Too Human Demo « Prima Games Author Blog

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All posts tagged with ‘Too Human Demo’

Jul
27
2008

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by mabooza

Too Human: Runes and Charms

As a player who’s always trying to optimize my character, I find the equipment screen in Too Human to be extremely addictive. It seems I spend as much time sorting through my gear as I do smiting enemies. Not only is it fun to customize gear, but Silicon Knights has created a very deep yet intuitive interface. In fact, I think it’s the best equipment/inventory screens I’ve seen in a console game. The weapon and armor options are all quite self-explanatory, especially if you’ve played WoW or other RPGs. But runes and charms are somewhat unique and require some explanation to fully understand their power.

Runes: These items are sometimes dropped by enemies or obelisks. There are numerous types of runes, each capable of boosting your character’s stats in some way. But before equipping a rune, you must have an empty rune slot in one of your weapons or armor pieces. Sort through your equipped gear to see if you have one; it will say Empty Rune Slot in the window on the bottom right and show a hollow circle icon next to the square equipment icon. Once you’ve found an empty rune slot, press X to insert a rune. This brings up your rune inventory screen allowing you to fuse any rune to the selected piece of equipment. Runes can provide a variety of bonuses but try to focus on runes that boost either your weapon’s damage or your armor’s Total Armor value. These bonuses are stackable too, so don’t be afraid to apply identical bonuses to the same piece of equipment. For example, if you place one Total Armor +5% rune in all six pieces of armor, your Total Armor value is increased by 30%. But make your choice wisely. Once a rune is fused, it cannot be removed. So before applying powerful runes, make sure you’ll be using the selected piece of equipment for a significant duration. In the full-game, colored runes are available in the shops of Aesir, allowing your to customize the appearance of each piece of equipment. Colored runes can be applied to any piece and don’t take up a rune slot.

Charms: Charms are dropped exclusively in cyberspace. You can find a few by raiding the obelisks in the first cyberspace area in the demo; during Baldur’s flashback when he joins Freya at the World Tree. Although they look like runes, charms are like mini-quests, requiring you to perform a certain task and insert the appropriate runes in exchange for some type of offensive or defensive bonus. These are usually proc-based (random) bonuses, increasing the chance of inflicting certain types of damage or status effects on your victims and/or attackers. You can have up to two charms equipped at a time and one must be equipped before the requirements can be met. Once you’ve completed the requirements, press X while the charm is selected to insert the appropriate runes, matching the runic characters to the ones shown on the charm. Runes inserted into charms cannot be retrieved, thus their bonuses are lost. So avoid inserting runes you may want to use later. A completed charm must remain in one of the two equipment slots if you wish to take advantage of its reward.

So if you’re still hooked on demo, give it another run and make the most of the runes and charms in your inventory. For more info on runes, charms, and all other aspects of Too Human, check out our guide releasing next month.

Categories: Projects
Tags: Chams, prima games, Runes, tips, Too Human Demo

Jul
20
2008

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Comments: 1

by mabooza

Fight Like a Champion

Now that you know the basic combat moves of Too Human, let’s take a look at the featured class available in the demo: the Champion.

The Champion is the most balanced of the classes, equally adept at melee and ranged attacks. But the Champion’s specialty is aerial combat, capable of scoring as many as eight melee hits while flying through the air. To make the most of this skill, continually juggle targets by double tapping the right control stick in the direction of your enemy. While the target is airborne, jump (A button) and press the right control stick in the direction of the aloft enemy to perform an air slide attack. Continue holding the right stick in the direction of the enemy until it’s destroyed or until you return to the ground. But even upon landing you can jump up again and score more melee hits before the target falls. This is the best method for eliminating durable enemies like assault goblins and goblin leaders. When dealing with melee goblins, launch multiple targets into the air (with a hammer juggle or mine) and air slide each before they drop. Air slides function just like normal slide attacks, so while in the air move the right control stick in the direction of your enemies to make Baldur streak through the air, visiting each airborne target with a melee hit. Killing enemies in the air is one of the best ways to build-up the combo meter, thus allowing for more ruiners and battle cries; each requires a minimum of combo level 1 to activate.

When equipping your Champion’s melee weapon, stick with one-handed swords or hammers. While he’s capable of carrying other types, the Champion is most proficient with one-handed instruments, allowing for quicker strikes; essential during aerial combat. Consider equipping a hammer to take advantage of its multi-target juggle capability. When performing a juggle attack with any hammer, Baldur strikes the ground in front of him, creating a small shockwave radius that sends multiple targets into the air, helping prep air slide victims. Hammer juggles are also useful for escaping large swarms, allowing you to launch multiple enemies and retreat to a safer distance (and engage with guns) as they fly through the air. The Champion is also proficient with pistols. The low damage value associated with pistols is a bit misleading. By pressing the right and left triggers simultaneously you can fire two pistols at once, effectively doubling the damage output, often outperforming rifles of similar levels. However, pistols have a shorter range and lower ammo capacity than rifles, so take this into consideration when selecting a ranged weapon.

