Destroy all humans ranked Back in the days of the PlayStation 2 and the original Xbox, many sequels were what today’s youth would refer to as “simply a bunch of DLC glued together.” In essence, that is what Destroy All Humans offers! 2: Reprobed is a faithful, graphically improved recreation of a 2006 sequel that explores new areas, including a few new enemies and weapon types, updates the upgrading system, and lengthens the plot. But it plays so much like Destroy All Humans from 2020! It Reprobed to the point where it feels like a carbon copy of the role I portrayed two years ago, except that its comedic act has become a little stale.
In light of this, I have much the same compliments for and criticisms about the quality of this remake. When you bounce around with a jetpack, blasting enemies with a lightning gun reminiscent of Palpatine and busting their skulls to harvest the brains inside, the gameplay has held up reasonably well. When able to see features like Crypto’s pointed teeth, cartoonish character models and 4K textures seem realistic. The dynamic lighting effects created by the numerous ray guns are also a wonderful touch.
The lip-syncing and animations are what seem dated; the rigid gestures and odd gesticulations throughout cutscenes take us back to a time when motion-capture animation became the norm and gave everyone an action figure appearance that is impossible to disguise. It’s also notable that NPCs don’t tend to have many distinctive features, and while you’re in a human body (which functions very similarly to the HoloBob disguise from the original game), it’s not uncommon to run into a doppelganger every few minutes or so.
Other indications that this is an older game that has been updated include the absence of any jokes about cryptocurrencies in a 2022 comedy game where the title character is named Crypto. But even worse than that, you’ll hear well-known voice actors like Yuri Lowenthal and Steve Blum performing Japanese stereotypes that they would certainly cringe at today when you first arrive on the Japan map. This is probably what motivated the notice that appears when a new game is launched, warning that “the plot, language, and images contained within may be upsetting to the modern human brain,” rather than Crypto’s recently heightened horniness.