It’s been a long development journey for Too Human by Silicon Knights. After many delays and tribulations along the way, Too Human, the first game in the upcoming trilogy, is to be released exclusively on the Xbox 360 August 19th. Now that the demo has finally hit Xbox Live, we’ve been given a brief glimpse of what’s to come. Too Human can be best described as a hack-n-slash with a splash of RPG elements, featuring a variety of classes. Too Human pits players as the cybernetic god Baldur, battling to save humanity; think Halo meets The Matrix.

          Too Human is a game where it’s quantity over quality, sort of. As you would expect from any other hack-n-slash game, the game’s main form of challenge comes from the sometimes endless swarms of enemies that bum rushes the player, and not necessarily the enemy AI. The demo also features simple puzzles such as porting back and forth between the real world and the cyber world to unlock necessary doors. Hopefully, the full game will feature more challenging puzzles that will tickle players brains.

          The RPG elements are light. The player can level up throughout the game with the level cap being set at 50 for the full release. Upon each new level the player obtains skill points to use toward new abilities. You also have access to armor and weapon pieces customizable to your liking. All of the latter and the ability to accept Charm Quest sum up the RPG elements of Too Human. Perhaps the most interesting aspect is players will be able to take their leveled up and established Baldur from the first game and import him into the upcoming second installment of the series. Let’s hope that future releases of the series don’t end up feeling more like expansion packs.

          At its core, Too Human is a hack-n-slash game. Players use the right analog stick to perform melee attacks while the left and right triggers are reserved for your firearms. This allows for some great combo attacks and mixes up your attack options. However, depending on which class you choose, you may want to stick with either melee or range attacks. The Champion class is the only well rounded class that is equally skilled in both areas. The demo features only a small handful of enemy types. You will find it much easier to melee attack. I am hoping that the full release will offer the opportunity to take advantage of both melee and ranged attacks regardless of class.

          The camera in the demo tends to blind the player far too often, as which is a common problem in many third-person games. There is an ability to snap the camera back center, however when you do this instead of smoothly moving back center, the screen cuts back, creating a very disorienting effect. As mentioned before, it’s all about quantity. While some players enjoy romping away at an endless wave of baddies, I would have preferred if the AI was a bit smarter. That’s not to say the game isn’t challenging. I’ve found myself being carried away by a metallic angel several times during the demo. I just believe smarter AI would offer deeper gameplay and less of button mashing. Hopefully all of these issues will be ironed out for the full release.

          The graphics are really impressive, one of the stronger points of Too Human. The game will deliver plenty of eye candy. I never experienced any frame rate drops or glitches of any kind, which is comforting to see in a demo. Whether the full release is equally as polished is still undetermined. If the demo fully represents what’s to come in the full release, Xbox owners are in for a feast of the eyes.

          The Too Human demo provided a few glimpse into the game’s storyline. You walk away from the demo with a lot of unanswered questions, which is what Silicon Knights was probably aiming for. This reviewer’s interest in Too Human has been hyped and awaits to get his hands on the full release.