I’ve had just about enough of this Too Human bashing on the Internet. Everywhere I go, I read the same thing: because of last year’s horrid E3 showing, the game is going to flop harder than Granny’s flap jacks.
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Need I remind you who is making Too Human? The ever-powerful and intelligent-sounding Silicon Knights. Yes, the same Silicon Knights that brought you the gift to gamers Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, my favorite GameCube game of all time.
Trying to figure out why these “journalists” say such harsh things is taking all my energy. Yes, the camera angles were weird, the frame-rate was all over the place, and the load times were long. But that was in May of 2006. The game isn’t due to be released until July of 2007. That’s more than a year to get everything in shape.
I’ve seen the same write-offs for the game on so many sites it’s hard for me to list them all. Dennis Dyack even released a single photo last week to prove that Too Human has changed for the better, but I still say that he should just forget those losers.
If bloggers can’t understand that it’s an E3 demo of a game not destined to be released for another year, that’s not your fault. You do what you have to do, Dennis. I have all the faith in the world in you, and I know everything will turn out fine. I mean, you made Eternal Darkness for crying out loud! I think you gain some leeway with something like that under your belt.
Come this July, all those bloggers out there are going to eat their words. Too Human will easily be one of the greatest and most epic Xbox 360 games ever delivered. Maybe in all of gaming. If Eternal Darkness is any indication, then Silicon Knights has this one in the bag.
I guess I’ll step in the ring. Here are a few things to consider about Too Human. One, its been in development hell for a long time. Its switched from several different consoles, and until recently SK had very little to show us of it. Its not like Eternal Darkness, where it switched platforms because the N64 was on the decline. I sometimes wonder if Silicon Knights knows what the hell they want to do with this game. Second, Dyack himself annoys me. The man never seems to be happy ever since they parted ways with Nintendo, and he always seems to have some smack to talk about the industry, as if he was completely free of error. Finally, as much as I too love Eternal Darnkess man, the game was not perfect by a long shot. The combat was quite poor, and the project was overall a lot less ambitious than they initially planned it to be. I think the bloggers and writers are skeptical because Too Human, and Silicon Knights themselves, still have a lot to prove with this game.
I’ll find a source if you want, but Too Human has been in their thoughts for many consoles, but not actually in development until recently. Dyack annoys me a little, too, though. I don’t know what you’ve read about his philosophy on game design, but Silicon Knights follow the "guild" approach. They claim to have secret knowledge and game design techniques that they safeguard, much like the guilds of yore. Whatever, if you know something that will lead to better games, tell everyone.
I am not sure how Too Human will turn out, but as I said in last week’s news, the skepticism of the industry is mostly based on technical flaws. Of course, technical things like frame rate need to be up to snuff or the finished game will suffer, but gameplay and plot are much more important. If you make a unique game with technical flaws it may still be worth something to someone, whereas a technical competent clone is boring for all but Madden fans.
I think having the game continually on the back burner will actually help it out in the long run. They will have time to come up with refined gameplay mechanics, points of storyline, and more defined characters. And look, the game is now going to be a trilogy. You can’t just up and say you want to make a trilogy. You have to make sure you have a good enough reason to do so, and with what, 10 years? of planning they saw the need for it. That’s ambitious if anything else. I think in terms of presentation and story, Too Human will be amazing. But as Christian said, Eternal Darkness’ gameplay wasn’t the most revolutionary, but it was interesting enough to make you keep going, like the spells you could create. The real innovation in that game was presentation and story. I mean, you had poetry at the opening menu screen. And it was there for a reason. I really think Silicon Knights is at the forefront of storytelling in the video game medium. That’s why they left Nintendo and that’s where they are heading. I don’t think any other team out there really cares that much about story and presentation. Maybe Metal Gear, but those are only military-bases stories that Kojima keeps making. SK is going from gothic horror to futuristic Norse robot fantasy, completely shifting their tone and subject matter. And jay, their blog on IGN talks a lot about their design philosophies. There are some great entries on camera angles and storytelling in there. If they have a midnight launch for Too Human, I will wait on it for days. That’s how excited I am for Too Human. It probably won’t be Game of the Year because the gameplay may not be the best thing ever in many people’s, but the overall experience I am going to get with Too Human will mask any of its failings. It’s gonna be awesome.