Review: Destroy All Humans!

Having completed Destroy All Humans on its original release back in 2005, I was looking forward to revisiting 1950’s America and once again taking control of the alien antagonist Crypto as he quite literally tries to “Destroy All Humans” with a varied array of handheld weapons, psychokinetic abilities and his “flying saucer”.

The first thing that I noticed was of course the improved graphics, with all character models having more detail, but at the same time keeping the 1950’s charm that so enamoured me 15 years ago.

The world, though still sparsely populated and with repetition in the dialogue from the NPC’s, looks more colourful and vibrant, and is now even more of a joy to blow the crap out of, with buildings being torn into little pieces as you swoop over them in your UFO, giggling manically as you fire yet another shot into them as the screaming humans run away as fast as they can.

The core gameplay is just as satisfying as I remember, even more so thanks to the enhanced graphics as it is now more visually pleasing as you walk around (or fly using your jet pack and/or UFO) the levels wreaking havoc on all before you. The auto-aim with a lot of the weapons makes it virtually impossible to miss with them, but you still have to keep a close eye on incoming fire whether you’re on foot or in the air and be ready to dodge it or deflect it with shields.

There are 23 missions to complete, which includes a mission that was developed for the original 2005 release but wasn’t included. None of the missions take too long to initially complete, with about 20 minutes seeming an average, but they each come with a lot of replayability thanks to optional side objectives and challenges.

The side objectives can be completed while doing the missions and include things such as using a specific weapon, going undetected, etc. If you fail at any of the side objectives you can replay a mission at any time (as long as you have completed it beforehand) and try again to complete them. You can also try a variety of challenges which slowly unlock as you progress through the game which include rampages (killing a lot of people), races and abductions. All keep the same thread of humour that runs throughout the entirety of Destroy All Humans and all scratch that “just one more go” itch that gamers are so familiar with.

As you work your way through the missions you acquire DNA from destroying people/places and completing certain objectives. This DNA can then be used to upgrade either Crypto or your spaceship across a variety of different upgrade paths. The choice of what to upgrade and which particular path to use is entirely up to you and based on the way you approach the game, though eventually all can be unlocked to make you the ultimate badass alien on the planet.

You also unlock new skins for Crypto too which give him a different look as you play, with my particular favourite giving him a cows head…animals which certainly get the short end of the stick (ray gun?) once Crypto lands on earth.

A couple of my usual gaming gripes are in here: boss battles (which I admit that being 15 years older and slower didn’t make it any easier for me) and the inability to skip a section of a level if you can’t complete it (something which I still argue ALL games should have).

Despite those 2 complaints, which let’s face it are just based on me not being as good a gamer as I used to be, I had (and continue to have thanks to the replayability of the game) a great time with Destroy All Humans.

It’s fun to play, has a humorous streak all the way through it, has satisfying gameplay where the destruction of living and inanimate objects is purely tongue in cheek and never gets old, and has a great set of optional gameplay objectives should you wish to go for 100% completion.

This has now whetted my appetite for a brand new alien adventure with Crypto. How about it Black Forest Games?

There, I even got through the whole review with out any mention of the anal probing in the game…damn!

Review by Dave from a PS4 review code kindly supplied by Dead Good Media.