REVIEW: Sonic Unleashed

Now we all jumped into this game with high expectations, and admittedly, I'm no exception. Unleashed, having been hyped by the fanboys for months prior to release as yet another prospective salvation of the series, inevitably has a lot to live up to regardless of what it strived to accomplish in the first place. And while that's not what it achieves, it's much closer to it than Sonic's previous outings, and is still a pretty damn good game if you can learn to persist through its shortcomings.

The first thing worth noting is that, even in sections that directly resemble its gameplay, Unleashed doesn't play anything at all like previous Adventure-style Sonic games. To some, this is a big plus, as they all played like a piece of shit anyway. However, others will be completely thrown off by the new controls and mechanics for the majority of the game – and to make matters worse, Unleashed ditches some of the best things about previous gameplay styles and adds in a new set of problems to deal with. But first, the controls.

In Unleashed, the ever-(in)famous Homing Attack is now assigned to the X button instead of the A one. Now normally this would be an improvement, but now the homing attack clashes with the mach dash instead, which is assigned to the same button. To make matters worse, not only has Unleashed removed the ability to turn on a dime in midair, or for that matter turn at all (one of the major saving graces of Sonic '06s terrible control scheme), but later on you unlock the ability to mach dash in midair – which often leaves you completely overshooting your destination if you miss a homing attack or were just plain trying to use it as a platforming aid like you normally would. AND, if you jumped backwards to avoid an enemy attack, you can't homing attack it until you turn around, which you can't do while you're airborne. Most people won't recognize this early on, and instead do a homing attack backwards unwillingly, most likely into a pit of instant death.

I can understand re-assigning the control scheme, sure. But for christ's sake Sonic Team, do you always have to make two moves clash so badly on the same button? Why not just assign the attack to a general, you know, ATTACK button, so that I don't keep using the boost by accident? I know I could've been saved quite a few dozen cheap deaths if only the Homing Attack had been assigned to a dual function button that actually made sense.

To top it all off, daytime Sonic gameplay comes off feeling somewhat slippery on the first few playthroughs, probably as thanks to the new acceleration system. If Sonic simply moved at a static speed for the first few moments of acceleration, that could easily have been solved, and would've made the more precision based platforming not quite as frustrating as it has been at the moment. But regardless, any player can adapt to it over time.

What can't really be adapted to is specific Secret-Rings style sections in which the camera and movement is pretty much stuck forward. Some of these expect you to overcome a minefield of obstacles with the Quick Step function, which true to the name is a sidestep that reacts quicker than the control stick. The problem is, whilst the obstacles have at least three clearly defined “lanes” to define their pattern of appearance, your movement sometimes refuses to snap to these obvious lanes when you use a quick step. I've even had occurances where mines appeared in both left and right lanes, where I tried quickstepping to centre from the right lane but ended up overshooting it and hitting the mine on the left lane instead because the quick step didn't stop where it was obviously intended to. Fucking this up ends in INSTANT DEATH in some levels, which creates a whole new level of frustration when the game doesn't do something it was obviously intended to do (Adabat levels are a nightmare as far as this is concerned).

For that matter, what is Sonic Team's fetish with stupid instant deaths in a Sonic game anyway? Why punish us for falling into a hole or shallow water when it's repeatedly been proven Sonic at the very least can survive both? Hell, even if there's no other way out of a hole, they could at least not punish us by killing us instantly and give us a way back up instead. If I fall from the top of a street level building, why can't I just continue the level at street level? If I fall into a pool of water I can actually SEE THE BOTTOM OF, why can't I just run through the damn water until I get where I need to go? Just because Sonic can't swim doesn't mean he can't hold his breath until he gets back to the surface. It's simply baffling. That ST doesn't give us any early warning of some of these hazards until I've already fallen into is also maddening.

Don't let all that turn you off though – Sonic Unleashed is a game that demands utter perfection and punishes you with instant death if you can't provide as such, but if you survive well enough to reach the end of stage intact, it doesn't go unrewarded. Not only is it immensely satisfying to beat daytime levels with a high degree of success, you also get to keep the rings you earned from the level itself (and believe me, it'll always be plenty – Sonic doesn't lose all his rings on the first hit anymore. ABOUT DAMN TIME SEGA) as well as experience you get from defeating enemies from the level. “Experience”, you say? Yes, Unleashed has turned to an upgrades system again. But don't panic – unlike Secret Rings, this is very simple stuff, and you won't have to keep tweaking it before each mission – for that matter, upgrading is hardly a mandatory requirement of completing the game at all, so the player is free to improve according to their tastes and expect not to be punished for it. Which, however, brings me to my next point. The ever-controversial Werehog half of the game.

In regards to aforementioned upgrades system, the Werehog has more than twice as many fields to upgrade, but thankfully still basic and manageable according to taste. The problem is, without a decent “Combat” level (the field that dictates what kinds of combos the Werehog has), the Werehog is a complete piece of shit, to be blunt. He only starts with the most basic combos in the game (not much more than the XXXX and YYYY combos) and expects you to work your way up to additional techniques that, for all intents of purposes, should have been at least partly available to you right from the fucking start of the game. Getting new moves over the course of the game is cool, but that should NEVER come at the cost of early game playability – it should already be enjoyable the first time you play it. THIS was a mistake that Secret Rings made, and sadly, they haven't learned from it yet.

Another issue is the style of fighting that the Werehog is programmed in – instantly likable to any game in the Warriors franchise. While this is likely to please fans of the genre, the combo system comes off feeling incredibly scripted and cumbersome. Do I REALLY have to press 5 buttons just to get the ONE move I need in a particular combo? Why can't all the good moves be added as completely separate attacks, and left to the player to their imagination to string them together according to context? Okay, I'll admit that's a little fanboy bias on my part (I REALLY like Devil May Cry's fighting engine), but I feel adopting this approach could have earned the Werehog side of things an immense improvement. Flailing around waiting for the cool moves to show up feels nothing short of awkward, and probably should have been done away with. Not to mention it ruins the pacing of fight scenes and can sometimes reduce Werehog gameplay down to a “stop-go-stop-go” pace in terms of combat.

To add onto this is the “critical” attack, which is Unleashed's version of the finishing move. When an enemy is below half-health, you can grab them and, apon completing a QTE command or two, royally kick the shit out of them for an instant kill. The problem is, whilst some of these are actually cool to look at, most are underwhelming, and all have only one finisher assigned to the same enemy, which furthermore makes them unnecessarily repetitive. Not only that, but they completely destroy the pace of a fight whenever they're used. Quite frankly, I believe that this shouldn't have even been in the game at all, save for boss fights.

Then there's the platforming. A welcome addition to many, as it gives a break from the combat scenes which were bound to get immensely repetitive if carried out too long. The game never tells you you have to HOLD the B button down in order to grab a ledge with proper success, and this often leads to frustration in the early game, especially if the game yet again punishes you with instant death for fucking it up. But in general, once you get the hang of the platforming, it gives off its own unique pleasant feel. If you screw up a jump or accidentally fall off a ledge, you may find that four times out of five, you can simply stretch-grab the ledge you just came from and try again. And given that most of the platforming is hovering above instant death, normally you'd think the game is being unfair on you, but if anything it gives this aspect of the game its own tense, nervous feel. Sure, you'll fall in a few times and get angry at it, but once you learn to avoid it, it's a great feeling.

