When are you gonna let me break something? – review of the game “Destroy All Humans!”

Play as an alien and kidnap cows, destroy tractors and kill people using an anal probe. I convinced? That’s what I’m talking about!

Another remake

For a long time, I have the impression that players are inundated with a wave of remasters, remakes and reboots. Resident Evil II , Resident Evil III , Final Fantasy VII, Crysis , Mafia , Kingdom of Amalur: Re-reckoning … These are only the loudest titles from the whole range of currently being developed. Destroy All Humans! It fits perfectly into the trend of selling the same game a second time, albeit with slightly better graphics. While some remakes, reboots, and remasters are deemed necessary and warmly welcomed by players, others are hailed as a simple cash jump. How is the game published by THQ Nordic?

Alien invasion

The creators indicate at the very beginning that little has been changed in the game itself, which prepares us for exactly the same experience as the original version from 2005, but now with a refreshed layout. Indeed, the core of production has been left unchanged, meaning we can reimagine Crypto-137, an alien sent to Earth to begin mass harvesting the Human Wagon DNA code. It is necessary for the survival of the Martian species, because in the process of evolution they lost their reproductive abilities and replaced it with cloning. In every war, it is important to know your opponent, so the initial missions are a reconnaissance with an admixture of demolition, in which we use cosmic powers and guns to destroy, take control of people, read their minds and assume human form.Destroy All Humans! it is steeped in humor based mainly on well-established patterns. In the first mission, we scan the mind of a cow, aliens are small, gray men with oblong heads, the invasion takes place of course in the United States, the beauty must be the stupidest person in the group at the same time, and politicians throw populist slogans to the delight of the public. In this virtual carousel of laughter, you can also find more serious issues, such as the ethical implications of some research or manipulation by television stations.

Reconnaissance, demolition, reconnaissance, demolition – and so on

If I were to choose the weakest aspect of Destroy All Humans !, it would be missions. Most of them force us to perform pseudo-stealth activities, i.e. scan the minds of several or even a dozen or so people, assume a specific form, or kidnap a person. Then comes the demolition stage, requiring the destruction of a specific person, an appropriate number of policemen or buildings. There is definitely no freedom in taking actions and at least a few options for completing the task. The missions themselves are very short, stealth boring, and destroying the population, while satisfying, is concise and, however, a little too diverse in terms of the weapons provided.

Brainless shells

Though one of the main activities in Destroy All Humans! is brainstorming people, I have the impression that someone beat me to it, because NPCs act like they have zero intelligence. You can destroy half a city, summon the entire American army, and still the people twenty meters away will remain unmoved by the situation. I also got the impression that the game itself treats the participants of the game as people who have not had any contact with the computer before, because almost all weapons are homing, so you don’t even have to keep your opponent in your sights to hit him.

Aliens in high definition

In fact, the only noticeable departure from the original is the graphic design, which in 2005 did not even dream of the creators. Unfortunately, it is already fifteen years later and although it does not hurt the eyes (and in fact it can be considered quite aesthetic), it does not knock down. Nevertheless, it’s nice to see American towns from the late 1950s in higher definition. I dare to say that apart from the humorous aspects, it was the main factor responsible for the warm reception of the original among players. But times have changed, technology is moving forward, so today it may not be enough to be successful.

Remake only for fans of the original

Overall, I must admit that in the remake of Destroy All Humans! I was playing quite nicely, although in places the gameplay just bored me. Of course, such games, i.e. short, light and mocking games, are needed. However, in my opinion, this is a completely redundant remake, which will be enjoyed mainly by fans of the original game from 2005. New players may bounce off this production due to a rather poor selection of weapons, monotonous and repetitive missions, and the lack of proven and common mechanics from modern games. Destroy All Humans! It has always been an interesting production due to the rare theme in which the player controls aliens and tries to destroy the Earth, but I do not think that simply improving the graphics is a sufficient reason to spend money on this game a second time.

We would like to thank Koch Media Poland for making a copy of the PC game available for review.