Too Human demo up in 7 hours (5:00am est)

[demi]

It is good.

[border]

Demo Limitations - Why only 1 class?  Would it really have been that awful to let us try out more than the Champion?  Did they think that letting us play more than 1 class for ~45 minutes would somehow satiate audiences so much that they wouldn't buy the game?  On the bright side, the demo is very long and lets you get a pretty good introduction to the game.

Gameplay - Combat just feels really automated and disconnected.  All you ever did in PSO was spam the same 3-hit combo but even that at least had a "feel" to it.  This doesn't feel like much of anything.  I like the sliding around and weapon sounds, but just doing that gets a little old.  Holy christ the minibosses can be annoying -- you have to lower their shields with your guns, but as soon as you get their attention they run right for you and start knocking you down and fucking up your blasting.  This feels like something that is a relic of the game's dead 4P co-op, where you would have a tank draw melee aggro while ranged DPS brings down the shields.  In 1P campaign it's mostly just you desperately trying to gain distance from an invulnerable enemy that won't stop chasing you down -- not fun.

I'm still a little confused about how to pull certain moves off, like the air juggle or whatever.  It doesn't help that all the enemies are 1-hit cannon fodder, so they are dead almost before you can do anything slick.

Shooting in general seems pretty useless.  If you lose your lock on a target, good luck re-acquiring it in the sea of trash mobs spawned in the dungeon.

Also -- what happened to auto-salvage?  The game claimed it would sell off useless crap for me, but I was still stuck manually selling junk that was worse than what I had equipped.

Story - Cutscenes are dull, boring, and have bad lip-syncing.  But I wasn't playing for the story anyway.  Those 3 ladies in cyberspace -- are they the Furies or something?  I like the slutty one.

Final Thought - I might rent this game, just to see if and how it progresses, but I'm not expecting a great deal.  It isn't terrible, but it seems like there is nothing pushing me forward.  It's the sort of game where you hit one frustrating puzzle or boss, then you stop playing and never bother to pick it back up again.

[duckman2000]

Its definitely not the worst game I've ever played.

Denis should have just stfu.

You never heard Realtime Worlds talking about how the narrative in their game was Shakespeare like.

People trolled Crackdown, then the demo came out and BOOM.

Crackdown was just plain fun, and that's something anyone can appreciate. From what I'm reading about Too Human, it's anything but fun. And I honestly think that an aggressively mediocre demo is going to attract more ire than a downright shitty one; at least with the latter, it's a defined bad. A high profile game that has been talked up to the heavens by its own creator and the media (yes, I still think media has been far too soft with Dyack) and then ends up being mediocre is a pretty massive sin. No one wants to be bored, and especially not when boredom comes in a bloody serious, "epic" wrapper.

Gameplay - Combat just feels really automated and disconnected.

I really wonder if Denis will ever understand how poorly this meshes with the topic of Norse mythology and culture that he chose for his game.

[demi]

Also -- what happened to auto-salvage?  The game claimed it would sell off useless crap for me, but I was still stuck manually selling junk that was worse than what I had equipped.

That's only if your inventory is full. It ditches the lowest valued items when you get newer ones.

[y2kev]

It was definitely a major development misstep to design the game from what seems to be the rear-end first. The loot system seems really nicely developed (even though I think most of the items are kind of ugly and without a mouse I can only imagine how this interface would bring equipment changing to a crawl in 4p coop) and the skill tree systems are okay...but the combat is really incredibly dull and uninvoling. Even the "advanced" techniques are uninteresting and look ugly and unfulfilling. There's no way the game should have gone so far in concepting with the combat the way it is.

I could really see this working as a God of War style game with loot. With reports of it only being 10 hours long, I think that would be pretty badass actually. This...I dunno, it just feels so automated and uninteresting.

It's not LAIR bad-- the game design, poor as it is, is at least from this decade-- but comparisons to Haze might be apt. Competent but just completely snore worthy.

