Ok, I'm sure you are sick to death of us talking about Too Human. We've covered it over and over. There were interviews, previews, videos, screenshots; if it was Too Human related we covered it. It should come as a surprise since the game has been dubbed "the next Diablo" thanks to a killer cooperative mode.
With less than two months until the game's release date, official hands on previews have been popping up. Wired is up first with their preview titled Too Human in 10 Hours. The author goes on to say that Too Human's story is engaging, but unfortunately just when things begin to really ramp up, the game ends about 10 hours in.
The good news is the game's presentation is top notch; fast smooth frame rates and great cut scenes with almost no loading screens make for a great experience. Unfortunately this preview (or any of the other ones for that matter) don't really touch on the co-op aspect of it. Hit the jump for previews from Kotaku and MTV on their experiences with the near final build.
Kotaku has had a similar experience with Too Human in their article Too Human: Six Hours in and Half-Way Home. The author was a bit puzzled by the fact that a game that was originally set to be 80 hours long and spanning multiple discs could end up at only about 12 hours in length.
But as I hacked my way through the Xbox 360 game's first six hours of the single player campaign — putting me at about half-way through, according to the game's own Stats ticker — I began to mostly puzzled by what it was the team was doing with its time. Too Human seems surprisingly unpolished for a game that's been in some form of development for a decade, delayed multiple times, one due to be released in less than two months. Granted, the letter that accompanied our preview copy of Too Human did warn that our pre-release build was not "final retail code" and may have gameplay bugs that "will be addressed in the final retail game."
This preview is a bit more in depth with talks specific to the controls and camera. The preview is finally wrapped up trashing the game's graphics and style - quite the opposite of the Wired preview.
Finally up is the middle ground of the previews, MTV Multiplayer's - Too Human Xbox 360 Preview 'In the Shadow of Metal Gear'. What does Too Human have to do with Metal Gear Solid? Well Silicon Knight's last game was actually a MGS remake. But more so, the author states that Too Human's story he found quite a bit better than that of MGS4, a game he was recently playing.
It’s story: distinct yet less ambitiously told than that of “Metal Gear” from what I’ve seen so far. It’s gameplay: more pure than that of “Metal Gear.”
The good news from MTV is Too Human is all about the items - which lends itself well to co-op play.
Dyack’s game will likely also be contentious because it is a game that is meant to be paused — frequently. It is a game about upgrading. Every enemy drops loot: health, bounty money, arms and armor. All of it can be armed, sold, or merged with other items to create something new. The game does little of this management for the player, so only those who won’t mind or who will in fact enjoy selecting the best helmet, shoulder-guards or dual-wield swords — and repeating the process within the next five minutes of play — are likely to enjoy “Too Human.” In three hours, my Baldur, a melee-favoring Berzeker class warrior, gained much power because of how I armed him. His increase was satisfying.
The bad news from MTV is the game has issues with flow and pacing.
All in all these previews come as kind of a disappointment. Not a single one even mentioned the co-op aspect of the game. It's also disappointing to hear that after some 10 years of development and design the game still has rough edges. Grants SI has been through a lot with the whole engine lawsuit. We aren't putting Too Human off just yet, but we are going to keep a cautious eye on it.