The Globe and Mail

• Reviewed on:

  Playstation 2

• Also available on:

  Xbox

• The Good:

  Lots of humour, communist paranoia, and 50s sci-fi film references.
  
  

• The Bad:

  Short and not very challenging game; repetitive side missions.

• The Verdict:

  A ton of fun that's over far too quickly.
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REVIEW:

There wasn't a video game made for Tim Burton's 1996 movie Mars Attacks! but THQ's Destroy All Humans! isn't far off from one, with exclamation marks, communist paranoia, and 50s sci-fi film references to spare.

The game casts you in the role of Cryptosporidium 137, or Crypto for short, a wise-cracking Jack Nicholson-sounding alien charged with the task of harvesting humans for the alien DNA secretly hidden in their brain stems, not to mention taking over the planet in process. All of which is handled with a style of gameplay that takes some cues from the Grand Theft Auto series, with added alien powers, of course.

But unlike the Grand Theft Auto games, which offer seemingly endless gameplay, Destroy All Humans! is unfortunately over all too quickly, and not all that challenging for experienced gamers (there's not even a difficulty setting). There are numerous side missions available for those that want to complete 100 per cent of the game, but they quickly get repetitive and are rather uninspired. While the main game lasts, however, it's a blast to play.

Destroy All Humans! follows in a long tradition of havoc-wreaking games like the 80s classic Rampage, where half (or most) of the fun is in simply causing as much destruction as you can with two thumbs. But Destroy All Humans! has a fair bit more depth than most of those games and, like the 50s science fiction films that inform it, there are strong political undercurrents to the game, with more than a few jabs at our neighbors to the south.

Graphically, the game is only about average, although there is likely a slight improvement with the Xbox version. The music and sound effects, however, do an excellent job of replicating the familiar sounds of classic science fiction movies. And the gameplay itself is solid, with very intuitive controls and, in particular, one of the best implementations of telekinetic powers I've seen, letting you toss around everything from tanks to cows.

Also, as is increasingly common in games, there are numerous extra features, some of which are available at the start, and others you have to unlock. These include video clips on the making of the game, and even a few clips from such classic movies as Plan 9 From Outer Space and Teenagers From Outer Space.

There are a couple of technical problems with the game — at least the PlayStation 2 version — including some instances of slowdown when there's a lot of action going on, some pop-up of graphics as they're drawn in, and a couple of times when character's dialogue dropped out. But those are few and far between, and rarely affected the playability of the game.

In fact, one of the biggest problems with the game is the lack of a multiplayer mode, which is either a major oversight on the developer's part or the result of a rushed job. There is a ton of potential for some Earth vs. the Flying Saucers action here, or even some co-op gameplay, but instead we're left with a relatively short and easy game that offers few incentives for you to go back to after you've completed it.

For a one-week rental, Destroy All Humans! is a sure bet, but throwing down $60 (Cdn.) for it is a bit hard to justify. Hopefully we'll see a sequel that has more lasting gameplay to back up the material.