Throwback Thursday – Destroy All Humans 2
With any great game comes a sequel. For the month of April Throwback Thursday will be looking at sequels. To kick things off we’re leaping from the 50s to the 60s with Destroy all Humans 2.
With any great game comes a sequel. For the month of April Throwback Thursday will be looking at sequels. To kick things off we’re leaping from the 50s to the 60s with Destroy all Humans 2.
Undoubtedly there are sequels to almost everything that sells well. Destroy All Humans was no exception. Destroy All Humans 2 was released in 2006, one year after the first one.
This time we jumped from the 50s to the 60s and the decade of free love was upon us. Crypto is still around, though this time he’s the next clone down the line, due to their short lifespan, and sporting a new package.
Furons seem to have lost their genitals due to atomic weaponry causing them to, well, fall off. Luckily with the pure Furon DNA retrieved in the last game the new Crypto seems to have the new surprise in time for the decade of free love.
This catches the attention of the KGB, playing to the Cold War paranoia present during the 60s and continuing decades.
Straight off the bat the mothership is destroyed by a KGB missile and Orthopox, your mentor from the last game, is blown to pieces. He is retrieved, along with some of Crypto’s weapons and his saucer from Bay City where Crypto was partying.
With vengeance on his mind Crypto begins a hunt for the KGB in a Bond-esque plot line which brings more laughs than the last one, but feels a bit flatter.
Allow me to explain.
The game made huge improvements to almost everything possible. Firstly I should comment on Crypto’s weapons. The essentials returned like the zap-o-matic and the disitigration ray. But then came a few others which were just for the laughs like the Burrow Beast, a giant plant which ate anything near the lure you shot for it.
There was more interaction with NPCs too as you were given multiple conversation options to converse with your subordinates and rivals a bit more. Of course there was no significant gameplay change made with this, but it added some more humor.
No longer were we confined to the United States of America anymore, we were able to explore the rest of the world. Locations such as Takoshima in Japan, Albion in England and Tunguska in Siberia were given to us to roam around and explore.
Of course each level was littered with the stereotypes you’d expect from England with the cockneys and the vodka swilling Russians in Siberia, but it’s all played for laughs.
Each level felt different but not as deep or as colorful as the towns and cities we’d seen in the first game. There wasn’t as much personality to everywhere, but there was more variety. The trade in was worth it in my opinion when it came to branching the Furon plan out from American domination to World domination.
Crypto’s mental powers are much more powerful too. Of course we have the retuning psychokinesis and cortex scanning. Now Crypto’s ability to blend in has been enhanced too with the ability to body snatch a human directly rather than just mentally projecting an image onto himself.
This is sounding like a mix between a 50s B-movie and a 60s spy movie, and that’s how the game shines. It retains its love of the B-movie roots and evolves itself with the decade it’s set in.
The one thing I will always praise this game for is bringing back the same voice actors to voice the main characters, since Crypto and Pox are the only two recurring characters it’s pretty easy.
But it’s a pet peeve of mine when voice actors change between films or games. It’s familiar to me and lets me remember that Crypto is still the same badass little grey alien that I blew up half of the continental United States with in the 1950s.
But the question is does Destroy All Humans 2 deliver the same level of quality with its story and gameplay as the first one did? And my answer is of course yes.
The game is beautifully designed and branches out into more ambitious territory with this sequel, in fact if Pandemic hadn’t gone under the third sequel could have been epic. We don’t talk about Path of the Furon though.
If you’re looking for a pair of great B-movie games with a twist and some great period humor to wash it down with then give Destroy all Humans and Destroy all Humans 2 a look. They’re definitely worth your time.
Are you a DaH fan? Would you love another adventure with Crypto and Pox? Let us know in the comments below.