Destroy All Humans!

[Kodos]

http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/920590.asp

Has anyone gotten this game yet? It looks like it might be a really fun GTA sort of game. Of course, a game featuring a marauding alien is right up my alley...

[Fonzie]

Heh. This might give me an excuse to finally fire my Xbox back up.

[JeeberD]

Lynch him!

[Tara]

Europe release date 24 of June!!!! I've read about that...I love that kind of games, the best thing after a studing day. Can't wait start destroing all humans.

[Tara]

From Play.com review...

# Turn the tables on the classic Alien vs. Human storyline. In Destroy All Humans, play from the Alien perspective and finally know what it feels like to have the upper hand.
# Arm yourself with a variety of alien weaponary on land or in the air. Use the Ion detonator, the Zap-o-Matic, the Sonic Boom, or even the Quantum Deconstructor to eradicate feeble humans.
# Explore and interact with 5 huge environments using an arsenal of alien abilities to manipulate humans into submission: hypnotize, body-snatch, read minds, levitate and more.
# Take to the skies in your UFO, abduct animals, cars, and humans for research, or cause large-scale destruction.

[Fonzie]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

Lynch him!

Quiet you!

[Marc Vaughan]

The ads for it on Sky look pretty fun - especially the Cows

(my 6 year old son wants me to get it ....)

[Kodos]

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/600/600377p1.html

Destroy All Humans!: The Update
Reliving America's glory days through the eyes of a grey.
by Ed Lewis

March 31, 2005 - Modern times have come a long, long ways from the 50's. We now have all sorts of new technology like the ability to talk on the phone while we walk down the street or to be able to stream every kind of clean and dirty image straight through a screen in our homes. It also gives us the ability to reimagine the 50's through the eyes of an alien who's trying to destroy every human being around with Destroy All Humans! In today's article we take a closer look at one of the levels to see what's in store for the final build.

In previous articles we've discussed the different weapons and flying saucer abilities in DAH! (best acronym ever). We've shown off main character Cryptosporidium-137's abilities to hypnotize humans, disguise himself to look like a human, and even pop human heads to harvest their brains. We've also covered his different weapons, but the true test is running around a level and just going nuts to see what happens.

DAH! takes place in a few different settings in old-time America. There are a couple of small farmer towns before the game leads into Santo Modesto, a quiet suburban town with tract housing and cute diners to feed the citizens some greasily delicious food. The only problem is that the food has been brain-washing the people. Scientists in the area have perfected a food additive that makes anyone who eats it into an incredibly paranoid freak and, as a side effect, turns roughly 78% of them into Republicans.

All of this paranoia is bad for the aliens since it creates a hostile environment for them to be harvesting the brain stems. Way, way back in human history an alien had a fling with a human and his DNA has eventually spread throughout the entire human population of Earth. Now, the aliens need to harvest the brain stems in order to recover DNA and aid them in their cloning, the only way that the aliens can reproduce.

Behind the paranoia experiment is a mysterious group called the Majestic. These are the men in black who seem to be behind the scenes in practically everything that's going on. They're the only ones who know about the aliens and have captured Cryptosporidium-137's predecessor, Cryptosporidium-136. The goal here is to rescue Cryptosporidium-136 and pick up plenty of DNA along the way. The more DNA the better the alien race is and the more Cryptosporidium-137 can upgrade his weapons.

In Santo Modesto, Cryptosporidium-137's first goal is to read the thoughts of the scientists in the town. This is simply done by getting close to any of the scientists and using telepathy to read their thoughts. Once this has been done, the aliens realize Majestic's plot and decide that the only option is to destroy all of the evil diners. Cryptosporidium-137 on his own can't do it so it's time to go back to the saucer and bring out the heavy artillery.


While in the saucer, Cryptosporidium-137 can use a death ray to blast away all of the diners and the people who have been infected by them. There are the main targets to take care of, but pretty much every building can be destroyed just for the hell of it. And there's really no penalty for it. DAH! provides the opportunity to do just as much damage as players want. But there are goals to achieve and once the targets have been hit Cryptosporidium-137 can zap back up to the mothership to upgrade his weapons and just chill out until the next mission.

