in Too Human. It’s not spectacular, but you do get an odd sense of satisfaction as you move the right stick around Geometry Wars style, sliding Baldur with increasing speed from one enemy to the other. We’re after general tweaking here, not a complete re-write. We’re after more varied attacks, with more elaborate combos, finishers and fierce attacks. As it is, Too Human’s combat isn’t particularly difficult, and will probably be a tad boring for those who have mastered Devil May Cry 4, or Ninja Gaiden II’s combat. But it is unique and, when you lift a dark elf into the air, jump after him, combo finish him, then, in one swift movement slide to the next enemy, the cool factor really does kick in.

7. Drop Cyberspace, or, if you have to keep it, make it much, much better

The Cyberspace elements of Too Human are the worst by far. Intended to be the game’s version of the internet, you explore it in search of rare loot you wouldn’t normally find in the main missions. The problem is that the puzzles are completely rudimentary, the graphics poor and the invisible walls as infuriating as they are hilarious. We’d like to see Cyberspace dropped from the sequel completely – Too Human simply doesn’t work as a puzzler in its current form. But, if it’s essential that it be retained, at least make it more interesting.

6. More varied enemies

There are only three base enemy variants in Too Human – the goblin, dark elf and troll. While they come in different colours, and cause different status effects, it’s not enough to prevent almost mind-numbing boredom as you trudge through wave after wave of endless mechanised beasts. The bosses too are anti-climactic. So, for the next game, we want more than three base enemies to kill, which should ensure the combat doesn’t get as boring as it does in the first game. We want bigger, more spectacular bosses too – the kind of things that will stick in our heads months after we’ve stopped playing. And we want better AI – in Too Human the machines either rush you or hang back and fire rockets or shield allies. It would be nice to have a few enemies with more than two brain cells to contend with, and that should ensure a much richer, more satisfying dungeon crawl all round.

5. Better animations

It was particularly surprising to find that the animation in Too Human were poor. Baldur himself has terrible animations – his attacks are boring, his finishers uninspiring and his jump a horribly wooden affair. On the whole we liked the cut scenes, but they too suffered from awful animation. Given that the game has been in the works for nearly a decade, we can’t understand why the game suffers from these problems. Which is why we want much, much better animations for the next game, not just in terms of Baldur himself, but in the cut scenes, too. We quite like the overall art style, so we’re not demanding a revolution, just better execution.

4. More classes

Too Human has five classes, which is pretty poor considering how similar they are. The melee classes – the Champion, Defender and the Beserker – play incredibly similarly. The Commando, which focuses on ranged fire, won’t get you anywhere and the Bioengineer, or the healer, will hardly be played by anyone. At the end of the day, because all enemies do is either rush you or hang back and fire incredibly annoying rockets at you, the game plays too similarly whatever class you pick. The fact that the skill tree options do not fundamentally change the way you play just exacerbates the problem. So, in the next game, we want to see plenty more classes that actually offer a different experience.

3. Four-player co-op

Too Human is better when played with a mate, and that’s because you get the chance to actually employ some strategy with the various classes – we’re talking one player getting stuck in with melee and the other shooting (healing is just rubbish). But, with more classes to play with, and more varied enemies to kill, an increase in the number of playable players would add much to the Too Human dungeon crawling experience, and would be one hell of a laugh to boot. We’re thinking five-man instance runs in some of the best dungeons World of Warcraft has to offer. The best thing is that, according to Denis, the technology they’ve got already supports four-player co-op, so it’s highly likely we’ll see it in the next game.

2. Less loot

We’re suckers for loot hunting, and we reckon Too Human does a great job of getting into your head and making you want to play just in case the next machine you kill will drop a better sword than the one you’ve currently got equipped. The problem is that you get so much loot in the game that you’re forever checking your equipment inventory because, in all likelihood, you will have picked up a blueprint for a better piece of armour or weapon. It devalues the thrill of hearing that wonderful monk choir sound you hear when you land on a particularly nice piece of loot because you hear it so often. So, for the next game, we want less loot, so when you do finally land a red epic piece of armour, the reason you’ve been playing the game for the last four hours, it really will be worth something.

1. Answer the bloody question!

This was our biggest problem with Too Human. Not the combat, or the camera, or the plot. It was the fact that it completely ignored the question it poses in its title. Too Human is supposed to be about losing your humanity in order to save it – humans becoming more like robots and killer machines becoming more like humans. It’s an interesting premise, one we were hoping would be explored in some intelligent moral context. But all we got was the chance to add one of two new skill trees instead. The story doesn’t change as a result of your choice, and neither does Baldur, the main character. In the next game we want Silicon Knights to finally answer the question it poses with that Friedrich Nietzsche quote at the beginning of the game, and it be more than a statistical consideration for the player.

What are your ideas for the Too Human sequel? Let us know in the comments section below.