Now that I have the main gameplay out of the way, let's talk about the hubs. Now, I've never particularly liked hub levels, and Unleashed didn't change that much, but for what it's worth, it's an improvement. There's a lot to interact with this time around, and sometimes doing so can actually lead to interesting results sometimes, even giving you a side mission if you look hard enough. This however ditches a very useful function that Sonic '06 introduced with its version – it actually TELLS you what NPCs do without talking to them, so you could find important pointers and side missions without having to talk to every single fucking one of them. Why Unleashed didn't use this function, I have no idea. It certainly would've saved a lot of people a lot of time right off the bat if they had any idea of who was worth chatting to and who just gave you utterly useless banter.

Then there's the medals. Medals? Yeah, those shiny red and blue things you see lying around in stages and hub levels if you look hard enough for them. They've been in Sonic '06 before, and fans complained that they were completely fucking useless, rightfully so. Now, they've made the medals a mandatory requirement of unlocking new levels. Way to go fanboys, you've done it again. I really wish Sonic Team would just stop listening to you guys, because nothing good ever comes out of it.

But I digress. What's worth noting is that the medals come in two varieties – Sun medals and Moon medals. Sun medals unlock daytime stages, whereas Moon medals unlock nighttime stages. Was there really any need to have this ridiculous two-tier unlocking system for the levels? Why not just one type of medal that can unlock both levels? For that matter, you'd think the Sun medals would be most prevalent in daytime stages... but paradoxically, it's exactly the opposite. Don't get me wrong, both stages have both kinds of medals, but they always have far more of one kind than the other. It's simply baffling. Why do I have to play daytime levels to unlock more nighttime ones? Simple answer. It's Sega's excuse for forcing you to play as more than one side of the gameplay.

While I like both playtypes pretty much equally, this should NOT happen. An alternate gameplay type should be an option – NOT a requirement. What makes matters worse is, whilst daytime Sonic gives you barely anything in terms of experience and medals unless you stop and look for them (something the gametype STRONGLY discourages), the Werehog is a resource gathering machine, giving you easily 5 times as much experience (sometimes in excess of 10) without even trying, and naturally, the medals are much easier and less cumbersome to find, given that his type of gameplay is perfectly suited to exploration in the first place. That's just plain harsh on people who came to play simply for a speed fix, even if it was incredibly obvious you were going to have to play some Werehog eventually either way.

In short:

Defining points
- Normally, being more of a gameplay critic than anything else, I would never even comment on the graphics... but these? Fucking gorgeous, without any question whatsoever. The Hedgehog Engine is a work of genius, and I can't wait to see more games use it (Condemned 3 anyone? Those light effects would be incredible in such a dark game). All they really need to fix is the pop-up and occasional laggy moment and Sega's pretty much set.
- More to the point, the sense of speed you get from Unleashed is without any equal, achieving exactly what most people have been expecting out of a Sonic game as of late. Some might argue that Sonic Team's usage of raw speed has pretty much turned most of the game into an interactive cutscene in terms of linearity, but if this is the most enjoyable interactive cutscene ever made, then by all means sign everybody up.
- The replay value here is IMMENSE. Not only is there a lot of unlockable content to search for (including three particularly amusing shorts not featured as a main part of the game), but the levels themselves are enjoyable enough to warrant at least a second playthrough each. The decent usage of alternate paths and hub side quests helps this.
- The Werehog, whilst far from perfect, is still better than any of Sonic Team's previous efforts at alternate gameplay concepts, and has more than enough on him to make for a refreshing change of pace to Sonic's daytime stages as long as you're not a fucking fanboy about it. The puzzle sections, whilst somewhat basic out of context, will actually make you think about it the first time around.

What could've been done better
- Instant-death-centric level design. For ONCE, I'd like to see a Sonic game without levels that have death hazards with no warning or even any chance of seeing it before you've already fallen into it. If Sega aims to keep Sonic games this fast, they're going to have to take these out completely over time if the games are to be even remotely fair. Preferably replacing them with less than ideal alternate routes instead. All they really serve to do is to punish the incentive of going fast, which I might remind some of you is the MAIN GIMMICK OF THE GAME.
- The mandatory medal collecting, whilst even in concept an unwelcome aspect of the game, still could've been done much better than this. Having to play one gametype to unlock levels for the exact opposite gametype is incredibly stupid, and it doesn't help that one of them totally sucks for gathering resources of any kind. For that matter, there shouldn't have been two different medals to begin with. Make us use the werehog to get the nighttime key for the boss, sure, but don't make us use him or even the hegehog form simply to access each other's levels. That's just plain retarded.
- Some functions on the control scheme still clash with each other, namely the boost and homing attack but also the werehog's grab and finisher moves clash to a lesser extent. If the situation even occurs ONCE that I press a button expecting one function and instead getting another, it should be incredibly obvious that one of those functions don't belong on that button, especially if it gets you killed. While I've mentioned that finisher move, it probably shouldn't have even been in the game, or at the very least provided more than one finisher per enemy.
- Daytime Sonic, at least compared with the Werehog, feels unusually clumsy when it comes to slower-paced platforming. Quite frankly, if the acceleration aspect of the game didn't apply so much to the slower speeds of the game, this probably wouldn't be so much of a problem.
- At the risk of giving away spoilers... way to totally FUCK UP the ending, Sega. I didn't think it was possible to do any worse than Solaris.

Overall...

7/10. Whilst it isn't quite a franchise revival, Unleashed is a great game for those who can persist through to the end, and will keep those people playing well beyond the 10-odd-hour storyline. Whilst it certainly isn't for impatient gamers, it won't fail to reward people for dedicating time and effort to it, and overall has more polish than any Sonic game since its reinvention in three dimensions.

CONCEPT: Sonic Revised

Ahem. Due to sudden RL workload, I haven't been able to find much time to work on reviews and general tl;dr ANGST. So to help bridge the time between now and when I find the time to do anything of such, I thought it'd be nice to copypasta my old unfinished Sonic concept doc from Concept Mobius... which in itself is delayed until opportunity to work on it is presented. If anybody has input to help me improve or complete the doc, either leave me a comment or pester me on one of my local boards - for reference, the original thread is located here: http://tg.technoguild.com//index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=94&topic=808.0

