If you follow gaming at all, you’d know about one of the most controversial games this year. No, I’m not talking about Grand Theft Auto; I’m talking about Silicon Knights’ Too Human. This game has been broken down, beaten, blackened and bruised since it was playable a couple of E3’s ago. The fire was fueled even more after Denis Dyack of SK posted a thread in a very popular gaming forum calling every one out that has trashed the game in some form or another. All they had to base their opinions were a couple of trailers, game play video, and screenshots but all of that changed on Monday July 14, 2008 when they finally released the long awaited demo that they had promised. The game is finally out and Denis’ baby was going under the spotlight again. This time, it’s personal.

You start the demo by selection your character class. The Champion class is the only unlock able class as of now. The game play seems easy to understand once you get control of how it works. You use the right analog stick to attack. You point it in the direction that the enemy is in and Baldur swings in that direction. You can push the analog and hold it in a direction in which the enemy is stand and Baldur will dash towards him and attack. What I did was just slide the analog stick around the edge of the controller and just slid from enemy to enemy. You can play like that throughout the whole demo but if you want to get fancy, there are advance moves that you can use. If you press the start button and go to the Advance Combat tab, you’ll find a wide range of different moves that you have at your disposal. By pulling off these advance moves, it easier to level up your character and rack up some sweet combos. My particular favorite is throwing them up in the air by tapping the analog stick twice in the direction of the enemy, pressing A to jump, then holding the analog stick in the direction that the enemy is in and kicking his ass in the air. It’s a little difficult to pull off at first but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be doing it like nothing. Getting used to using the right analog stick for combat was harder than I thought. I can’t tell you how many times I tried moving the camera around with the right analog stick.

One of the main features in this game is… well, how you want to play it. Its mixture of action/rpg/shooter seems well balanced from what I can tell. The skill trees, which you’ll be spending a lot of you time tooling with, if pretty much the main focus of the demo. You have 3 branching paths in which you use skill points that you gain through combat. With those skill points, you can choose what path you want to attribute those points to. You can level up your melee, or weapons, or add magic to your arsenal. So far, it seems pretty basic but I know they’ll be more to it.

Other selling point that was touted throughout and one that has been trashed on by the media and public is the camera. You have control of the camera in the same way that you do in the Zelda series. Press the left bumper and it centers behind you. There different camera setting that you can choose from and they vary on how close the camera is to you or the perspective in which you want to play. There are little scripted sequences like those in Gears of War that are automatic and I welcome them. They add cinematic feel to the environment and immerse the player in the world.

Throughout the demo, there are mini boss type characters that are a bit difficult to figure out. There are these pretty big troll type machines that you have to jump on and balance on top of them before you can land the finishing blow. It was difficult to figure out but apparently it tells you in the pause screen… I did not know that.

The loot and customization of your character is what’s going to sell this game. As you progress through the demo, you’ll pick up weapon upgrades, body upgrades, cash, and health. Everything is customizable. From head to toe, even the color of your weapons! There are these sections that you can warp in to and once you do, a timer starts counting down and within that time limit, you have dispose a certain number of enemies. Doing so will reward you with better loot to customize your badass character. Putting a time limit certainly adds a certain hectic rush and anxiety to the game. I barely managed to clear the enemy is one round of what I like to call “shit, shit, shit, I’m not going to make it!” sessions with two seconds left. It was crazy. It was nerve wrecking. But best of all, it was fun. That’s what matters in the end.

As the demo came to a close, I felt a bit underwhelmed. Not by the game play or my character stats, but by content that was in the demo. I wanted more. I wanted to upgrade Baldur till not even the Gods themselves can touch me! But alas, a demo is a demo. I will be picking up the game when it comes out. This demo sold me and got me addicted. Go play it and see for yourselves that the internet rumors were just that, rumors.

This will hold you over until Bungie announces whatever the hell SuperIntendent is!

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