Each of the areas has a series of missions that need to be taken care of and then the game moves on to the next location. Once the missions are done, Cryptosporidium-137 can still go back to harvest more brains or just complete some of the different objectives that are scattered about. Some of the different challenges involve racing around to kill 15 women in a set time or to harvest a large pile of brains. They can also include flying from checkpoint to checkpoint in a jetpack race.

These challenges have some new features to explore, but the real fun in the levels is to just go nuts and, like the title says, destroy all the humans in sight. Each area is wide open and Cryptosporidium-137 can go anywhere he wants with this handy jetpack. Picking on the regular civilians is pretty fun, but just too easy. DAH! has four different levels of alert similar to the GTA series and by taking out some cops it's guaranteed that more and more cops, feds, and military will eventually show up for a fight.


With all of the men with guns running around there's nothing for a little alien to do but use some psychokinesis to send the soldiers flying and then toss a car or few on top of them. Once the pile has gotten big enough a well-placed shot will blow everything up quite nicely. It's a total sandbox and it may sound stupid, but ripping some 50's people to shreds with some advanced technology is a strong appeal. It's like there was some primal urge that has gone untapped for too long and now we can use it, play with it, and exploit it as far as it can go.

But don't take our word for it, go and see the movies for yourself. There are a dozen new videos in the Media Page to check out of Cryptosporidium-137 in action. Check them out and you'll see precisely what we mean.

[Kodos]

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/d...w_6127748.html

Most alien-invasion games cast you as the square-jawed all-American hero who eats little green men for breakfast before a hearty day of saving the planet. Pandemic's Destroy All Humans! turns the tables on that hallowed theme, instead putting you in the role of the marauding alien bent on the domination of Earth. As Cryptosprodium-137, you'll slaughter Earth's cowering population with all manner of exotic alien weaponry. Problem is, a few of those pesky earthlings aren't so much cowering as they are trying to end your plans of conquest. In light of the game's release next week, we take a look at the human enemies you'll probe, disintegrate, and otherwise slaughter during Crypto's mission.

Civilians: Your average, run-of-the-mill human. Unlikely to be a good source of Furon DNA, these people busy themselves with their mundane lives in a blur of forgetfulness. Their reaction to an alien is likely to be one of panic, but there are a few select individuals who have been preparing all their lives for an alien encounter.

Military: Somewhat tougher and better trained than the constabulary, your average soldier is still not the cream of Earth's crop. Equipped with rifles and bad attitudes, GI Joe isn't a big problem, except for the fact that there's so many of them. Fortunately, this is what ion detonators are for.

Police: The average law enforcement drone is likely to shoot first and ask questions later. Fortunately, their training does not include dealing with alien species, and they are somewhat susceptible to mind control. Failing that, an accurate shot with the disintegrator ray usually does the trick.

Majestic: Packing a few more strands of Furon DNA in their monkey brains, Majestic agents are tough, agile, and ready for the alien invasion. Agents come equipped with a variety of Furon-busting weapons.

Power Suit Soldiers: Not content with enhancing the mental powers of their agents, Majestic have also collaborated with the military to create the powersuit soldier. Driven by an experienced tank commander, the powersuit is large, heavy, and packs a wallop. It also has the added bonus of shielding the human that is inside from any mind control.

[Kodos]

I better stop posting stuff... people might realize this isn't even an EA game...

[Kodos]

http://xbox.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=5114

Here's a review.

[Runtheball]

Originally Posted by Tara

From Play.com review...

# Turn the tables on the classic Alien vs. Human storyline. In Destroy All Humans, play from the Alien perspective and finally know what it feels like to have the upper hand.
# Arm yourself with a variety of alien weaponary on land or in the air. Use the Ion detonator, the Zap-o-Matic, the Sonic Boom, or even the Quantum Deconstructor to eradicate feeble humans.
# Explore and interact with 5 huge environments using an arsenal of alien abilities to manipulate humans into submission: hypnotize, body-snatch, read minds, levitate and more.
# Take to the skies in your UFO, abduct animals, cars, and humans for research, or cause large-scale destruction.

OhYeah This is for me. Is it going to be available for the PC?

[Tara]

From what i've seen on ign.com at the moment It's seems avaliable just for ps2 and xbox.