Basic controls
These are control schemes that are generally common between most characters in the whole cast. This is using the X360 control pad as an example.
Left stick: Movement. Tilt the control stick, and your character will move in that direction relative to the camera angle.
Right stick: Camera, lock-on (click). (See below section for specific usage).
A: Jump, Midair action. Pressing the button causes the player to jump into the air, and the longer it is held down, the higher he will jump and the longer he will stay in the air. By tapping the button again in midair, the character performs a unique action to further boost his acrobatics, ranging from double jumps to freeform flight.
X: Primary attacks. The basic moves at a character's disposal. They are typically ordinary and easy to use attacks with little penalty or risk for usage, but on their own are generally ineffective in the long run. Tapping the button repeatedly produces faster, combo based attacks, whereas holding the button down (without releasing, unless otherwise stated) will produce a stronger, directional attack, propelling either the character or the victim in a specified direction.
Y: Secondary attacks. By far the more spectacular attacks to use, not to mention the more effective sort, but much more punishing to use and again, ineffective when used stand-alone. The effects of these moves are much more varied than the Primaries, ranging from area-based attacks to linear charges, counterattacks and even movement assistance. The true flare of each character shows in these moves... especially when combined with Primary attacks.
B: Interaction, Pivot move. Push a button. Grab an item. Chat it up with the locals. Anything else that doesn't entail punching something in the face. This will also trigger a Pivot move when close to an enemy (will be addressed in a future section - for now, let's just say they're similar to a typical grab, but their actual applications spread far beyond that).
Rtrigger: Unique action. A single, gameplay defining action that can easily turn the tides of battle in your favour on its own. This is easily the most varied and valuable technique in a character's arsenal, and mastering it is key to becoming a true master of its trade (to get an idea how important this action is, consider how much Silver used this in Sonic '06).
Ltrigger: Speed move. Another character specific technique, this one more centered on assisting movement or traversal in some manner. Speed boosts or sudden leaps are common, but the effects can vary further between certain characters.
Rbumper: Switch characters. This is used when you have an assisting character tagging along (Eg: Tails with Sonic) to switch places with them and use the assisting character instead. Be wary that tagalong characters have separate statistics and equipment settings from the former lead character, and thus may be required to recollect rings or reorganise held items to the new tagalong character if necessary.
Lbumper: Team action. When nearby an ally or tagalong, use this command to regroup them into a cooperative action. The effects of this action may sometimes vary depending on context or the assisting character, but they are generally useful techniques and often a very effective action where all single-character tactics fail.

In the offchance that a Wii version is developed, the controls would be a little something like this:
Control Stick = Movement
IR = Camera
A = Jump
B = Primary Attack
+ = Secondary attack
Down D-Pad = Interact
Z = Unique Action
C = Speed Move
Left D-Pad = Team Action
Right D-Pad = Switch Characters
- = Camera Lockon
Of course, all of these are completely interchangeable to suit the tastes of the player. As far as button placements go they can be assigned to any button the player wants, and even a few motion controls for those that prefer waggling on the Wii variant.

Camera Controls
The camera can be used in one of three ways – each of them differs drastically to the ordinary camera controls you'd expect from a typical 3D Sonic game. These are:
“Speed” camera – the default Camera setup. Camera turns instantly relative to its own facing – if the camera stick is tilted left or right, the camera is instantly rotated 90 degrees, whereas tilting it downwards will quickly turn 180 and face backwards. This makes the camera stick work as a compass of sorts, with Up corresponding to the camera's current direction before the adjustment. Of course, angles between simple Left, Right and Down are more than possible, and allow the player comfortable time to fine-tune the camera angle before releasing the stick back to neutral and thereby setting the new angle. Because of the rapid camera movement involved, the Speed camera is perfectly suited to very demanding situations such as rapid cornering, midair combat, multiple enemies or otherwise fast-paced endeavors.
“Focus” camera – this centers the camera directly behind the player, causing it to control more like a console FPS – simply tilt the camera stick in any direction and the camera will scroll in that direction proportional to the amount of pressure applied to it. To activate the Focus camera, simply click the camera stick inwards without tilting it, and do so again to return to Speed camera. This mode, while nowhere near as fast to react as the Speed camera, is much more precise, and very useful for such feats as moving perfectly straight, aiming projectiles
“Lock-on” camera – this maintains focus on an enemy at all times, regardless of the player's actions. All the camera stick does in this state is deviate somewhat from the current target, so as to catch a glimpse of its immediate surroundings. To activate the Lock-on camera, click the camera stick inwards whilst tilted towards an object of interest to target that particular object. This mode is useful for maintaining focus towards an important object or enemy without having to readjust the camera yourself, or indeed many Zelda-esque situations out there. Worth noting is that the Lock-on camera does not automatically focus attacks, but simply positions the camera so that tilting upwards on the movement stick will guarantee hitting home with your attacks.

Stamina system
To prevent certain moves from being abused too frequently, a limit will be placed in the form of the stamina system, as an additional bar of energy adjoining the ring counter and score display. This stamina system is not nearly as limiting as it appears - it will drain every time the player performs an action, but will usually fill itself back to full the moment the player stops. While this does allow players to continue fighting once they break in between moves, it will in any circumstance enforce a strict limit on the extent of which they can chain moves for the sake of balance. That said, infinite combos, where they might possibly exist, will be literally impossible to perform infinitely, and players will have a definite limit to which they can spam the same attacks to decent effect.

Each action a player performs will consume a different amount of stamina - however, by chaining completely different attacks together, stamina usage will be drastically reduced, rewarding players who can compose unique patterns of attack depending on context.

Rings, Health and staying alive
Unlike previous games, Sonic and co will not lose all of their rings in a single hit. Instead, characters will lose portions of rings per hit, variable to the strength of the attacks they take in. For example, a very light, very constant technique will cause a constant string of single rings to stream out, whereas a heavier attack could remove up to 20 rings at a time. Coupled with this is the fact that the temporary grace period in which a character is invincible several seconds post-impact no longer exists - so if a player is tempted to pick up their own rings after they spill out, they are more likely to be killed in the process of an enemy attacking them in the process of doing so.

But even if a character is out of rings, they will not immediately die. In fact, the rings are merely a first defense against attacks, and characters actually have a secondary health bar underneath their ring count. If they are attacked with no remaining rings, the health bar will decrease instead until that exhausts and they are KO'd.

This does not mean players are free to prance about levels unprotected,however. Unlike ring protection, restoring health bars is a difficult, time consuming process. If a physically injured player manages to restore their protection with rings again, their health meter will slowly recover proportional to how many rings they are carrying. 1-10 rings could take many, many minutes to fully recover a near-empty gauge, whereas upwards of 50 or more could restore it almost instantly. Other methods of recovery exist (character specific healing abilities, health items) but they are generally very few and far between.

Furthermore, to prevent near-infinite potential defenses in this regard, a “Defense cap” is applied which varies depending on the base defensive capabilities of your selected character – for the sake of example, we will assume Sonic has a Defense Cap of 50 rings. The Defense Cap determines how many of your held rings count towards protecting your character, and if said character is carrying more than the Defense Cap limit – in the case of Sonic, more than 50 rings – the character will lose all of the additional rings except for those counted towards Defense Cap. In other words, in the case of Sonic, you will lose all but 50 rings if you're attacked over the Defense Cap limit.

As a guide to how many rings different types of damage will cause you to lose, here is a rough guide of examples -
1 ring – split-second rate attacks, such as miniguns, energy beams, lava pits or otherwise near-constant sources of damage.
5-10 rings – ordinary machine-guns, fast, combo-able melee attacks, or otherwise short bursts of damage.
20-30 rings – average explosions/missiles, heavy melee attacks, high-powered gunshots or otherwise slow, single shot sources.
50-100 – exceedingly rare, normally experienced only in boss fights or ludicrously slow attacks or characters. In a nutshell, the kind of damage that would knock a building down if you used it right. Oversize explosives, scud-size missiles, fully charged special attacks (where applicable) or otherwise mini-WMD equivalents.