Still renting, probably...unless Mercs 2 gets bumped up a week.

The cutscenes are worse than ED, which is saying something.

[Third]

The Daikatana of this generation.

Poor Denis.

[duckman2000]

It was definitely a major development misstep to design the game from what seems to be the rear-end first. The loot system seems really nicely developed (even though I think most of the items are kind of ugly and without a mouse I can only imagine how this interface would bring equipment changing to a crawl in 4p coop) and the skill tree systems are okay...but the combat is really incredibly dull and uninvoling. Even the "advanced" techniques are uninteresting and look ugly and unfulfilling. There's no way the game should have gone so far in concepting with the combat the way it is.

I could really see this working as a God of War style game with loot. With reports of it only being 10 hours long, I think that would be pretty badass actually. This...I dunno, it just feels so automated and uninteresting.

I'm not sure they are capable of it. I mean, originally, Dyack did talk a lot about the combat, to the point where people started referring to the game as action-RPG with the emphasis on the action bit. But then after the demonstrations showed some very lame looking combat, the tune changed. So, maybe they did in fact change direction. But then direct comparisons to God of War is probably the last thing they would want anyway, or it'd make their interpretation and presentation of the chosen mythology look even less brilliant. Not that dull and sterile combat doesn't already shit on this interpretation, but it could be worse.

[duckman2000]

Anyways, this game will sell terribly, and I doubt we'll see the trilogy.

It's a 360 game, and an exclusive one at that. It will sell, 360 owners buy (and like) anything.

[Third]

The Daikatana of this generation.

Poor Denis.

Did you PLAY Daikatana?

No, seriously.

Or are you just using the meme?

Yep, the n64 version. Not for long though.

Poor Denis/Romero.

[Kestastrophe]

Just finished the demo. As it has already been said in this thread, the combat was very simplistic and uninvolving, but I still had fun with it. I could definitely see how collecting the next best armor and weapons will be addicting. But dear God, the presentation is awful. The voice acting and writing in the demo are extremely bland and boring. The presentation is just awful, imo. Also, I could see myself loathing having to go into cyberspace to do some menial puzzle or something. There seemed to be no point to them, as the puzzles weren't engaging or enhancing the story in any way.

I am sure that I could have a fun time in this game, but not $60 worth of fun. I'll wait until this game inevitably drops to $35 in a few months.

[y2kev]

they have ads for it in EGM

the ads also have the nietzsche quote, but it's actually phrased differently

[MCD]

It will sell, 360 owners buy (and like) anything

that's because with exquisite taste comes an air of superiority and decadence that other competitors can only fake with a shitty high price tag.

X360 : the Toffs console, the pretenders may fornicate in the street with their falsehoods  

lets face it - it probably is a better game than MGS4..

[y2kev]

they have ads for it in EGM

the ads also have the nietzsche quote, but it's actually phrased differently

Who outside of people who already know about Too Human read EGM?

no one reads egm actually

i use it to line my birdcage

and cut out pictures of karen chu <3 <3

[cool breeze]

I enjoyed the demo for the most part.  Combat was so stupid that it was enjoyable.  Once you realize how stupid and bad it is, it almost is kind of fun in the same way that sniffing glue or eating paint chips is fun.  Turn your brain off for a moment and hold down a direction as pretty loot falls from the bad man.  Cut scenes are bad; I would actually compare them to Halo 3, which isn't exactly a compliment.  Graphics are decent outside of the frame rate.  Not buying this, but I don't think it is very bad.  I also enjoyed the Haze demo, but I could tell that would be bad.  I think this will be bad more on the scale of Army of Two or something like that.  A capable game that does nothing very interesting or particularly well, yet claims to do bold new things only to not even match up with who it was trying to emulate.

[demi]

Haters annihilated... hit me up for some co-op

[Kestastrophe]

Uggghh, did anyone else notice a little lag in the menus? For a game that is centered around looting and equipment upgrades, the menu could have been more streamlined.

