Destroy All Humans! 2

"Destroys its Predecessor!"

I played Destroy All Humans! 2 the day after completing its predecessor (Destroy All Humans!), the latter was a game that I had many reservations about and I onlygot slight enjoyment out of it. I found it to be too constricting for a conventional sandbox game, and oft times it was simply frustrating. So it was with some trepidation that I approached its sequel. What immediately struck me was how markedly improved this game was and I can honestly say I have enjoyed playing through it. Here are my thoughts on this delightful gem.

You play as Cryptosporidium 138 (Crypto for short) a wise cracking Jack Nicholson imitation who is an agent of the Furon Empire sent to Sol 3 (Earth) in the 1950s to harvest the latent Furon DNA present in all humans. In the first game, Crypto lived up to the games title, destroying wave after wave of humans with his ray gun and saucer. Part of the games appeal was its retro-kitsch throwback to 1950s B grade movies. The sequel, which takes place in the 1960s, has the same charm while improving massively on all fronts.

Graphically, the game is nice and colorful without being overbearing. The cities and locations that you visit are all visually distinct and capture the essence of the 60s in the bright flower-power aesthetics of the hippie culture. Each location is immediately distinguished from the others while still maintaining the 1960s theme. The most overtly 60s themed location is Bay City (San Francisco) but the other locations will remind you that you are in a different time also, though in more subtle ways. For example in Takoshima (Japan) the vehicles will be a dead giveaway while in Albion (London) the Secret Service Agents will all look like Sean Connery as James Bond. The weapons and Flying Saucer all look as they did in the first game but this is by no means a bad thing and they fit the kitsch appeal of the game well.

The music and sound effects are adequate. The music does its job of mixing 1960s free-love music with the 1950s B-Grade Alien movie themes but it is background music and nothing more. The sound effects fill a similar effect, in some ways improving upon the prior experience in DAH! For instance the flying saucer noises are improved from the previous game and they have more of the B-Grade feel to them. The voice acting is very well done, with Grant Albrecht doing a brilliant Jack Nicholson impression as Crypto and the always brilliant Richard Horvitz (Raz from Psychonauts; Zim from Invader Zim) as Orthopox. However, while the VA work is good, it is the most buggy area of the game and occasionally the speech will cut out half way through a line which can detract from the suspension of disbelief somewhat.

The game play is a vast improvement from the first game, and there is certainly more strategy and planning involved this time through. Though it is your typical sandbox game, you will find yourself planning ahead in your missions which is a welcome change from the prior installment where you simply killed humans until the quota was filled. You will make greater use of Crypto's PK (psycho-kinesis) abilities and they have been refined to make it feel more realistic. Crypto's arsenal has also been expanded though you will still find that the Disintegrator Gun is of the most use. The most notable new weapon is definitely the Meteor Strike, which appears to be lifted from Pandemic's other game Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction's Air Strike feature.

Overall, the game is filled with a healthy amount of humor and pop culture references to keep you entertained for a week. You will walk away from the game feeling that this is the game that Pandemic Studios originally wanted to make. It is a good quality game and few could resist its charm. I would recommend this game over its predecessor for anyone who enjoys the ‘sandbox' genre.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/06/06