Crypto is back in Destroy All Humans 2 Reprobed, 12 years since the original. This remake from Black Forest and THQ Nordic will be putting you in the hands of this stereotypical alien 30 August for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X | S. It’s been a long time coming, so let’s not dally here. There are commies on the loose!

OPTIONS TO PROBE

There aren’t any “exceptional” options to play around with for the remake, which is somewhat disappointing. I had hoped they could include more accessibility options besides making it prettier for this day and age. In any case, you have the usual that includes:

• Language
• Difficulty 
• Tutorials
• HUD display
• Damage numbers
• Camera sensitivity
• Lock-on targets
• Keybinds
• Controller (fixed configuration)
• Audio
• Video

HIPPIE GLASSES ENGAGED

Since I have absolutely no idea what to expect – like usual, really – I boot up the game to a sexily lounging guy, and maybe that’s all I need to know. It’s the 1960s, I’m dropped in hippie central, and everyone sounds vaguely high or pretending not to sound high. Crypto has none of the stuff he should have had from the first game because the commies have wrecked his ship and he was too busy smoking the joints and getting laid.

It’s definitely incredibly polished: on a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU, it could run like a dream with basically every setting on the default Ultra, with DLSS on Quality.

Crypto and his flying saucer has some customizable presets he can change into if you fancy styling up. I don’t find them impressive, though it’s nice to have the options.

For additional flavour, there are little flyers or newspapers on concluding missions.

GIVING COMMIES THE SWIRLIE

As the sequel to Destroy All Humans, the story essentially opens up assuming you know everything that’s happened in the previous game. The getting high and getting laid thing is the hand-wavey reason that you’ve lost all your cool stuff, besides, you know, getting your ship blown to kingdom come.

DAH2 is both open world and not, something I’ll elaborate further down. The tutorial stages will take around an hour or so to ease you into the controls before you can finally get zipping around in your UFO. In a way, the game reminds me of Watch Dogs: read minds (instead of hacking the network) to get more info, wipe their memories to not get the cops called on you, blow off their heads by accident because you’re not used to the keybinds and skill icons yet and collect some DNA, or just bodysnatch to pretend to be a human. Just don’t bodysnatch in front of people, there’s plenty of little cul-de-sacs to duck into.

There’s plenty of tools at your disposal, including telekinesis to lift objects, or guns to zap or bounce people and things around. Your arsenal along with your flying saucer can be upgraded and you can see what future upgrades are at your disposal. The bouncy gun is my favourite, really, to see the game’s physics ragdoll things around.

I recommend using a controller for DAH2. The keyboard and mouse feels especially jank when trying to use the flying saucer, which admittedly could also be just me. There’s the problem where if it weren’t for the visual effects, I couldn’t tell if my UFO was actually working. This mostly applies for the abduction beam which is supposed to suck up objects and people, but without the beam changing colour and some subtler effects, it felt like it was malfunctioning. I can’t imagine this would be any easier if you happen to be visually impaired.

So, for the “open world yet not quite open world” bit. You’re pretty free to roam around the world and zoom around on your saucer or run around. Your saucer can cloak temporarily so you don’t get shot at as you try find the DNA points you need to make a DNA smoothie for upgrades, for one. Not being able to park the saucer anywhere felt like it was cramping my style, though. Alas.

As for “not quite”, the game world becomes somewhat instanced once you accept a main story mission. Since mission objectives could be timed, that affords you less space to go off the beaten track. The optional objectives you can complete for bonuses are typically in the direct vicinity too. These missions will have checkpoints to restart from should you get iced.

I didn’t try the co-op which is local, split-screen for up to 2 players. Duplicating NFTs is impossible after all (har har).

TIN FOIL CAPPED

As someone who didn’t play the original, Destroy All Humans 2 Reprobed looks good and plays well. It’s simply not something that especially appeals to me, more so because there are visual effects that trip up my motion sickness.

There are both linear missions for those who prefer to beeline through the story, and there’s some exploration and shenanigans to be had for those who prefer to fly around. Why not take a picture with the (barebones) Photo Mode?

If you’re new, you should probably try out the first game first to decide if you can get invested in Crypto. As for existing fans, I think there’s not much you can find fault with this release.