Destroy All Humans! 2 Reprobed Review

 The remake of Destroy All Humans! 2 Reprobed looks fantastic but is ultimately dragged down by the limitations of its console past.

Cryptosporidium and his alien cohorts first touched down on Earth back in 2005 when THQ and Pandemic Studios created an alternative world to ours with Destroy All Humans!, a Sci-Fi story filled with foreign spies and alien conflict. Pandemic did it again in 2006 with Destroy All Humans! 2, carrying the aliens' ridiculous story further into the gaming mainstream during the days of PS2 and Xbox dominance. With Destroy All Humans! 2 Reprobed, the second remake by THQ Nordic and Black Forest Games in the Destroy All Humans! series, Crypto and friends have a chance to bring the boom to the new generation of gamers, but the game doesn't always meet those expectations.

The game is curbed from reaching glory by the constraints placed upon it being an older title, but maintains its outrageous satirical humor all while looking stunningly gorgeous with its upgraded graphics. This remake seems made for those already dedicated to the short and angry alien clone, but everyone else will see a game with some interesting mechanics and pretty looks that falls short inside and outside the pandemonium.

The tale spun by the game is simple: a decade after the events of Destroy All Humans!, players are put in control of Cryptosporidium 187, who has become the President of the United States in 1969 and is partying with gangs of hippies in fictional Bay City. While in the midst of the celebration of love, the KGB finds and destroys Crypto’s mothership with a nuclear missile. The destruction of the ship rains debris down on the city and Crypto’s disguise is destroyed, forcing his true form on the unsuspecting populace. A mix of revenge on the KGB, contempt for humans, and a desire to ensure the safety of his ‘package’ fuels Crypto’s adventure across the world and beyond. It’s not the kind of story to keep one at the edge of their seat, but it should keep players somewhat entertained throughout.

The generational limitations of the PS2 and Xbox impact and drag Destroy All Humans! 2 Reprobed down more than any other negative facet of the game. In the generation's heyday, most wouldn’t have noticed smaller playable areas common in early 2000s open-world adventure games, but experiencing map sizes limited to what the Xbox and PS2 could handle in today’s gaming landscape is jarring. Destroy All Humans! 2 Reprobed does a good job hiding it at first glance, but the moment players board Crypto’s flying saucer the edges of the map are easy to notice and hard to ignore. It also limits the number of collectibles the game is able to hide, since stashing the game's soundtracks and art pieces around every other building wouldn’t make for much fun. The old tech also means a lack of variety in mission types, boiling down to the basic fetch, escort, and destruction missions.

Fans of the original Destroy all Humans! 2 will undoubtedly love the revamped look of the game. Textures, especially those found on Crypto and various NPCs, use every available trick and every ounce of power the Unreal Engine 4 can muster to present something delightful to the eyes. The marks on Crypto’s skin when the camera zooms in close to his face, his slowly pulsating head holes, and even the bends in his suit are a testament to the work and effort put in by Black Forest Games to upgrade the character visually. Each level also makes it abundantly clear how focused the developers were on bringing the game's visuals up to match current gen specifications, with revamped smoke and fire effects that look astronomically better than its 2006 version. NPC faces are an interesting blend of real life and a slightly exaggerated cartoon style that are even visually impressive the first time players see them. The enjoyment starts to wither, though, when every third person has the same face, and it becomes even sillier when, after mind-controlling someone, players address a crowd of identical-looking clones. Those able to suspend their disbelief will have an easier time dealing with these kinds of legacy limitations from the PS2 and Xbox days.

Players start out with a couple of gadgets and guns to fight Crypto’s enemies and progressing through the story grants more wacky tools that can be used to force people to dance, maim them, blow them up, or be probed against their will and more. After Crypto, these are the stars of the game and the reasons most players became so enamored back in 2006, and each has the ability to cause havoc. Users returning to the game after all these years will enjoy each weapon's effects and how they look now. Some of Destroy All Humans! weapons will get used much more than others (like the Disintegrator Ray), but the Psychokinesis ability the player starts with trivializes a good chunk of the game just by itself. Flinging people across the map to death nullifies any fear of being downed by humans throughout the game's missions, not being checked until about halfway through by an enemy impervious to Psychokinesis. Humankind is easily handled this way, and is probably the least threatening enemy group from start to finish.

Crypto is voiced wonderfully again by actor J. Grant Albrecht, and he gives the alien a rough-around-the-edges attitude that strays into an imitation of Jack Nicholson’s Joker at times. NPC voices run the gamut from good to passable, and mind-reading most of them results in jokes that can sometimes feel misplaced or eye-roll inducing, while others may offer genuine laughs. Despite its slightly dated dialogue, the music and sounds of Destroy All Humans! 2 Reprobed match the game's locations well and meld together into a soundtrack that feels right at home in the 1969 Cold War aesthetic.

Blasting through the main story only takes about 15 hours and other than collectibles and changing body snatch targets to hear different interaction dialogues, the game doesn’t seem to have much to offer in terms of replayability. The length may be another byproduct of an earlier console generation, so those looking to sink a bunch of hours into games won’t find enough content to satisfy themselves once the mayhem grows stale. Those playing it again years after their first playthrough will probably speed through even faster, barring any technical issues. The game has fun and zany moments dispersed throughout, but most of the joy that can be found is within the chaos Crypto wrecks, which might not be enough to keep people's attention for very long.

Destroy All Humans! 2 Reprobed’s is solid on the technical side with few dips under 60fps depending on the chaotic destruction of each level. Jumping into the flying saucer is the only time small graphical issues like characters popping in from a distance are noticeable at all. There were a few non-graphical issues that could cause frustration, like a respawn bug during the final mission that forced a save/quit. Vehicles driven by NPCs are also attached to the previous version's coded directions, causing them to clip through each other and drive in zigzagging lines instead of straight while showing no reaction when cars are exploding all around them.

The game brings back previous multiplayer modes for causing mayhem with or against friends with PK Tennis, a versus mode, and the ability to play through the game in co-op story mode. There isn’t a lot of depth to these point-based multiplayer mini-games though they are something else to do. The co-op story mode will be the mode of choice for the majority of players since probing humans and destroying buildings is almost always fun with friends.

Destroy All Humans! 2 Reprobed is a gorgeous, destructive romp across multiple cities dragged down by its original platforms' limitations. Unshackling Crypto from the confines of previous gaming hardware might give him the ability to jet to new heights, but it’s unknown how much a new game would be able to maintain the raunchy spirit of its predecessors. Perhaps enough interest in these remakes will encourage THQ Nordic to think about creating new adventures for the constantly aggravated and devilishly malicious Furon named Cryptosporidium.

Destroy All Humans! 2 Reprobed will be releasing on August 30 on PS5, Xbox series X|S, and PC. Game Rant was provided a PC code for this review.

Richard Hacking!!