Developed by Black Forest Games and published by THQ Nordic, Destroy All Humans! 2 is back in its remastered form called Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed. Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed is made to harness the power of modern consoles and PC and it clearly shows when you see the game in action. In this review, we will go through all aspects of the remaster, and we will see how it compares to the original release of the title as we play the PS5 and the PC version of the title. This is our review of Destroy All Humans 2 – Reprobed in which we buzz some humans and extract their brains to power up ourselves.
The story of Destroy All Humans! 2 is set 10 years after the events of the original Destroy All Humans! You step in the tiny alien shoes of the alien called Cryptosporidium 187 who is now serving as the President of the United States of America. The year is 1969 and the Russians have somehow discovered your presence on the earth and now they want you dead. They end up blowing your motherboard high in space above Earth however your boss Poxy manages to upload his conscience into a bot before the ship explodes. Your goal is to now save your newly-form genitalia, exact your revenge on the KGB and also keep the people of the USA safe. Apparently spending time with the civilians has sparked some sort of a soft spot for the civilians in Crypto’s heart however this is only visible in the cutscenes of the scene as you will zap them and extract their brains in the game with no remorse at all.
Coming to game mechanics and overall concept of the title, Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed is exactly the same title as that of the original Destroy All Humans! 2 for the PS2 and the original Xbox. If you have played the original version of the game, you will find little to no differences here in the gameplay, story missions, and the UI of the game. Most of it is similar to the original title and this means that the remaster comes with the limitations of the original release as well. Sticking true to the smaller maps of the time, the map designs in Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed are fairly small. As you fly around the different maps based on real-world locations, you will notice that the maps are exceptionally small, and finding anything in them is not an issue at all.
Whether you want to find hidden songs or humans of different types for your Gene Blender, you will have to explore relatively small maps while completing various missions in the same locations as well. Normally, you would get a huge map where all the action takes place in a game like this however since PS2 and Xbox were unable to handle all that back then, the Reprobed brings the smaller maps as well. However, the maps do feel alive with all the cool lighting and plenty of NPCs moving around. There are civilians and the three main factions of the game including the KGB, the Police, and the Hippies. They are plenty and you can easily in fights with any of these factions. You start a fight with any one faction and pretty soon you will have the whole map rallying against each other.
Nearly all of the buildings on the map can be destroyed with your spaceship however once you reload the game or come back to this map from another one, everything will be back to normal. The damage is not permanent so it opens up plenty of fun opportunities for you where you can just have fun and blow up everything that comes your way. The story progresses forward in the form of missions and after some progression in the story mission, you start unlocking side missions as well. The start of the game serves as a tutorial for various in-game mechanics just like a GTA title so the game eases you in as it teaches you everything you can do in the game. If you want to unlock everything in the game, progression is a key element, and you must play through the story missions.
One of the most important things in the game is your arsenal of weapons and this is locked behind story progression. You have a decent number of weapons to terrorize the humans such as zapping them with your electricity gun or setting them on fire with your incendiary weapons. Apart from the weapons, you have your trusty PK powers as well which allow you to use the humans however you want. You can extract their brains, jump into them, control them, or simply make them forget about your existence as well. You name it and you can do it to the poor humans. This deadly combination of your PK powers and your weapons opens up a playground that very few games have done in its time. Your Spaceship also comes with its own range of weapons and quirks. Each weapon, ability, and skill are upgradeable and for Crypto’s second romp, you have even more options to upgrade yourself provided that you have the right resources. To be honest, the weapons in the first game were more fun to play around with but they just do their job in the second game as well.
As you play through the game and complete missions, you will notice that the game shows its age when comes to animations and dialogue. While the voice cast is done by some really cool names such as J. Grant Albrecht who has returned to voice Crypto once again however the animations do look dated in the cutscenes. The humor is one particular aspect that really stands out at this point because most modern titles just try to avoid going in the direction that Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed has when it comes to humor but then again, the game was originally released back in 2006 and people did not really notice things like this back then. Today, they might sound a little too harsh perhaps which is why the developer has a similar notice at the start of the remaster as well.
These dated mechanics and animations are not just visible during cutscenes as well. While Black Forest Games has re-worked the character models, sadly they are not diverse enough as compared to modern titles now. Every other person will have the same face in their respective faction for example if you are in a crowd of hippies, every fourth hippie will have the same face or if you are fighting the police, every fourth policeman will have the same face. Small things like this show that even the most beautiful visuals are dragged down by dated mechanics. The game overall looks absolutely beautiful and most of the time I was just admiring the pretty visuals but then things like these would look really out of place.
Another prominent feature of Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed is the couch co-op where you can jump in the game with a friend and complete missions together. The whole campaign of the game allows co-op and if you have someone locally to play the game with you, this is perhaps the best way to experience the title. I played the game with my wife on the PS5, and it was a completely different experience when compared with my solo run on the PC. It is more fun when you have someone to destroy humanity with. In addition to this, you can also try out different multiplayer modes in the game. Since the main story is a one-time affair and once you have replayed all missions to complete the optional challenges, collected all collectibles, and done everything, there is not much to do in the game. These couch co-op modes might not offer too much but they are a decent distraction from the main story and they can keep you entertained for some time.
Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed is not perfect at this point when it comes to the technical side as well. The game did crash for me a few times which is pretty rare these days. Not a lot of games have crashed on me during my review playthroughs however sadly this was not the case with this title. The game crashed at least 4 times for me on the PS5 and 2 times on the PC during my review playthroughs. There are a few other issues in the game as well such as the NPC vehicles going through each other. The NPCs are not very smart when it comes to driving their vehicles as well, especially the police. There was one time when I have just lost the police chasing me and the policemen were getting back in their vehicles however all of them just kept trying to drive up a skating ramp. Apart from these small, annoying bugs and glitches, the game just looks really pretty on both the PS5 and the PC. I did not really notice any sort of framerate drops on both platforms as well and it ran fairly well on both 4K and 1080p resolutions.
Final Verdict:
When it comes to the visuals of the game, Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed is just gorgeous. But sadly, the remaster bit just stops there. Under its core, it is the same game that was released on the PS2, and the original Xbox, and the limitations are there which simply stop Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed being a really good title. While the mechanics, gameplay, and satirical humor of the game still manage to hold on their own, the overall scope of the title manages to fall short when compared to much meatier action games of the current generation. Still, Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed is a great adventure for the little alien Crypto that we loved playing when we were young and this time around, the game looks just beautiful. Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed is a decent action game for everyone who wants to revisit the franchise on modern consoles or those who are just curious about it.
Final Score: 7.5/10
