In 2005, Destroy All Humans! was released on PlayStation 2 and Xbox, and had sold over a million copies with multiple media outlets giving the game high scoring reviews. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to play it way back when. So, when I heard that it was getting remade, I was extremely excited to give the game a go.
Now, having never played this game previously, I dived in not knowing anything at all. Aside from the fact the title suggests that I get to wreak destruction on mankind, I had no idea what I was getting into. In the opening cinematic, we are introduced to two aliens from Furon, on a mission to collect Pure Furon DNA in an attempt to save their race from their diminishing cloning system; Orthopox (Pox), the mothership captain and leader of the alien mission, and Crypto, your character that is on a mission to rescue another captured clone known as Crypto-136. The dialogue had me chuckling on the couch with the cheesy quips and one-liners from these aggressive little “green” men. Their darkish sense of humour had me excited for what was to come.
Like most games, the first mission is a great way to get to know your playable character, how to move and use your abilities. Right away I’m grinning from ear to ear as Pox mistakes a cow for a superior life form and instructs Crypto to extract the brains-stems from the humans as they contain the Pure DNA they are searching for. As the title suggests, I got right to it, destroying all humans that I could find. Electrocuting them with my weapon and popping out their brains. As the missions continue, you gain more and more experience and new abilities. Like most great games, there is an upgrade system that can increase both your own abilities and functionality upgrades to your own Flying Saucer.
The main storyline sees you contouring towns throughout the southern states of the USA with some cheeky references to political leaders, such as a mayor that seems eerily similar to Nixon and a pie-eating contest queen that resembles Marylin Monroe. It is clear that the writers of this game wanted more than just hours of mindless fun, but to draw the player in with their hilarious cutscenes.
Aside from the main story missions that you need to complete, there are also side tasks and collectables for you to obtain. Some missions have a star rating, one star for the bare minimum, then two or three to complete it 100%. On the first run though, it might be enough to get the one just to finish it and move on. But it is so much fun revisiting completed missions as you can just spend copious amounts of time simply destroying humans before you give the goal another shot. I personally found myself on the very first mission for a good couple of hours because I thoroughly enjoyed the cork-popping sounds of the brains being removed as I flew around in my UFO.
Although I am nowhere near completing this game just yet, I know that I am just going to enjoy it more and more as I progress. I can either spend hours and hours glued to the couch playing it through, trying to find every collectible and get 100% on every level, or I can pick up the controller for a quick run around destroying towns and frying humans just for fun.
Destroy All Humans! is a fun, fantastically hilarious game and in a way, I am kind of glad I never played the original game back in 2005. I feel that it may have hindered my experience a bit, already knowing the storyline. And I am not going to lie, I was hesitant in my approach. How can a game that is 15 years old cut it with the visual standards of today? Using the Unreal Engine to rebuild this game from the ground up, definitely gave it the visual justice it deserved.
This brilliant remake is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows and Stadia. So grab yourself a copy, jump into your UFO, levitate some bovine and most importantly, Destroy All Humans!
This game was provided on Playstation 4 by Koch Media for review purposes.
