Too Human (T)

Hack-n-slash, run-n-gun sci-fi adventure.

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About Our Ratings

Common Sense rates it

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details

Publisher: Microsoft
Genre: Video Games - Action/Adventure
Release Date: 08/19/2008
Online Enabled: Yes
ESRB Rating: T
ESRB Explanation: Blood, Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence
Price: $59.99

Parents need to know

Parents need to know that, despite ESRB warnings of "violence," "mild suggestive themes" and "language," this game is "Teen" -- and based on our testing, we feel this is an accurately assigned age rating. Fighting might cause blood to appear on a fallen enemy, which may be a cybernetic creature or futuristic human soldier. While there's no graphic gore such as dismemberment, executions are implied. Players will hear some swear words, but they're heard sparingly.

Families can talk about how the game designers attempted to combine Norse mythology with a futuristic sci-fi universe -- and if this fusion worked. Are there similarities between these two worlds? And did the game makers do a good job in overlapping the two?

Message
Violence
Sex
Language

Message

Social Behavior:

Aside from female dancers in a nightclub, woman are portrayed to be as important and powerful as men.

Consumerism:

Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:

Educational Value:

Violence

While not explicit, the game does show violence and blood via melee weapons (such as swords), guns, and magic.

Sex

Fairly tame, but there are dancers in a nightclub. One scene shows a woman's back exposed. One character is identified as a "whore."

Language

There are nine instances of curse words, including "bastard," "damn" and "hell".

Common Sense says

What's the story?

Reviewed by Marc Saltzman

Published by Microsoft Game Studios, TOO HUMAN is a sci-fi tale that takes place far into the future (yet peppered with nods to Norse mythology), where you play as a cybernetic god, Baldur, tasked to defend humankind from monstrous machinery bent on total destruction. With a combination of melee moves and fancy firearm work, you'll take down these threats – even dozens at the same time – to access new teleportation gateways and unlock the next cinematic sequence.

Run, gun, hack and slash through this third-person adventure by yourself, or if you prefer, play the entire single-player campaign in multiplayer co-op mode via Xbox Live.

Is it any good?

This long-delayed game doesn't disappoint because it's been in development since the dawn of humanity itself -- it was first shown at the E3 Expo in 1999 for the original Sony PlayStation before switching to the Nintendo GameCube and was then put on ice for other projects -- but this first in a planned trilogy from Silicon Knights doesn't deliver anywhere near the awe-inspiring interactive experience found in the developer's previous games, like Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.

Many of the game's notable attributes -- such as a cool story and role-playing game (RPG)-like upgrades -- are overshadowed by repetitive fight sequences, uninspiring level design, and nagging camera issues. Too Human is yet another example of a game that, while not terrible, doesn't live up to its hype. At best, consider this a decent weekend rental for fans of fantasy action games.

How to play

Playability: A sci-fi action/adventure hybrid that doesn't live up to its potential
Reading Required: Medium
Graphics: Decent, especially the cinematics, but hardly groundbreaking.