[duckman2000]

I see the Microsoft plants are finally at work in the NeoGAF thread. Took them long enough.

And this:

Conjured up far more images of Alien Syndrome Wii than it did Diablo II.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=11948597&postcount=827

You just know that Dyack went to wrestle down some poor office clerk after reading that.

[cool breeze]

Uggghh, did anyone else notice a little lag in the menus? For a game that is centered around looting and equipment upgrades, the menu could have been more streamlined.

Yeah, I was thinking that if I buy this game ever in the distant future, that would get really annoying to deal with.  Even the several times I went in to upgrade my skills and weapons were annoying.  I mean, at least if you have quick equipment on select, backing out should take you to the game and not to the start menu. 

[demi]

Too Human > Mass Effect

[cool breeze]

I see the Microsoft plants are finally at work in the NeoGAF thread. Took them long enough.

This is some good shit:

Is this the kind of banter that got you demoted from mod status?

The game doesn't suck. By any stretch of the imagination. Sure, maybe it's not for you. Sure, maybe the combat wasn't as deep as you were expecting. Sure, maybe the cutscenes don't look like Mass Effect. But it doesn't suck.

I can understand complaints about aspects of the game. It's not perfect. And it may not be the kind of game everyone wants to play. But to just come out and say it sucks and has no redeeming qualities is petty and infantile.

Lets run this down for a second:

-It isn't for you.
-Combat wasn't good.
-Cut scenes weren't good
-Not a game people want to play.
-If it has one good aspect, it must be good and can't suck.

Too Human sucks despite having good aspects.  I even enjoyed the demo, but I still think it sucks.  For reference sake, I enjoyed the Haze demo also.  I would probably enjoy an Alone in the Dark demo if there was one.

[AdmiralViscen]

I'm at 15%, won't be able to finish before work.

They really should have included Crackdown accelerated leveling, and co op.

Aww, another must have 360 exclusive from the list warz of old doesn't measure up.

Too Bad.

The last time someone used this game in a list war was early 2006. Get a grip.

Especially from a supporter of the console that brought us Haze, Heavenly Sword, Lair, and a bunch of shit that never even came out.

[duckman2000]

Especially from a supporter of the console that brought us Haze, Heavenly Sword, Lair, and a bunch of shit that never even came out.

Oh come on now, I don't even like HS, but it certainly doesn't belong in that group. I doubt Too Human does either, but really now.

[muckhole]

Arrgh. I'm sitting at my gf's place, and I forgot to bring over my mem card with my profile on it. Trying to recover your gamertag on a busy server day is impossible, and it doesn't save any of the steps after it fails.

I can't believe I forgot my mem card today of all days.

[cool breeze]

Oh come on now, I don't even like HS, but it certainly doesn't belong in that group. I doubt Too Human does either, but really now.

Yeah, Heavenly Sword is certainly better than Too Human even if you just watch the cut scenes.  The combat in it isn't that great, but it is enjoyable for the most part.  Actually, maybe those two games are more comparable than Lair and Too Human are.

[AdmiralViscen]

Especially from a supporter of the console that brought us Haze, Heavenly Sword, Lair, and a bunch of shit that never even came out.

Oh come on now, I don't even like HS, but it certainly doesn't belong in that group. I doubt Too Human does either, but really now.

I don't think Too Human will either, which is why HS makes the cut.

Better combat, better cutscenes, worse framerate and worse length, no multi, plus waggle = same plane

I almost bought Haze too in fact, just for some multiplayer action. But I couldn't get anyone else to do it with me


Actually, what's the last list warz 360 game that turned out to be a dud? Ninety Nine Nights?

[duckman2000]

Wait, so this demo is Qore'd? I guess I'll cancel that loaner 360 then, as I only have Silver. 

