This review contains spoilers
Destroy All Humans! 2 - Reprobed by Black Forest Games is a literal Destroy All Humans simulator where you...Destroy All Humans...too? Look I don't know I'm not funny, but I'll tell you what this game is actually funny. The original game to me is one of my favorite games of all time and when I saw the release trailer for the original Destroy All Humans remake I was excited for it...mostly because I was hoping they would make a remake of this game. And of course they did so I had to get it, which shoutout to my buddy Casey for getting it for me, you f u c k ing chud! Gonna go to the positives before I state my main problem with this remake.
The gameplay is fantastic, to me I love it but it's also reminiscent of a PS2 game because the remake almost faithfully recaptures basically every little piece of the originals. Basically if you played the remake of the first one you'll get more of the same except new stuff like added guns, a couple of new abilities, etc. It is basically an alien murder game and you go around completing main mission/side missions, destroying buildings, reading peoples minds for funny quips, leaving prank calls for the local police department, etc. You can go on foot and glide everywhere with either the jet pack or the hover board (which I'll discuss in a bit) as well as go into your UFO and destroy whole buildings from there. There's a lot to really unpack and I don't think I can do this game justice, but what I can say for the most part is that the game play aspect like everything else does what the original does but feels more smooth and controls a lot better in my honest opinion. And a lot of that is what struck me about this game compared to the original; it just feels more accessible compared to the original on PS2/Xbox. There were no hover boards in the original but now you can move faster, Psychokinesis now throws people all the way into the stratosphere, like the game feels great. I can't give enough props to this game for being what I believe a remake SHOULD be.
The plot basically sticks verbatim to the original PS2 version as well. You play as Crypto once again as the KGB blow up your mother ship for an unknown reason, and you have to figure out why they did it and whose controlling the strings so you can kill them. In between you run into alien fertility god cults, ninjas, parodies of James Bond, a seductive Russian spy, and all sorts of parodies and pastiches from old sixties culture. The beginning of the game says that this game is a product of it's time, and the truth is while it is with a lot of humor that might be considered tasteless now, I still think that this game is a hilarious satire that dunks on the stupidity of everyone while throwing out references left and right, fourth wall breaks, etc.; it might be just rose tinted glasses but truth be told I thought the original as well as this game was hilarious with everything it had going for it though I'd understand if other people really didn't dig it. To me it's still a great story, not mind blowing but it's a lot of fun to be had and you'll be traveling around the world [spoiler](mostly San Francisco, London, Tokyo, Tunguska and a moon base[/spoiler] compared to strictly just the United States in the first games. Some of my favorite side missions include setting up a satellite to "phone home", dealing with a parody of Mothra and getting rid of the eggs, hunting down a "Yeti", and the Arkvoodle Cult stuff.
The graphics/sound design/art design; it's made in the Unreal Engine 5 so it looks good graphically; I guess my only gripe is that in a way I kind of miss the old style that didn't make everyone look totally like a caricature but with the way this game handles it's satire honestly it fits so I can't really complain and they did the same with the first one. Also as far as I know the sound design is basically the same with the original PS2 game (though maybe with some stuff changed that I barely noticed) so if you like how the original sounded it'll mostly be the same.
The only bad thing I can personally say about this game: dear god this remake has glitches. For the most part they're just hilarious: one glitch I was replaying a level and I used the little Gojira pet you can choose before my game crashed. I came back on to the actual free roam and the little monster was still following me around shooting people; then eventually I don't remember if they died or not but when they did they clipped through a building and expanded in size to what the normal model in Takoshima looked like. Another example is you can body snatch a human and go to a nearby payphone to prank call or get rid of/bring police to your location; somehow I found one in Tunguska (The cold Soviet Union area) that had the voice lines of those from the first area in Bay City, and that was only one. Cars will randomly flip around for no reason, and sometimes missions will glitch out like the Mothra parody mission where you'll try to drop eggs in the volcano and the base will be open before suddenly closing or they'll say I pissed off Moghra when the meter was barely full. Frame rates will randomly drop sometimes and textures can take a while to load as well. It was a strange combination that honestly definitely needs to be patched to some degree. Otherwise that's the only bad thing I can truly think of.
If I were to say anything it would be this, I'm thankful that Black Forest Games has been remaking these games. I love the original two but truth be told if you go back and play them now while they're good some might find them a bit too old for their tastes, and these games (and the future of the franchise) honestly deserves more. And in a weird age of remakes where I personally feel certain games deserve it (this series, Demon's Souls, etc.) and certain games don't (The Last of Us mainly, though Dead Space while apparently great follows up) this game to me is what I felt a great remake should be. My hope is that while I wish the original games would be ported to PC (I will die on the port every game hill), that now that Black Forest has remade the first two they'll go through and remake the so-so Big Willy Unleashed and the franchise killer: Path of the Furon, and make them better. That being said, please patch the performance issues and glitches. I personally feel it's worth the money and sunk a lot of time into it but what you value the game at is really up to you. Again thank you very much to my dude Casey for getting this game for me for Christmas, but f u c k off you can't get my sister's number lol.
