ghost_wolf
12-13-2008, 08:53 PM
“A study in contrast” is an interesting English phrase that I don’t think gets used as much as it should. For those of you who aren’t English Lit. majors, “a study in contrast” means that the thing being described has such an extreme or eclectic collection of good and bad qualities as to be utterly fascinating. That’s the way I view Too Human. It is a game that simultaneously reaches incredible heights and plummets to abominable lows in almost every way. It’s like if someone plowed a fully-loaded car into the side of a building and, by sheer chance, the resulting twisted metal, shattered masonry, and mangled human bodies miraculously came together to form the most beautiful piece of abstract art ever created by human hands. On one hand it’s a horrible disaster of an accident and you mourn for the tragic loss of life. But on the other hand it’s so magnificent and awe-inspiring that it practically brings you to tears.
…Okay, obviously I’m indulging in some pretty thick hyperbole here, but my basic point is still true. There are a lot of really great things about this game, but there are also a distressing number of really bad things about this game.
First the visuals, and by “visuals” I mean the graphics, the character designs, the environments, the cinemas, and pretty much everything else that you need a working pair of eyes to experience. This is probably the game’s biggest strength. If they’re being honest with themselves even Too Human’s biggest critics have to admit that this game looks amazing…most of the time.
The graphics in Too Human are EXCELLENT, some of the best I’ve seen in a next-gen game. A few games have better graphics than Too Human, but not many. Personally I’d rate the graphics here even higher than those of Soulcalibur IV, but mostly because Namco seems to think “good graphics” equals “make everything really really shiny” (seriously, have you checked out the character editor in that game? you can practically see yourself in Siegfried’s armor). But anyway, I digress. The level of detail, the smoothness, the textures, everything looks very good.
Too bad you can barely see any of it.
Because of Too Human’s ridiculous camera, most of the time the graphics go completely to waste. It’s so far away from Baldur that I can just *barely* make out the very cool and often very beautiful design of the armor and weapons while I’m playing, and usually only if the armor/weapon itself has a distinctive design with lots of contrasting colors. Zooming the camera in as close as possible makes this a little better, but in a pitched battle this is basically suicide. The only way to really appreciate the prettiness of all the stuff Baldur carries around is to turn on that revolving camera thing (which seems to have absolutely no purpose other than to show off how cool Baldur’s armor and weapons look). But because I’d much rather PLAY the game than just sit there and drool over the prettiness, the value of the revolving camera is pretty limited. What’s the point of putting that much detail into the graphics if we only get to see it for 5-10% of the game? Even the inventory screen is of no real help. I play this game on a 26’’ LCD HDTV and I practically have to touch my eyeballs against the screen to make out all the fine details on the sweet new Titanium Gauntlets of Walnut Crushing or the Thundering Broadsword of Overly Elaborate Descriptions I just scored off a boss. And don’t any of you pretend this doesn’t bother you too. I know I’m not the only one here who sometimes chooses his armor and weapons based on whether they look cool. I want to play this game while sprawled across the couch on the opposite side of the room, but it’s like the developers designed this game under the assumption that I’d play it while sitting 2 feet away from the tv. Still, it could be worse. I could be playing it on a tv that doesn’t have high-def capabilities.
But anyway, enough whining and moaning (for now at least). On to another of this game’s strengths in the visual department: the cinemas. I really don’t have much of anything negative to say about the cinemas in Too Human, they’re great in almost every respect. The performances of the “actors” (by which I mean the characters in the game) are very well done. In that one cinema where Thor is “questioning” Loki (with his fist), I got the sense that he really did want to beat Loki to a pulp and Heimdall’s interference was the only thing that stopped him. The unresolved romantic tension between Freya and Baldur is almost painful to watch (though one such moment was completely ruined by Baldur blurting out “If I had not already made my vows to Nyanna”). Even the interactions between the Wolf Soldiers and the Berzerkers were cool in their own way. In fact there are only two bad cinemas I can think of: Loki’s escape scene, and Hod’s death. The scene just before Loki’s escape where the renegade Wolf Soldiers are infiltrating the prison is great, but the scene with Loki taking out the guards with his three-section-staff is awkward and poorly done. The sound effects are the worst part, particularly the shot were Loki picks up one guard and breaks his back over his knee. The only scene that rivals this one in badness is when Baldur executes Hod, and again, it’s the crummy sound that really kills this scene. Seriously, this scene is just a big fat pile of anti-climax. They set up this whole revenge story between Baldur and Hod, made us slog through what is by far the most annoying and boring dungeon in the game, and gave us a kickass cinema introducing us to Hod the Blind God. Finally, after battering Hod into submission we see Baldur looming over Hod, about to exact righteous vengeance. Baldur takes aim between Hod’s non-eyes, the camera pans out, and we hear…NOTHING!!! The idiot developers made the sound of the gunshot so soft it’s barely audible! It’s even worse if you have a laser weapon equipped (which I did the first time I played the Ice Forest) because then all you get is this ridiculous *FZZZT* noise. What the Hell is that?!
That aside, it’s easy to forgive that scene for one reason: Hod is in it. Hod is just awesome. He’s the God of Awesome. His voice actor is awesome, his scenes (aside from the afore-mentioned one) are awesome, and his design is awesome (although I couldn’t help wondering why the Aesir were able to bring Baldur back from the dead but Hod had to make due with that one little googly eye). But that little bit of fridge logic is inconsequential. He’s a blind sharpshooter for goodness sake! I defy you to tell me how that is not awesome. And while we’re on the subject of designs, this is where Too Human’s superb graphics really get their chance to shine. Take one look at Loki and you instantly think “this guy is the slimiest, most conniving son of a worthless whore that I ever did see” and his actions certainly don’t disappoint. What does disappoint, however, is Baldur’s design. Specifically, his face. It looks like an old man’s face cast in plastic. Especially when he talks. Those vertical scars from his bullet wound become VERY visible when he moves his mouth, and sometimes they make him look like he’s 90 years old.