[cartman]

Kodos...

Kang called and said to pick up some nogrum from the zastro on the way back to Rigel.

[rkmsuf]

Take to the skies in your UFO, abduct animals

abduct animals? don't tell me it's sheep.

[Senator]

Read it as this:

[Kodos]

IGN's review.

Destroy All Humans
Some people call me a space cowboy.

by Ivan Sulic

June 20, 2005 - The great galactic Furon Empire is about to implode. Countless centuries of cloning clones has led to a diminished stockpile of pure DNA from which Furons can duplicate themselves to effectively remain immortal. New copies of older copies have become so genetically smudged that they're hardly even Furon at all. This is kind of a serious problem seeing as how Furons have no genitalia to propagate the old-fashioned way. Too much TV, we suppose.

With special orders from the Furon Emperor, Orthopox the scientist and his gun-toting lackey Cryptosporidium (a diarrhea-making stomach parasite in plain English) are sent to harvest human brain matter for the precious dormant Furon DNA it contains. If successful, the Empire will thrive. If unsuccessful, all Furons will be scientifically boned.

The mission seems to be going well enough until Crypto lands his space vessel on a nuclear missile. Score one for humanity.

Not an emperor to take a botched reconnaissance op lying down, the most exulted Furon commander orders Orthopox and a newly generated Cryptosporidium clone to complete the original atomic failure's assignment. And if there's time we suppose they could also rescue the first Crypto, assuming he's not currently tumbling through Earth's atmosphere experiencing life as a swirling cloud of half vaporized irradiated dust mites... But whatever.

And so a shiny new Crypto hops in his ultra powerful flying saucer and makes first contact with an American cow. Shortly after torturing the mooing bovine to death with a certified Zap-O-Matic lightning gun and tossing its large unwieldy corpse through the air with the telekinetic grace of a Furon warrior, he begins contemptuously slaughtering stereotypical 1950s Americans in a variety of backwater towns. Eventually this path of hillbilly destruction leads Crypto to a confrontation on the steps of Congress with the United States government and the secret society that pulls its strings.

The game, despite its storyline, does not actually require much DNA harvesting at all. It does funnel Crypto, however, through some conceptually exciting missions that propose a smooth combination of overhead shooting, third-person on-foot action, and primitive bits of stealth. Unfortunately, each of these three major components of Destroy All Humans suffers from enough shortcomings and obviously generic play mechanics that gamers will be left wanting and wondering what could have been. But, the game is still competently delivered and with enough style that we can't help but be earnestly satisfied by having completed it.

Destroy All Humans features six major environments; each is accessible via the game's central mothership hub. Within the environments there exists a small handful of plot progressing missions, an arbitrary amount of hidden probes that unlock extras when found, and a good number of ultimately worthless mini-games. The latter always involve collecting 15 brains in two minutes, destroying this many number of cows within that many number of seconds, or racing through Y amount of checkpoints before Z amount of time expires. Blargh to that, man!

The purpose of these miniature missions -- aside from fulfilling the useless filler quota all free-roaming titles are apparently obligated to meet -- is to give Crypto extra DNA so that he can purchase upgrades his buddy Orthopox occasionally makes. These power-ups enhance abilities he has already earned to make the already good shooting better.

From a gameplay standpoint you'll want to acquire as much DNA as possible and as quickly as possible so that you can grab useful upgrades and get on with the real missions. To do this, we recommend visiting the Rockwell area and participating in the BBQ mini-game that urges Crypto to kill X amount of cows in 30 seconds or less, where X eventually becomes a number as high as 20. All you have to do there is equip the disintegrator weapon and follow a specific line into the nearest cow field. Then it's possible to shoot blindly at the horizon and hit twenty cows without a problem. Presto! Instant 300 DNA. Repeat that until you have 20,000 DNA and then buy whatever the heck you want.

That little exploit demonstrates how poorly realized Destroy All Humans' DNA for cash system is and how, by participating in less than enjoyable mini-games, a player can totally negate the purpose of personal DNA extractions and just wallow in the miserable nature of cow disintegration, which in turn diminishes the appeal of Destroy All Humans' more open world: What's the point of traveling around if it's better for me to just shoot these cows anyway?

