It’s an interesting time to release a remaster/remake. The jury is still out whether a graphical upgrade (made from the ground up or not) of one of the biggest game in video gaming history is worth 70 Dollars or not. But that hasn’t stopped THQ Nordiq and Black Forest from adding Destroy All Humans 2 to their remake portfolio. This remake of the PS2 era semi-open world “semi-classic” offers more than just graphical upgrades, but is that enough for this to be not included in Gamepass or PS Plus. Let’s find out.
Even Aliens Are Better Than Russians
The first change that the team has done for Destroy All Humans 2 : Reprobed is to move the timeline for the game from the 50s to the 60s. Accordingly all the references to movies, politics and culture have been switched decades too.
The Russians are still the bad guys though (some things never change), even worse than an Alien posing as the US President, collecting Human DNA to repopulate his alien species. They are instrumental in shooting down Crypto’s mothership from orbit and blow his cover as US President. From there begins a weird chain of event that could only have been approved in the early 2000s. As Crypto, along with his mentor/sidekick/boss Orthopox 13, a very busty Russian spy Natalya Ivanova, and his trusty saucer take on a rip off Jim Jones, a traitor James Bond, the Russians and an entirely different alien species across Bay City (San Fransisco), Albion (London), Takoshima (Tokyo) and of course the Moon.
The entire ride is full of sophomore jokes, mostly about genitalia, (surprisingly none about Crypto currency and block chain), and terrible voice acting, which is so bad that its good.
Encounters Of The Remake Kind
The story and the time period is not the only thing that Black Forest has touched when it comes to Destroy All Humans 2: Reprobed. The game also boasts of graphical fidelity built from the ground up again for the current gen (Stop me if you have heard this before). It is a true remake with a brand new engine and entirely new textures and models.
Though you can see that the original was made before the time motion capture became a thing, with lip sync all over the place and character movement feels more like how action figures would move. Also with limited character types, and large cities to fill, it will be often you will see twins, doppelgängers and clones of each other, though it kind of tracks in a game which leans into concepts like cloning, DNA splicing, and ancient alien races.
And herein, lies one of the charms of Destroy All Humans 2: Reprobed. Its a fun PS2 era open world game that doesn’t look it has exploded onto your 4K screen. It holds itself together while looking good enough while playing as goofily as it should.
Abduction As A Game Mechanic
Much like the remake of the first game, Destroy All Humans 2: Reprobed benefits from new additions to its arsenal, while keeping most of its mechanics true to the original. As Crypto you have multiple weapons to choose from while you galavant and terrorize the law abiding citizens of the world. While most of them pay homeage to the sci-fi horror alien pics of an era gone by, they aren’t really as effective as you would like especially when a lot of enemies will gang up on you. Still the shooting is proper and tracks as much as a Far Cry game would in today’s time.
Of course, you can also take a the low-key stealth option and hide yourself among the masses by taking over innocent passerby temporarily. But that is not the limit of your mind powers, and as Crptyo you will be able to use tele-kinesis, wipe out people’s memory so they can’t raise an alarm, read other people’s thought (which is another source of funny jokes) and even convert some of them to your side while in a fight. All of this is super easy and not confusing at all and none of it actually become a chore.
What does become a chore is when you are asked to drive your very own alien Saucer around, complete with a Death Ray capable of destroying entire cities. Thing is, its super difficult to aim that thing properly. Black Forest could really have done better with that, because it makes one of the most fun part of being an alien, not so fun.
The Steam Deck Stress Test
I played this game entirely on the Steam Deck. Either on the docked mode or in handheld. Before the Day 0 update I had some issues with the game, where it was crashing whenever there were too many enemies on the screen. Ever since the update though things have improved drastically.
However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t issues. The FPS drop off when there is a lot of action on screen, and it has still crashed a couple of times since the Day 0 update. In game there has been some texture popping, but nothing so dismal that it would mar the experience.
Overall, I was pretty impressed by how Destroy All Humans 2: Reprobed performed on the Steam Deck as I was able to consistently get decent game time (battery permitting).
Real Talk
Do you want to play Destroy All Humans 2: Reprobed? Yes if you want to have something silly and not trying to be woke (I see you Saints Row) is open world and not GTA, and is varied enough that you may just be able to finish it. My advise if you do buy it, turn down the difficulty, don’t worry about the secondary objectives, and go crazy.
FINAL RATING: RECOMMENDED
