When a game is constantly delayed, there's no denying that it has automatic hype. After all, Daikatana, Half-Life 2, Too Human, and Duke Nukem Forever are victims of this. Daikatana ended up being a total failure after 3 years of delays, Half-Life 2 exceeded expectations and lived up to the hype after a 5 year development fiasco, and Duke Nukem Forever is still in development after 10 years of development. So what about Too Human? Well, the story of Too Human is just as epic as any of the other three games, but after nine years of development and nine years of automatic hype... it does not live up to expectations all that well. A little more time probably could have made this game of the year material.

Given the fact that this game involves Norse mythology and Sci-Fi, you'd expect an epic storyline of gods waging war. What you get is Baldur being assigned to protect the human race from its eradication from alien machines. The human gods use cybernetic implants for their powers, and the machines are harvesting humans to become more human, while Baldur is deemed "Too Human" because his enhancements are not as godlike as the other Norse gods. They have the setup for a great storyline, but the idea of you being a god can only mean one thing... oh yeah, you're going to feel like a god playing this game.

Too Human is an action game that backs itself up with a few interesting features, but they unbalance the gameplay in your favor. Instead of mashing buttons for melee attacks, you instead use the right analog stick for all your melee combat needs. It's a great way to avoid button mashing, but in some situations, don't come crying to me if you get a blister from the fast-paced action. I said it's a great change of gameplay style, but at the same time, whatever direction you press, Baldur will dash in that direction requiring almost no effort in combat to use the left analog stick paired with the melee stick. If that's not your schtick, you can always use guns, with both triggers firing individual pistols. The guns in this game are rather weak, and just like Mass Effect, you have an unlimited supply of ammunition. Baldur himself can be one of 5 classes, each with their own advantages and disadvantages, such as the Defender being able to tank, but he's not good with weapons. The only class that can actually heal itself is the Bio-Engineer, so the other four classes are the most likely to die unless you find enough health orbs. Take caution though, you'll be dying quite a lot at points and the Valkyries will carry your body to Valhalla. You know, it's an awesome looking death when you see them carry you away, but it's a lot like the Vita-Chambers in Bioshock as in no death penalty. It's so unrewarding, and almost unsatisfying. There's an RPG element to the game where you level up, and this unlocks armors, weapons, and skills. Unfortunately the game will scale the enemies so that they're always evenly matched with you... WHAT'S THE POINT IN THIS? There is an online coop mode, but this will eliminate any sense of a storyline by cutting out cutscenes, and it's only limited to 2 players.

From an artistic standpoint, the game looks incredible. The idea of Norse mythology in a cybernetic world allows for a lot of creativity. Loki looks great when his cybernetics are sticking out of his body. All of the environments themselves are gorgeous, especially when you go into "Cyberspace" to seek help from the Norns. There's a lot of color here, so it's not your typical monotone-ish game where it's mostly brown. From a technical standpoint, I wish I could say it looks great, but the cameras are usually so far from the action that you don't get to see some enemies up close. Speaking of the cameras, they did fix them for the final release, so the Isometric camera doesn't end up in a random spot. Still, it remains with a solid, playable frame rate of 30 frames per second, and your death is entirely awesome in motion. The voice acting is superb, and a lot of effort has gone into the voice work. When I first saw Loki, I was expecting him to have this raspy voice because of his lanky build and long hair, but he's got a deep voice that suits him well. Thor is a man with a commanding voice, but sometimes I think the performance is over the top. This game gets LOUD!! I'm not kidding when I say the sound effects are absolutely satisfying, and so loud that you could tear a house down if you're not careful with volume control.

To sum it up, Too Human had a 9 year development cycle, and with 9 years of development, they couldn't reach Game of the Year material. I'm sure there's a great game hidden here somewhere and maybe I missed it, but I was let down. It wasn't like Operation Darkness, where the game was terrible in every aspect because I want to at least finish the game so I'll be ready for more. The potential for a great game is here, but if Silicon Knights is serious about making this a trilogy, they've got a lot of work to do if they want Game of the Year.