This sort of pointless and constant DNA accumulation actually becomes necessary once Crypto approaches the Capitol City finale. Specifically, the last four levels in the game's equivalent of Washington D.C. are hard enough to require some serious upgrades. At that point Crypto can't even be bothered with extracting DNA from regular humans because the processes to remove brains are too ineffective, especially when Crypto is pitted against the tough swarms of super-powered foes that attack with devastating tanks and troublesome Tesla coils. So yeah, toward the end we're actually forced to do the lame cow thing. Ouch.

Even if Crypto isn't capable of plausibly extracting DNA from the hapless populace of Earth as the game implies he should be, he's at least provided with a robust assortment of weapons to kill, kill, kill.

Flying saucer? Check. Saucer Death Ray? Check. Saucer Tractor Beam? Check. Saucer Sonic Boom? Check. Saucer Quantum Pulse Green Plasma Thing? Check. Electrifying Zap-O-Matic? Check. Particle dispersing Disintegrator Ray? Check. Blast area disrupting Ion Detonator? Check. Psychokinesis? Check. Let's rock it!

Each of Crypto's extraterrestrial abilities plays a distinct role in the game's major shooting and stealth sections, but then each is also limited in some serious way or another.

Saucer flight, for instance, is limited to a single plane and focuses on top-down shooting. Switching to predetermined high, medium, and low planes on-the-fly would have been nice, as would a better horizon line and the ability to combine the tractor beam with other weapons. Perhaps the most distressing aspect of that gameplay type is how landing is only possible at very specific points. The weapons, also, range in power but then have such readily available ammunition packs that it's not necessary to switch back to the weaker mainstays.

On-foot, the Zap-O-Matic, which can eventually be upgraded to chain across four different people, is great for disabling foes and leaving their brains intact for extraction. Then again, we've established that it's unnecessary and actually impossible later on since ripping the gushy goods out of heads takes an extra few seconds and the payoff isn't really worth the exposed risk.

Now, the disintegrator ray can be upgraded to a triple shot and is extremely effective at taking down foot soldiers and even light armor (cars, trucks, etcetera). The Ion Detonator is the grenade of the bunch and obliterates tanks and heavier vehicles. The Anal Probe serves as a charge weapon that instantly extracts brains from weaker foes. And, the telekinetic powers give Crypto an edge against the nefarious Majestic Men in Black that can see through his holographic disguises.

In spite of being fully capable of obliterating the enemy in what is easily the game's most enjoyable component (the straight destroy everything but the trees combat), Crypto is periodically required to assume the form of a human and navigate the game world incognito. These missions are almost always instant death "trial and error" stealth missions. If Crypto has the unfortunate luck to accidentally stumble upon one of the game's bastardly Men in Black, his disguise will be blown and so will the mission. Do over time!

To avoid these well dressed jerks, Crypto must use his telekinetic powers to grab and toss them far into the horizon, which of course doesn't attract any attention at all. It's that or hypnotizing the government funded alien police into deep sleeps or distraction routines. Either move further depletes a concentration reserve that's already working to power Crypto's holographic disguise. Thus, our little grey boy will have to constantly scan bystanders for extra power to keep his false identity up. This juggling act can get a bit tedious in some of the later levels where it's super easy to walk right into a Majestic lawn party. It doesn't help that the lock-on targeting system behind all of the Psychokinesis is so imprecise you'll actually be staring at someone five feet away and targeting something 90 degrees to your right.

Okay. Look. The idea of assuming human form and causing havoc is a great one and it's especially entertaining when Crypto is allowed to participate in one of the game's extremely rare interactive conversations (such as when he becomes the Naval "Warlord" or the town mayor). Other than those instances, however, stealth comes off as an extraneous addition to break up action that's actually pretty damn good. In a game with such a terrific sense of atmosphere and such well-rounded third-person shooting, why implement instant death stealth elements that abruptly halt the play? Why do that?

As it happens, not developing stealth to its fullest potential turns out to be one part of a greater underlying problem with Destroy All Humans: Missed opportunity.