(cont.)
…Okay, obviously I’m indulging in some pretty thick hyperbole here, but my basic point is still true. There are a lot of really great things about this game, but there are also a distressing number of really bad things about this game.
First the visuals, and by “visuals” I mean the graphics, the character designs, the environments, the cinemas, and pretty much everything else that you need a working pair of eyes to experience. This is probably the game’s biggest strength. If they’re being honest with themselves even Too Human’s biggest critics have to admit that this game looks amazing…most of the time.
The graphics in Too Human are EXCELLENT, some of the best I’ve seen in a next-gen game. A few games have better graphics than Too Human, but not many. Personally I’d rate the graphics here even higher than those of Soulcalibur IV, but mostly because Namco seems to think “good graphics” equals “make everything really really shiny” (seriously, have you checked out the character editor in that game? you can practically see yourself in Siegfried’s armor). But anyway, I digress. The level of detail, the smoothness, the textures, everything looks very good.
Too bad you can barely see any of it.
Because of Too Human’s ridiculous camera, most of the time the graphics go completely to waste. It’s so far away from Baldur that I can just *barely* make out the very cool and often very beautiful design of the armor and weapons while I’m playing, and usually only if the armor/weapon itself has a distinctive design with lots of contrasting colors. Zooming the camera in as close as possible makes this a little better, but in a pitched battle this is basically suicide. The only way to really appreciate the prettiness of all the stuff Baldur carries around is to turn on that revolving camera thing (which seems to have absolutely no purpose other than to show off how cool Baldur’s armor and weapons look). But because I’d much rather PLAY the game than just sit there and drool over the prettiness, the value of the revolving camera is pretty limited. What’s the point of putting that much detail into the graphics if we only get to see it for 5-10% of the game? Even the inventory screen is of no real help. I play this game on a 26’’ LCD HDTV and I practically have to touch my eyeballs against the screen to make out all the fine details on the sweet new Titanium Gauntlets of Walnut Crushing or the Thundering Broadsword of Overly Elaborate Descriptions I just scored off a boss. And don’t any of you pretend this doesn’t bother you too. I know I’m not the only one here who sometimes chooses his armor and weapons based on whether they look cool. I want to play this game while sprawled across the couch on the opposite side of the room, but it’s like the developers designed this game under the assumption that I’d play it while sitting 2 feet away from the tv. Still, it could be worse. I could be playing it on a tv that doesn’t have high-def capabilities.
But anyway, enough whining and moaning (for now at least). On to another of this game’s strengths in the visual department: the cinemas. I really don’t have much of anything negative to say about the cinemas in Too Human, they’re great in almost every respect. The performances of the “actors” (by which I mean the characters in the game) are very well done. In that one cinema where Thor is “questioning” Loki (with his fist), I got the sense that he really did want to beat Loki to a pulp and Heimdall’s interference was the only thing that stopped him. The unresolved romantic tension between Freya and Baldur is almost painful to watch (though one such moment was completely ruined by Baldur blurting out “If I had not already made my vows to Nyanna”). Even the interactions between the Wolf Soldiers and the Berzerkers were cool in their own way. In fact there are only two bad cinemas I can think of: Loki’s escape scene, and Hod’s death. The scene just before Loki’s escape where the renegade Wolf Soldiers are infiltrating the prison is great, but the scene with Loki taking out the guards with his three-section-staff is awkward and poorly done. The sound effects are the worst part, particularly the shot were Loki picks up one guard and breaks his back over his knee. The only scene that rivals this one in badness is when Baldur executes Hod, and again, it’s the crummy sound that really kills this scene. Seriously, this scene is just a big fat pile of anti-climax. They set up this whole revenge story between Baldur and Hod, made us slog through what is by far the most annoying and boring dungeon in the game, and gave us a kickass cinema introducing us to Hod the Blind God. Finally, after battering Hod into submission we see Baldur looming over Hod, about to exact righteous vengeance. Baldur takes aim between Hod’s non-eyes, the camera pans out, and we hear…NOTHING!!! The idiot developers made the sound of the gunshot so soft it’s barely audible! It’s even worse if you have a laser weapon equipped (which I did the first time I played the Ice Forest) because then all you get is this ridiculous *FZZZT* noise. What the Hell is that?!
That aside, it’s easy to forgive that scene for one reason: Hod is in it. Hod is just awesome. He’s the God of Awesome. His voice actor is awesome, his scenes (aside from the afore-mentioned one) are awesome, and his design is awesome (although I couldn’t help wondering why the Aesir were able to bring Baldur back from the dead but Hod had to make due with that one little googly eye). But that little bit of fridge logic is inconsequential. He’s a blind sharpshooter for goodness sake! I defy you to tell me how that is not awesome. And while we’re on the subject of designs, this is where Too Human’s superb graphics really get their chance to shine. Take one look at Loki and you instantly think “this guy is the slimiest, most conniving son of a worthless whore that I ever did see” and his actions certainly don’t disappoint. What does disappoint, however, is Baldur’s design. Specifically, his face. It looks like an old man’s face cast in plastic. Especially when he talks. Those vertical scars from his bullet wound become VERY visible when he moves his mouth, and sometimes they make him look like he’s 90 years old.
(cont.)