Too Human - What Happened? 

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I still have my copy of Too Human for the 360. It feels like owning the Necronomicon.

Interesting story: One of my college professors was actually an ex-Silicon Knights employee. He was one of the art leads and worked on pretty much every game SK made. He told us a few neat stories from his time there (he even got to meet Hideo Kojima once during Twin Snakes’ development). Though he also said that there were a ton of internal issues going on at SK as well because of Too Human and their other failed projects. He showed off some prototypes and graphics he worked on and said it was kind of disheartening to have all of that hard work go to waste because of things beyond his control. Unfortunately, he didn’t go into too much detail regarding the firestorm with Epic Games (probably due to legal/contract reasons) other than saying thatToo Human was a massive de motivator for a lot of SK’s employees. I don’t remember when he left the company, but if my memory is correct he hasn’t really spoken to Denis Dyack since then.

Crystal D and Silicon K sound like party drugs.

I cant wait for 3 human

To think, if Silicon Knights stayed with Nintendo they might still be around. Especially since the Wii was incapable of running Unreal 3.

I made the mistake of selling my copy about a year before the Kill All Copies order came down. I wish I'd kept it, if only to have that little piece of weird gaming history

Oh my god. My mom told me that my dad almost named me after Raziel. I was told it was some video game character and I was always curious. And now I stumble upon this video. Props to my mom for not letting that happen

Denis Dyack and Silicon Knights is probably the biggest self-inflicted wound in gaming history. Just beyond epic what happened to them.

Oh dear, didn't know about that "Destroy all copies" order. _Yikes._

"It's a good day to die" "You always say that" "It always is" Idk if its the crust lord in me but that's a pretty great line come on.

My favorite review title was, "Too Human is too shit."

I found this game at a GameStop for $3 couple months ago and thought, "oh hey, a shitty game, maybe it's hilariously bad!" I was wrong. I didn't know I had one of the last living copies in existence though... Cool?

Epic Games sure has some luck when it comes to lawsuits involving assholes stealing assets and lines of code without permission and suing the people who supply their OWN game's engine.

Apparently, Quantum Entanglement Entertainment was quietly closed down in January 2018, and Shadow of the Eternals development was put on hold. Dyack has since opened a new company called "Apocalypse Studios" and is currently (supposedly) working on a free-to-play PC role-playing game called Deadhaus Sonata. The man gets an "A" for persistence, that's for sure.

X-Men Destiny is another story that deserves a What Happened.

I think Derek Alexander (Happy Video Game Nerd) summed up this saga perfectly when he said “You can make the case that Eternal Darkness begat the hubris that led to Silicon Knights’s eventual undoing”. It really was a pipe dream to think that they ever going to win that lawsuit against Epic.

11 years later Microsoft is going to give it for free as part of the last batch of retrocompatible games on the xbox one

Wait... wasn't there a thing where the eternal darkness spiritual successor project got cancelled because the director or whatever got caught with child pornography or am I thinking about something completely different? edit: Yeah, the co-founder of "Shadow of the Eternals'", Ken McCulloch, was arrested after he was caught with child pornography.

Moral of the story: they should of just stayed at Nintendo and, maybe, make sequel to Eternal Darkness (seriously that is like the best horror game I played as a kid when the Gamecube cane out).

So happy RU-vid's recommended page kept showing me your vids. Finally decided to check them out and as Palpatine said, "A surprise to be sure, but a welcomed one."

I'd say the real moral is to avoid biting the hand that feeds you. The lawsuit was what really did them in.

They just HAD to have Too Human. They couldn't wait for stablity or solvency to bring the game to life. Hell, even lowering the aspirations they had for the game would be made it better but NO. They had to have their magnum opus.

Holy Shit. I remember downloading the demo for this game and thinking "This is clunky as hell but looks kinda neat? Whatever". Years later for whatever reason I was like "Huh, I remember that old demo was kinda weird but cool. I wonder if I can find that game anywhere for cheap..." So I went to my local GameStop and asked "Do you have Too Human?", the cashier looked at like I had just asked him to perform some kind of forbidden ritual or something and asked me if I was sure about the title of the game. He then told me they had just a single used copy, I got it for around 8 euros. I played it and dropped it after more or less 8-10 hours of clunky gameplay, bad framerate and slow loading textures. I still own it to this day. Thanks to this video I now know that what I'm holding right now is a powerful artifact from a long gone era

for the next , how about castlevania : lords of shadow 2 ?

Well. At least Eternal Darkness Lady is in Smash as a spirit right guys?

*Played Too Human for years after randomly getting it on Xbox360 and loving it, even wanting a sequel due to a cliffhanger ending* *Watches this video* - Oh.

This is one of the saddest stories in the industry. With Nintendo's guidance Dyak was able to make amazing software. When he left and allowed himself to inflate his own ego unchecked he brought everything and everyone who supported him down like a crumbling tower. Who knows what he could have done if he'd stayed with Miyomoto

Holy shit I had passing knowledge of what led to Silicon's demise, but I had no idea Epic Games just absolutely murdered them. Eviscerated SK and later their eviscerated corpse stomped on for good measure. Brutal. I mean, it's what happens when you bite off more than you can chew but still damn, they did not take SK's little legal attack lightly.

