Destroy All Humans!

"An average shooter, spiced up by an excellently satirical setup."

Aliens and videogames have gone together since the original Space Invaders appeared in 1978. The use of technology beyond our capabilities, the us-versus-them setup, and the sense of fear of the unknown are all intrinsic values that videogame developers have seized as an inspiration for years. The basic concept of technologically advanced beings from areas unknown within our universe coming to Earth and blasting the hell out of everything has sustained many a game plot throughout the evolution of the medium.

Destroy All Humans, while certainly cut from the same mold as many of its predecessors, is a new breed of alien game. You will not be saving the Earth from invaders, or resisting an attempted alien takeover. You will not, in fact, be helping anyone from this planet. You will, instead, be playing as Cryptosporidium, the alien doing the invading, subjugating, and the gleeful maiming. DAH purports to be a free-roaming game in which your goal is, as the title states, to destroy all humans. Is it any fun to play? Read on:

Visuals:

The main menu and in-game menus look good in DAH. All functions are clearly presented, and everything is easy to navigate. Everything you need to know during the game is available at the pause screen, from mission status to your cumulative statistics. The overall design of the navigational aspects of the game is solid.

There are a significant number of cutscenes in DAH, and all of them look good. Crypto looks very shiny, but the look is done in a stylistically sensible way, and it fits right in. The other characters look good in the cutscenes, and everyone's body movement is animated well.

In-game graphics are solid, although not great. There is a decent amount of variety between character models, but due to the abundance of people roaming about, you'll encounter plenty of clones. All of the models fit in very well with the 50s setting (especially Crypto's hubcap-like spaceship), with their dress and hairstyles being very fitting. The animation in the game is very fluid throughout, although there are little hitches like cars taking sharp corners and people objects clipping through walls abound. The game makes good use of the Havok physics engine for interaction between objects.

There are six environments in total, so you'll get to see a nicely diverse slice of 1950s America. The environments themselves are well populated, although they tend to be a bit repetitive and bland in areas. The main drawback to the graphics is the draw-in distance, which is very short, especially when you're in your saucer.

DAH's graphics do an excellent job of capturing the game's time period, and are mostly very functionally sound. The small glitches that pop up shouldn't ruin anyone's experience with the game.

Score: 8/10

Sound:

DAH features a wild assortment of weapons and enemies, and the sound effects that go with them are all very logically accurate. Everything from Crypto's jetpack to his Anal Probe gun sounds comically exaggerated, as you would expect from a 1950s-era movie or cartoon.

The voice acting (and, in turn, the script) is probably the best aspect of the game. All of the actors do a terrific job, delivering their lines with just the right over-the-top tone. You'll encounter a lot of one-liners from the supporting cast during the game, and you'll always have something original and humorous to hear. Crypto's voice actor also does an incredible job; he sounds like a Jack Nicholson rip-off, which works very well in the role of an angry little space man out for some blood.

The musical themes in the game are also perfect for the mood the designers are trying to convey. The sweeping, melodramatic orchestral scores could have easily been ripped right from a 50's drive-in B-movie, and always help keep the mood lighthearted.

DAH features an incredibly strong acoustic score, from its top of the line voiceovers to its absolutely perfect musical soundtrack. This is one game where you want the sound on while you play.

Score: 10/10

Gameplay:

DAH tries to pass itself off as a free-roaming game in the vein of the GTA series, but in actuality, it's a fairly straightforward third-person shooter with some freedom thrown in between missions. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it gets its gameplay right, but the lack of real freedom during missions will definitely disappoint some.

The controls are simple, as they borrow from what has become the conventional setup for most modern shooters. While on foot, you move with the left analog stick, and control the camera with the right. The A button has Crypto jump (and, if held down, activate his jetpack for an added height boost), the B button has Crypto take on the appearance of any human in his crosshairs, the X button cycles through your weapons, and the right trigger fires the weapons you have equipped. The left trigger lock onto the nearest target, which allows you to use all Crypto's powers; while locked onto a target, pressing A scans the target's thoughts, pressing Y picks the target up telekinetically (and, once you've picked something up, pressing Y again launches it away from you, while the right analog stick moves it about), pressing and holding B extracts the target's brain stem, and pressing and holding X allows Crypto to hypnotize the target. When in Crypto's saucer, the left analog stick moves the saucer, the right analog stick moves the saucer's view, the X button cycles through the ship's weapons, the right trigger fires the equipped weapon, and the A button lands the ship (though the ship may only land on designated landing points). The start button brings up the pause menu. The controls are easy to pick up, and the game also includes a helpful popup tutorial every time you gain a new ability. The XBox controller is well suited for the control setup.