We could have been assuming the forms of citizens and doing crazy things in their stead. We could have possessed a secretary and then embarrassed a senator with some under the table shenanigans. Maybe we could have even become Joe Beaver and lit the local police station on fire. Instead, we wander around scanning civilians for energy while praying not to run into a cleverly hidden mine, or some patrolling Man in Black that will trigger an instant death scenario. Again, blargh to that!

The generally smooth combat also suffers from too little imagination. There's this great central character, a wonderfully lighthearted 50s environment and some fantastic destruction, but then we're given a totally basic set of weapons and powers. Where are the Enlarge-O-Rays that make people 50ft. tall and very confused? Where are the De-Evolution Blasters that turn people into angry monkeys with clothes on? How about the Infect-O-Spore that turns people into brain harvesting zombies? Or maybe the Displace-Tron, a gun that swaps a person's body parts with another person's in no particular order? There are literally a hundred and one million different interesting weapons and tools a comical alien could have used to destroy all the humans, but Crypto picked up the damned grenade launcher.

That sort of uninspired design carries over to missions that sound wonderful in premise, but ultimately involve combinations of sloppy stealth, solid shooting, and the otherwise basic run-of-the-mill mini-games that Destroy All Humans could have really done without.

Know that despite these problems, Destroy All Humans still offers some very enjoyable third-person action. A technically sound engine with sporadic draw-in delivers a shooting experience with tight dual analog control (the lock-on not withstanding), excellent explosive effects, and one of the more intuitive telekinesis systems in gaming. Though, what excites us most is definitely the game's personality.

Crypto and Orthopox are likeable characters that do absurd things. They're always saying something crazy and interacting with people that act even wackier. Crypto's ability to look into the minds of men is entertaining only because the developers at Pandemic have taken it upon themselves to record an astonishing amount of voice to highlight the many dark secrets a 50s man might be thinking. While these comedic lines sometimes repeat, they help Destroy All Humans create and maintain a rather believable universe. That's good. Me getting exposed by some lame dude and having to restart a mission is not.

Closing Comments

Destroy All Humans is a very basic box of good and bad free-roaming shooting. It features all the underdeveloped and totally unessential components of other notable and forgettable open world action games, yet it also boasts terrific personality, a great premise and some generally solid action.

IGN's Ratings for Destroy All Humans! (PS2)
Rating Description out of 10 click here for ratings guide
9.0 Presentation
Phenomenal. Good behind the scenes extras. Great cutscenes. Excellent layout. Really, nicely done.

8.0 Graphics
Terrific particle effects and hilarious animations are slightly hurt by sloppy pop-in and bland character models.

8.5 Sound
Great voices and plenty of 'em. Sound effects are also appropriately 50s. Plus, this game features the best end credits remix in all of gaming.

6.5 Gameplay
Solid shooting, decent saucer flying and atrocious stealth. If more imagination were pumped into any one component the game would be much, much better.

5.5 Lasting Appeal
The mini-games are terrible, so going back to participate in more of those for that fancy 100% rating is not recommended.

7.0 OVERALL
(out of 10 / not an average)

8.4 Reader Average

[Kodos]

Here is Gamespot's review. Sounds like the gameplay is pretty basic but that the humor really makes the game worth a rental.

Destroy All Humans!
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Pandemic Studios
Genre: Action
Release Date: 06/19/2005

Difficulty: Easy
Learning Curve: About a half hourGameSpot Score7.5goodAbout Our Rating System Gameplay - 7
Graphics - 8
Sound - 9
Value - 6
Tilt - 8

Stories of alien invasion are nothing new to gaming, though the usual methodology involves humans having to fend off some vile extraterrestrial species from wiping them out. Well, what if you don't want to save humanity? What if you wanted to join up with the evil aliens to kick humanity's self-righteous ass into oblivion? That's the premise of the newest action game from developer Pandemic Studios. Appropriately titled Destroy All Humans!, you take on the role of a comically murderous alien on a mission of domination and destruction against humanity. It isn't all just blasters and explosions, however, as the game takes a decidedly tongue-in-cheek stance on the subject matter, modeling itself after the good-natured cheesiness of 1950s-era B-grade science fiction. Flying saucers, death rays, mysterious G-men, government conspiracies, and lots of anal probing are the order of the day here. And while the gameplay doesn't really do anything especially remarkable, and the adventure is unfortunately quite short, Destroy All Humans! shows such enthusiasm for its thematic inspiration that you can't help but at least appreciate what it tries to do.

