Xbox Oldies

The Xbox Gaming Network

Destroy All Humans 2: Reprobed – Review

Share the love...

Crypto might have conquered the United States, but there are a few over in Russia who don’t take too kindly to clone 138 being in the whitehouse, so they organise a double strike to target both Crypto in America and Pox on the mothership above the earth.

Set in the 60’s, about 10 years after the first game, this is where we start off with Destroy all Humans 2: Reprobed which is a remake of the 2006 original.

From the top, you’ll get reacquainted with Pox who managed to backup his genetalia just before the mothership exploded. Pox will guide you through the San Francisco esque area known as Bay City as you pick up data cores to obtain weapon upgrades and access to your trusty ship.

Obviously Crypto isn’t too pleased with the KGB, so it’s time to Destroy All Humans, again.

If you’ve played one of the previous 5 Destroy All Humans titles, you’ll know what to expect.. There’s a mixture of on-foot and in-air combat, as well as plenty of stealth elements, which usually consist of taking control of a fellow human, to quietly access certain areas or prompt a conversation without causing a ruckus which is often the case when an alien starts zapping innocent bystanders.

Before too long you’ll have a variety of weapons at your disposal, from making a target bounce around, electrocuting them, or their head exploding leaving their brain ripe for collection.

There’s sometimes a light puzzle element, trying to figure out the best way to approach a situation, but you’ll often get a pretty clear notification that your character isn’t suitable, such as trying to take a police officer to delve into the secrets of a hippy community.

Likewise, when repairing your spaceship, you’ll need to find one of the agents guarding a part, and take control of him, which will make acquiring the following sections much easier.

At first it’s almost too easy, you can destroy a handful of guards and then take control of one remaining to continue without suspicion as long as no witnesses survive to reach a phone and alert authorities. This obviously gets tougher the further you progress. So it’s always best to try and isolate one person rather than picking them out of a crowd.

The storyline is fairly linear, as you progress from a fictional San Francisco to areas based around cities like London and Tokyo. There are some changes from the original as many areas seem to have been expanded slightly, this helps when chasing all of the collectibles, but isn’t really utilised for the core storyline.

The other major differences over the original are of course, visuals and audio.

The visuals are quite a big step, it’s on a level more than suitable for today’s market, and looks just as sharp and impressive as the vast majority of similar releases. Sure, it could be better, but with bright colourful and detailed locations, both on foot and flying above the buildings with a jetpack or in your ship, everything continues to look great.

My only main criticism of the graphics has to be repetition. In each area you’ll have a variety of nearby styles, such as the hippies, police and agents in Bay City. These are well done with some great animations and a distinct appearance, but when you start getting more than a few on screen at once you’re going to start seeing plenty of repetition in both their appearance and the way they act.

The audio raises a few more questions, not so much for its quality, but the overall delivery.

The voice acting isn’t bad, but it all feels too stale and scripted, conversations just don’t feel fluent. There’s also some dialogue choices which feel completely pointless, you’re usually pushed to check each option either through force or common sense, but it further delays the already patchy progress of a conversation.

Sound effects, and the random chatty in-action brings Destroy All Humans back to that witty, humour we’ve come to expect from the franchise, so it’s quite a let down when those conversations which should be an opportunity for the banter to shine, make things feel slow, scripted and artificial.

Destroy All Humans 2: Reprobed, does a great job of sticking to its source content, which also brings a few issues, solely because the original material wasn’t as strong as it could have been. With many people feeling more like a fancy expansion than a full blown sequel.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved the original Destroy All Humans, and it’s remake. But with Destroy All Humans 2, it was always seen as playing it safe and sticking a little too close to its predecessor.

There’re also a few dodgy decisions with the gameplay mechanics, when you’re tasked with travelling across the map to the next point of interest, but with no near y ka dong zones, you’re forced to leave the ship behind and take the long journey by foot, which then means Messing around trying to remain undetected, rather than jumping in the ship and turning on stealth mode.

There’s also some quote twitchy controls when on the ship, which can make shooting smaller targets more difficult than it should be, but once you unlock both more weapon variations both for land and air then the gameplay loop improves further through the game.

During progress there’s also plenty of weapon upgrades, unlocks, new crypto and ship skins to collect, with prints, songs artwork and furotech cores to collect, there’s plenty of reason to expand your search away from the trodden path.

This doesn’t make Reprobed a bad game at all, and those who loved the 2006 Destroy all Humans 2, are likely to enjoy this, but newcomers to the franchise will be better off checking out the 2020 remake of the original Destroy all Humans, and then considering this is they enjoy that and want more of the same.

There are also multiplayer options, with the full story available in split-screen co-operative, or competitive modes such as a duel or a game of tennis telekinetically throwing an unwilling victim back and forth.

The co-op story especially is a big bonus and a major reason to consider Reprobed over the Destroy All Humans (1) remake, but it’s a shame this is limited to split-screen, with no online option.

Destroy All Humans 2: Reprobed

Review by Lee Palmer

Gameplay
70%
Engagement
65%
Graphics
75%
Sound
70%
Value
70%

Summary

Those who loved the 2006 Destroy all Humans 2, are likely to enjoy this, but newcomers to the franchise will be better off checking out the 2020 remake of the original

70%

About Author