UFOlogist FPS enthusiast genocidal maniacs unite! This fun romp through 50's communist paranoia will have you cheering!
Destroy all Humans is a fairly simple third person shooter. It has a very funny and entertaining story line and a few nuances to the game that will keep you interested throughout however, making it worth at least one play through. If you are a flying saucer freak however this game is just simply golden. Let's take a walk through this cool game.
You are Crypto, an alien among a race of conquest driven beings who are having a bit of difficulty reproducing. Their normal means of reproduction is in cloning, which is wreaking havoc with the gene pool which simply must be expanded or it could spell doom for the entire species.
Your mission is to scout this blue planet we call Earth for core DNA samples that will help with your breeding problem. Zipping around in your flying saucer, you stumble upon a missle test launch at an undisclosed area in the American Southwest at which point disaster strikes and you end up being "recloned" back on the mother ship. Your boss alien (a very cantankerous guy with a funny voice and little patience) sends you back to Earth to straighten things out.
Your missions start in a tutorial type nature. You learn how to manipulate your telekenesis, your ray gun (kind of like a lightning gun), and interact with objects in the world. For the first part of your game you will take on farmhands and rural cops for the most part.
The key differences of this game with your average shooter game are that you can embark and disembark your flying saucer. You get to fly it around and blow things to kingdom come quite frequently. There are several landing spots that you are allowed to land at in each mission area which may help you accomplish different objectives easier.
Another key difference is that you can use your super advanced alien technology to emulate human beings for stealth purposes. You can also read peoples minds which is just hilarious. Many times you'll be looking for some specific thoughts as evidence that will help you complete your objective, and looking for these people will run you through the random thoughts of everyday passers by which are all quite funny (apparently they were created by popular submission by either fans or beta testers, I'm not sure which).
All of these mental powers come at a cost to your concentration which slowly builds back up over time, but when taxed completely will cause these powers to fail, potentially exposing your true nature to surrounding humans.
In a lightly populated area, this is not too much of a problem at all because you are literally armed to the teeth. Your weapons include the aforementioned telekenesis which can be used to lift people up and throw them great distances, smash them into walls, etc. Later on as you accumulate DNA for your intergalactic masters you can purchase upgrades which allow you to levitate cars and even tanks.
Your standard ray gun also gets quite an upgrade allowing it a progressively more death dealing "chain lightning" effect. There are several other weapons that you will find as well that are so destructive there is nothing that can withstand your focused fury. Your enemies will get tougher as time goes on. You will be introduced to a group called "Majestic" which is a clear parallel to "Majestic 12" of UFO history. They can be closely likened to a very aggressive shoot to kill version of "MIB" from the popular movie. They get ray guns and other gadgetry with which to annihilate you with.
As I stated before, the storyline is awesome, taking you from rural America to the big city, to a spoof of Area 51 and beyond. There's a ton of fun-making pointed at the 50's in general and the whole theme of communist paranoia is echoed throughout the game.
The game is fun to play, but as I said before it is relatively simple so I game gameplay an 8.
The graphics are well done on the PS2, but suffer a bit from draw distance problems, I've heard the XBOX is a bit better, so I gave it a 7.
The sound is fantastic. There are so many voiceovers in this game you wonder how they fit them all on the disc. When you cut loose with the ray gun and everyone starts screaming and running away it's pure joy. A much welcomed bonus is the soundtrack of the game. The theme is a cross between 50's sci fi and 50's classic remixes. You can actually purchase the soundtrack to the game on CD and if you have played the game and like the music, I highly recommend it. I gave sound a 10, as I can not imagine how it could have been better.
Value I give a 7 because the game is very fun, but not very replayable. You may bust it out a few weeks or months later to play through it again because it is truly a good game, but it's not something that you will be able to play over and over again.
I simply have to give this game a reviewer's tilt of 10 because I love UFO history, 50's era music and culture, and a good shooter game, which this is most definitely.
I do not own a PS2. I had to borrow my brother's and rent the game. I played it for about 30 days at which point Blockbuster was getting kind of pissed. After I returned it I knew I would want to play it again, and now I am kicking myself that I don't own a copy of the game. So I say at the very least, this game is an awesome rental.