Too Human

Software developer Silicon Knights are probably best known for their work on the Nintendo GameCube title Eternal Darkness. With the ambitious gameplay and stylistic effects, Eternal Darkness managed to garner a nice following among the survival horror crowd. The team also had another project in the works called Too Human. Not much was known about this title other than that it would feature gritty combat and appeal to an older audience than most other titles on the GCN. Work on the Too Human project has since been moved over to the Xbox360 and the developers are sure you’re going to like what they’ve been able to accomplish by utilizing the more powerful hardware.

Judging by the trailer that was shown at X05, Too Human is going to kick butt in a major way. The game takes on a very Matrix-like look with flashy combat maneuvers and insane firefights. While the world looks very high tech, SK’s Denis Dyack states that, “it takes place in a very distant past on [a] world that has known nothing but war for thousands of years.â€? The storyline, again sounding somewhat inspired by The Matrix, involves a struggle against a legion of machines bent on killing anything that gets in their way. “These races of machines, once tools of war for mankind, now have become self sufficient and evolved far beyond what man once thought possible,â€? says Mr. Dyack.

In the game, you play the role of Baldur, a cybernetic warrior/god that fights against the deadly machines in order to save mankind. In a world fraught with chaos and destruction, Baldur still manages to stand out as one bad dude, and the weapons he wields make him more than a match for the machines. Expect plenty of mayhem as you slash through the robosapiens with glowing energy swords and blast them into another virtual dimension with firepower you’ve only dreamed of. Supposedly, you’ll also be able to add cybernetic upgrades to Baldur as you progress; this can only mean good things for those with a taste for destruction. The developers have also stated that Too Human will feature some sort of Xbox Live functionality and they think players will be pretty excited about it. Exactly what sort of functionality, we don’t know, but mass online battles sounds like a heap of fun to us.

Too Human looks great with sharp visuals and smooth animations; then again, it is running off a modified version of the Unreal 3 engine, so that’s not altogether surprising. The sounds of combat put you right in the thick of things and if they can get the voice acting right, we should have an aurally pleasing game on our hands when it hits retail shelves.

One of the more interesting things about the game’s storyline is that Too Human has actually been planned to spread across three games. Yes, we’ve got a video game trilogy on our hands here, but from the looks of things, that’s nothing to fret over. The game is still a ways off from release (near the end of 2006) and it’s already looking very impressive. Expect to see more on this game as it nears release.