Some video game heroes are noble warriors, some are reluctant heroes dragged into saving the world, and some are tiny grey aliens with enormous heads, questionable morals and a frankly unhealthy obsession with probing humans. Crypto belongs firmly in the third category. Destroy All Humans! 2: Reprobed brings the foul-mouthed Furon back for another gleefully ridiculous invasion of Earth, casting him in the swinging sixties, where hippies, KGB agents, secret societies and humans who really should know better all stand between him and revenge.
Originally released in 2006, Destroy All Humans! 2 was already one of the more entertainingly silly action games of its generation. This remake gives it a substantial visual overhaul while keeping the humour, weapons and destructive sandbox that made the original so memorable. It is bigger, brighter, considerably better-looking and still completely unashamed of being juvenile when the opportunity presents itself. And believe me, Crypto gets plenty of opportunities.
Crypto Is Back, Baby
The story picks up roughly a decade after the events of the first game, with Crypto once again causing trouble on Earth. Only this time, there is a more personal reason for his latest rampage. The KGB has blown up the Furon mothership, and Crypto is understandably less than pleased.
What follows is a globe-trotting revenge mission that takes our favourite alien through a series of wonderfully exaggerated versions of 1960s locations. Bay City, Albion, Takoshima, Tunguska and the Solar Octagon all provide distinct environments to explore, each packed with its own characters, enemies and opportunities for mayhem.
The story is deliberately silly, and that is exactly what makes it work. Destroy All Humans! 2 is not trying to be a serious science fiction epic. It is a B-movie brought to life, complete with ridiculous dialogue, outrageous situations and a protagonist who seems genuinely offended that humans have the nerve to exist. Crypto is not here to save Earth. He is here to make it regret ever being discovered.
Welcome To The Swinging Sixties
The 1960s setting gives Reprobed a personality that many modern open-world games would struggle to replicate. You have hippies wandering around, secretive government operations taking place behind closed doors, Soviet agents plotting their next move, and ordinary citizens going about their business, completely unaware that an alien is wandering nearby. The game happily throws all of these ingredients into the same pot and gives Crypto plenty of ways to stir things up.
Each area feels like its own playground. There are buildings to investigate, humans to manipulate, and plenty of objects that can be picked up, thrown around, or simply destroyed. The environments are not enormous by today’s open-world standards, but that is arguably one of the game’s strengths. There is always something within reach, and you rarely have to spend ages travelling through empty space just to reach the next bit of fun.
Making Humans Work For You
Crypto’s psychic abilities remain one of the game’s biggest attractions. Rather than simply shooting everything that moves, you can invade human minds, read thoughts, manipulate targets and disguise yourself as various members of the human population. This is one of the things that gives Destroy All Humans! 2 its distinctive identity.
The disguise mechanic is particularly useful when you want to infiltrate an area without immediately turning the entire neighbourhood against you. Of course, you can also use your powers to cause complete chaos, and that is where things become considerably more entertaining.
Then there is Free Love. Activate it in the right situation, and suddenly a group of suspicious humans can become an impromptu dance party. It is ridiculous, completely unnecessary, and exactly the sort of thing you would expect from a game whose protagonist has an anal probe as one of his signature weapons.
An Arsenal Designed By A Lunatic
The weapons are where Reprobed really comes alive. Crypto has access to a collection of familiar alien technology, including the Zap-O-Matic, Dislocator and Anti-Gravity Field. Each weapon has its own personality, and experimenting with them is half the fun.
The Dislocator is particularly satisfying for the sheer joy of watching enemies and objects flung around the environment. The Anti-Gravity Field lets you manipulate objects in ways that can turn ordinary encounters into complete nonsense, while the Anal Probe remains exactly the sort of weapon that makes you question who at the development meeting decided this was a good idea.
The remake also introduces additional technology, including the Meteor Shower, which gives Crypto another wonderfully excessive way to make his presence known. There is something refreshing about a game that does not constantly ask you to be sensible. Sometimes the correct solution is simply to fire an enormous alien weapon at something and see what happens.
Bring Down The Saucer
Crypto is not restricted to causing trouble on foot. His flying saucer offers an entirely different way to experience the game’s environments, and this is where the scale of destruction increases considerably. Vehicles can be levitated, buildings can be attacked, and entire sections of the city can be reduced to smoking ruins. The saucer is not just a glorified fast-travel option. It is another toy in Crypto’s increasingly ridiculous arsenal.