The storyline missions are mostly split between three types. First, there are sneaking missions, where you'll disguise yourself as a human and spy on your enemies within their society; these are usually fairly easy, once you become adept at avoiding the G-men enemies, who can see through your disguise. The second type of mission involves wanton destruction, something Crypto is much obliged to take part in; in these, you'll level buildings, vaporize people, and just generally cause destruction. The third (and rarest) type of missions you'll see are protection missions; these charge you with guarding a place or person for a set period of time. The story missions are fairly fun and varied, although the most enjoyment you'll likely get out of them are during the wanton destruction ones.

Once you've completed a story mission, you're free to wander about the area you're in. During these free periods, you can explore the settings, and play side missions. These are basically all either checkpoint races or killing sprees, and aren't very interesting once you've gone through a few. They are very good for collecting DNA (the game's currency), though, and so you will need to do at least a few to build up your stash of DNA.

The DNA you acquire is used to upgrade Crypto's weaponry via Pox, his boss. You ‘buy' upgrades to your health, psychic powers, weapons, and saucer from Pox, in exchange for DNA (which he uses for his personal ‘research,' whatever that may be). Some of the upgrades are quite helpful, although none are truly necessary to beat the game.

Enemies come in a GTA-style tiered awareness. You start out with just the local citizens running scared from you, but if you cause more mayhem, you'll get the police, the military, and eventually Majestic agents on your tail. The enemies aren't terribly smart, as the only moves they have to escape your wrath are the occasional roll to the left or right, but they do a good job of ganging up on you, and are excellent shots. Of course, when you're in your ship, you only really have to worry about dodging missiles, so you're pretty safe.

There are only a couple of boss fights in the game, and they aren't tremendously memorable. You'll fight couple of oversized robots, and eventually you'll tangle with the head of Majestic, but you can easily outfox the bosses by using simple A.I. exploits. Given the fact that your shields recharge as in Halo, you only really need to get away from the action for a moment if you get low on life, anyway.

DAH is a fairly basic shooter, with cookie-cutter missions, simplistic enemy A.I., and an overpowered arsenal of weapons at your disposal. There are plenty of visceral thrills to be had while running around blowing stuff up, but in the end the gameplay alone isn't enough to keep your attention.

Score: 7/10

Story:

The overall presentation of DAH, from the setting to the story, is the aspect of the game that is its true hook. From the moment you load it up, you're dropped straight into a 50's-era B-movie, complete with the paranoia and era-specific cultural references. It's very clear that the development team did their homework on the setting.

The basic premise of the game is that you are Cryptosporidium-137, a member of the Furon race. The Furons propagate their race by cloning themselves when they die (hence the number in your name), due to the fact that their reproductive capabilities have, um, ‘withered.' The cloning process, unfortunately, has begun degrading, due to the drop off in quality of the Furon DNA in each successive clone. At roughly the same time, a saucer containing Cryptosporidium-136 crashed on the planet Earth, and now the humans – or, as the Furons call them, ‘monkeys' – are after the Furon technology he carried. Your job as Crypto is to investigate the planet to find where your predecessor and his ship are, as well as to harvest DNA from the humans, who, as luck would have it, have pure, original Furon DNA floating in their brainstems. Naturally, Crypto wants to do this in the most violent, cruel manner possible, and so Pox must hold your leash throughout the adventure.

The story itself is pure B-movie cheese, and it doesn't try to be anything serious or dramatic. The real star of the game is the incredibly humorous script. Every line you'll hear from Crypto, and especially his interactions with Pox, are quite funny, and you'll often find yourself laughing out loud at the biting satire of the characters. The quality pervades everything, even down to the random thoughts of the clueless humans whose minds you'll read. Everything about 1950s-era America is mocked mercilessly, and the impeccably done script delivers the humor perfectly.

DAH's story, while forgettable, is the most important aspect of the game. It sets up the hilarious lampooning of the game's setting, which is the real reason to play the game.

Score: 10/10

Features/Modes:

Once you've beaten DAH's story mode, there are no extras to speak of, other than the ability to return to all the areas you've visited in free play and finish all of the sidequests. There are also no other game modes to speak of. Of course, if you enjoyed the humor in the game, you may be motivated to go back and try to read everyone's minds again, to hear what you may have missed.

The hilarious dialogue is the most enjoyable part of DAH, and that makes the lack of extras a bit easier to swallow. The dearth of replay value does hurt quite a bit, though.

Score: 2/10

Total Score:

Destroy All Humans, at its best, is a humorous take on 1950s America, wrapped around a mediocre third-person shooter. The gameplay isn't likely to draw anyone's rapture, since it is so basic, but the concept of being that mean, homicidal alien from a 50s B-movie will definitely have a strong appeal to some.

Anyone who is a fan of cheesy alien-invasion movies, likes to play games that put the emphasis on style over substance, or who just likes the idea of being the alien that blows a lot of stuff up, should give DAH a rental. Otherwise, there are better games out there.

Score: 7/10 (not an average)

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Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/30/05