Sonic – BETA sample moveset
Format: Action name – Button(context)
Machspeed Peelout – L (grounded)After a brief rev-up time, Sonic blasts off at mach speed, running so fast that typical laws of physics don't even apply. Unlike other characters, Sonic can run along walls both horizontally and vertically, rebound from wall to wall on the move, burst straight through most fragile objects and of course, leave enemies far behind in his wake using this Speed Move. Few can match or outdo Sonic's raw speed in this state, but Sonic's Speed Move comes with the added bonus of lesser Stamina drain, making it a very reliable and almost essential method of getting around. Like many other speed moves of this type, Sonic can lure foolish enemies into deadly situations (such as a crash into a solid obstacle) if they attempt to pursue him.

Homing Dash – R (usable anytime)That's right – it's not an attack anymore! Rather than attacking enemies directly, the new Homing Dash merely performs a quick burst of speed, placing you directly in front of the nearest enemy in your line of sight ready to throw off an attack. This can even be used in the air, and in fact can be used to fly gracefully through the air between airborne foes when used right. However, a clever foe can just as easily use this to their own advantage, preparing an attack in advance just as Sonic is HDing towards them... The HD is normally automatically followed up by a Sonic Eagle, but this option can be disabled for people who want more freedom over what they do afterwards. HD's can also play a somewhat psychological game with some enemies, sometimes causing them to freeze with shock when they realize too late that you're right in their face.

Sonic Eagle – A (midair)Sonic performs a flip kick in midair, attacking foes and gaining extra height at the same time. Much like an ordinary jump, the Eagle can be increased in altitude by holding the A button down longer. In any case, the attack itself will jolt an enemy slightly upwards, allowing for more potential hits.

Sonic Falcon(?) - A (moving, midair)Similar to the Eagle, but Sonic performs a frontflip instead of a backflip, covering distance instead of height and knocking enemies downwards instead of upwards. If an enemy is close to the ground when spiked, it may bounce straight back up to Sonic for additional attacks. Again, like the Eage, holding A will increase distance travelled when using the technique.

Combo Attack – rapidly tap X (useable anytime)Sonic performs a flurry of speedy, elaborate kicks to deal constant damage. While the rapid nature of the technique can keep many enemies off-balance, some stronger or more durable enemies may not react to the move at all and thus find it very easy to counteract.

Sonic Flare – hold X (stationary, grounded)Sonic performs a breakdancing maneuverer, blasting back nearby enemies. Whilst the blowback distance isn't as great as other moves of its type, the Flare's wide angle of attack makes for a valuable panic move, albiet with long performance time that enemies can take advantage of from a distance.

Windup Punch – hold X (moving towards enemy, grounded)Sonic winds up for a powerful punch, causing heavier damage and sending enemies flying greater distances. Like all blowback moves, Sonic can pursue the blasted foe with a Speed move to keep up a combo and dish out the hurt. However, the move has a lot of follow-through time if it misses, making it easily punishable.

Backflip Kick – hold X (moving away from enemy, grounded)Sonic somersaults backwards, knocking foes into the air. While it isn't as damaging as similar moves from other characters (and as such, may not work on all enemies), it can immediately be followed up with more attacks afterwards, keeping the enemy off balance.

Dash Kick – hold X (towards an enemy, during Machspeed Peelout)Sonic suddenly changes the direction of his dash, performing a leaping kick towards an enemy. This causes the victim to fly at the same speed as Sonic's machspeed dash, allowing additional hits whilst running.

Sonic Boom – press Y (maintaining movement, during Machspeed Peelout)At the cost of extra stamina, Sonic increases his speed to break the sound barrier for a short period of time, causing shockwaves that will damage and trip up enemies caught in them. Anybody hit by Sonic directly during the attack takes insane damage, and in some cases Sonic even runs a hole straight through them for an instant kill move.

Spindash – hold Y (stationary, grounded)Similar to the Peelout in many ways, but can actually damage the opponent. After a brief spinning charge, Sonic rolls off at high speed, bowling over any enemies he runs into along the way. Unlike the Peelout, the spindash will slow down over time (even moreso on an upward slope), so it serves better purpose as an attack rather than an assistance towards movement. However, inertia can prove to be useful on a downward slope, which will greatly increase Sonic's speed as he rolls downwards...

Bounce attack – press/hold Y (stationary, midair)Sonic descends rapidly towards the ground in spinball form, slamming down enemies he hits along the way. Normally when the move is executed, Sonic will spring straight back upwards when he hits the ground, allowing him to repeat up to three times for additional attacks and extra height. However, if the Y button is still held down when Sonic hits the ground, the spring is canceled and instead replaced with a Spindash!

Copter kick - tap Y (moving, midair)Sonic performs a quick double kick by spinning horizontally in the air, leg extended. This serves not only as an impromptu combo addon in midair but also as a subtle raise in height where the Sonic Eagle fails.

Pivot tactics
What is a “pivot”? A pivot is another move that comes as standard across most (if not all) characters, which entails grabbing, hijacking, or otherwise, interacting with an enemy in a manner not possible with ordinary moves. To initiate a Pivot move, simply press the B button when facing an enemy, and your character will grab the enemy in his own way to start the move.
When a Pivot is successfully initiated, the character can execute a special contextual move to finish it. This can serve many useful tactics – from fooling enemies into shooting their allies, springing between them like stepping stones, physically throwing them, or brutally finishing them with a powerful finishing attack. To help demonstrate the potential these moves have, here are some examples, featuring the original Team Sonic.

Sonic – Stands on top of an enemy as a pivot. This alone is a useful tactic, as not only does this make it much more difficult to break the pivot, enemies nearby may try to attack you anyway, catching their ally in the crossfire. By tilting the control stick and pressing the Jump button, Sonic kicks off the enemy and leaps ahead, not only damaging it but also giving him a useful boost in speed and distance. Combined with a Homing Dash, this allows him to bypass enemies VERY quickly, and even traverse over hazardous areas and through the skies.

Tails – Traps the enemy with a gadget. Tails can simply leave the enemy be and move on to other things if he wishes, leaving it unable to move for some time. But, if he wishes, he can hack into mechanical enemies during this time, yielding effects ranging from reduced effectiveness, to complete shutdown or self-destruct, or even turning it into an ally. In some cases, he can even turn the enemy into a ride or a weapon and use it to help him further. When used in mid-flight, however, they are universally deadly and fearsome – he can either kick the enemy away as a living projectile, or holding it down and divebombing the unfortunate victim into the ground. Tails can even carry the victim around in the air if need be, or access the flying grab simply by jumping out of a ground Pivot.

Knuckles – Grabs the enemy with one hand, readying the other for a punch. This pivot has the potential to do insane damage, but is offset by the fact that it can easily be broken and countered by opponents. Knux can either rapidly jab the captive opponent with his free hand, or charge up for a lethal Hollow Punch, literally creating a hole straight through some enemies (robots only, of course). Finally, jumping out of the Pivot causes an uppercut attack, jolting the enemy upwards and setting up for a combo attack.

Thus, while pivots are commonplace among most characters, they all achieve vastly different effects, all working towards the overall gameplay prospect of the respective character. Whereas Knuckles sets up for high damage and expanse combos, Tails is a much more technical and tactical sort, and Sonic works towards a fast, moving pace with a combination of his usual smartass ego.

