Much has been said about the Nordic adventure’s unique story. The sci-fi twist is a left-field approach considering the Norse mythology inspirations, and playable flashback sequences crop up with some regularity to deepen the tale. But although the story is a crucial part of any RPG, this game can’t be pigeonholed so easily. Too Human isn’t simply about stats and numbers

Spread over four levels, you’ll take your character Baldur and turn him into the man you want to play as. Five classes - that’s Commando, Defender, Bio-Mechanic, Berserker and Champion - are on offer to cater for every taste, and after making that decision you can tweak every move, weapon and armour piece to your heart’s content. In fact, aside from Baldur’s physique, you can customise absolutely anything you want.

Four levels doesn’t sound like much, and it wouldn’t be by conventional thinking. But despite its at-first-glance generic design, Too Human is far from conventional, and as it shares more in common with Phantasy Star Online (another game with four ‘levels’) than anything else, we’re confident that there’s plenty of gaming to be had. These are not four point-to-point sprints, where you can see and do it all in the first visit; they’re sprawling worlds to return to time and time again in the search for ever-better item drops. Extra locations make an appearance, and you’ll also be able to explore an area known as cyberspace - a different plane of existence that shares parallels with the ‘real world’ and focuses on puzzles rather than combat - all mixing things up a little bit.

Too Human will thrive on its online community, only this time around there’s no monthly subscription fee to fork out for. The entire world levels up in order to challenge any team of which you’re a part, so there’s always a fresh challenge on the horizon. Say you and three mates team up over Xbox Live. You may all be at the same level, but what if one player is massively more powerful? Too Human calculates any combination, so in this situation it would throw a couple of powerful enemies your way for the strongest member to battle, and plenty of weaker enemies that need mopping up by the rest. If they fail, the swarm will swamp the stronger member, so the system ensures that everybody has an equally important role to play regardless of rank and bicep-size.

The game has a level cap of 50, so you can’t begin Too Human 2 as a level 99 superhero. That’s not to say that things are over once you’ve hit the big five-oh. Part of the draw of Too Human is the search for rare items, and there’s a frighteningly long list of weapons and armour to find. There should be more than enough to tide you over until the sequel’s out, anyway. Balancing your items takes place in a deep and intricate system. Armour and weapons need to be juggled to maximise the stats, so break out that calculator.

The combat’s a radical departure from the norm. Dropped into this pseudo-RPG is a system not wholly unlike that of Devil May Cry, only slightly more versatile. Flicking the right stick in the direction of an enemy will cause Baldur to dash across to said foe. Another flick will attack with your melee weapon (be it sword or hammer), and holding the right trigger will turn it all a bit Dante and whip out the guns. From what we’ve seen Baldur will be able to target individual enemies with each weapon for big-scale combo-kills and, more importantly, style. Fancy upper-cutting your enemy into the air, jumping up to bash him around and then slamming him back down to the ground, sending a few bullets his way for good measure? Not a problem. When you consider that you can then mix all this with magical attacks (again, you choose how Baldur evolves and what attacks he’ll gain by the way of a skill-tree) and summons by using the face buttons, the potential is huge.

Despite a definite slant toward melee combat, Too Human still offers plenty of long-range weapons and you’ll need to make good use of them. Projectiles will fly in thick and fast if you’ve not killed everything on screen, and unlike your standard RPG’s you can’t take your time getting the job done. The aiming reticule shows what Baldur’s currently attacking - most handy when you’re surrounded and you’re trying to shoot down a troublesome enemy. However, it’ll also tell you what level they’re at, so you always know if you’re better off running than you are fighting. Although you’re capped at level 50 in the first game we’ve spied beasts that are 53 and above, so don’t think you’ll have it easy when you’re maxed out.

There’s also a handy gauge that keeps track of your health, weapons, magical energy and so on - as you’d expect, but there’s a combo meter tucked in as well, and it’ll shoot up during the big battles. It’s not there simply for show though, and you’ll be rewarded with goodies should you fight well. The same attack time and time again won’t work so you really need to mix things up if you want the prizes.

Still, forget about wading through piles of enemies and cutting them down - you won’t get anywhere if you play this like a conventional hack-’n’-slash. Magical abilities play a crucial part in toppling the larger foes. The spells have all got colorful names like ‘Superior Tveihender of Ferocity’. It’s also possible to modify Baldur himself by using cybernetics to increase speed, strength, stamina and other similar attributes. Be wary: there’s a fine line between using enough to increase your statistics and using so many that you virtually become a robot. It’s a balance Baldur’s well aware of, and the other gods mock his reluctance to use the cybernetic implants as much as he could. They see him as being too human… hence the name.

The danger is that Too Human might be trying too hard. The game is aiming to reach some simply massive targets, and given the blend of genres it’s arguably one of the most ambitious Xbox 360 titles to date, not the run-of-the-mill scrapper it first appeared to be. But Silicon Knights are more than equal to the task. Given their pedigree, Baldur’s machinations could turn into something quite special.

Keep your eyes peeled for our hands-on preview next week.

Show me or let me play, I've had enough of these writings that really don't help the situation.......for me anyways, IN MY OPINION, I, ME! (Grift should be happy!)

New Video From IGN
http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/748/748783/vids...

.............Uh...........Yeah, opinion is the same. I do see an increase in the number of enemies on screen though. But man, are those animations BAD or what? And it isn't even on a technical level only, it's their decisions, wtf is it with all the sliding? Looks really awful in that respect.

Lebato, why do you even bother posting in Too Human threads? The game looks absolutely incredible. If the game fulfills the promise shown in the IGN piece, it will easily be the best game that I own thus far this generation.