Week of 7/13/2008

After Hours #8: Pedophiles and Burger King

I think the titles speaks for itself, no? Well if it doesn't, I have no way to describe it. So do us all a favor and just listen.

John



Not Human Enough

Ironically, Denis Dyack - the head of Silicon Knights, creators of Too Human, and the man who went on record saying that games should not be shown or talked about until shortly before their release - has ruined Too Human for me by talking about it too much. And this is coming from a guy who was really rooting for the game. In fact, back at E3 2006 I named it the best 360 game on the show floor while everyone else was panning it.

Unfortunately, over the last year Dyack has put himself and his epic game out there so much that it has effected my anticipation and now my enjoyment of the freshly-released demo. How many times did I see or hear him on The 1up Show or 1up Yours or interviewed in magazines talking about the Norse mythology and how much research he did for the game? So much that while playing the demo, by the tenth time some character mentioned "Odin" or "Valhalla" I wanted to shut the damn thing off. We get it, Denis: Norse mythology.

And in every interview he beats us over the head with how well-read he is. "I've been reading this book or studying so-and-so or went to a lecture by what's-his-name." So can you blame me for rolling my eyes when the Too Human demo opened with a quote by Nietzsche? Oh Denis, you're so learned. Please enlighten us with your wisdom.

Again, I don't have it out for the guy and in fact respect him and his passion for his work. Furthermore, Eternal Darkness remains one of the most original and compelling games I have ever played. I've found his discussions with the 1up folks quite interesting, if a little overzealous. But he's done his game a great disservice, in my opinion, by getting into pissing matches with forums members and staunchly arguing the opinions of journalists who have played the game.

So what of the game, then, now that I've played the E3 demo and the new XBL demo? Frankly, it's fucking boring. Sure, there are interesting combat mechanics, and hints of Eternal Darkness are found at every corner. These are good things. But it's all drenched in an overhanded and frankly dull coating. The combat is ripped straight out of Diablo, with a twin-stick melee system that works pretty well, for the most part. Honestly, even after reading all the previews, I was surprised by how much of a dungeon-crawler this game is. But these spurts of action are interrupted by such thick, gooey bits of epic storyline that after listening to Dyack yammer on and on I can't help but picture him in his office listening to Der Ring des Nibelungen with a stack of Viking books and a highlighter pen. And it really pulled me out of the game.

The game does sound great, though, and I'll give SK props for putting out a great soundtrack. Unfortunately, the audio is extremely unbalanced as I'm unable to hear the dialog over the explosions and music. And let's not forget about that lawsuit with Epic Games. Frankly, the Unreal 3 engine is doing this game no favors as it looks like nearly every other game based on that engine: overly-shiny with modified space marines running around everywhere in some sort of mystical world.

A couple years ago, David Jaffe, not known for subtlety, made a not-so-veiled comment towards Denis Dyack. He said developers need to shut up about how innovative their dual-stick combat is, how engrossing their game's mythology is, and how epic their trilogy is going to be and just make the fucking games. In retrospect, I couldn't agree more. After listening to Dyack blather on and on for nearly a decade now, I can't help but consider his credibility tainted after playing this demo. I can't help but wonder, "This is it? This is what you've been teasing since the PSone days? Seriously?" Sorry Denis, but I guess now that I've spent well over an hour with the game, I am firmly in the "against" column.

John