Ranking System
As per any recent Sonic game, this one will have a ranking system that determines how well the player performed when gameplay ends. The specific rankings are:

A – Near flawless.
B – Close, but made some mistakes along the way.
C – Somewhat average, what you'd expect from a recreational run.
D – Died at least once, but not without small merit.
E – Died repeatedly, had major trouble finishing.
F – Didn't even finish at all... or so close to it it doesn't make a difference.

To determine the rank that the player achieves overall, the following factors are taken into consideration – depending on the character used, some fields may be stricter than others (eg: Sonic on completion times)

Completion time – the faster the level is finished, the greater the ranking.
Ring/Item collection – rewards the player for grabbing plenty of goods along the way
Enemy annihilation – takes into consideration the damage and destruction caused to enemies during the level. Even partly damaged enemies still give a fraction of their score.
Damage / lives lost – penalizes the player for taking damage or outright dying during play.
Route taken – if the player completes a puzzle, traverses a dangerous area, uses a tagalong or otherwise use an unconventional method to take a different route through the level, bonus points are rewarded.

When the level is completed, these statistics appear as filled bars on the screen, as percentages of maximum totals possible (Par time for completion speed). These bars then empty into a new “rank” bar, which increases your overall rank for every time the rank bar overlaps and starts over. For dramatic effect, the countdown slows and a drumroll starts after a “B” rank is reached, adding intense anticipation as to whether or not the player achieves the elusive A rank.

Unlike other games, however, this ranking system is also available in multiplayer matches as a gauge of how well they played through the match. In most multiplayer modes, however, the ranking follows a very different set of factors to gauge the rank. These include:

Kill/Death spread: Number of KO's accumulated against other players as a percentage of the maximum KO limit (when one is used – otherwise, this figure is a percentage of the highest scoring player's KO limit instead) minus the amount of times they were KO'd themselves.
Combos: Players will rank higher for keeping up a constant string of attacks uncontested. However, a player who breaks a combo midway through and reverses it will also score extra.
Stamina usage: A player will be penalized for exhausting all of their stamina, or spamming stale attacks to create the same effect.
Special feats: Achievements such as multi-KO's, sprees, long distance KO's, objective completion, team assistance and more, will be rewarded with extra rank.

When the match is finished, an accompanying rank is placed next to the player's name on the scoreboard for all to see. Who knows, if you play right you may even A rank on the list without winning!

Items
Over the course of their journey, Sonic and co will find many different kinds of items to assist them. These are often found in the form of capsules, monitors, balloons, crates, or otherwise usual encapsulating objects, and range from temporary powerups to ring bonuses, and some things in between. However, items don't always come free off the ground – sometimes, they may come in the form of vending machines, which require you to pay a ring toll before you can use them. Fortunately, when they do happen to require payment they tend to be in a very convenient position, optimal for their stored items.

To use an item or vending machine, simply interact with or attack its encapsulation and it will be activated automatically. Some examples of items include:

Ring bonus (not buyable): Instantly increases the player's ring count by an amount specified on the box. Typically these are 5-10 ring increments, but rarer versions exist that give 25 or even 50 at a time.
Magnet (30 rings): A magnet appears on the player, temporarily attracting nearby rings as they approach. While the magnet is active, the player can also walk along metallic surfaces regardless of gravity or other interferences.
Aqualung (35 rings): Gives the player a breathing apparatus that is activated automatically once he enters water. This gives him an extra breath supply, allowing him to breath underwater until the air supply runs out.
Hoverboard (30 rings): The box releases an Extreme Gear hoverboard which the player can ride. It is reasonably fast – just enough so to give slower characters a necessary boost in speed. However, the main quirk of the board is that it handles very sharply given its speed, and it hovers above any harmful surface until the player is knocked off, destroying the Gear.
Shield (20 rings): Absorbs a small amount of damage, grants immunity to certain types of damage, and gives access to shield-specific moves (see section: Shields)
Explosive (not buyable): Explodes violently when attacked, hurting anybody in its blast radius – including the player. Interacting with it, however, sets the explosive on a short timer, allowing time to escape to a safe distance.
Stamina Overcharge (50 rings): Grants infinite stamina for a short period of time.
Invincibility (50 rings): The player cannot be harmed for a brief period of time.

Shields
Yes, the bubble shields of old finally make a return. While they have similar function to their decade-old counterparts, they can now do things that originally weren't possible with them – and now there are additional types to come across. Generally, most shields will grant an immunity to certain types of damage whilst active, and absorb a small amount of other damage before they disappear again.

Shields will replace secondary attacks with a special move or two of their own. You can even throw the shield with the B button, much like an item as a projectile, for varying effect.
Examples of shield types include:
Fire shield – grants immunity to fire-type attacks and hazards, and allows diving into swimming-depth of lava. Special attack rockets the player forwards with a quick speed boost, damaging anybody nearby along the way, or causing a radial flamethrower-like effect around the player to damage nearby enemies. Throwing the shield causes a large, fiery explosion for heavy damage.
Water shield – grants immunity to many slower-moving projectiles, and increases the amount of breath you will have underwater. Projectiles will ricochet off the shield like rubber, and exchanges durability for breath underwater – this causes the shield to shrink or possibly even disappear over time, but can still be restored by returning to the surface. Special attack bounces off the ground underneath, attacking grounded enemies and gaining extra height, or causing a wave of water to sweep nearby enemies off their feet. Throwing the shield causes it to bounce between things like a pinball, damaging anything it bounces off along the way.
Lightning shield – grants immunity to lightning based attacks, and in fact attracts them like a lightning rod for various tactical uses. Other enemies are still damaged by the attracted lightning, so try positioning yourself so that they get caught in the path of it. Special attacks include bursting upwards into the air, zapping enemies along the way, or simply zapping them stationary in an area-of-effect move. Throwing the shield causes it to stick to a surface, reaching out with lightning bolts and zapping nearby enemies while it lasts.
Plasma (“normal”) shield: This shield does not grant any immunities or special moves, but unlike other shields it can withstand a much, much heavier amount of damage before disappearing. Throwing the shield hits a singular enemy like a boulder, causing just as much damage to them.
Ice shield: Grants immunity to cold attacks, and allows the user to walk on water. Just by being nearby, the shield freezes the surface of water, turning it into a traversable platform. Special attacks include creating an icy boulder around yourself to roll enemies over (like the spindash, you're at the mercy of gravity and inertia for this one) and freezing nearby enemies solid. The shield cannot be thrown conventionally, but attempting to simply leaves the shield behind as an ice boulder which can be pushed around – or by some characters, even picked up and thrown.

