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For an industry that pumps out content like it’s going out of style, this summer has seen relatively little activity. This time of year can be incredibly frustrating for those of us with disposal incomes and less than focused attention spans. Thankfully, this cloud of boredom need not last. Coming soon to an Xbox or PS2 near you is THQ’s newest action title Destroy All Humans!
In this hilarious innuendo-laden, third person romp, you play the role of Crypto, an alien clone tasked with the domination of the human race. Armed with your psychic abilities, ray gun, flying saucer and a voice that is a dead ringer for Jack Nicholson you devastate earth’s defenses with the ultimate goal of harvesting them for their Furon based DNA. Though the Earth you are attacking is one set in the late forties you still meet with resistance: militant farmers, local police forces, the United States Army and then ultimately a super secret organization known only as Majestic. Since Crypto has the ability to assume the form of humans through the use of his psychic powers, you have the ability to stay undetected for significant durations of time. Using stealth has its advantages because the opposition gets more and more dangerous with each level of alert you raise. Some missions even specifically require stealth because your goal is to abduct some official or other and assume their form to manipulate the politics of the simplistic earthlings. Aside from changing your image, you will need to use your powers over matter to levitate objects (and people/cows), scan people’s thoughts for information and exert influence over them to perform necessary tasks. But invariably Crypto’s urge for bloodlust and vapor gets the best of him and he runs rampant through the city or country vaporizing, electrocuting or probing everything he comes in contact with. Then when the poor earthlings think it can get no worse he boards his flying saucer and wreaks havoc on buildings, cars, trucks people and even cows. If that were all you got, this would be a great game. But in typical Ronco fashion, there’s more. In most adventure games, you pass a particular mission and are never allowed to return. In Destroy All Humans, all the zones are open-ended. Because the whole point of the occupation of Earth is to gather Furon DNA from the human population, you can return to any of the zones at any time and do exactly that. Then once you’ve collected enough DNA you can trade it in at your boss Pox’s lab and get upgrades to your psychic abilities, ray gun or saucer. With everything that this game offers, it is a great title. Its attributes are only amplified by the lack of any serious competition this summer. It is definitely one to watch for.
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