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Destroy All Humans! 2 Review
Jon Wilcox
20/10/2006
Pandemic's alien-invading franchise returns for a second attempt at taking over the world...
Aaah, the Swinging Sixties - a time when Free Love, Beatlemania, and the height of the Cold War reigned. It also happens to be where Pandemic's Jack Nicholson-impersonating alien, Cryptosporidium-138 finds himself in THQ's Destroy All Humans! 2. Released twelve months after the original title, the bug-eyed anal-probe toting alien finds himself in the Oval Office as President of the United States. Things are even better for Crypto thanks to all that Furon DNA collected from the brains of mankind in the first game; as a clone of the original character he now has a...a thing, a member, a 'package'...well, you know what I mean.
Anyway, before he beats Bill Clinton to it by thirty years, all hell breaks loose thanks to the appearance of the KGB, who promptly blast Crypto's mothership (including his commander, Pox) out of the sky. It's a hell of a way to confirm that one of the elements criticised in the first game no longer exists in the follow-up...
Leaving the confines of the United States this time around, Crypto-138 finds himself travelling the globe to the likes of Bay City, Albion, and Tunguska (parodies of San Francisco, London, and Moscow), hunting down the KGB and the culprits who destroyed his mothership. The locations are much more clearly defined this time around, with Pandemic playing to the various stereotypes of each country; Albion has red buses, E-type Jaguar clones, drab weather, red letter boxes and phone boxes...and rather English accents; Takoshima has ninjas, traditional Japanese architecture, girls in school uniform, and so on. In a further break from the first game, you feel encouraged to explore for various bits of random collectibles spread throughout the lands; more than that, there's actually a motivation for players in the form of unlocking and upgrading weapons, activating saucer landing spots, and collecting human brains. At a time when sandbox titles are released almost on a monthly basis, Destroy All Humans! 2 remains a rarity in that you feel free to roam around the locations in your own time.
Although the need to return to the mothership at the end of a mission, and thereby break up the flow of the open-world experience, was perhaps one of the major criticisms of the first title, it was the onset of repetition fairly early on into the game that really stood out. So what about the sequel??? As in the first instalment, gameplay either takes place on foot or in Crypto's one-man flying saucer, and culminate in the alien tracking down the hideouts and plans of the KGB. But in-between that, Crypto can find himself doing anything from destroying nukes in his saucer, protecting the object of his affection (a KGB agent called Natalya), and escaping from the last Majestic hideout left on Earth. There aren't a significant number of story-based missions however, a few in each of the locations, which does mean that some players that just focus on them will complete the main story in a matter of a few short hours. However, there's definitely a greater sense of variety in the types of missions this time around, and there's further longevity to be had thanks to the reinvigorated side missions.
Several 'Odd-Job' missions (Side-Missions) are available in each of the levels, and are certainly more beefy than the usual fare. Instead of being quick 'pick-up-and-play' missions that usually dot the landscapes of open-world titles, they're much closer aligned in scale to the main story missions - except for the fact that they don't contribute to story progression. Many have multiple objectives, stopping them from feeling like padding, and have a greater variety to the gameplay. For instance, one sees Crypto having to collect various pieces of human technology and fashion it into an antenna to communicate with the Furon home world - that's the first part of the side-mission. The second part sees him take the antenna to the highest point of Bay City and then defend it against the US army while contact is made with Furon High Command. Some of the more unusual side-missions sees the Furon scan the mind of a repressed wannabe transsexual, before bodysnatching him and 'coming out' to his wife over the telephone...
Crypto also has an extended arsenal this time around, including the likes of newcomers the Disclocator and the devastating Meteor Strike, however old "favourites" such as the Zap-o-Matic, Disintegrator, and Anal Probe, still form a key part of the Furon's weaponry. Most of these are unlocked by collecting scattered Weapon Cores, but there are others, such as the Mind Blast, which are unlocked in the course of the story. Far and away the most humorous of the new weapons is the Disclocator, which fires out discs that take humans on what seems at first to be a fun ride along the ground before taking a more sinister yet fun turn by throwing them up into the air and dropping them to their deaths. It can also be used against the vehicles in the game, though there's always the risk that they'll collide with Crypto-138 and cause him to become Crypto-139... Whilst some weapons are rechargeable, like the Zap-o-Matic and Disclocator, others rely on 'Transmogging', which converts inanimate objects into usable ammo, and can be activating by lots of button tapping.
