Lawrence.com

It seems that by now, videogames have travelled to just about every setting and time period. Futuristic space battles? Check. Feudal China? Check. Ancient Rome? Check. If there's one area of history that videogames have generally ignored, it's Cold War communist paranoia in the squeaky-clean 1950s. It's a potentially hilarious setting for a game, and THQ's Destroy All Humans milks it for all it's worth.

Film buffs are surely familiar with Cold War-era propaganda films that (on the surface) appear to be about alien invaders, but upon closer inspection end up being directly about those dastardly Reds. Destroy All Humans seems to be a direct parody of this paranoia seen in films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. You play as one of the many numbered clones of Crypto, a humorous "Furon" that talks like a mixture of Jack Nicholson and R. Lee Ermey. You're sent down to Earth to harvest Furon DNA and (naturally) destroy all the humans.

The personality and humor of the game is directly tied to the setting. THQ definitely spent some time ensuring that the environment of Destroy All Humans matched the era it's set in. You start out in fairly rural locales, terrorizing cows and farmers. Soon you'll move onto a typical 1950s suburban level, complete with a drive-in theater (playing actual clips from Plan 9 From Outer Space). As you progress, you'll find yourself in a sunny California town, an Area 51 level, and eventually the Capitol City itself (clearly based in D.C., although never mentioned by name). All of the levels have a distinct feel, and they're filled with humorous citizens.

One of the joys of the game is simply running around, reading everyones' thoughts. Everyone has something on their mind, and you'll hear musings about Eliot Ness, Mr. Ed, and communism. As an added bonus, Crypto can hypnotize these people to cause distractions. They generally do some kind of ridiculous dance which draws the attention of fellow townsfolk (and police, helping to get some attention off you). From time to time, you'll have to impersonate important people. One of the funnier parts of the game features you impersonating the obviously JFK/Quimby-inspired Mayor. While acting as the Mayor, you have to win the citizens over with a speech. You do this by choosing several different speech options, including "Blame communism", "Tell a joke", and the suspicious "Doom the human race".

Gameplay in Destroy All Humans is truly a mixed bag. Crypto starts out with his Zap-O-Matic, but you can purchase several upgrades and new weapons as the game progresses. By the end of the game, you'll be armed with the Zap-O-Matic, an Anal Probe, a Disentegrator, and an Ion grenade launcher. The Disentegrator was my weapon of choice, as it easily tears through infantry and cars. Unfortunately, much of the gameplay discourages use of these ground weapons. A good deal of the levels require you to stay low-key, keeping police off of you. Running around without a disguise and shooting people is a surefire way to immediately fail these missions. Rather, you have to disguise yourself as a citizen and constantly read minds to keep your Concentration Meter filled. This gets tiresome, as you have to do it a LOT, and you'll eventually hear pretty much all of the soundbites on the citizens' minds.

There are a few instances where you can go wild with your weapons, and these are generally restricted to the many side missions. You'll find beacons of light scattered throughout the levels that will start these missions. They're very basic, and are always along the lines of "Extract this much DNA in this amount of time" or "Blow up this many vehicles". They get old quickly, and their only reward is some DNA and some points towards 100% completion.

Taking a cue from Psi-Ops, Crypto has some amusing Psychokinetic abilities. At the beginning of the game, you'll only be able to lift small objects, humans, and cows. By the end, you'll be throwing giant tanks into the horizon. This ability lends itself to some fairly humorous situations, such as when I repeatedly threw a huge Army truck into crowds of people.

The strongest gameplay sections of the game involve you flying your saucer around, causing absolute carnage. Your saucer starts out with a simple Death Ray, but will eventually be equipped with Sonic Booms, a tractor beam, and some green blobs that can level multiple buildings in one shot. It's a ton of fun to go back to some of the smaller levels and absolutely level them. The Abducto Beam allows you to pick up cars and people, then swing them around and let them fly. It was extremely fun to do this in Mercenaries (with the helicopters' tow cable), and Pandemic brought it over perfectly into Destroy All Humans. If there's one complaint I have about the saucer, it's that you're very constricted in regards to movement. You can't ascend or descend, or even move the aiming reticle manually. You just have to move the saucer until the reticle is at the target, then fire. It doesn't hurt the gameplay much, but a little more time could have been spent on this aspect of flying.

Enemy involvement is handled in much the same fashion as the Grand Theft Auto series. There are four icons at the top of the screen that indicate how much attention you've drawn to yourself. The first icon means you should be prepared to have some shotgun-toting farmers coming after you. Police get involved when you hit the second icon, and the last two are reserved for the military and the Majestic agents. The Majestic are typical "men-in-black" government agents who are trying desperately to cover up this alien invasion. They are the only enemies who can see through your disguises, and they're generally pretty tough. There really is no shortage of enemy types in the game, as you'll encounter tanks, tesla coils, anti-air guns, and human enemies with a large variety of weapons at their disposal. Late in the game, some additional enemy types are introduced that can give you quite a bit of trouble.

Graphics are stellar for the most part. The environments are crisp and clear, and character animations are very smooth. As expected, there is a huge variety of lighting and particle effects for the various alien weapons, and they all look great. The only real graphical hiccup I can think of is a slight bit of pop-up when you're in the saucer. All of the audio in the game sounds like it could have been taken straight out of an old sci-fi movie, so it fits the mood perfectly. Voice-over work is especially well done, especially in regards to Crypto and his boss, Orthopox. Crypto's voice is actually done by the same actor who did Metal Gear Solid's "The End" character, which is surprising considering how different the voices are.

In the end, Destroy All Humans is a very fun game in a very constricting package. Some aspects (the saucer destruction, the on foot PK rampages) are extremely entertaining, but the game doesn't encourage this kind of play as much as it should. Too much focus is on the lackluster stealth aspects, which hurts the missions tremendously. After the game is beaten, however, you're free to just go back to the old levels and destroy the living hell out of them. This approach is far more fun than the stilted gameplay of the missions, and I'd recommend this method if you truly want to enjoy the game to its full potential.

Graphics: B+

Sound: A-

First Play: B

Last Play: B-

Gameplay: B-

Overall: 83% B