Crypto Sporidium 137 is the name of Destroy All Humans!' hero...or villain. Hell, he's just an alien who wants to kill a lot of humans. And can you really blame him? Crypto comes from a race of black-eyed, gray-skinned aliens called the Furons, who survive almost exclusively thanks to cloning technology. Crypto's predecessor, Sporidium 136, has crash-landed on Earth, and now the humans (or the monkeys, as Crypto so affectionately refers to them) have him and his Furon technology. Crypto's apparent boss (or at least his slightly less homicidal cohort), Pox, assigns Crypto to investigate Earth and its inhabitants, for these silly human creatures actually harbor precious Furon DNA in their puny brain stems (as the direct result of some crazy experiments from the past, of course). And that DNA is much needed to keep the genetic purity of the Furon species intact. Crypto is then sent to Earth, only to discover a clandestine plot by a secret government agency, called Majestic, to capture him and develop Furon technology for their own clearly insidious purposes. Crypto, being the gung ho soldier of the Furon empire that he is, won't stand for such nonsense, and with his buddy Pox helping him along the way, he destroys an awful lot of monkeys by the time the ending credits roll.

Crypto doesn't seem like much of a warrior at first, given his relatively slight stature. But when he's armed with Furon weaponry, humanity is toast. Crypto is given three basic weapons throughout the game: his trusty gun, his psychic powers, and his flying saucer. All have various types of upgrades. For instance, the gun can launch grenades, send out electric blasts, discharge painful anal probes, and disintegrate anyone unlucky enough to get in front of its blast. The only psychic power he can upgrade is his telekinesis power, which works pretty similarly to practically every other TK power recently featured in other recent sci-fi action games. When bigger threats appear, Crypto is directed back to his saucer, and from there he can launch everything from basic death rays to sonic blasts to even quantum explosions. The game breaks up the on-foot and airborne combat sequences relatively evenly; though while these would seem like two vastly different combat mechanics--regardless of which one you're engaging in--it all kind of feels the same.

This is because the overall combat really feels pretty basic across the board. There isn't a lot to it other than just running around while blasting humans, periodically harvesting their DNA via the brains that pop out of their recently exploded heads. This isn't a terribly involved process, and it becomes even simpler when you're in your saucer, as all you have to do is just keep dodging and moving and you'll barely ever be hit as you lay waste to droves of military vehicles and entire cities. It's a touch harder on foot, as you'll find yourself fighting off the inevitable authorities that come running once you tip them off to your presence. The game uses a GTA-like tiered alert system, where setting off varying degrees of panic alerts the cops, the military, and, finally, the Majestic agents. It makes sense here, since you can actually wander about any of the game's environments all you please once you've completed a mission, and during that time, you'll probably want to get in on some DNA collection. Unfortunately, even when you're being bombarded by soldiers, tanks, giant robots, and Majestic agents, it's still supereasy to just duck into a corner, regain your health, and then just run around blowing stuff up without too much worry of death. While there's a certain visceral thrill to it, it does get kind of old.

While you're in between main missions, you can also get into some occasional side missions. You'll need to get into them, actually, since some missions can't be unlocked unless you collect a certain amount of DNA. (DNA can be used to purchase character and saucer upgrades from Pox.) Sadly, you're unlikely to have much fun with the additional tasks. They rarely transcend the two basic concepts of simple checkpoint races and killing missions, where you just have to kill enough of a specific type of human or creature to earn a DNA bonus. A few of these missions are also easily exploitable, to the point where you can just do them over and over again to get superquick DNA boosts.

The story missions are quite a bit better. When you're not being ordered to lay waste to any nearby humans or cities, you'll find yourself wandering about, discovering the ins and outs of this peculiar society. Mostly you'll do this by taking the form of a human through a unique form of cloaking that disguises you as a human for as long as you can maintain concentration. You maintain concentration by scanning the minds of random passersby. Each time you scan their minds, your concentration meter boosts, and you get access to a random thought that happened to be running through that person's brain. The stealth mechanic itself is mostly just functional, and there isn't much to it, save for the fact that you have to be extra-careful to avoid G-men (as they can see through your disguise). But the dialogue you get from scanning people's minds makes the whole process a lot more engaging...and hilarious, for that matter. There's a pretty insane amount of random dialogue bits to be found, and though it occasionally repeats, there's more variety than you'd expect.

