Destroy All Humans! 2 PS2 Review

Wreaking havoc wherever you went was the philosophy of Destroy All Humans! and taking control of an alien life form from outer space with a Jack Nicholson-esque voice certainly made things more enjoyable and gifted the game with enough personality to forgive its minor flaws. The sequel doesn’t make much progress in sorting out the previous games problems, although it’s still a very welcome follow-up all the same.

Forget the 50’s of the first game, it’s now 1969 and the lovable alien known as Crypto is still the president of the United States following his triumph over mankind on the original game, although this time he has to contend with the destruction of the Furon mother ship following a sneak attack by the Russians. This Crypto is actually a clone of the little alien with the Jack Nicholson esque-voice of the original game, although those familiar with the first title will know that Crypto clones share all the same memories and mannerisms of all the ones that came before, which means this Furon alien is still bolstered by some very entertaining dialogue and a love for wanton destruction. With the introduction of a new ally in ex-Russian KGB agent, Natalya, Crypto’s flirtatious nature soon gets into full swing, and it’s rather amusing to see a 4ft tall alien using his charms to chat up a woman. Again, the story is a very good reason to keep on playing, and the constant opportunity to blow things to kingdom come is always enticing.

Perhaps the biggest new addition is the opportunity to play the game in cooperative with one other player. Conveniently a second person can hop in and out of the game at any time, although you’ll have to go through the menus to do so, which isn‘t exactly ideal. In split screen the game doesn’t lose much of its graphical quality, thus it’s a fantastic and very welcome addition to this sequel.

Playing environments are now even more varied and instead of being set in exclusively America, besides the aforementioned, you’ll now find yourself globetrotting to England, Japan, Russia and even an alien planet. Each environment is inhabited by unique characters with authentic accents dependant on the country, and you’ll be coming face-to-face with hippies, ninjas (who doesn’t love ninjas? As the game continually reminds you!), and monstrous freaks amongst others. It’s a bizarre mixture of events, but it all works very well indeed.

Story missions are pretty much as you would expect (destroy things, escort and protect vehicles or people, and utilise disguises), but improvements to the side missions are most welcome, as the lack of variety on the previous game was one of the most impacting flaws. These missions now involve you in better tasks and are nowhere near as repetitive in design, which is a very good thing.

Instead of harvesting DNA, furotech cells now go towards upgrading Crypto, his ship and his arsenal of weaponry. These cells can be found on your travels or earned following the completion of any of the games missions. Similarly there are changes to Crypto’s mind abilities, which are now upgraded when you abduct specific types of people with your flying saucer.

Like its predecessor you’ll be taking on the disguise of Crypto’s worst enemy, thus allowing you to mingle amongst the titular humans without causing major panic. Disguises are no longer holobobs as they were in the original game, as you now take full control of your human vessel. Whilst gathering useful information and hearing the often humorous thoughts of humans walking the streets is still possible , Crypto is no longer able to maintain his disguise by doing so, which means it is much less of a tedious task than it was on the original game, but does result in you having to find a different victim to take control of.

Crypto also returns with much of his weapons and abilities carried over from the original game (including his telekinesis, jetpack, Disintegrator Ray, Zap-O-Matic and Anal Probe amongst others). The Disintegrator Ray remains a guilty pleasure as human flesh turns to bone, whilst a standout weapon is the brand new Discolator, which allows you to fire discs at vehicles and enemies, resulting in cars seemingly being thrown around by an invisible hand and people soaring into the sky like rockets, it’s probably needless to say that it’s a tremendously fun weapon to use and one that can potentially cause chaos on top of chaos.

An improved structure keeps the game moving at a faster pace, but you’ll still be causing destruction on-foot and levelling buildings in your ship. In this way the game is much the same, but there’s so many small improvements that they collectively come together to create an even better experience. Let’s hope Crypto’s full potential is even better realised if he ever invades the next generation consoles.

8/10