After years of development and console side-stepping, Silicon Knights finally revealed its freshest role-playing game for the Xbox 360 console: Too Human. While close to a million gamers downloaded the demo over the Xbox Live Marketplace, there was some disparagement seen throughout its initial user reviews. While that's not to say that some, or even most, didn't enjoy the initial demo, there seemed to be something lacking. This fact, coupled with the pre-release ride that had the president of Silicon Knights dishing out promises and the game's developers sweating bullets, made even other gamers wonder if the juice was worth squeezing their wallets for.

In the long run, and with the game's final release date nearly two months behind, it seems that Silicon Knights has delivered Too Human the way it promised. And it's looking pretty good.

The story of Too Human reveals itself throughout the duration of the game in miniature cinemas, something the developers wanted to do to increase the game's movie production feel. Humanity has suffered a huge blow from the Children of Ymir, a race of machines that is bent on destroying the planet. After a war wrought from nuclear and anti-matter weapons, a war that saw the planet ensconced in frigid, unlivable terrain, the few million humans that are left have walled themselves within the safe haven of Midgard, far away from the deadly winter and, hopefully, just as far from the Children of Ymir. To ensure their protection, the humans have turned to the Aesir, their gods.

Baldur is one such god. A son of ODIN (yes, the gods within Too Human are based on Norse Mythology, and ODIN is but one of the well-known figures seen throughout the game), Baldur has a cybernetically advanced body that allows him to see humans as nothing more than mortals, and dish out some serious heat in the meantime. Unfortunately for Baldur, his Aesir peers see him as barely passing the grade when it comes to his cybernetic abilities, which is where the game's title is certainly derived from.

Even though the player is forced to play as Baldur, they can pick between five starting warrior classes, including Berserker, Champion, Commando, Defender, and Bio Engineer. These classes rely on a certain type of combat, most of which players will instantly pick up on. For example, the Bio Engineer class leans towards healing oneself and one's teammates, while the Berserker and Commando classes rely on dealing massive amounts of melee and long-range damage. The Defender class is mainly for those that don't like to die as it provides the player with extra armor and health, as well as permitting the use of shields. Your well-rounded class, the Champion, is just like it sounds, with a focus on air attacks and critical strikes.

But Too Human's customizability doesn't stop there. As you progress throughout the game, you will be able to outfit your character with new weapons and gear, as well as some neat trinkets called Charms. The weapons and gear are of your standard role-playing fare and include everything from maces and swords to helmets and boots. There are also some science-fiction-esque weapons like pistols and rifles. But no matter what your choice of poison, there are a lot of these items to be had, as Too Human is like something out of a loot hoarder's wet dream. Most of the smaller enemies throughout the game drop health restorations and Bounty, but almost all of the tougher enemies drop something of value. Then you have the countless destructible crates throughout the game that contain even more loot. And to top it all off, there's the goodies found in Cyberspace.

Cyberspace in Too Human is pretty much the antithesis of what most would imagine in their minds upon hearing the word. It is a dimension full of lush forests and mountaintops, and is in clear contrast to the claustrophobic hallways and technology-enforced caverns seen throughout the "real world". Three mysterious entities known as the NORNS rule Cyberspace, and they eventually grant Baldur the ability to lift and push within their realm, as well as create fire later in the game. This is where players can find advanced loot and blueprints--design schemes that require a specific amount of Bounty before the item can be built--but not without first solving a puzzle or using an ability. This is also where some of the replay value for Too Human comes in, as players may need to return to an earlier Cyberspace area in the game to unlock a puzzle that required a higher-level skill.