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/
The gameplay is fantastic, to me I love it but it's also reminiscent of a PS2 game because the remake almost faithfully recaptures basically every little piece of the originals. Basically if you played the remake of the first one you'll get more of the same except new stuff like added guns, a couple of new abilities, etc. It is basically an alien murder game and you go around completing main mission/side missions, destroying buildings, reading peoples minds for funny quips, leaving prank calls for the local police department, etc. You can go on foot and glide everywhere with either the jet pack or the hover board (which I'll discuss in a bit) as well as go into your UFO and destroy whole buildings from there. There's a lot to really unpack and I don't think I can do this game justice, but what I can say for the most part is that the game play aspect like everything else does what the original does but feels more smooth and controls a lot better in my honest opinion. And a lot of that is what struck me about this game compared to the original; it just feels more accessible compared to the original on PS2/Xbox. There were no hover boards in the original but now you can move faster, Psychokinesis now throws people all the way into the stratosphere, like the game feels great. I can't give enough props to this game for being what I believe a remake SHOULD be.
The plot basically sticks verbatim to the original PS2 version as well. You play as Crypto once again as the KGB blow up your mother ship for an unknown reason, and you have to figure out why they did it and whose controlling the strings so you can kill them. In between you run into alien fertility god cults, ninjas, parodies of James Bond, a seductive Russian spy, and all sorts of parodies and pastiches from old sixties culture. The beginning of the game says that this game is a product of it's time, and the truth is while it is with a lot of humor that might be considered tasteless now, I still think that this game is a hilarious satire that dunks on the stupidity of everyone while throwing out references left and right, fourth wall breaks, etc.; it might be just rose tinted glasses but truth be told I thought the original as well as this game was hilarious with everything it had going for it though I'd understand if other people really didn't dig it. To me it's still a great story, not mind blowing but it's a lot of fun to be had and you'll be traveling around the world [spoiler](mostly San Francisco, London, Tokyo, Tunguska and a moon base[/spoiler] compared to strictly just the United States in the first games. Some of my favorite side missions include setting up a satellite to "phone home", dealing with a parody of Mothra and getting rid of the eggs, hunting down a "Yeti", and the Arkvoodle Cult stuff.
The graphics/sound design/art design; it's made in the Unreal Engine 5 so it looks good graphically; I guess my only gripe is that in a way I kind of miss the old style that didn't make everyone look totally like a caricature but with the way this game handles it's satire honestly it fits so I can't really complain and they did the same with the first one. Also as far as I know the sound design is basically the same with the original PS2 game (though maybe with some stuff changed that I barely noticed) so if you like how the original sounded it'll mostly be the same.
The only bad thing I can personally say about this game: dear god this remake has glitches. For the most part they're just hilarious: one glitch I was replaying a level and I used the little Gojira pet you can choose before my game crashed. I came back on to the actual free roam and the little monster was still following me around shooting people; then eventually I don't remember if they died or not but when they did they clipped through a building and expanded in size to what the normal model in Takoshima looked like. Another example is you can body snatch a human and go to a nearby payphone to prank call or get rid of/bring police to your location; somehow I found one in Tunguska (The cold Soviet Union area) that had the voice lines of those from the first area in Bay City, and that was only one. Cars will randomly flip around for no reason, and sometimes missions will glitch out like the Mothra parody mission where you'll try to drop eggs in the volcano and the base will be open before suddenly closing or they'll say I pissed off Moghra when the meter was barely full. Frame rates will randomly drop sometimes and textures can take a while to load as well. It was a strange combination that honestly definitely needs to be patched to some degree. Otherwise that's the only bad thing I can truly think of.
If I were to say anything it would be this, I'm thankful that Black Forest Games has been remaking these games. I love the original two but truth be told if you go back and play them now while they're good some might find them a bit too old for their tastes, and these games (and the future of the franchise) honestly deserves more. And in a weird age of remakes where I personally feel certain games deserve it (this series, Demon's Souls, etc.) and certain games don't (The Last of Us mainly, though Dead Space while apparently great follows up) this game to me is what I felt a great remake should be. My hope is that while I wish the original games would be ported to PC (I will die on the port every game hill), that now that Black Forest has remade the first two they'll go through and remake the so-so Big Willy Unleashed and the franchise killer: Path of the Furon, and make them better. That being said, please patch the performance issues and glitches. I personally feel it's worth the money and sunk a lot of time into it but what you value the game at is really up to you. Again thank you very much to my dude Casey for getting this game for me for Christmas, but f u c k off you can't get my sister's number lol.
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/