Then again, borrowing a 360 (again) only so that I can troll with credibility might be a waste of time that I don't have. But I want to troll. 

[AdmiralViscen]

I'm sure you'll have a fuckton of bitchy impressions and new videos to base it on.

[duckman2000]

I'm sure you'll have a fuckton of bitchy impressions and new videos to base it on.

That just won't do. I can troll what I see in the videos, but nothing can make up for first hand impressions.

I almost bought Haze too in fact, just for some multiplayer action. But I couldn't get anyone else to do it with me

I would have rented it, had they at least gotten the MP right. But all the reviews seemed to suggest that the MP was sort of crap, and with the demo being so critically meh, it seemed like a waste of a good rental. I read the story breakdown, seems like they actually did some cool things there, but not cool enough to sit through the game.

[demi]

what a fuck dirty poor

[duckman2000]

what a fuck dirty poor

I would have paid my Gold bill if Microsoft wouldn't have made it so god damned difficult to pay the bill. The great software and service company my ass. 

[Brehvolution]

It will sell, 360 owners buy (and like) anything

that's because with exquisite taste comes an air of superiority and decadence that other competitors can only fake with a shitty high price tag.

X360 : the Toffs console, the pretenders may fornicate in the street with their falsehoods  

lets face it - it probably is a better game than MGS4..

 :sp0rsk1

[duckman2000]

Whats your GT, duck?

Which one, the one I can't use because Microsoft sucks so much shit, or the Silver one that I had to create because Microsoft sucks so much shit? I can't remember the Silver one, I think it's DackDuckDack something, but the one I can't use because Microsoft sucks so much shit is PoisonMarket

[Brehvolution]

Especially from a supporter of the console that brought us Haze, Heavenly Sword, Lair, and a bunch of shit that never even came out.

Oh come on now, I don't even like HS, but it certainly doesn't belong in that group. I doubt Too Human does either, but really now.

Actually, what's the last list warz 360 game that turned out to be a dud? Ninety Nine Nights?

Just off the top of my head...

Two Worlds
Blue Dragon
NG2
Lost Odyssey

[cool breeze]

Uh, those last three are wrong.

[duckman2000]

Now the plants are working in tandem. Slow start, but they are making up for it!

Why can't you use the gold one?

Long story. Blocked credit card --> XBL balance --> account suspended --> Microsoft sucks shit at making it possible to update information and pay bill

[duckman2000]

"This game is insanely good. Anyone trying to pass off what is present in that demo as a terrible game or a game that isn't worth giving a shot to is really trying too hard to hate the game. It feels better than many games we've gotten this gen and that's the honest to god truth."

   

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Especially from a supporter of the console that brought us Haze, Heavenly Sword, Lair, and a bunch of shit that never even came out.

Oh come on now, I don't even like HS, but it certainly doesn't belong in that group. I doubt Too Human does either, but really now.

Actually, what's the last list warz 360 game that turned out to be a dud? Ninety Nine Nights?

Just off the top of my head...

Two Worlds
Blue Dragon
NG2
Lost Odyssey

Nope.

[Brehvolution]

Especially from a supporter of the console that brought us Haze, Heavenly Sword, Lair, and a bunch of shit that never even came out.

Oh come on now, I don't even like HS, but it certainly doesn't belong in that group. I doubt Too Human does either, but really now.

Actually, what's the last list warz 360 game that turned out to be a dud? Ninety Nine Nights?

Just off the top of my head...

Two Worlds
Blue Dragon
NG2
Lost Odyssey

Nope.

I guess people just put them on their fanboy list but then didn't buy them.

[dark1x]

Especially from a supporter of the console that brought us Haze, Heavenly Sword, Lair, and a bunch of shit that never even came out.

Oh come on now, I don't even like HS, but it certainly doesn't belong in that group. I doubt Too Human does either, but really now.

Actually, what's the last list warz 360 game that turned out to be a dud? Ninety Nine Nights?

Just off the top of my head...

