Review: Destroy All Humans 2 (PS2)

When Destroy All Humans was released last year, it was applauded for its brilliant sense of humour and fun missions; but while the strong script kept gamers playing, eventually the gameplay became extremely repetitive and dulled as time went on. Destroy All Humans 2 tries to add longevity and lasting appeal but, ultimately, the same problems that cropped up in the original plague the second game too. This leads Destroy All Humans 2 to be a marginal improvement over the original, but still not as good as it could be.

The original Destroy All Humans took place in 1950s America, lampooning and parodying the B-Movies of the era. Fast forward ten years and we find that Cryptosporidium-137 from the original game died during his exploits, replaced by his clone Cryptosporidium-138 (the purpose of the first game was for Crypto to harvest DNA from humans in order for the cloning process to work properly). However, Crypto-138 has one advantage over his deceased 'brother'... genitals. Genitals he's currently enjoying the use of while he abuses his power as the president of the USA. Unfortunately, the Russians know about this alien impostor and have decided to take the cold war directly to Crypto and his commander, Orthopox-13 (again voiced by Richard Horvitz, voice of Invader Zim). The KGB destroy Orthopox and his space station but not before the Furon scientist downloads his brain into a holographic projector and delivers himself to Crypto, as the KGB attack him at a private hippy fest. From here, Crypto must once again fight to conquer the world from those who would oppose him.

As with the first game, Destroy All Humans 2 decides to take the mickey out of the era in which it is set - this time the swinging sixties. Hippies roam the streets, giving Crypto ample targets for annihilation; sixties rock music fills the soundtrack; and there's a wealth of pop culture references and in-jokes. The script is as comical, ludicrous, and enjoyable as the first game; like the original, some jokes fall flat, but there are more than enough to keep you giggling for hours.

Gameplay-wise, the initial structure is the same. Crypto must traverse a sandbox environment in order to complete missions handed to him by various NPCs (our favourite being 'The Freak', a hippy pot dealer and informant). While the missions are fun, they usually boil down to going to a certain area, shooting a lot of people, and then either collecting a specific item or eliminating a certain enemy; but Crypto's weapons and psychic abilities keep the enjoyment level up. Most of the weapons and abilities from Crypto's first outing return - the Electro-zapper, telekinesis, the always fun 'Anal Probe' and mind reading capabilities, to name a few - but they are now joined by new additions, such as the Furon disc thrower weapon, which picks up any object, be it a car or person, and hurtles them round the area until they are destroyed. But the simplest and most fun to use is Crypto's new 'free love' ability: when crypto is spotted out of his disguise, his alert level rises, and one of the solutions to this problem is using this ability, which causes all the people in your immediate vicinity to start dancing wildly, giving you ample time to escape to a new area.

Furthermore, all of Crypto's weapons and psychic abilities are upgradeable, either by collecting weapons pods (by completing missions or finding them scattered about the levels) or, in the case of the psychic abilities, using Crypto's saucer to abduct members of the unsuspecting public and using their DNA to enhance his powers. While a fun feature, it can get a little annoying, as each upgrade requires you to capture a specific number and type of human, meaning you'll be searching levels high and low (in a rather slow saucer) for those five police officers needed to upgrade you mind-control abilities. Still, while you're up there, you can at least torch people and buildings with its weapons, which are also upgradeable.

All in all, though, the game doesn't change the formula much from the original. The graphics look barely improved, the mission structures and type are pretty much identical, and so is the overall plot. Still, a little variety is attempted in the locales, ranging from the hippy capital of America, Bay City, to the London look-a-like area of Albion. But when you are in these new areas, the missions rarely deviate from the set core.

Destroy All Humans 2 is an improvement over the original, but these improvements are marginal, and it still has a lot of the same troubling issues of the first game. An enjoyable script and weapons will keep you playing until the game's climax, but don't expect to go back for more.

Rating: 7 / 10

Words by Garry Webber