Multiplayer Modes
Freeform – Can be played free-for-all or in teams. Players play by either a time or KO limit and compete to obtain more KO's than each other.
Grand Prix – Free for all only. A number of checkpoints are scattered through the arena (usually in a full loop) and players complete to pass all of them in order before their opponents do. Infinite stamina may be enabled as a special condition to the gametype so players can use Speed Moves without penalty. Additionally, some extra checkpoint layouts may be available to specialise with different sets of characters (eg: flight routes, point-to-point, speed focus etc)
Super Duel – Free for all only. A set of Chaos Emeralds are scattered throughout the map. Players who collect more Chaos Emeralds gain not only a stat advantage but a point multiplier as well, but become a more obvious target for others as Emeralds are always visible no matter where they are – even through walls. If a defeated player was carrying more than one Emerald, all but one of those Emeralds will scatter across the map for the sake of fairness.
Capture the Chao – Teamplay only. Two Chao gardens are placed on opposite sides of the map, one for each team. To score points, players must take Chao's from each other's garden and add it to their own. Players can pick up their own Chao if needed, whether to recover stolen Chao or to temporarily hide them outside the garden where you'd normally expect them, but if left alone Chao will make their way back to their home garden on their own. Likewise, Chao can act differently depending on who they're confronted with – they will stay near an allied player on the way back to their home garden, and hide behind or even ON said player in the face of a threat, whereas an enemy player will cause the Chao to run faster away from the player, and even in their grasp will attempt to resist and escape.
Metamorph battle – Can be played in either free for all or team play. This mode plays much like the Freeform mode, but apon achieving a certain adjustable condition (by default, apon KOing another player), the player is transformed into another of the cast of player characters at random. This gives the gametype a very unpredictable WarioWare-ish style, and likewise can sometimes leave you only seconds to re-adapt each time.
Ring hoarding – Team play only. Opposing teams start in separate bases much like Capture the Chao, but do not start with any rings. Players must trek out into the level, collect rings scattered about the place and bring them back to their own base to add to their team's cumulative ring count – or in other words, score points for their team. To disencourage cowardly spawn-camping tactics, players will have their rings constantly drained when within an enemy base's area of influence, but receive a significant base health boost when within an allied base.

Unique Character System
Through extended play of Revised, characters gradually gain experience from their gameplay and, as such, are capable of improving their form and acquiring all-new techniques as they go. Whilst there are some abilities that are given to the character automatically (and thus, are often essential or at least very helpful in completing later levels), more often than not a player is given a choice of assisting abilities to help conform to the player's style of playing as well as add to the character's growing arsenal of attacks.
These new abilities don't come free, however – or even cheap, for that matter. To acquire new skills, or improve apon existing ones or stats, the player must first find sources of power for the character. Once acquired, these power sources act as a currency of its own, with which the player can “purchase” abilities for the character that gathered them. Players can do this anytime they are not in the middle of a stage – in other words, between stages, in the main menu or in hub areas.
What is a source of power, and where are they found? Generally, they are found wherever a skillful feat is performed. By defeating enemies, completing puzzles, unleashing combos, finishing levels or other such accomplishments, these sources can materialize and guide themselves straight towards the performing player – and generally, the greater the feat, the bigger and more numerous they come. They come in many forms, such as Chaos Drives, Light Cores, or depending on the feat or level theme, may come in more bizarre forms such as batteries or sentient blobs.
While their forms may differ, they all share a common standard of given power, dictated by the colour of the object. For example, the full range could be:
Black: Just above normal (1 point)
Blue: Small feat (3 points)
Purple: Not bad (5 points)
Red: Respectable (10 points)
White: Incredible (20 points)
Power sources add to the overall “level” of the character, dictating the specific amount of extra abilities and stat changes they can acquire at that point in time. Whilst abilities are not fixed and can be swapped at will, they can only use as many at a time as their overall Power Sources can handle, and some cannot be acquired at all until you have achieved certain lifetime amounts of power (unaffected by actual used power).

This same system is also available in multiplayer gameplay, albeit somewhat more restricted. Players can still swap abilities in and out of their favourite characters as they choose (and save said layouts as templates if they find the settings suit them), they are almost always set to a fixed amount of power sources, for the sake of balance between other players. There may be some exceptions to this rule – such as a gametype option which suits it, or when the match creator enables power source alteration for the sake of handicapping or plain having fun (whilst this can be kept within a certain area of usage, this is still generally not recommended for serious competitive matches).

Tension Gauge / Dynamic Music
What is the Tension gauge? The Tension gauge is a bar of energy not unlike the Stamina meter, but with another purpose in mind. Whereas the Stamina meter is restored in boosts given from active involvement in the game, the Tension restoration is a slower, much more gradual process that relies more on the situation as a whole rather than small tasks within. When the Tension Gauge is full, the player can unleash a devastating, game-wrecking attack by pressing the left and right triggers simultaneously at the cost of the full Tension gauge – for the sake of Sonic Battle similarities, we will call this attack the Ichikoro for now.

To fill the Tension gauge is to throw yourself in harm's way, and survive. And generally, the more challenging or desperate the situation, the quicker the Ichikoro charges. Some factors that can influence Tension regeneration include:

- Fast movement (rapid cornering and turning adds extra)
- Enemy presence (an outnumbering or generally stronger force adds extra)
- Combat (again, multi-combat for extra)
- Defenses (ring-less and low health can add a LOT of extra)
- Hazards (the more the better, plus non-static hazards and player movement)

As the action cools down and the player gets in obvious control of the situation, the Tension gauge will quickly DEgenerate over time down to a level fitting the current situation. To fill the gauge to full and thus, earn a chance at unleashing an Ichikoro, the player must stay in constant danger with the fewest amount of breaks possible. By utilizing this tension system cleverly, it's possible to overcome otherwise suicidal tasks just by being present long enough – and of course, surviving the whole ordeal at the same time.

The same situations that affect the Tension gauge, however, will also change various parts of the music to fit. While this is purely cosmetic and does not affect gameplay, it adds to dramatic effect in ways a static track can never achieve.

Of course, without an audiable example at the time of writing, this is rather difficult to demonstrate. But at any one time, the BGM playing during gameplay does not consist of just one song, but multiple patterns layered on top of each other to achieve the same effect. As the level of activity fluctuates, the game enables and disables various patterns of such so as to reflect the situation. Examples of music patterns and their applications could include:

- Percussion: Changes in intensity depending on action-heavy sequences, such as intense fighting, movement speed and pursuit and so forth. Without any of these, percussion does not play at all, whereas beats step up gradually on the level of activity, eventually building to Breakbeat levels with a heavy combination of said factors.-

Theme: Changes of instruments and tempo depending on the character being used. For example, Sonic could get faster rock-ish guitar leads in the main level theme, whereas a slower or more technical character like Silver would have a slower, Trance-based synth lead. It all depends on the feel of the character.
- Strings: builds up on the level of health/rings of a character, adding to a generally intense and epic feel in the midst of a particularly close fight. In some situations, namely boss fights and some multilayer skirmishes, the health of the enemy also causes this field to build, and at a stretch can even be used as an indicator of your foe's well-being.

Stage Layout Editor / Eggman Empire mode
To further add to replay value and online interaction in Revised, an in-built level editor is included to allow players to create their own unique challenges by changing the layout of objects in the level, including items, enemies, hazards and even just plain decor. This isn't even specifically limited to one type of map, either – you can edit single player levels, multiplayer maps and anything in between. In fact, it's even possible for players to transform one type of level into its exact opposite – single player levels can be changed into multiplayer maps, and vice versa.