Each time your Champion levels-up, you’re awarded with 2-3 skill points. Promptly invest these points in you character’s skill tree for added bonuses and capabilities; press start and select Skills from the radial menu. At the beginning, you must invest a minimum of six skill points in the root skill (Unerring Strike) before you can drop additional points in the next three nodes. Of the three upper tier skills, Asgard’s Fury is the most beneficial, assuming you’ve become accustomed to aerial combat; the skill increases air melee damage. Beyond the first tier, you must choose a spider skill. Once a spider skill is chosen, the remaining nodes on the other two branches are locked. So study all the skills in each branch before choosing your spider. Spiders perform a variety of actions, but the Champion’s spiders either deploy mines (on the left and center branches) or a turret (on the right branch); press Y to deploy the spider. The Tree of Raining-Iron turret is one of the coolest spider abilities in the game, firing a barrage of bullets at all nearby enemies. Beyond the spider abilities, you can invest in battle cries and the sentient weapon capability. However, due to the length of the demo, you probably won’t be able to attain the skill points necessary to invest in these skills. In the full game skill points can also be applied to your chosen alignment: human or cybernetic.

So now that you know a little more about the Champion, fire-up the demo and give it another go. For more info on the Champion and all the other classes, check out our game guide releasing next month.

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: Champion, gaming, prima games, tips, Too Human Demo

Jul
13
2008

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Comments: 5

by mabooza

Too Human Demo Survival Guide

The Too Human demo is coming to Xbox Live Marketplace this week as part of Microsoft’s Bringing it Home roll-out of E3 content. According to IGN, the demo is set to release on Monday at 2 AM PDT (that’s tonight!) and will include part of the first level. So I figured this would be a good time to provide some general combat tips before you’re overrun by goblins or stomped by trolls.

Slide Attack: This is a core maneuver during melee combat allowing Baldur to slide from one enemy to the next. Simply push the right control stick in the direction of your intended target to initiate a slide. You can also perform air slide attacks to engage enemies in the air. Simply jump (A button) and push the right control stick in the direction of your airborne enemy.

Juggle Attack: During melee, double tap the right controller in the direction of your enemy to send them flying into the air. While your target is airborne, either jump and perform an air slide attack, or remain on the ground and shoot them with your ballistic weapon by holding down the right trigger. Killing enemies in the air is a great way to boost your combo meter.

Fierce Attack: At long range, simultaneously push the right and left control sticks in the direction of your enemy to perform a fierce attack. This fires a blast of energy from your melee weapon, damaging and knocking down any hostile units in its path; a great crowd control method. Swords, staves, and hammers produce different fierce attacks, but they all function similarly.

Finisher: Like the fierce attack, finishers are performed by pushing the right and left control sticks in the direction of your enemy. However, finishers must be performed at close range, causing Baldur to strike his nearby enemy multiple times for bonus damage. Use it on tough enemies like assault goblins and goblin leaders.

Ruiner: The ruiner is a massive radius attack, damaging (and sometimes killing) all enemies around your character; press the right shoulder button to deploy. Each ruiner costs one full combo level to deploy, so use these attacks sparingly to avoid depleting your combo meter. They’re most effective as a means of escape when your character is surrounded by swarms of goblins.

2 in 1 Attacks: Link together two attacks to boost damage and your combo meter. Start by sliding toward an enemy and while you’re in mid-slide (before you reach the enemy) prime a second attack such as a juggle, finisher, or ruiner. The damage caused by linking attacks is far greater than if the attacks were performed individually. Ruiners performed in this fashion are done so at half-price, using only 50% of their standard combo meter cost.

Dive Roll: Press the B button to execute an evasive dive roll. Get used to using this maneuver to avoid incoming missiles (fired by assault goblins) or getting knocked down by the melee troll’s hammer attacks. It’s also a good way to escape crowds of enemies, allowing you to retreat to a safe distance.

Troll Mounting: Trolls are the massive brown-colored machines equipped with giant hammers on their left arm. The easiest way to kill a troll is by mounting it and striking its fusion core. But first, you must destroy its chest armor protecting the power source; ranged or melee weapons are both effective. Once the chest armor is destroyed, run behind the troll and press the A button to perform a mounting maneuver. As the troll attempts to shake you off, lean in the opposite direction of its lurches by pushing the left control stick in the proper direction. When the troll levels out, push down on the right control stick to strike the fatal blow.

That should be enough to get you started. So download the demo, smash lots of goblins, and have fun! For tons of more info on Too Human, check out our game guide releasing next month.

Categories: Gaming Tips
Tags: gaming, prima games, tips, Too Human Demo
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