Two Worlds
Blue Dragon
NG2
Lost Odyssey

The hell?  Two Worlds was crap, but the other three were all excellent games.

[cool breeze]

"This game is insanely good. Anyone trying to pass off what is present in that demo as a terrible game or a game that isn't worth giving a shot to is really trying too hard to hate the game. It feels better than many games we've gotten this gen and that's the honest to god truth."

   

CowboyAstronaut is a joke poster, right?

[duckman2000]

"This game is insanely good. Anyone trying to pass off what is present in that demo as a terrible game or a game that isn't worth giving a shot to is really trying too hard to hate the game. It feels better than many games we've gotten this gen and that's the honest to god truth."

   

CowboyAstronaut is a joke poster, right?

He's having a really difficult time dealing with the TH impressions. Almost Dyack-like, I'd say.

[Draft]

Combat is a fucking joke in this game.

Cutscenes are only 1/10th MGS4 length, and I'm still skipping them 

[Grecco]

I really hate the unskipable valkary animation when i die. Like Really really hate.

[cool breeze]

How did you die? This game is super easy.

[Draft]

How did you die? This game is super easy.

I died because it took me like 10 times to figure out the cow tipping mini game.

[Grecco]

How did you die? This game is super easy.

Got killed by one of the hammer dudes.

[cool breeze]

That blows my mind.  You literally play this game by holding the analog stick one direction.  I even beat the second robot gorilla without getting hit once.  I'm not even very good at all games! I died over 100 times in NG2.

[Draft]

That blows my mind.  You literally play this game by holding the analog stick one direction.  I even beat the second robot gorilla without getting hit once.  I'm not even very good at all games! I died over 100 times in NG2.

At first I tried to hit A, but he just jumps off. Then I tried to hold left or right on the left analog stick, because I thought it was a balance game. Didn't do anything. Then I tried to hold down on the right analog stick, like I would do if I wanted to swing my sword down. Didn't do anything. I tried flicking it up then down, didn't do anything. During this process, I accidentally flicked it left and right, and noticed the robot seemed to move in response.

So fuck you, the stupid analog stick controls your sword for 90% of the game and all the sudden it makes you lean left and right.

[Grecco]

I didnt know there was a QTE i just mashed him with an epic two hander i found and died

the combat is really shitty. Its like 3 frames of animation total

and the whole roller skating through enemies just bothers me.

[cool breeze]

I never did figure out how to dance with the robot.  I just hit left/right depending on both analog sticks and the triggers and it seemed to work.  I also beat the first one just by shooting its arms and legs.

[demi]

Beat the demo... do want

Day one

[Beezy]

I beat the demo too. It's not great, but I enjoyed it. I'd buy it if I could.

[Mr. Gundam]

Dyack is going to be on G4 this hour. Should be good.

[duckman2000]

played it again, enjoyed it a lot more.

What are you, some random GAFer?

[Narag]

I'm down with this. I do wish connected hits had associated rumble though. That'd help a lot.

[TVC15]

Wow, this camera is godawful.

[Narag]

Wow, this camera is godawful.

Left bumper recenters but since it snaps to behind baldur instead of panning there its disorienting


Oh wow, the isometric camera is nice.

[cool breeze]

Press down on the d-pad until you get to isometric.

Standard camera is horrible.

[TVC15]

Ok, like, second or third fight in the game, after the valkyrie takes the dude:

You walk a bit and then there's a cut scene.  I had skill points to distribute, so as soon as the scene ended, I pressed start to set up my skills (btw, the skill tree is ASS).  After I'm done, I return to the game annnnnnnd, the camera is pointing at the ceiling.  I can hear the monsters hitting me, I can see my life going down on the UI, and the camera never corrects itself.  I died because the camera glitched and was pointed in the wrong direction!

Great game, SK, GREAT game.

[Mr. Gundam]

MS dropped Stranger's Wrath, but kept this?