Peter Molyneux picks apart Too Human

By Robert Purchese Published 16 September, 2008

"It tried to be something it was not."

Peter Molyneux reckons there was something "slightly off" about Too Human, and says he would have done things differently had he been in charge.

"It has some gems in there, but they're hard to find," Molyneux told Joystiq. "I quite like the combat and felt it was accessible, but I just... If I got my hands on the game, I'd rip out a few of the things they did and just concentrate on the core.

"It just slightly forgot about what it was trying to be," the Lionhead boss continued. "In a way, it tried to be something it was not. It felt - and again, I thought it did some things really well - that there was something slightly off about it. I'm sure that Denis Dyack is going to come and kill me now!"

Molyneux said there's not one game he could point to as being perfect. Grand Theft Auto IV was a particular "high spot" this year, apparently, but even that "definitely had its flaws". Molyneux said he wanted to "smash the controller into the wall" when he died and had to restart missions.

Other games mentioned were Braid, LittleBigPlanet and Spore. The latter, he said, turned out better than he had expected.

Molyneux has another project up his sleeve besides Fable II. This is a secret game that started as an experiment after Black & White launched in 2001. The project, we're told, had a "fantastic breakthrough" around 18 months ago.

"It was almost unbelievable what this experiment lead to," said Molyneux, who promises to keep his mouth closed until he has something playable to show. He thinks that will be within the next year.

Fable II is due out exclusively for Xbox 360 on 24th October.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (9) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Rirekon #1 3 years ago

    The irony here is amazing...

  • actionfitz #2 3 years ago

    Molyneaux wants a second job reviewing games?
    hehe.

  • Gearskin #3 3 years ago

    Peter for President.

  • Meho #4 3 years ago

    Well, he's quite right about TH's combat being slightly 'off', I just hoped to hear from him what in particular this might be.

  • GooseUK #5 3 years ago

    he is setting himself up for a serious backlash if Fable 2 is anyting but the best game in the world, ever. EVER.

    Seriously if i was a developer, i would keep my mouth shut about other people's projects, apart from the safe " It had some great ideas", and " I really liked the art direction" etc. lol

  • sneetch #6 3 years ago

    After playing (I think) all of Peters previous games a certain phrase about glass houses and stones spring to mind.

  • cyber_nicco #7 3 years ago

    @Meho

    Actually, I think he said he liked the combat, but something about the game was "slightly off". As someone who has bought the game and is actually enjoying it immensely, I would still have to agree with their being something slightly off about it. I could actually put my finger on much of it, which PM seems unable to do. However, on the balance, I'm still having great fun with the game...

    edit: Oh, and I quite like the combat - I had difficulty the first time trying the demo, but once I got the hang of it I ended up really liking it.
    Edited by 1 at 17/09/08 @ 15:53

  • GamesConnoisseur #8 3 years ago

    I was frustrated with Too Human by end of 3-4 hours of playing, but now 17 hours in it grown on me a lot more, need to be clever with equipment/stats boosters and then you ll cruise along fine.

    PM should be recruited as reviewer for EG!

  • Quint2020 #9 3 years ago

    "It has some gems in there, but they're hard to find," - I agree with this, it's a shame most gamers just don't have the patients to dig past a few flaws because Too Human is very fun once you get past some of the questionable design decisions.