Destroy All Humans 2 review (PlayStation 2)

Essentially, the formula used for most of today's games is less than simple. Whether it's an RPG, an FPS, a TPS or even an MMO, you can bet your bottom dollar that you're going to have to kill something at some point. Such a visceral premise is undoubtedly representative of man's one true longing to destroy everything, but, as is failed to become apparent with such a cynical view, the tantalizing allure of unadulterated violence bores more than instinct; it's just plain fun.

Destroy All Humans! 2 – like its predecessor – siphons this desire like a petrol thief, tending to all the destruction and chaos that the average person secretly harbors. The tables are turned in DAH(2), though, giving the player the chance to cause havoc as Alien Vs. Human. I've always wondered how it would feel!

Summer of 69

Set in the year 1969, our anti-hero Crypto is forced once again to embark on an Earthly journey after his conspiratorial presidential superiority is compromised by the bitter kiss of a Russian nuke, destroying his mothership alongside his boss, Pox.

Once all the calamity is over, Crypto – backed by the holographic mind of Pox – sets off to discover why he's so sought after by the KGB and ultimately solve his problems, but amidst the adventures, Crypto discovers it's more than the Russians who wish to silence his cold, cutting, and altogether alien wit.

It's so easy

The story behind this second encounter leaves a lot to be desired. Especially when contrasted with the original. But in a surprising twist of fate it barely warrants a harsher critique in that the game seems to function more than adequately without a truly gripping plot; to a certain extent, at least. Strangely enough, it may have been better to just let you wonder around destroying things instead of having a main goal at all, but if you want to complete the game, I'm afraid you're stuck.

Fortunately this won't take you very long. Besides a few of the side missions, most of DAH2 is ridiculously easy. The story missions generally involve little more than talking to a bunch of people in different parts of the map before destroying something. The lack of real depth to missions doesn't really maintain the player's attention span, but with the added bonus of collectible items strewn about the place, there are atleast a few extra reasons to keep coming back. On the positive side, though, such simplicity means you're truly looking at the definition of run-and-gun.

Happiness is a warm gun

There's plenty of it, and with a weird and wonderful selection of weapons at your disposal, there's never a shortage of action. On top of all the classics from Crypto's first encounter, Pandemic has added a few new implements of arse-kickery to the arsenal.

A favourite of mine would have to be the Dislocator (also Disclocator, apparently). This bizarre creation – upgradeable like other weapons in terms of rounds and firing rate – launches little purple discs that once collided with a person or vehicle, make them fly, flail and spasm about violently until they perish. The degree of sporadic fit is directly proportionate to how many discs you can land on that one object, and hitting a car with all three makes for an incredibly entertaining ballet of convulsing corpses and mincing metal.

Other, less entertaining but wholly more useful weapons include such items as 'at-your-whim' meteor strikes, giant worms and an old associate from your mothership who appears for a little while and shoots at your enemies while floating around. Pretty odd stuff.

Always on my mind

Hand-held weapons aren't all that Crypto's got going for him, oh no. From the first game, he's still sporting telekinesis abilities, but DAH2 introduces a few little extras to keep it fresh – if only for a while. Picking people and objects up is still on Crypto's resumé, but he can now transmogrify objects such as vehicles into ammo for his variety of weapons. Handy if low on ammo with no accessible refill point.

Also, as if that wasn't enough, Crypto can once again hide within people, but only for a limited time in this encounter. If he's caught by someone taking over someone's body, he can use his 'free love' attack that makes the surrounding civilians bounce around in, what would seem to be, a dance of ignorance.

Land of confusion

With a little perseverance, practically anything can be destroyed in game. Cars, trucks, buildings, postboxes. If you launch a few ray gun bolts at it, you can pretty much guarantee its destruction, but while this level of interaction helps immersion and overall fun, it's a sour reassurance that that's all you get to do throughout the entire game. SAH2, again like the first, is rarely paralleled in terms of sheer destructive entertainment, but coupled with the meager storyline, doing mission-after-mission of destroying things succumbs to some serious repetition.

Unfortunately, so does the scenery and graphical side of DAH2. Specifically in earlier parts of the game, I constantly found myself without direction as a result of the consistently similar surroundings. As you progress through the game you'll get the chance to visit other locations, but I found the same problems set in within a matter of minutes. This isn't technically a problem since the game gives you – the player – a mini map with all relevant locations marked out, but I did find my attention failing as I ran around what appeared to be the same locations over and over. With Crypto and Pox's models excluded, the texturing of objects is a little under par. Although there appears to be an improvement from the first game, there is still a noticeable amount of blurring when looking closely.

Pop will eat itself

Additionally, pop-up is a crippling graphical issue. The problem rarely factors in to the on-foot missions (although I'm sure I've seen a few hiccups), but once you're up in your flying saucer, scaling the city for people to abduct, vehicles to assimilate and/or destroy everything with your selection of weaponry, the pop-up really becomes apparent. Whilst you spend most of the time scanning the ground beneath you in these missions, the plethora of buildings miraculously developing a matter of metres in front of you is a bit of a mood killer. Especially when an attempted cover-up has been implemented: Fogging.

Nonetheless, this can be easily forgiven with the both awesome and humorous sound track and effects. Like DAH, number two is filled with parodies of modern-day sci-fi shows, movies, etc. And with the utterly superb voice-acting of Crypto and Pox – and enemies to a certain extent – the game is packed with small references to films and games. All your base... You know.

Invaders

Destroy All Humans 2 brings nothing new to the table apart from a few new abilities. Besides missions and some hit-and-miss comedy, DAH and DAH2 could be interchangeable in that there's really little progression between each of them.

While the formula is solid, I think it was a missed opportunity for Pandemic to just churn out practically the same game. However, if you're looking for a no-brainer with big guns and lots of explosions, it rarely gets as fun as this.