A note from Denis:
We hope everyone enjoyed the announcements made at X06! There were quiet a few exciting things announced there and some great games to be seen as well. As you may have noticed we did not show in Barcelona. This decision to not show at X06 was made immediately after E3. We made the decision to next show the game when we are ready and we knew that X06 would not be the right time. When we do decide to show the game, our goal is to give everyone a true impression of the game – one that includes story, audio, game play, artwork and technology. Things are going very well and Too Human is shaping up to be our best game to date. Stay tuned because there will be a preview of the game in the future…
Too Human: The Gameplay
Henry Sterchi
Game Design Director
While a lot has been said in the blogs recently about Too Human’s art, backgrounds, music, enemies, and even the universe within the game, I’d like to cover some of its gameplay elements.. While I can’t reveal everything you’ll discover in Too Human, we can certainly delve into some pretty cool things!
As Denis stated in his initial IGN blog post, we at Silicon Knight believe that a true epic experience comes from the sum of a game’s art, music, story, technology, and of course, the gameplay. All of these elements make up the cornerstones to a Silicon Knight’s experience.
When you walk into a beautiful environment, you want to explore it. When you learn about fantastic situations, intriguing events, and compelling characters, you probably will want to learn more, know more, and you care about what happens. When you walk into a huge battle and an epic score sweeps in, that battle becomes more important, exciting, and intense.
The first thing I’ll touch on is the control scheme. In Too Human, players utilize the right analog stick to perform the basic melee combat attacks. While several games in the past have used the right analog stick to attack, Too Human utilizes this concept in a substantially different way. Other games have used the right analog stick as a replacement for a standard button press combat system. Too Human’s gameplay focus was on constantly battling streams of enemies attacking and swarming from all angles. Conventionally you would need to face the enemy with your movement and line up to them properly, and then initiate the attack with a button press or have your moves automatically orientate and pull you through the combat. Switching between targets quickly would often require orientating/re-orientating, and then attacking quickly. Too Human’s right analog stick combat allows players to instantly attack in any direction and flow attacks effortlessly between targets.
One of our primary goals with Too Human is to allow players with varying skill levels to not only have access to the game, but to also empower even the most novice players with a wide array of fun, exciting, and entertaining attacks. With the right analog stick performing basic attacks, attacking enemies is as simple as pointing at the enemy you wish to put on the receiving end of Baldur’s fury. Utilizing different patterns, combinations, and other means of control input including conventional buttons and triggers allows access to a deeper repertoire of moves such as ranged gun combat, juggle attacks, air combat, advanced combos and moves, and spectacular finishing moves. This system provides a new level of accessibility but still provides a depth of moves in the arsenal to master.
While the action element is a major component to the game, we have been unable to discuss or show a lot of specifics about Too Human’s RPG content and gameplay. While unfortunately this has left things open to a lot of speculation as to what Too Human will be, it really needs to be played and experienced to be understood. One of the unique aspects of Too Human is that one could say the game is a fast-paced action title with a full-fledged RPG component. While one could also say Too Human is an epic RPG with action based battles. Neither is more important than the other, and ultimately Too Human is uniquely both - an intense action based combat game with exceptionally deep RPG gameplay where in many of the choices the player makes throughout the game defines how they play the game. Breaking out a massive combo upon the enemies, and then finding an uber loot item with great powers is both abundant and core to the game. Fans of both genres will find a massive amount of each genre’s core elements to enjoy. It’s entirely up to them on how much of each - or even both - they dive into and how they decide to play the game will result in their own unique gameplay experience.
Balancing the RPG with the action is a challenging task. Too Human’s main goal is to remain accessible and fun while providing a strong layer of depth for the players that want it from each style. As the main hero, Baldur embarks on the task of defending humanity against a horde of attacking robots. He will slay hundreds of beasts in vicious battles with devastating sword attacks, pulverizing hammer smashes, shootouts, wicked combo attacks, and much, much more.
In doing so, players will find that their character will also be gaining experience, collecting new weapons, armor, and ultimately gaining new skills and abilities. These elements will help define their particular character and play style. In addition, unique enemy designs highlight not only tactical strategies, attacks, and teamwork, but the game also rewards players for avoiding their specific strengths and learning how to capitalize on their inherent weaknesses.
Different weapon choices and even different weapon combinations will also change the game experience and combat possibilities. And then, all of those can be factored into co-op style multiplayer for even more combination possibilities. Ultimately, a highly skilled action player may be able to devastate rooms even if they aren’t super well outfitted with gear. A novice action gamer, on the other hand, will also be able to devastate a room if they have some of the great gear at their disposal.
All of these elements and a lot more come together in Too Human to create a very unique style of game that we all look forward to you playing.
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Still sounds awesome, even though I was disappointed to not see it at X06, I was still holding out hope for a Christmas 06 release
