Joystiq

We're just two months out from the release of Too Human, a game that would have garnered its share of attention – though not nearly as much as it's getting for being in development 10 years across at least three platforms. The game (the first in a planned trilogy) is finally hitting on Xbox 360, and two of our blogosphere compatriots have offered up their thoughts on its current state in new previews. Read what MTV and Wired had to say after the break.

In his thoughts, MTV's Steven Totilo likens the game to Metal Gear Solid 4 – interesting since Silicon Knights president Dennis Dyack worked with Hideo Kojima on the GameCube remake of the original Metal Gear Solid. According to Totilo, like MGS4, Too Human has "been made to tell a significant story," but that "it's distinctly less ambitious than Metal Gear." The gameplay is "more pure" than MGS, he relates, stating that "[Too Human] is a story and gameplay game" and that "neither aspect [is] completely satisfying yet."

Totilo calls Too Human "a game about upgrading." Wired's Chris Kohler points out how players "will constantly be jumping into the pause menu to tweak [their character's] stats." Still, both previews indicate that most of Too Human is spent in combat, which MTV's preview says is "surprisingly reminiscent of the arcade." Both writers call the game out on its length, with Wired's Kohler revealing that he played through it in a mere 10 hours, something that is surprising given its lengthy development. "I was genuinely shocked when the credit roll began, as I felt sure there was so much more left," Kohler writes. Making the game's length tougher to digest, Kohler confirms that "the story of cybernetically enhanced Norse gods ends with a cliffhanger."

Summing up their impressions, MTV and Wired are decidedly on-the-fence. "Too Human has a lot of redeeming qualities, but it isn't for everyone," relates MTV's Totilo. Kohler, in his Wired piece, makes a point that the game ends with "not nearly enough payoff for all the story exposition," and "is an uneven 10 hours at best."

Too Human hits shelves on August 18 in North America. We'll round up its reviews, which Kohler expects will garner "a very wide range of scores," into one handy metareview then.