Ah, perfect! I remember seeing an article way back when about Too Human's really extended delay. Always wondered Wha Happun! I'd say it's a shame considering how much promise Eternal Darkness had, but it's also hard to feel sorry for Dyack. "Give us your GOW money!" What an architect of gloriously hubristic failure.

I would like to see an episode on Advent Rising a game where they said they'd give away a million dollars and never did. Another good game to cover is the Wii game Project Hammer.

It on Microsoft store for free

One missing tidbit about the crowdfunding for Shadow of the Eternals is that SK originally hosted the campaign on their own website and took payments through Paypal. It came off as VERY shady, especially since that was during a time when folks were pumping a ton of money into Kickstarter projects.

This sounds so old when 2 years have passed. I watched it then and I'll watch it again. Wah happun will go down in history for being a show that took up a lot of our time in quarentine

Demi’s Dyack sounds like a comic villain.

You know the concept of Too Human I always found appealing. Asgard as a highly advanced cybernetic city with the Gods being cyborg warriors.

I think it's worth noting that SK's cracks were starting to show even before they ended the Nintendo deal. It came out years later that the reason Eternal Darkness ended up as good as it did was because Nintendo was *heavily* involved in its production and more or less forced quality on it. Left to their own devices SK would have almost certainly screwed up ED at that time. Kind of puts the fact that Denis Dyack is trying to live off the legacy of ED into perspective.

I purchased a copy of Too Human in 2009, for about $8. It ended up being one of my favorite 360 titles. While it is a bug-ridden shit show, I really have enjoyed it. This is mostly due to its awesome, unrealized potential; whether in the weapon/armor mod system, the twin-stick controls, or the way you could switch between fighting with melee or ranged, on the ground or in the air...this game could have been phenomenal if it wasn't executed so poorly. If a dev team would take these ideas and do them justice, it would be excellent.

I'd never heard ANY of this drama leading up to the games release. All I knew was it was a Norse mythology inspired sc-fi game and that sounded awesome! It ended up being the first game I EVER returned

Oh my god I remember playing through this and thinking it was an amazing RPG. Wow Past Me was a fucking dolt.

So Matt WHA HAPPUN to little Spielberg project that was known as Jurrasic Park Tresspasser? Tie in to the movies with promises of cutting edge 3D graphics, realistic physics, smart AI and all that in late 90s?

I played it brand new, liked it. Did my first play-through as Berserker and another as a Commando. I distinctly remember mellee with two sticks and loving it while my friend simply could not figure out the control scheme and hated the game from the beginning. I think the whole Norse lore angle helped keep me into it. I love that stuff. It was not that bad of a game to me.

I’ve heard the name “Too Human” but never knew anything about it. It looked interesting until I saw the gameplay. Wow, that shit looks rough.

"We love our friendship... oh look money" *Runs away*

cant wait to see this, all i remember hearing about Too Human is that they spent 10 years making it and it didnt turn out that well at all

There is a podcast called Kane and Rinse, they do weekly podcasts talking about single games, they did one for Too Human and caught the ear of Dennis Dyack. They then did an interview podcast, I recommend it to get an idea about Dyack. He has some good points but basically blames reviewers and games media for his games being undersold and underscored. He gets somewhat humble regarding Too Human but mostly shifts blame to others. They also go over their Xmen game, and the controversy about taking publisher money for personal projects.

To the people that defended Too Human & Haze up until a week after it came out: you did that. never 4get

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite series on youtube. keep it up, Matt!

I always get overly hype when you release videos in this series, Matt. There's something super fascinating to me about video game history, and the way you tell it is just so entertaining. Keep it up, dude!!

Meanwhile Alex Roivas is chilling as a spirit with Solid Snake in Smash Bros Ultimate.

This is free on xbox now

Dude, love this series just binged all of them haha subbed.

I know this is a very old video of yours but I just want to say man I appreciate your videos and the time you put into them. There are a lot of developers that I've always wondered what happened to them and now I get to know wha happun to them lol. again just thank you for what you're doing this is awesome stuff hopefully you see this I know like I said it's on an older video but I've been watching them all and it's hard to keep track of what's up today and what's not but either way they're all entertaining so thank you.

Would love a video on "Haze" by Free Radical. It single-handedly destroyed the creators of the Time Splitters series, who were also working on Star Wars Battlefront III at the time. It was such a shame, because the game had some potential but was just so mediocre the company went under before they could release a PS3/XBox 360 Time Splitters.

Just got it for free. Thank you Microsoft!

I always wondered about this one. Thanks!

Wha Happun?: Lawbreakers or Evolve

Oh god so much of this has me wincing in near-sympathy.

I love these videos. Everytime one comes out I get giddy

Definitely your best one yet. Very interesting!

sounds like they might have survived if they just swallowed that humble pill.

X-Men Destiny deserves it's own episode.

