It has many interesting concepts, but fails to deliver on all of them.
You play as Cryptosporidium, an emotionally unstable member of the Furon alien race. After many years of nuclear war with other aliens races that have acquired nuclear weaponry, the Furon race has lost the ability to reproduce normally, and have lived on through cloning. However, after doing this for many generations, the DNA they have been using for the cloning has deteriorated, and each new line of Furons becomes more unstable both physically, and mentally. Generations ago, Furons intermixed with humans, and as a result humans have a strand of Furon DNA within their brains. Cryptosporidium is sent to Earth by his superior Pox to retrieve the humans' DNA and restore the Furons to their former glory. The initial setup is great, but nothing is done with it throughout the game, and it becomes a static element.
The graphics are tolerable, but have many, very noticeable problems. The only graphical standout is Cryptosporidium's character model. You can see the expression of twisted enjoyment on Crypto's face as he disintegrates humans, and his jet pack short out as he overuses its thrust. Beyond that the graphics are quite disappointing. The human character models are very repetitive, sharing no more than five different types. The enemies you'll face are even worse, having only one character model each. The game's textures are flat-out embarrassing, featuring only bland brick, cement, and sand wallpapers. The graphics are bland, and not up to par with today's standards.
The sound is also a disappointment in that it is a non-factor in the game. There is almost no music in this game. When you're walking around trying to get to your next mission, no music plays. When you're in the heat of combat, no music plays. The only bright spot in this game's soundtrack is that nice fifties-style jukebox music plays in some of the game's special features, but this is certainly no musician's dream.
The game play shows a lot of potential, but never delivers the incredible experience that it could have. The story missions are the highlight of the game play, featuring very inventive objectives and bosses. But in between missions, you must collect a certain amount of DNA from humans to continue, which basically reduces down to doing boring side missions to farm DNA so you can progress. These are all mostly the same, revolving around check point races, and killing a certain amount of cows. Wait, cows? You're giving me the power to wipe out entire army divisions, but first I have to clear out a barnyard? I have the ability to level whole cities, but first I have to fly to colored checkpoints? It's infuriating that the developers give you the chance to tear the world apart, but then force you into menial, boring tasks in order the get that chance. There is excellent game play buried here under pointless side tasks, and DNA collection.
The value also seriously drags the game down. The story missions that hold the game up do not last nearly long enough; ending after a painfully short five to six hours. The game allows you to run around in an open sandbox style world, but this quickly grows old as you realize that there's nothing you can do in it. There are also the side missions to complete, but it's simply not worth it once you realize that there are only two variations of them to complete over and over again. The game's value is its biggest problem, giving you only a small taste of what you want out of the game due to its short length.
This game is a great example of an excellent concept damaged by bad execution. This is a very interesting game to experience, but certainly not to buy. It simply does not last long enough, or have enough good game play to warrant buying it. This is the very definition of a game you should rent and play through over a single weekend.