One of the key aspects of the first game was brain harvesting, which Crypto used to collect much needed Furon DNA; this time around, brain stems and abducted humans are needed to power the DNA Blender. By collecting the correct types of human, Crypto can unlock new abilities (such as a stronger psycho-kinesis power) or improve his attributes against certain foes. Again, it's another level of gameplay, as the DNA Blender forcing players to be quite choosy in selecting prospective abductees, and another reason to go out and explore the gameworld.
Humour, as in the first game, plays a vital part to enjoying Destroy All Humans! 2; from the weapons and their abilities, to Crypto's wise-cracking Jack Nicholson voice, and numerous pop culture references (MI6 agent Ponsonby-Smyth's Austin Power-alike crushed velvet suit and frills, calls for a blue TARDIS, and claims by Pox that Crypto is The One) that literally litter the game. Being a sequel however also means that there's room for self-references this time around, with some humans commenting that Crypto looked taller in the first game (one of the more popular throwbacks to the original game).
Of course, being the Swinging Sixties, Free Love is big part of society, and it's something that the newly appendaged Crypto actively engages in - but not in the way that you think. Being a four foot alien with a range of sci-fi inspired weapons and a lust for world dominance, Crypto is targeted by the local authorities and armed forces across the globe once the alert level is high enough. Being a species of greater mental ability means however that Crypto can use several psychic powers against mankind. As in the first game, players can pick up humans and objects using the power of Crypto's mind, throwing them into the sea or into a building, or just bring them closer so he can bodysnatch them for a limited time. Adding to his (and the player's) options is the ability to give 'Free Love' to some of the humans closest to him, making them carefree, and allowing Crypto to escape, kill them, bodysnatch them, or harvest their brains. In addition to the psychic powers and doling out Free Love, Crypto can also lower (or raise) the alert level by going to a police box and selecting the required option; continuing the humour of the game, players can also use the police boxes for prank calls - though many of them are familiar and cause the odd residual groan when you hear them. Like so much of Destroy All Humans! 2, it's the level of variety over its predecessor that makes it a more well-rounded and polished title. It's a case of more, more, more, and Pandemic seems to have been happy to provide just that.
One of the key features added to this year's alien outing, is a jump in/ jump out co-operative mode, allowing two gamers to play through the campaign. Splitting the screen down the middle, Crypto's cloning ability comes in handy in explaining the appearance of his genetic twin too, something that hinders other co-operative titles. Of course it's quite enjoyable to play through the game with a friend, though getting the missions done is a bit more difficult (it's just too much fun running around blasting pathetic humans with Crypto's weaponry), however there is one element that plagues the mode - the bungee cord. In a bid to stop the two Crypto's from getting too far away from each other, a green umbilical cord appears at a certain distance and abruptly snaps one of the aliens to the location of the other. It sounds good in principal, but at times, the elastic-like snap doesn't work and annoyingly just pops one of the Furons instantly to the new location without any sense of warning....more often than not just when you're about to collect some ammo or a brain. The use of the cord could also have been expanded upon, perhaps with one Crypt manipulating it like a slingshot, allowing the second alien to get to some of the hard to reach collectibles??? But Destroy All Humans! 2 isn't the only title where the mechanics of co-operation doesn't quite work as well as it should, it's something that seems to have plagued most games that have tried it in the past...Pandemic has also peppered the gameworld with a number of two-layer minigames, including PK tennis, where each of the Cryptos use their psychic powers to throw a human "ball" across the net - first to ten wins. Fun and wonderfully irrelevant to the rest of the title, these two-player mini-games at the very least offer a change of pace for a while.
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