It's a shame that Too Human ended up being as mediocre as it is, as there are a number of chances taken in this game, and innovation is in short supply in the games industry. Unfortunately, for every interesting design choice, there are several awful ones and for all that the game tries to do differently, there's more that the game does poorly leading to an uneven and ultimately unpleasant experience. By the time the game comes to a crashing halt, complete with the big reveal that's not so big if you know anything about Norse mythology, all the loot in the world won't erase the bitter taste of unrealized potential.

You play as Baldur, one of the Norse gods recast as cybernetically enhanced members of the Aesir, a giant corporation tasked with defending humanity against the murderous machines. Why the Aesir has to defend humanity, or how the machines became evil is any one's guess as that, as well as many other story elements are never explained, either sufficiently at all. As Baldur you'll go after Grendel, take on your brother Hod, try to reactivate the World Serpent, and finally, assault Helheim to take down Hel, one of the game's antagonists, and daughter to Loki, the other bad guy. The reasonings for going to these various levels is barely tied together to the point where they could tell you that you're going to Helheim to pick up cheese steaks and six pack of Natty Light and it would make as much sense as the actual motivations.

Once at your destination, you'll be assaulted by waves and waves of identical creatures. The enemies vary somewhat from level to level, with the undead of the Helheim being the most radically different, but once in a level, the only real variety comes from the polarity enemies, beasties with the annoying ability to cause explosive, ice, poison or electrical damage. This results in the third battle of every level looking like the first or like the ninety-seventh.

You'll have a wealth of attacks at your disposal however the combat, like the rest of the game, is maddeningly uneven. Too Human eschews button mashing for stick mashing, with the right stick being used to both pull off and direct attacks. Push the right stick towards an enemy and Baldur will hit them. If the enemy is far away, Baldur will slide over and then attack them. The system allows you to start pushing your stick towards enemy number two while you're still beating on enemy number one, so that Baldur will bounce from enemy to enemy slashing at will. As Baldur racks up hits, his combo meter increases, allowing him to use a ruiner attack, a large area of effect attack, or use a battle cry, a buff that lasts longer the higher your combo meter is as well as a sentient weapon, where a copy of your weapon goes flying off, smacking fools and adding to your combo meter. Baldur can also pull off fierce attacks (weapon dependent ranged attacks) and finisher attacks (multi hit combos) when you push both the right and left sticks together, with the type of attack depending on how far the enemy is and the cruel hand of fate. At times an enemy will be far away and Baldur will be spinning around with no one to hit, while other times, Baldur is surrounded by enemies while he shoots his fierce attacks off into the ether.

Baldur also has guns at his disposal in the form of dual wieldable pistols, larger rifles and massive cannons. The targeting system is extremely frustrating as the targeting doesn't unlock off of an enemy even when they're dead and picking out a particular enemy within a pack is an exercise in futility, made even more aggravating by the need to take out polarity enemies from a distance lest their death inflict their particular elemental attack upon you. Even trolls and other bosses that have multiple parts to shoot off will be locked on incorrectly, with the default lock going to the chest plate, even if you're already destroyed it. Luckily, it's easy enough to push the right stick to another part of the body, and Baldur can stay locked on even when reloading, but still, why lock on to something that's been destroyed?