It’s hard for me to believe that the remake of Destroy All Humans! was released almost three years ago. Since then, the team at Black Forest Games has been hard at work on souping up the game’s sequel. The first two titles in the series were the only ones that were ever worth playing. And I was a bit disappointed that the sequel didn’t get the full remake instead, as I didn’t think it’d end up getting remade. Thankfully, that was a needless concern. The release date for Destroy All Humans 2! – Reprobed was announced today for August 30, and I got to go hands-on with an early build to check out how it’s shaping up.
The first game focused on parodying ’50s alien invasion tropes, putting us in control of a Furon clone named Cryptosporidium-137 as he set out to conquer in the name of his race. Destroy All Humans 2! – Reprobed picks up 10 years later, now with you in the mighty space boots of Crypto-138. Crypto is hiding in plain sight as President Huffman, but an attack from the Russians leaves his commander, Pox, dead. Well, sort of. Pox uploads his consciousness as an AI before being blown to smithereens. It’s up to the two of them to figure out what the Russians are up to and stop them from wiping the Furons off the planet.
Destroy All Humans 2! – Reprobed has gotten much the same kind of visual overhaul the last remake did. That is to say, the game is once again gorgeous. While such a thing was sort of wasted on the first game, it’s much more deserved this time around. The sequel is certainly similar to its predecessor, but the latter almost feels like a tech demo in comparison. Within the first couple of missions, Crypto gets access to a few strange weapons, including a ray that makes enemies dance and a gun that causes things to bounce uncontrollably.
Fly away
The earliest part of the game concerns Crypto tracking down a hippie named Coyote Bongwater. His target is working with the Russians by using a drink called Revelade to brainwash Bay City, obviously a fictionalized San Francisco. He somehow gets control of a bunch of blimps that he plans to use to gas the city, but you repair Crypto’s flying saucer and decimate them with a death ray. Then you have to blow up trucks shipping the stuff before catching up with him for a trippy, psychedelic section where you hunt him down.
Simply, Destroy All Humans 2! – Reprobed is a more creative, entertaining game than its predecessor ever was. It has a suite of upgrades for Crypto, his saucer, and his PK powers. Upgrading these requires you to abduct different types of people with your saucer. The first batch naturally requires quite a few hippies. You’ll get upgrade materials simply for completing Destroy All Humans 2! – Reprobed‘s missions, with more thrown your way if you complete secondary objectives. You’ll also need to harvest human brains. Upgrading is a great incentive to go out and wreak havoc.
I think it’s great that the best (and only good) game in the series is finally getting such a fantastic fresh coat of paint, so we’ll definitely have more for you when Destroy All Humans 2 invades its August 30 release date.
