Too Human (Xbox 360)
The first part of Silicon Knights' grandiose Norse trilogy turns out to be not so epic after all.
8/20/2008 9:12 PM | 3 Comments | Page 2 of 3
What's Hot: Tons of cool-looking loot; Intriguing fusion of Norse mythology and advanced tech; Controls are button-mashing-free; One of the characters is a severed talking head.
What's Not: Broken camera and targeting system; Unsophisticated enemies and allies; Barren environments; Graphically dated; You have to watch a 26-second cut scene each time you die.
The serenity doesn't last for long, though. Once the game starts to add in the beefed up "leader" characters, and variations on basic goblins that pack projectiles or the ability to freeze, flame, poison, or slow Baldur down, combat takes a nosedive. It's at this time that the game's primitive targeting system and completely broken camera (not "quirky," not "innovative," not "temperamental," but
broken) conspire to send Baldur up to Valhalla more times than I care to remember.
When faced with these clusters of enemies (which, by the way, have no advanced strategy beyond "let's all swarm Baldur at the same time"), gameplay becomes like that of Dynasty Warriors but without the sense of invincibility and reckless abandon that comes with having a ridiculously long life bar and enemies that merely chip away at you like gnats on an elephant. You'll start to die quickly and often, whether it's due to getting cheaped from afar by five sharpshooters at the same time or getting snagged by a fire or poison status drain and watching in despair as your health meter goes to zero with no hope of recovery because there are no randomly appearing health-replenishers nearby. Cue the valkyrie and reach for the laptop to check the weather.
One of Baldur's companions is a severed head who gets dragged around by his brain wires. At least he has an excuse for not helping with the fighting.
Baldur's computer-controlled companions prove to be stunningly useless on the battlefield. They actually seem to pop in and out of encounters at will, and when they are in the same vicinity as you and an enemy they're likely to stand there immobile, or inexplicably walk in the opposite direction of a foe.
Even bad-ass Thor kind of sucked. On one occasion he literally stood there, not fighting back, as a giant spider attacked him over and over again, leaving it up to me to drain the thing's life bar -- once I managed to target it, mind you. As I ran towards the spider and took out my gun to fire, Baldur abruptly turned and started firing into the thin air behind him. It happens a lot.
On the upside, there is a ton of equipment to scavenge and most of it looks pretty damn cool. There's so much of it, though, that you'll either spend literally hours meticulously re-equipping after every battle, or you'll ignore it for so long that, when you finally do access your inventory, you'll have to trash the first nine sets of armor unworn.