Humor is really what makes Destroy All Humans! a more interesting game than just the basic sum of its parts. The people involved with the making of this game must have spent a great deal of time watching an awful lot of 1950s drive-in movies, because the game's take on '50s culture and that era's version of the sci-fi genre is wonderfully done. From the goofy designs of the alien ships and weaponry to the nonstop running jokes about communism and random era-specific celebrities, ranging from Marilyn Monroe to Adlai Stevenson, Destroy All Humans! knows its subject matter and does a great job of sending it up with very funny results.

Aesthetically, Destroy All Humans! absolutely has the right look for what it's trying to do. You'll find yourself in everything from a top secret military base out in the middle of the desert, to a rural farm out in the middle of nowhere, to a sleepy California beach town. And all of them look just great. The character designs are equally good. Sure, Crypto and Pox pretty much look just like the typical little gray men you'd see in any cheesy sci-fi flick, but that's sort of the point. You'll encounter all sorts of random people types, like black-suited G-men, wooly haired German scientists, teenagers in varsity jackets and poodle skirts, and, of course, lots of archetypal Dobbs-like, pipe-smoking, sweater-vest-wearing men of the '50s. Destroy All Humans!' graphics engine does a great job on the technical side by using some beautiful light-bloom effects to give the game a nice overall look, and all the while running quite smoothly. The one fatal flaw of the graphics is the draw distance, or its apparent lack thereof. Pop-up is readily apparent all over the place, with trees, people, and even buildings simply popping into view in extremely obvious ways. It's even worse when you're in your saucer, as entire blocks will sometimes just appear in your plane of vision with nothing done to cover it up. It's a bigger issue on the PlayStation 2 than on the Xbox, but both versions suffer from it.

He may be a homicidal alien from another planet, but, dammit, he's no communist.
Destroy All Humans! also gets the audio experience just right. We won't gush anymore about the great human dialogue, but there's also plenty of great dialogue between Crypto and his superior. Crypto sounds like some kind of weird cross between Jack Nicholson and John Wayne, and while that might not be the kind of voice you'd expect from a four-foot-tall alien, his gruff demeanor and overwrought bloodlust make him altogether endearing. He and Pox have some pretty hysterically weird conversations, and they have a lot of them, too. The game doesn't leave too many lulls between comedic bits, so you're unlikely to find too many dead spots in the comedy. The soundtrack is another big bright spot, and, again, it's readily apparent that the developer really paid serious attention to B-grade science fiction while putting this stuff together. The mixture of melodramatic orchestral music with a heavy dose of theremin is highly reminiscent of Danny Elfman's work on Tim Burton's Mars Attacks, and it's just perfect for what the game is going for. There's also an absolutely brilliant remix of The Crew Cuts' "Sh-Boom" over the end credits that's completely bizarre...and good enough to make you hold out hope for an actual retail release of the soundtrack.

Ultimately, what makes Destroy All Humans! work isn't its gameplay. Rather, it's everything else that goes around it. The combat isn't really interesting enough to hold your attention by itself, and the game is only around eight hours long (it's longer if you try to get 100 percent on every level, which you probably won't want to do). So it isn't exactly teeming with lasting value. However, some of that is forgivable simply because the game does such a great job of creating a splendidly goofy world. The comedy is frequent and consistent, and from a purely presentational standpoint, this game does its concept extremely proud. Though perhaps that isn't enough to make the game worth its full retail price tag, games don't come much more suitable for rental purposes than Destroy All Humans!.

[SackAttack]

THQ sent us a review copy of this game, to my pleasant surprise. I'll try to have some impressions a little later on.

[rkmsuf]

Destroy All Whiggers!!! ???????????

[Bee]

Originally Posted by Tara

...I love that kind of games, the best thing after a studing day.

umm...the mental images of a "studing day" are quite entertaining. thank you.