This was the first game I played with a loot system with classes armour and weapons! I look back fondly! I didn't know any better! I loved the concept of robots eating people for fuel!!! I loved the opening cinematic!

Wha Happon Omikron. I'm serious it's David Cages worst game and it fails more than he usually does since it fails on a technical level instead of just a story level. So I'm interested as to why this game is so much worse than his other ones?

Hey Matt! Advent Rising... Wha Happun?

I'm still holding out hope that Nintendo releases a sequel to *Eternal Darkness* in, like, 2023 or whatever. I love the game to pieces, and they do still own the IP after all...

OMG I remember this game as one of my first let Downs in gaming that actually hurts. Thanks for throwing light on all that went wrong

"We're basically a team that's inside Nintendo" is also basically what Rare said and look what happened to them...

Wha Happon Turok Evolution

Please make more of these. I'll tell all my friends about you

I love your videos!

I was really excited to play this game before it released. I bought it the Friday it came out and beat it over the course of the weekend. Disappointed that there were only 4 levels I took it to GameStop to trade it in. Since it was so new I got like $40 back for it. I've never been so grateful to follow a gut instinct.

"Too Human... it's a video game" - Jeff Gerstmann

Yes! New wha happun. Was just wondering the other night when the next would come

I don't know if you did this episode in part for me asking for it in a previous what happuned, but thanks anyway I really apreciate it.

I thought I also read at one point that Silicon Knights was in trouble with the Canadian government in part because of all the funding received from them.

Remember Me. Big Capcom-published AAA, DontNod-developed platforming beat-em-up. Came out in 2013, only sold 47,000 copies in its first week. Never broke half a million in sales. It's a real shame too because I really enjoyed that game and it's not even a bad one either.

Had to come back to this after the X-Men Destiny's Wha Happun

I don't know why, but this game is available for free on Xbox Live, and is playable on Xbox One. It's single, lone, DLC is free too. On a more joyous note: Crackdown 1 and 2 are also now free as well! DLCs and everything! Go get them!

So excited for the inevitable LP

Enteral Darkness is such an amazing game. Can’t believe it was created by this crazy company

I like the way you edit. You edit funny.

thank you for this, I had a lot of fond memories of Silicon Knights and wondered what the heeeell

If this game was a single player action rpg with non shit controls it would have been good. The story was pretty cool

Just in case anyone missed it, Microsoft's actually planning to give away Too Human for free to anyone with an Xbone. That's right, now you too can figure out just how much of a shitshow this debacle was!

The allegations aren't super unfounded, since just before that time, Troika Games had very similar issues with Valve with the Source Engine and also didn't get much support from Valve because of it. Which is why Bloodlines was released as such a hot mess while Half Life 2 released in a manner that wasn't as much of a hot mess. So like, there's kind of sorta precedence there as far as SK's concern. Because they also didn't dump Unreal 3, rather they just hammered it into their own fork of the engine because Epic wasn't really helping out there. Again, similar to how Troika had to hammer away at the Source engine to suit their needs because Valve didn't really give them proper support tools. It kind of pushed them into a corner, since the only other studio that was in the same position just well flat dead.

Man, the name 'Silicon Knights' brings me so many good memories.

when you can't get the engine to work just sue it's owner... right? That's what normal people do isn't it?

You should do a Wha Happun? on Duke Nukem Forever, and that whole mess.

I grew up Small Town, Ontario and one of my high school teachers was a personal friend of several people that worked at Silicon Knights. She even talked to us specifically about Too Human when it was released. I don't really have a point here, just felt like sharing.

I HAD A JAMPACK DISC WITH A SOUL REAVER DEMO, it was really hype as a kid

Just now getting to wash this... WIIIIILD! This company was clearly a victim of its own arrogance. 1) regarding Blood Omen, don't start a project with another company if you don't know who owns the rights to what (admittedly that's the most forgivable mistake they made), 2) Too Human was originally supposed to come out on the PlayStation 1 and they said the Wii was too underpowered? Eventually the 360 would be "underpowered" cuz that's how technology works so they didn't have the expectations in the right place, and 3) that lawsuit against Epic games was just them signing their own death warrant; I remember seeing G4 cover that situation back when I was a kid and I was just weirded out by it, man what a difference time and perspective make. Matt you 100% right they should have just swallowed their pride and stuck with Nintendo, pardon the phrase but this whole thing is unreal

I still have a copy of Too Human. I know everybody rags on it for being bad, and rightfully so, but it fulfills that 'Terrible Game that I still find enjoyable' niche that I'm sure a lot of us all have.

Yes! I was hoping you'd get to this hot mess. Thanks Matt!

We need more of this professional version of Matt.

"Banned from sale? Just give it away!" Thanks Xbox Backwards Compatibility

Well this partly explains where all of epic games seemingly endless cash comes from...thanks Silicon.

what a good series

These video's are really interesting, you should do one on Haze or Fuse.

I'm gonna be that guy and say I bought and enjoyed this game. An RPG with reasonably fun combat and Co-Op? Hell yeah. I can say with confidence I enjoyed my time with it.