With initial previews of Silicon Knights' Too Human painting the long-in-development action RPG as a few miles short of Valhalla, IGN has stepped up, offering the developer a handful of advice concerning items that site would like to see corrected before the game ships in August.
According to IGN, among the issues needing a little extra lovin' are the game's lock-happy camera, random loot drops, and "sluggish" framerate, as well as a general lack of combat hand-holding and backstory -- each of which the site is only too happy to offer up a helpful tip or two to correct. Of course, with Dyack and Co. set to take their seemingly flawed action romp on the road next month, we doubt that a few choice words from an outside source will help right a decade of stumbling.
Reader Comments (67)
Posted: Jul 1st 2008 1:18PM baby sea tuna said
Good, then they won't have to travel too far to see this article.
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Posted: Jul 1st 2008 1:37PM (Unverified) said
Yeah, not hyped about it. I'll be waiting for Metacritic reviews. If the framerate is crappy like Mass Effect, I may just skip this one.
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Posted: Jul 1st 2008 2:01PM (Unverified) said
I had no problems running mass effect at all. Must be my magic 6th 360.
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Posted: Jul 1st 2008 2:46PM (Unverified) said
@tmac
Seriously? There was screen tear and framerate drops everywhere. Of course, my 360 is older but still.
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Seriously? There was screen tear and framerate drops everywhere. Of course, my 360 is older but still.
Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:14PM (Unverified) said
@ Obie
Remember those times when Team Fortress 2 was on DFN's level of Vaporwareness?
Imho, every single game deserves a chance no matter how long it's development cycle is.
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Remember those times when Team Fortress 2 was on DFN's level of Vaporwareness?
Imho, every single game deserves a chance no matter how long it's development cycle is.
Posted: Jul 1st 2008 4:49PM (Unverified) said
Nope only problem I noticed was a bit of pop in every now and then. Other than that it ran perfect.
Same with GTA 4. Everyone was complaining about the 360 version but I had 0 problems running it.
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Same with GTA 4. Everyone was complaining about the 360 version but I had 0 problems running it.
Posted: Jul 1st 2008 1:04PM (Unverified) said
"issues needing a little extra lovin' are the game's lock-happy camera, random loot drops, and "sluggish" framerate, as well as a general lack of combat hand-holding and backstory"
Well damn, that's pretty much everything now isn't it? IGN manages to single-handedly make fun of SK's ability to tell a story, fix bugs, create a workable camera system, and optimize their own game.
Might as well stamp a big "RETURN TO SENDER" label on this game when it hits stores.
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Well damn, that's pretty much everything now isn't it? IGN manages to single-handedly make fun of SK's ability to tell a story, fix bugs, create a workable camera system, and optimize their own game.
Might as well stamp a big "RETURN TO SENDER" label on this game when it hits stores.
Posted: Jul 1st 2008 1:09PM (Unverified) said
Who did expect perfection from someone that couldn't even make use of the Unreal engine?
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Posted: Jul 1st 2008 1:39PM (Unverified) said
Agreed Duke, doubt they will make any significant changes. And I had high hopes too. Bummer...
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Posted: Jul 1st 2008 1:07PM (Unverified) said
9 years in development (first on Playstation, then GameCube) -- 4 years at Microsoft, and gods know how many tens of millions of $$ and it still has a crap camera and bad frame rate? Why the hell didn't Microsoft kill this thing 2 years ago? there is no way in hell MS will make a dime back on this investment. This should kill Silicon Knights, and it should get some folks at MS' game studios fired as well.
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Posted: Jul 1st 2008 4:16PM Chibi Chaingun said
Um, I thought it was in development on the N64...
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Posted: Jul 1st 2008 1:08PM (Unverified) said
Unless the camera angle makes the game unplayable... I don't see it being an issue... No game has a perfect handle on the camera.. And random drops... Please clarify? Not enough uber stuff or something? And please... I'm tired of the hand holding I wouldn't mind being given the basics and then learning from there....
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Posted: Jul 1st 2008 1:20PM pkpk523 said
Ummm...no, these aren't small deals.
a bad camera can absolutely ruin a game, ditto to the framerate. You're going way too easy on these criticisms, especially considering how long this game has been in development and considering it will probably be $60 out of your pocket. Consumers deserve more. I'm thinking the random drops thing refers to bugs like objects poping up that shouldn't or something? That could possibly still be corrected by release, but doubtful. I was kind of looking forward to this one cuz some of the designs looked decent, but I'm thinking this is a rental at best.
And what's with that floating sword? ;)
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a bad camera can absolutely ruin a game, ditto to the framerate. You're going way too easy on these criticisms, especially considering how long this game has been in development and considering it will probably be $60 out of your pocket. Consumers deserve more. I'm thinking the random drops thing refers to bugs like objects poping up that shouldn't or something? That could possibly still be corrected by release, but doubtful. I was kind of looking forward to this one cuz some of the designs looked decent, but I'm thinking this is a rental at best.
And what's with that floating sword? ;)
Posted: Jul 1st 2008 1:44PM (Unverified) said
I think that, if you read the article, you'll see that the criticism isn't severe. They were actually quite complimentary of the game and it sounds as though they enjoyed it. The issues are made to sound relatively minor and the recommended fixes should be easy to implement. If they don't implement the fixes, however, it could turn an otherwise "great" game into a "good" game.
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Posted: Jul 1st 2008 1:46PM (Unverified) said
Random drops means that items/loot that is acquired throughout the game is randomly generated. You could find a chest that gives you a helmet and a sword while in my game, the same chest gives 15 gold and a health potion.
This game mechanic is meant to create unique gameplay experiences every time you play. Games have been doing this for a while. Seems like IGN is nitpicking when they are talking about this issue.
