Destroy All Humans!

"Grand Theft Auto + Aliens = Grand Dead Humans!"

There have been many clones of the Grand Theft Auto series, and the only recognizable one is Mercernaries: Playground of Destruction. But now another clone has made its way to the store shelves, and this one is, without a doubt, the weirdest one yet.

Instead of playing as a gangster taking tuff back from the Ballas, or just blowing everything up, this game puts you in the role of an alien. Interesting, right? It gets weirder. You play as Cryptospordian 137, an alien from the furon race. Seeing how they are born without any genitalia, they resort to cloning to keep their species in existance. The problem is, with so much cloning happening, the furon race is running out of DNA. But, unfortunately for us, furon DNA can also be located in the brains of humans, which Crypto is sent down to Earth to get. You only meet one other furon alien in your quest for world domination (oh, and the DNA), and that is the boss alien simply known as Pox.

The game starts up with Cryptospordian 136 crash-landing on Earth, and as the military arrive, Crypto 136 falls to the ground and dies. You know what this means, the military is going to take the alien body to Area 42 and do research on the dead body. And that doesn't sit well with Pox, so he sends you down to Earth as the replacement.

When you get to Earth, you land on the Turnpiseed Farm. You get an unwelcome greeting from the farmers, and are forced to blow up all their heads. Seriously, that is how you get the furon DNA from us humans. Then the military show, you kill them and take the DNA and go off in your adventure.

The game has a handful of locations for where you go for quest. They are the typical locales for an alien-themed game. Turnpiseed Farm could resemble the Roswell-incident, but I'm not so sure. Then there's Rockwell, a carnivel that you blow up and steal a dumb brood. Santa Modesta is your typical country city, while Area 42 (resembling Area 51, for those who are slow) is your typical place to find weapons. Then there's the Union City and Capitol City.

The missions are exciting for the most part, with Turnpiseed Farm has you destroying the entire farm and collecting enough furon DNA for Pox to be happy, while the end levels you have to kill the president. Pretty fun? Yes, but the side quests will get you very annoyed. The side quests are all repetitive and incredibly easy. They only range from collecting furon DNA, to destroying things, to races. That's it. It gets extremely annoying that you have to complete so many of these to complete the game 100%.

Destroy All Humans! features some mind powers, which are definitely interesting, to say the least. You got your telekinetic powers, which result in objects flying around at your will, and the hypno ability, which you can cast upon the civilians of Earth. They usually result in only two options for normal people, which are 'sleep' and 'distraction.' You can pretty much tell what they do by the name. You can also scan the minds of people to get some pretty humerous sayings. And finally you can basically turn yourself into anyone you see in the game. All this takes concentration, which is a meter at the top-left of the screen, but this can be easily refilled (by just scanning the minds of humans).

The game does throw in a few weapons, which are fairly entertaining, but only a few are used frequently. The game starts you off with the Zap-O-Matic, which basically electricutes anyone getting the way of it. Then you have the Incinerator, which burns anybody within seconds. Those two are probably the only weapons you'll use in the game, so you can figure out the other ones by yourself.

Just like GTA, you get to fly in vehicles... Well, only one vehicle: your saucer! Your saucer is mainly used to destroy buildings, and... Um... That is pretty much you'll only be using it for. It has a Death Ray weapon built in and those can level a house pretty easily. It just doesn't make much sense that you can destroy a house and a mall in the exact same time.

The graphics in the game are fairly sharp, with Crypto looking the best. The game has a 1950s-esque setting going for it here and it succeeds. All the buildings and people are rendered in fairly good detail, and the vehicles look fairly good, but better when you destroy them.

The sound is kind of lacking, in terms of background music, because there isn't really any. Crypto sounds very cool, with his deep voice and his hilarious comments. Pox has the high-pitch voice and it works fairly well. The humans all scream in english as you burn them to the ground.

In conclusion, Destroy All Humans! is a fairly good GTA-clone in its own merits, but the main game is fairly short and the only thing that gives it replay value is the boring side quests. But if you enjoyed Grand Theft Auto (anyone in the series), you'll undoubtedly enjoy this one.

+Funny!
+Fairly Good Graphics
+Good Plot Development
+You Get To Destroy Humans!
-But Gets Boring Rather Quickly
-Main Game Is Short
-Sound Is Quite Lacking

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/11/05