The original Destroy All Humans! It's a great little classic. Developed by Pandemic Studios and produced by THQ back in 2005 on the then widespread PlayStation 2 and Xbox, the game gave way to take on the role of the devious alien Cryptosporidium, committed to carrying out a series of missions with the primary objective of allowing the alien race known as Furon to rule once and for all the planet Earth (with all due respect to human beings). Net of the particularity of the concept and some decidedly fun free roaming mechanics - although really archaic for the time - the game got an unexpected clamor from the public, so much so that the game received various sequels, unfortunately never up to the original title. : let's talk about Destroy All Humans! 2 (set in 1960) Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed (for Nintendo Wii) and Destroy All Humans! Path Of The Furon (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3). In 2019, THQ Nordic decided that the time was ripe for the realization of a remake of the first chapter for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, this time thanks to the skilled hands of Black Forest Game.
Welcome back, Crypto
The new Destroy All Humans! immediately resumes the threads of the speech left pending 15 years ago, presenting the nice again Crypto and his now classic "close encounter of the third kind" with cows (considered with absolute knowledge of the facts the highest form of intelligence on planet Earth). The arrival of the peasants will immediately make the situation more complicated, with Crypto committed to freeing itself from the annoyance of humans by exploiting its typical alien arsenal. From this point on, anyone who has played (and loved) the first chapter of 2005 will immediately feel at home: the gray will have to deal with the police and the army, united to prevent Crypto from destroying all forms of human life in its path. And, again as in the past, the extraterrestrial will be able to use his spaceship (with lots of lethal laser beam) to give a hand to his primary objective.
The game world in which Crypto can move is presented to the player gradually, as if we were really aliens on a hostile planet. From ours we will also have various ability that will give meaning to our odyssey on planet Earth: it goes from read minds, to steal (literally) the brain from creatures living and beyond, as well as a powerful electric pulse rifle and - last to least - a jet pack for fast travel (another leitmotiv of the Destroy All Humans series!). Everything is exactly as planned: the exploratory sector of the production is the keystone of the gameplay, since mission after mission will be possible freely explore the scenery, perhaps by completing the secondary assignments left open. But not only that: we will have carte blanche about the possibility of freely exterminating every living being, for the pure (and sadistic) pleasure of sowing a bit of panic on the earth's surface. Obviously, the greater our "malice" the more aggressive the reaction of human beings, who will be ready to hurl dozens of soldiers and tanks at us.
"Destroy All Humans!"
If everything seems to be working (and also fine) in the first two hours of the main campaign, Destroy All Humans! begins to suffer a certain redundancy as soon as we become too familiar with the game mechanics. If wandering around the villages and towns as an alien is quite fun at first, over the hours the feeling of amazement will noticeably vanish, leaving room for some redundancy. A series of collateral assignments and timed missions intervene to try to vary the offer, thanks to which we will be able to collect DNA points, to be spent in the appropriate menu with the aim of unlocking new skills (or enhancing those already in our possession) for up to six upgrades each.
Being on balance of a real remake and not a simple classic HD reissue (released several years ago) the new Destroy All Humans! it also brings with it a brand new look. Unfortunately, although it is an end-of-generation game, the work done by the Black Forest Game team is certainly not at the top, especially when we focus on the details: both the polygonal models of the secondary characters, or the various settings that we will be called to raid, while being pleasing to the eye (and tracing in all respects the style of the original production) will leave rather lukewarm. The feeling, therefore, is that with this 2020 version it has been decided to fully resume the 50s look (and gameplay) of the original game, without however having the courage to dare more. At the end of the fair everything is extremely enjoyable and functional to the context, although with a little extra courage - and maybe some more original ideas - the new Crypto adventure could have been truly memorable.