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This game mechanic is meant to create unique gameplay experiences every time you play. Games have been doing this for a while. Seems like IGN is nitpicking when they are talking about this issue.
Posted: Jul 1st 2008 2:03PM BigPhi84 said
The problem with random drops in this game seems to stem up from the 10 different player classes. Imagine Titanium_Orchid's scenario where you get a sword and a helmet in a chest or from an enemy kill. Now, imagine that you are a magic-wielder class (or whatever they call it) and you can't equip the helmet or the sword. Well, that's two more items in your inventory that are worthless to you. Since your inventory is limited to a certain ammount, you have to constantly go into the inventory menu and rid yourself of items that you can't use.
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Posted: Jul 1st 2008 4:03PM Vidikron said
I depends completely on just how random the drops are and the type of game. I LOVE the Diablo II item generation system, but it's not 100% random. Your character class and the level of the monster you defeated determines the possible treasure classes you have access to and percentage chance you have to get an item from a specific treasure class.
But it should be noted that it may not be fair to compare a game like Diablo II to a game like Too Human. The advantage of Diablo II is you have the ability to run through areas of the game over and over and over again. Thus you have the notorious Mephisto and Baal runs. So you can go make these runs over and over until you get a good drop. So the randomness doesn't really hurt you that bad. But if this is not possible in Too Human, then a randrom drop system that is too stingy could really hinder your gameplay experience if you happed to get stuck with shitty gear on your play through.
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But it should be noted that it may not be fair to compare a game like Diablo II to a game like Too Human. The advantage of Diablo II is you have the ability to run through areas of the game over and over and over again. Thus you have the notorious Mephisto and Baal runs. So you can go make these runs over and over until you get a good drop. So the randomness doesn't really hurt you that bad. But if this is not possible in Too Human, then a randrom drop system that is too stingy could really hinder your gameplay experience if you happed to get stuck with shitty gear on your play through.
Posted: Jul 1st 2008 5:21PM pkpk523 said
Fair enough. Yes, if camera is not horrible, it isn't a deal breaker. I'm more worried about the framerate. I guess it is all about levels. As in, if camera locking on is really bad, it can ruin it as can really bad framerate. But I agree, if camera is so so and framerate is so so, it doesn't necessarily ruin the game, just makes it worse.
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Posted: Jul 1st 2008 1:11PM (Unverified) said
The biggest issue for me is the inconsistant framerate.
I thought that this game was all about cleaving through massive amounts of baddies. If the framerate takes a hit every time more than 12 enemies are on screen, this game is going to be a pain to play through.
Hopefully Silicone Knights can fix this problem before release. I am excited to try out the fight controls.
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I thought that this game was all about cleaving through massive amounts of baddies. If the framerate takes a hit every time more than 12 enemies are on screen, this game is going to be a pain to play through.
Hopefully Silicone Knights can fix this problem before release. I am excited to try out the fight controls.
Posted: Jul 1st 2008 1:21PM (Unverified) said
Maybe they'll port it to PC so we can have a "playable framerate" version.
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Posted: Jul 1st 2008 1:12PM (Unverified) said
I'm just going to go play Diablo II instead, and every time someone says "Lord of Terror" or "Diablo", I'm going to pretend they're saying "Odin" or "Thor". I'm guessing I'm gonna have an analagous experience.
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Posted: Jul 1st 2008 1:23PM (Unverified) said
I'm just gonna play Diablo 3 instead once it comes out. :D
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Posted: Jul 1st 2008 1:55PM (Unverified) said
well diablo3 does look nice, but this does look 4-5 years in advance of it.
(so maybe they should delay the release to 2017 when consoles can run it ok)
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(so maybe they should delay the release to 2017 when consoles can run it ok)
Posted: Jul 1st 2008 1:57PM (Unverified) said
He won't have the hardware to run it until 2013, obviously. It's okay, I'll wait for him. ;)
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Posted: Jul 1st 2008 2:13PM Bouillestfu said
When ever I play Diablo II nowadays I feel like playing Diablo III and whenever I see this game I wanna play Diablo II... Yet I never wanna play Too Human... Oh well guess I'll head back to Diablo II -> III -> Nothing... Awh...
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Posted: Jul 1st 2008 1:23PM (Unverified) said
Fingers crossed on this one. SK still has about a month to fix these issues before they finalize the code/build and ship it off to distribution.
Seriously, if this game flops is Dyack going to take his own life? I kind of like the guy and have felt bad about how this game has been preceived in the past. The pressue has got to be intense.
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Seriously, if this game flops is Dyack going to take his own life? I kind of like the guy and have felt bad about how this game has been preceived in the past. The pressue has got to be intense.
Posted: Jul 1st 2008 1:24PM AwesomeTown said
I know there are bigger problems like the framerate, but the encyclopedia thing would be more than helpful. The codex in Mass Effect is so good. It helps you tie up all the history and science so that it isn't spoon fed to you somewhere in the story when it would make no sense to explain it to the characters. Any game with a large amount of information should have something like that or a rolling journal or something, damn it.
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Posted: Jul 1st 2008 1:27PM Spiritbeast said
I hope they at least fix the framerate and camera issues in some sort of patch that comes out soon after the release of this game, because I really want it to be good. But I suppose with so many delays, what can I really expect?
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Posted: Jul 1st 2008 1:38PM (Unverified) said
Dude. Its Negative Nancy. Debbie Downer is also exceptable.
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Posted: Jul 1st 2008 7:50PM (Unverified) said
So, IGN does Game Development now? They can't properly review a game, and now they give advice to developers? Amazing. Simply amazing.
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