Destroy All Humans! 2020 Review

"Time to Probe Again"

Campaign

July 31, 2020 at 8:57pm
By Jason Stettner

The somewhat hilarious Crypto-137 has returned in this great remake of the cult classic Destroy All Humans! This release brings back the original title including all of the various levels, and tries to emulate that old school experience. They’ve even added in some extra content that was cut from the game’s original release.

I think that’s a nice touch, and shows a certain level of care for the source material. Whatever the case, it’s been a long time and now the first game is back looking better than ever. Its set in the 1950’s on Earth where the evil alien Crypto-137 has arrived on behalf of the Furon Empire in order to investigate what happened to his previous self.

It’s all about harvesting DNA and battling the US government in order to rule the world. It’s a strange sort of experience, and not one you see too often within the gaming space. I’m actually very happy to have it return as I played it when I was quite young, and from what I recall it’s basically all here. The levels are a bit different than in most games as well.

There’s a good selection of them, and they basically carve out a few hub areas as levels. You can also play these hub sections afterwards to cause mayhem, finish challenges or also gain rewards. It’s nice to have the option to revisit the hub locations, and freely move around within them. With that, the missions you play carve out parts of the hub and create a sort of narrative with them.

There’s a good variety here whether you’re using stealth to hide amongst folks, or are just causing destruction. Sometimes you’re taking control of individuals, rallying a crowd or perhaps guiding a missile along a path. The campaign has a good length to it, and is honestly still fun. I found the cinematic elements to be rather hilarious at times and the dynamic between the two main characters was still entertaining.

I can certainly tell that some of the references are dated, but I still enjoyed witnessing them again. Aside from the various missions, there are boss fights to tackle at times and also some extra challenges to take part in. I did find the boss battles to be a good challenge, and with that wish the checkpoints were better.

Gameplay

Visually I’m quite impressed with the style of the game. The world is filled with smaller details, and lots of depth in general within each scene. You can see the little holes in Crypto twitch, and I also like the artistic direction for most of the experience. The cutscenes look solid, as does the scale of the open world areas. I will note that some pop-in is present as you’re moving around and that’s particularly the case if you’re soaring over within your saucer.

There are also some performance dips when crazy amounts of mayhem is going on. Not a huge deal, but definitely worth mentioning. I will also note that I was on Xbox One X while playing since that makes a difference within the performance power at play here. It does handle well, with smoothed out controls for using multiple abilities at the same time.

It’s far easier to jetpack around while also unleashing say lightning or telekinesis. There are a wide range of powerful tools to use, and these can be upgraded as you progress. Crypto also has unlockable costume options if that interests you. The music is of course still charming, as is the dialogue since it brings a bit of a sarcastic attitude to it.

I would have liked the checkpoint system to be handled a bit better, especially during boss battles. It can get tiring to have to redo entire sections. Still, it flows well whether you’re blowing them up on foot or doing so from the air sky above.

The Conclusion

This Destroy All Humans! remake is great, it captures the original feel and updates the visual elements for the modern era. It doesn’t necessarily go wild in changing things, staying true to the original style that made the game feel so fun back in the day. I still found it rather funny, and enjoyable.

I think the concept holds up well, and they did some good work on updating the ability handling. This obviously is setup like an older titles, so don’t expect wildly complex levels. There is a good amount of value to this campaign wise, and in extra trips through the various hub world areas to cause more destruction.

The visuals are more than satisfying, providing huge explosions from your ship or even absolute chaos when you’re on foot. There’s a good amount of content to this one, and I had a good time with it once again.

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Destroy All Humans! 2020 Review on Xbox One X
Review Code Provided by Evolve PR

Rating Overall: 8.2