The actual editing process takes place via a generic Eggman drone with a permanent fly/hover ability. It controls much like a typical playable character, albiet with some different button mappings:

Control sticks: Horizontal movement and camera, as per normal. Camera movement is locked in “focus” mode for the sake of precision.
A: Vertical movement. Hold A and up or down on the movement stick to ascend or descend with appropriate speed, specified by the amount of force applied.
X: Spawns an object onto the nearest surface that the player is aiming towards.
Y: Grab/release an object, similar to Silver's Telekinetic grab. Tapping Y whilst holding an object causes it to drop to the ground, but holding it for a second causes it to levitate on its own without the player's intervention.
B: Delete the currently focused object.
LB/RB: Cycle between objects to drop.
LT/RT: Cycle between object categories (items, badniks, scenery, level goals and sequences etc)

From thereon, it's up to the player to design a level layout as they see fit. Unfortunately, total freedom of creation is impossible, and thus there are limits to the amount of objects players can place in a level, each guaged by their maximum possible processor load (for example, a breakable box would be valued not by its initial processor load, but the amount of strain that its many individual fragments cause after it's broken by force). Otherwise, it's up to the player what they create.

Additionally, the level editor has an unlockable, surprisingly deep sub-game buried within – the Eggman Empire mode. Initially it controls in much the same way as the aformentioned Layout Editor, but subtle tweaks and mechanics work to transform it into a very RTS-like experience between two or more players.

To help demonstrate how such a game would play out in a layout editor, here is an example of how things could progress:

 First, the player starts out with nothing but a Layout bot (the earlier mentioned generic eggbot that does the layout editing) and a specialized badnik factory that produces said Layout bots. To start off, everything in the game needs resources in an RTS, and this is no exception. To add more capacity to create new objects and structures for their base, the player must scatter rings all about the level – the more they place, the bigger their maximum army and structure capacity. Using rings in particular manners – such as creating long strings, circles or compacted stockpiles – give additional capacity benefits.
 Now that the player has scattered enough rings to create a sizable force to their own section of the level, the player can use the Layout bot to create objects that benefit their own cause – badniks, vending machines, turrets, obstacles and whatnot. All of the objects that the player creates are tinted a particular colour to individualize it from enemy objects. Some objects – including badniks and some items – can be grouped to a single “commander” object or badnik, and while this method costs less ring dispersal, destroying the commanding object simultaneously destroys all objects linked to it and thus makes it a much riskier approach. Finally, the player must determine their defeat goal to give an advantage against attackers. There are a wide range of defeat goals available, and the more trustworthy they are, the more they cost. By default, the defeat goal is a mere goal marker that would usually occur at the end of a standard level, but more indepth goals include:

 A locked goal: Requires destroying a commanding badnik (cheaper) or a group of badniks guarding it (more expensive) to uncover the goal.
 Stealthed goal: The goal is transparent and thus difficult to see unless the player is nearby it. Objective goal: Scatter several keys to the defeat goal across the map, which the enemy will need to collect before accessing the goal. Number of keys can range from 1 to 10, and again more keys means more expenses. Objective goals are assisted by giving the enemy a Treasure Hunt style sonar to help track goals down.
 Boss goal: The goal is contained within a large, difficult-to-defeat badnik, and requires the enemy to destroy the boss before accessing the goal.

 Lastly, when the player is satisfied that his makeshift base will hold up against enemy attacks, they can shift into a character of choice (which is selected before the beginning of the match) at the expense of rings to take on enemy bases and thus, attempt to win the match by reaching the enemy's defeat goal. The badniks that the player created will react automatically to threats as they usually would in the middle of an ordinary single player game, and attempt to defeat incoming enemy players to prevent them from reaching the defeat goal themselves.
And that's just the basic gameplay, because like any RTS game there is a thick layer of strategic placement of items that can help secure victory. For example, a player could scatter numerous keys for an Objective Goal as far from each other as possible, then place turrets or badniks around each of them to hinder players that attempt to acquire them. Or, a player could create a simple Locked goal... then link it to a horde of stealthed, non-attacking badniks to make them difficult to find and thus, harder to unlock the goal.

And even at the basic level, it's all about knowing when to shift into character to attack the enemy base. Too early, and you could leave your base defenseless against a counter attack. Too late, and you may find an enemy impossible to overcome. At a basic level, it's all about knowing when to attack head on, but there are many tactics that can come through clever utilization of defeat goals, badnik combinations and formations, and overall hard-pointed structures to aid a player in motion.

REVIEW: Too Human

Too Human was one of those games I randomly decided to pick up as an impulse buy - quite simply, to help bridge the gap between one of the few games I was actually looking forward to. I'm often told that this is the best way to get a game - no hype, no expectations, just a mystery game with vauge forethoughts as to "what's in the box". Because it's impossible to actually be disappointed in a game if you have no idea of what to expect, right?

Actually, wrong. In an unexpected twist, despite me knowing virtually nothing about the game's progress, Too Human managed to betray virtually zero expectations of the game, STILL managing to disappoint me greatly. Which makes me hate to imagine how people would've reacted had they actually been looking forward to it.

In a nutshell, Too Human is an odd mix of Action/RPG that takes a decidely "ancient myth" storyline, modernizes it into hi-tech surroundings, tries a few new concepts and takes very questionable approaches towards establishing them. Oh, and it looks pretty. For what good THAT's worth.

The game starts out simple enough, giving you a choice between five different warrior types, each with their own specialties and skill trees - the dual-wielding, melee-crazy Bezerker, the Jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none Champion, the Shield-wielding, defense-oriented... erm, Defender, the gunslinging Commando and the healing support Bio Engineer. Given I was most eager to try out the unusual close combat concepts, I went with the Bezerker.

Right from the moment you're thrown into your first fight, the melee comes off as incredibly basic, and not in a good way. To attack an enemy with your melee weapons, all you have to do is to tilt the right control stick in your target's general direction, and Baldur, the main guy, slides straight on over and slashes them in the face. From there, you either hold the stick down to attack continously, tap the stick to uppercut them into the air for a juggle combo, or tilt both sticks to initiate a heavily damaging Finisher combo. At the best of times, the latter two moves are very unresponsive, and often take at least 2-3 attempts to actually pull off. In the first place, you only even need pull these moves off if you're feeling fancy, as the vast majority of the game outside of boss fights can be accomplished simply by holding the stick down and letting the game do the rest.

The gunplay aspect of the game doesn't fare any better. Baldur never has his ranged weapon out by default - he summons it whenever you pull the trigger for the weapon, and automatically aims and shoots it at the nearest enemy in his line of sight. This targetting system is, without contest, the single worst aiming system I have ever had to put up with in a videogame. Actually changing between targets is a chore which requires you to release the trigger and perfectly align Baldur with your target of choice - without any form of manual camera control outside of preset zoom settings, this makes it impossible for you to attain a specific target in a crowd unless it's purely by accident. Dual wielded weapons, such as pistols, are even worse to use, in that it's possible to target individual enemies with each pistol, and there's virtually no manual control to distinguish the first pistol from the second, aside from a second trigger to fire your other pistol.

It's commonplace to find a game which appears incredibly basic at first though, and develops later on to accomodate advanced moves and tactics - and seeing as Too Human was a very RPG centric game, I had high hopes this would happen. However, this game does almost nothing to reward a player's progress through higher and higher levels of skill - the Skill Tree, which supposedly contains new powers to use in-game, often do little more than slightly altering stats and at the best of times, producing a slightly effective attack that you'll often have no reason to resort to. And even your standard stat enhancements never feel at all satisfying, as the game automatically scales difficulty depending on your skill level - so if you're hoping to royally kick the shit out of the first mission's enemies with stats you gained from finishing the game, forget it - they'll still be roughly as strong as they were right at the end.