Flying around the cities while looking for something interesting to destroy is genuinely enjoyable, particularly once you have upgraded the saucer’s capabilities. There is a lovely sense of power in hovering above a street and deciding that several perfectly innocent vehicles have suddenly become part of your afternoon entertainment. The destruction is exaggerated, colourful and satisfyingly chaotic.
Upgrade, Improve, Destroy
Like any good action game, Reprobed gives you plenty of reasons to keep collecting resources. Humans can be harvested for DNA, which can then be used to upgrade Crypto’s abilities and weapons. This creates a satisfying progression loop in which causing destruction directly contributes to making you even more capable of causing destruction. It is hardly a complicated system, but it fits the game’s philosophy perfectly.
You are not gathering resources because the game says you need to complete an elaborate crafting tree. You are gathering them because you want better alien weapons, stronger abilities and more opportunities to make humans regret their life choices. The result is progression that feels directly connected to the fun rather than something bolted on to pad the experience.
Bigger, Brighter And Much Better Looking
The visual overhaul is probably the most obvious difference between the original and Reprobed. Black Forest Games has rebuilt the game using Unreal Engine 4, and it shows. Character models are far more detailed, environments are considerably more attractive, and lighting gives the various locations a much more vibrant appearance.
There is still a cartoonish quality to everything, but that suits Destroy All Humans! The exaggerated characters and colourful environments make the violence feel more like a Saturday morning science fiction cartoon that has been allowed to get away with far too much. The saucer also looks fantastic as it tears across the skyline, particularly when you are hovering above a city, preparing to unleash yet another terrible decision.
A Little Help From A Friend
One of the most welcome additions is full campaign co-op play. Having a friend join Crypto’s little adventure makes an already chaotic game even more entertaining. Two players experimenting with alien weapons, psychic abilities and saucer destruction is exactly the sort of thing that can turn an ordinary mission into something you remember long after completing it.
Co-op play also suits the game’s sense of humour. This is not a solemn adventure that requires you to pay attention to every detail of the story. It is the kind of game where you can laugh when everything goes wrong, blame your friend when the entire area turns hostile, and then immediately start another ridiculous experiment. Sometimes that is all you need from a game.
The Old Problems Are Still There
Despite all the improvements, Reprobed cannot completely hide the age of its foundations. Some of the mission design feels firmly rooted in the mid-2000s. Objectives can occasionally become repetitive, and there are moments when the open world feels more like a collection of playgrounds than a genuinely living environment.
The humour is also very much an acquired taste. If you find crude jokes, toilet humour and deliberately juvenile gags irritating, Crypto is probably not going to win you over. Personally, I think the ridiculousness is part of the charm, although there are certainly moments when the game pushes a joke further than it needs to. But then again, expecting subtle comedy from a game featuring a weapon called the Anal Probe might be setting yourself up for disappointment.
Final Verdict
Destroy All Humans! 2: Reprobed is a remake that understands exactly why people remember the original fondly. It does not try to turn Crypto into a serious character or transform the game into a grand modern science-fiction epic. Instead, it embraces the silliness, gives the visuals a substantial upgrade and lets players loose in a wonderfully chaotic version of the 1960s.
The open-world hubs are enjoyable to explore, the weapons are gloriously ridiculous, and the combination of psychic powers, body-snatching and saucer destruction gives you an impressive number of ways to cause trouble. The addition of co-op makes the whole experience even better, particularly when you have a friend who is equally happy to turn an innocent street into an alien disaster zone.
It is not without its flaws. The underlying mission structure occasionally shows its age, and the comedy will absolutely not be for everyone. Yet there is something refreshing about a game that knows exactly what it is and refuses to apologise for it. Crypto is a terrible person, an even worse alien, and possibly the last thing humanity needs. But he is also an enormous amount of fun to control.
Destroy All Humans! 2: Reprobed is not sophisticated, and it does not need to be. It is colourful, rude, destructive and gloriously stupid in all the right ways. Sometimes you just want to sit down, pick up a human with your mind, throw them into a building and laugh. Frankly, Crypto would expect nothing less.
