Destroy all Humans! (PS4) Review
Release Date: July 28,2020
Publisher/Developer: THQ Nordic/Black Forest Games
Platform: PlayStation 4 (reviewed), Xbox One, PC
Price: $39.99
Despite PlayStation’s attempts at streaming classic games and Xbox’s work to make a huge portion of your old discs backwards compatible, this generation seems to be chock full of remasters and rereleases. I’ve reviewed game rereleases for The Gamers Lounge of titles I’ve thought long dead, such as Voodoo Vince or Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy. Originally released in 2005 for the first Xbox and PlayStation 2, Destroy All Humans puts you in the role of Crypto-137 who must harvest his kind’s pure DNA from those of humans (who had been crossed with his race ages ago) so that they can continue their cloning process and extend their own lifelines. You do this by playing the villain from all the schlocky 1950s B movies about UFOs, aliens, and plenty of dated humor references. Destroy All Humans is authentic to it’s source material, right down to putting a disclaimer on the front that, since it is accurate, it keeps the corny old jokes and raunchy grossouts that were popular at the time.
Destroy All Humans is early open-world. There are several levels that are small, but have a variety of objectives to complete within. You can also just run around and cause wanton chaos. Between levels you can use acquired items to upgrade both Crypto and his ship. You get a variety of weapons to vaporize or probe humanity, for no other purpose than obtaining DNA. Crypto does get plenty of enjoyment out of anal probing the humans.
The upgrades are mostly cosmetic, with a few little bonuses thrown in, but Destroy All Humans is the rose-colored equivalent of what you remember if you played the original. All of the voices are brought over (including Richard Horvitz, later known for Invader Zim), with some of the voice actors coming back to rerecord. The world is built from the ground up to feel as accurate as possible to the original, whilst adding extra polish, like grass and lighting effects.
This all being said, the game being as accurate as possible is both a blessing and a curse. Fans of the original will love this to death, but in the end, they’ve done it all before. People looking for a new experience may find fun but overall dated gameplay. New gamers may be grossed out or simply not get some of the dated humor, and old players have heard all the old jokes before. It controls the same, plays the same, and sounds the same. While this release is the ultimate way to enjoy the title, you have to come with an “early Aughts” mentality.
Pros:
-Exactly what you’d expect: a wonderful coat of Nostalgia Rose on top of classic gameplay
-New animations, a few new events, and a level of detail impossible on original hardware
-Cool to see nebulous ideas of what open world gaming would end up being
-Classic antihero stuff: blowing up 1950s Americana is always fun!
Cons:
-Exactly what you’d expect: 2005 classic gameplay with a coat of Nostalgia Rose on it
-Events and activities from 15 years ago in gaming seem rather straightforward and simplistic now
Special thanks to THQ Nordic/Black Forest Games for providing a code for review!