Additionally, the game is a complete and utter loot whore - nearly every enemy you defeat will drop at least one equippable item, and sometimes in excess of five. Many of these come with small, subtle stat changes unrelated to its damage or defense rating, and some are even customizable in that regard with stat-enhancing runes that are also found dropped by the game's many peons. By the time you get to the second level though, you'll simply find all this information too overwhelming to care about, and only bother equipping items with the highest attack/defense rating without care of whatever else they do for you. Enemies also frequently drop health pickups too, which further decreases the game's difficulty and reduces most of it to more generic stick tapping.

The only sense of difficulty from Too Human ever comes from enemies that come bigger than you - and initially, with the first of these being the hammer wielding Troll, this proves to be a welcome change of pace. To defeat a Troll, you first have to cripple it by destroying its individually target-able armour pieces, then jump on top of its head, balance yourself to make sure you don't topple off, then deliver a fatal killing blow with a simple tilt of the right stick. This is by far the most satisfying element of Too Human's combat moments, and it's somewhat difficult to get tired of. Of course, you can still destroy Trolls by removing ALL their armour, but that just isn't as satisfying.

As far as giant enemies go though, that's where the fun ends. Come second level, the game starts throwing things at you with incredibly obscure solutions, and few come more frustrating than the bow wielding spider-like enemy that is introduced midway through. Said enemy has a shockwave move that, unlike the Troll's equivalent, cannot by avoided by jumping into the air, which is a puzzling limitation to say the least. It can, however, be dodged by a simple rolling manuever... now stop everything for a minute. Does that make even a BIT of sense to any of you? Didn't think so, because it certaintly didn't make any sense to me either.

Which brings me to the subject of the Boss fights. Like Trolls, most of them expect you to individually damage each individual section of armour - however, unlike Trolls, you cannot jump on top of them for the usual instant kill, and you are expected to destroy ALL of their armour to actually kill it. Most of the time, this is literally impossible to do with melee weapons, on account that not only will you not be able to reach certain parts of the boss (due either to sheer height, or its constant turning to meet facefirst with you), but also that you can actually target armour pieces you have already destroyed - given the game's indescriminate targetting system, this makes aiming for the one armour section you haven't destroyed yet incredibly frustrating, even if you're doing it with a gun. Speaking of guns, nearly every boss has a complete immunity to Laser weapons, as do a great many other large enemies - given that they're technically the most damage-dealing weapons otherwise, some may find themselves in impossible situations when they had the otherwise good practice of selling items weaker than than their best.

So inevitably, despite the overall dumb difficulty of the overall game, vauge sections of the game like this will meet with frustration, and ultimately, the worst part of the game - death. Every time you die in Too Human, you are greeted with an unskippable cutscene in which a Valkyrie appears and supposedly carries you to heaven... then abruptly respawning you just outside the action with full health, exactly as it was when you died, enemy health ratings and all. In addition to being incredibly annoying to have to sit through every time you die, it is incredibly unsatisfying and unrewarding to defeat anything in the game when it simply brings you back to life whenever you die without punishing you in any way - it's almost as if you're playing a deathmatch game, just that you're the only one who can respawn. It comes off as incredibly cheap in practice, and ultimately, makes you hate dying even more than you normally would.

Finally, outside of the actual missions, Too Human is incredibly boring and slow-paced. One of the main reasons is actually incredibly simple - the worlds are big, whilst Baldur is very slow, which makes exploration and, hell, just getting places an utter chore. Worsening things is the fact that there's little to no activity going on, almost no interaction aside from shops, tutorial screens and the obligatory story-advancing cutscene, and the fact that the game barely rewards you for exploring in the first place, outside of... you guessed it, more fucking generic loot. And while the story and settings themselves are inspired by actual mythos, you're unlikely to find much about the game particularly memorable - and right when it looks like things are about to get interesting, the game ends on one of the worst cliffhanger finishes imaginable.

For those looking for an action/RPG with a few new ideas, are patient enough to overcome the game's obscure completion methods and and can appreciate high quality graphics regardless of context, I can still recommend Too Human regardless of my personal despisal for this game. Everybody else? Unless the rest of the trilogy is a completely different game, I'd advice merely renting any entry in the series if you feel like playing at all.

Defining Points:

• The graphics. While Too Human evidently suffers from grey/brown syndrome, the visuals are otherwise crisp and hi-def, and are nothing short of masterful quality in a technical sense. A little more colour would be nice, but otherwise no improvement is needed here.
• Fighting Trolls. These buggers react according to each individual strip of armour you destroy on them, from scrapping alternate weapons on their backs to ruining their movement capabilities by removing their leg plating. Furthermore, they are practically the only armoured enemy who can accurately be targeted by each individual armour piece, and leaping on top of them for the lethal finishing blow is by far the most satisfying aspect in the game. Trolls should have been used as the standard for all the other giant enemies in the game, even the bosses, as they are clearly the only enemy in the game that's any fun to fight.

What could have been done better

• The targeting system for ranged weapons is an absolute mess. Too Human could have gone much better off simply with a manual aim ala typical First Person Shooters, but if the auto-lockon system is to remain, switching targets is something that should be made just as easy as targeting with melee weapons - I should simply be able to point my right stick and an enemy, and expect Baldur to shoot in that direction. Maybe a loose auto-aim system to keep my fire focused on specific enemies, but otherwise, no other bullshit.
• The melee combat needs to be more responsive - granted, the majority of the game can be finished with the only action that Too Human can pick up fluently (ie: the standard sliding strike), but there would have been more incentive to use at least the juggling combos, had it been possible to execute them on the first time every time I ask for it. A few extra moves, some unlockable through the Skill Tree, certaintly wouldn't have killed them - anything to help break the sheer repetitive pace of the standard game.
• Give us a reason to actually CARE about weapons and armour that we get every ten seconds. I mean, +3% sliding distance? +6% jump height? Who actually gives a damn about these pissy mods anyway? If it's not a 25% increase or better in something, I have no reason to care about which item enhances what.
• Why should I have to destroy every individual piece of armour just to kill a boss? Surely I could just cut the whole damn thing in half right after I've exposed its back joints? It's kinda neat that enemies can be weakened according to which pieces of them I've already damaged, but there's no feasible reason why its unarmoured components are somehow invincible whilst it's the ARMOUR that has to take a beating.
• If you're going to make big, massive worlds to explore, do NOT make your main character slower than a lead weight. BIG WORLD + SLOW SPEED = BOREDOM. IT'S NOT FUCKING ROCKET SCIENCE.
• Finally, enough with the obscurity. I don't mind if I have to use my head to get around a tricky situation, but at the very least it should make some sort of sense that doesn't require trial and motherfucking error to overcome. Bringing down the ceiling with a bunch of conveniently placed explosives to take down an abnormally massive crowd? Sure, that's cool, as long as I have some way of knowing those things are actually explosive.

Overall...

6/10. Too Human takes a daring new direction for a game of its type, but ultimately falls short due to questionable execution and repetitive, bland and oftimes unresponsive combat mechanics