US, October 15, 2007 - Too Human isn't God of War. It isn't Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden, either. It certainly looks like a traditional action game which may be where a lot of the confusion and backlash originated when Too Human was first shown at E3 back in 2006. In fact, the game is an RPG in the vein of Diablo with some heavy action elements tossed in to make things a tad more interesting than repeatedly clicking on a single button. Silicon Knights realized these role-playing mechanics weren't quite there when the game was first put into the hands of the media in 2006, which is why the team went dark for so long. Better to not show the game at all than to show something that isn't representative of what the team is aiming for. With the game approaching completion, Silicon Knights is ready to lift the veil and let the world see more of what it has been working on. And so IGN made the trip up to St. Catherine's in Canada to see if the award-winning studio could change the early negative perceptions of its upcoming trilogy.

Flashbacks are just one cinematic tool that Silicon Knights is using in an attempt to better marry the story and game into one experience. The interactive cutscenes are all done using the game's engine which allows for seamless transitions between story sequences and straight gameplay. And when we say seamless, we mean it. As long as we didn't push a button to skip a cutscene, we didn't see a single loading screen after the initial start up. None. Not even a "now loading" text prompt while the game pauses could be found. It all streams in from the background without any break in the action.

The cutscenes are worth watching, too. Using advances in animation and visual fidelity, Silicon Knights appear to have brought a subtlety not often found in games to the story of Too Human. The cutscenes we saw were filled with dialogue, but a second layer of intrigue could be found on the faces of those involved. We only played the game for an hour, but already could see how much easier it would be to relate to the minor characters who were fleshed out with shy, worried looks and furtive glances.

But then, the game is essentially an extension of Diablo which makes a major critique of the combat rather superfluous. Massive numbers of enemies are tossed at you at once and the hook to keep playing through the game multiple times is to level up your character (all the way to 50 on the first leg of the trilogy alone) and find sweet loot. The basic "push a button and get a reward" game psychology is here in full force. Just within the first hour of the game we came across a huge variety of upgrades. Six separate armor pieces, each of which changes your appearance when swapped, and numerous melee and gun classes are up for grabs. And the swords do feel different than the hammers and staves. Not everything can be equipped -- some require certain levels, skills or classes to be used -- but there is no shortage of loot to be found and toyed with.

The RPG mechanics go deeper than leveling up and managing equipment. A stats screen keeps track of your playtime, defensive and offensive statistics, as well as providing numbers for all of the standard RPG categories. It also showed a token list for each of the four worlds (Hel, Hall of Heroes, Ice Forest, and World Serpent) which we assume would be special hidden bonuses.

That big guns are no joke.Then there's the skill tree, blueprints, and runes; three aspects of the game we only got a small glimpse of. There are only five classes, plus perhaps more on the way as downloadable extras, but even two players with the same class can have radically different abilities. The skill tree unlocks at level five which came at the tail end of the area we were allowed to play in. It won't be possible to unlock every skill, we're told, requiring each player to choose which branches to invest in. You'll also have to choose whether to align yourself with humans or machines; one providing more attack moves while the other gives you access to extra weapons and weapon functions including a massive cannon. The runes, meanwhile, provide little side quests of sorts and reward you with small stat or skill bonuses upon completion. Each requires a small task to be complete in the game, such as to kill 25 enemies with explosives, but they must be equipped to activate the quest.

If there's one thing that our time with Too Human gave us, it was a desire to see more of the game. The RPG mechanics are solid, even if the combat isn't quite all there yet. Everything is still in the works, which makes this game so intriguing. We can give the combat a pass for now as it isn't quite finished and may evolve drastically as the game progresses to become more in-depth. We saw only an hour of the game and reached level seven with just a few skills and a fraction of the story revealed to us. And it still was a bit overwhelming. The later level content sounds great, especially since the game is designed to be played through multiple times with friends as the enemy placement and loot drops change each time. Don't count Too Human out yet. You might be sorry you did.

Still not doing anything to me, just compare a gameplay video of this to DMC4, the disparance of quality is amazing. Then again, if combat isn't the point of the game, I guess it doesn't matter much.

For starters, Too Human will be very much story-driven, and without wishing to give too much away, those of you who dig Norse mythology (albeit with a sci-fi twist) are in for a real treat. Those of you who enjoy role-playing games with an emphasis on loot collection should also find plenty that appeals in Too Human because based on what we saw of the game's loot system, it's going to be every bit as robust as those found in many massively multiplayer online games, including World of Warcraft.

We're told that there will be "thousands" of different weapons and armor pieces to collect in Too Human. If you're the kind of player who (like us) gets a real kick out of getting your hands on the best gear, you'll be pleased to learn that the loot table will include extremely rare epic items that afford you bonuses when you have all six matching armor pieces, for example. Some items can also be augmented with runes to afford you attribute bonuses on top of those already offered by the weapon or armor piece when you find it. For example, one of the epic-class weapons that we got our hands on had three empty slots for runes, so we wasted no time applying some of the runes that we'd found to it for bonuses, such as better loot drops, increased attack power, and faster reload times. In addition to the six different pieces of armor, Too Human's items include nine different classes of melee weapon and nine different classes of ranged weapon, so the odds of you running into a doppelganger when playing online are very slim indeed.

It seems people will forever be confused about this game :)

Or cant be arsed to actually read up on the game :)

Ah, my guess is 2008.