Let’s Talk Dyack

Ah, more about Denis Dyack, the mind behind Too Human for the Xbox 360. The alternate title to this post could also read “Why the flip is everyone making such a fuss over the creator of such an underwhelming game?” Perhaps we’ll never know the answer to that question, but what we do know, thanks to MTV Multiplayer, is what Dyack is like according to the dudes that work with him.

If you’re unaware, a lot of fuss has been made over Denis Dyack of Silicon Knights in regards to their new game, Too Human, which was in development 10 years ago, and then wasn’t. After lots of people started saying that his game didn’t look up to snuff, Denis started throwing a hissy and even went so far as to challenge the NeoGAF boards.

All in all, it’s a sad sordid tale of a game that I was extremely excited about at one point but is reportedly just mediocre. All in all, I can’t help but feel kind of sorry for the guy, though he did kind of collapse in on himself like a dying star. It’s nice to see his dudes sticking up for him though.

Did you end up playing Too Human? What did you think of it?

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I write about samurai girls and space marines. Writer for Smooth Few Films. Rooster Teeth Freelancer. Author of Red vs. Blue, The Ultimate Fan Guide, out NOW!

11 thoughts on “Let’s Talk Dyack”

  2. You’re right, I didn’t get into that whole mess, which is just another story altogether. Too Human was riddled with so many problems it’s a wonder the thing even got finished.

  3. I didn’t bother playing Too Human. The level scaling and lack of decent multiplayer completely killed my boner here.

    Maybe I’m just fiending to relive Diablo II.

  5. This game doesn’t interest mee at all.

    One of the Silicon Knights offices are in my city though lol.

    I’m supposed to tour them this year hopefully for one of my computer classes 🙂

  6. lol @ Anthony’s comment.

    [quote comment=”58″]From what I read, it doesn’t even sound too interesting.

    Might be a decent game, but the hype killed it.[/quote]

    My thoughts exactly on just about every console title that has come out in the last 3-5 years.

  7. Yeah, you might be right.

    God of War lived up to its hype, for me at least.

    None of the DMC’s did and GTAIV was fun, but I don’t play it now that I beat it.

  8. It seems to me that if you begin a project in the ultimate production fast lane (the gaming world) you either have a finished product in a year or two or are totally surpassed by the up-to-date competition. Now don’t get me wrong, I can admire the dedication of spending a third of your adult life on one piece of work, but this isn’t some swordsmith in Imperial Japan. If nothing else, Moore’s Law will see to it that the best technology of the day is outstripped in eighteen months, much less a decade. This leads us inevitably to the fate of Too Human, in that it looks and feels more like a launch-date game for the original Xbox than anything. The graphics actually look like they predate Halo, with rough textures, poor facial programming, and bland weapon effects.

    The actual gameplay fares little better, in my opinion. Mindless enemies rush you (or sometimes don’t) with no intelligence whatsoever, and the controls don’t feel smooth or coordinated. The levels are interspersed with a sort of odd little minigame-world that gives the impression of being a last-minute addition.

    All told, this game (and especially its parent company) would probably have been better off if it was still just a fantasy in the head of one D. Dyack, and the man himself just another dreamer.

  9. Honestly, the game wasn’t that bad.

    Everyone’s making a big deal about it saying it was an “epic fail” when it wasn’t. It was just Mediocre. It has an interesting concept and fighting system and it actually brought something new to the genre. I don’t see many developers experimenting like the way they did in “Too Human”. True, the end result wasn’t what we all were hoping for, but isn’t that the point of experimenting? To find out what works and what doesn’t work?

  10. Great comments here. That’s the thing about this game, it’s not really an epic fail so much as it didn’t seem to live up to everything that they had outlined. They had a lot of things that they were supposedly shooting for, that they just didn’t seem to hit. Also, Dyack should have just kept quiet.

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