Consolation Prize

Too Human is an unusual game to play. Not from the perspective of its genre, as it could be catogorised as a futuristic action RPG dungeon crawler, but in the way that it requires a serious investment of both time and energy in order to fully understand how to play the game and enjoy its full potential.

I’ve not played a game in a long while where I’ve been left feeling completely confounded by a game. It was only through determination - and gritted teeth - that the veil of fog clouding my comprehension of its mechanics began to lift. Only now, after completion, do I feel like I’m starting to get a handle on some of the peculiarities surrounding Too Human.

Finally I’ve grasped how light and dark “polarity” enemies’ work. Virtually impregnable to either melee strikes or ballistic attacks the correct type of attack must be used against these opponents otherwise they’ll benefit from whatever you throw at them. It sounds like a simple rule but as it’s not explained in depth (correct me if I’m wrong) it led to many frustrating encounters where I was slaughtered by these seemingly invulnerable opponents. It was only through enabling the damage meter that I could spot these enemies and witnessed my ballistic attacks having a negligible effect. Thus I needed to switch to an alternative strategy - melee where ballistic resistance was obvious - to dispatch the numerous hordes.

Discovering how to use the dodge manoeuvre effectively is a key skill in Too Human. Not only in the literal sense that it gets the character out of the way of incoming projectiles, but also in the fact that while dodging your character will have a few frames of invulnerability, which if timed correctly will help avoid any knockdown effects from area attacks. Again, this is another aspect that isn’t taught, but learned through trial and error - and numerous deaths. It’s a revelation when you realise those Troll hammer attacks and ground pounds are not to be feared after all.

The list of nuances with the games mechanics and lack of hand holding also extends further, for example Charms, where you’re given a descriptive paragraph and then immediately expected to understand how to use the ability effectively. It all feels very perplexing.

Does Too Human show a considered and player friendly approach to game design? I would have to resoundingly say “No“. If you devise complex game mechanics then a few words said in passing via a popup screen, or worse still not even earning a mention must surely constitute a designers faux pas.

I can fully appreciate why Too Human generated such a great deal of negativity from the critical press upon release, whom can little afford to spend twenty odd hours playing a game in the hope of understanding how it all works. And let’s face it why should they, or we for that matter, have to?

As it stands Too Human is a game that you’re either going to love or hate. If you toil past all the frustrations and stumble upon enlightenment then you’ll discover a decent game that will keep you entertained for hours. I know I’ve certainly reached that point and I can now appreciate it for what it’s worth. Good? Yes. Flawed? Absolutely.

I agree. I really enjoy Too Human but if I had not played co-op very early with someone who had figured out all the little tricks I would have stopped playing very early. There are too many little things the don’t fully explain that you just kinda have to figure out.

I haven’t played and will probably never play Too Human but I understand exactly what you are trying to say as I’ve experienced it before myself.

I find that games of this nature are difficult to ‘hate’. The problem is on one hand, obviously, as you say Damon, the game and its tutorial process is fundamentally flawed. If you find yourself getting road blocked by the game’s mechanics because they haven’t been explained clearly enough, then yes, this is the game’s fault. On the other hand, since you’ve taken the time and liberty to understand what the game is trying to tell to you then it’s hard to fight against it, since this extra time in some ways allows you to apreciate the game more.

I guess the issue here is that there is no exact answer, different people respond to the game’s interplay differently. Some will take the added time to make sense of it all and hence apreciate it more than the people that gave up early on.

Exactly Daniel, you’ve succinctly summed up what I was trying to say about Too Human. I suppose this is how some games get a devoted following, but from the outside looking in it’s hard to understand why. There does however have to be at least a glimmer of light that the player can see in a game, and that is what I found within Too Human.

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