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October 26, 2006 | 11:58 PM PST
by: John Thomas Perkowski
Pandemic is one of the best studios on the market; Its made one quality game after another. From Mercenaries to Star Wars: Battlefront to Full Spectrum Warrior, they have rarely made a bad game. One of its quality hits was Destroy All Humans. Combine a humorous look at the paranoid feeling of the 50's, a tounge in Cheek sensibility, and freeform gameplay, the game managed to find its own little niche, if not overwhelming success. Unlike some other studios, Pandemic listens to consumers and is delivering a sequel that manages to fix most of the problems of its predecessor while delivering one of the funniest games this year.
The game picks up a few months after the first game left off. Crypto 137, our alien hero, was dead. After anal probing human after human, the final conflict with Silhouette killed him. Not to worry. With the DNA harvested from human by Crypto 137, his commander, Orthopox clones him, and we are left with Crypto 138. Now elected president due to a controlled populace, Crypto enjoy his newfound position of authority as well as the chance to explore some of the more... How shall we say it... Physical aspects of his nature. That being he has gained a sex drive. And while the mind-controlled populace was more than willing to give it up to our intrepid president, things turn sour really fast.
In a plot straight out of the cold war, the Russkies manage to blow up Orthopox's orbiting clone station, right along with Orthopox and the mind control machine. Crypto, once president and dominate species on the planet, now is face with two sad facts: One, he left all of his good weapons on Orthopox's station, and two, his status as president de facto is lost. Now int he videogame version of the 60's (the time of free love and free drugs) Crypto must seek the help of the holographic remnants of Orthopox, discover who is behind this insidious attack, stop them, and still get laid.
A few new things have been tweaked for this sequel. For one, those annoying stealth sequences from the first game are gone. Its much easier to take over a human and much harder to be discovered. Missions are more straightforward action and less sneaking around. Crypto has also got much snarkier and more fun to play, as he isn't in this to destroy humanity anymore. No Crypto is in it for sex, sex, and more sex. In fact, the only reason Crypto is going after the bad guys, it seems early on, is to stop them from killing his buzz. He has also gained some new powers. Chief among them is the new 'free love' power, which automatically makes everyone around Crypto dance and forget they just saw an alien.
We won't give away much here in the way of spoilers, but this is one of the funniest games we have played in a while. Bad guys really play the whole 'cold war era' gimmick to the hilt. Each of them has a horrible Russian accent, and the citizens around Crypto range from hippie to psycho. If we had to knock the humor a bit, its that many humans share the same voice and thoughts, and you can't sip them. Hearing the same female voice complain about the same problem over and over again while your trying to track down info can get really annoying. Crypto also gets a female partner part of the way through the game who manages to add some spice as the banter between her and Crypto is hilarious.
Missions run the standard gaument from fetch quest to run and gun to protect. Some can be quiet entertaining, especially as the game progresses and you unlock more of Cryto's abilities. in true GTA-esq fashion, you can get more abilities by doing side-quests. Help a military recruiter capture draft dodgers, collect alien artifacts, and assist an insane cult with its plans for world domination are just a few examples of the side quests Crypto can do while exploring the world of 1960's earth. this time, Crypto gets to visit more than America, as he flies off to Japan and France (as well as other places) as the story progresses.
Top this off with a new ability of Crypto: Co-op play. Its only logical that a game which features a clone as its main character can have to clones fighting side by side. This feature makes some of the missions much easier to deal with. The best part is that the 2nd player can enter and leave at any time, which makes for some great pickup-and-play fun.
Not all is well in this game, however. Controls take some getting used to, as well as you may often find some powers are odd or even worthless. Also, some weapons leave a lot to be desired. As fun as it is to have the variety of weapons, some of them are useless. The map is also pretty bland and objectives are hard to track down. One would think an alien with the power of mind reading might be able to get an address sometimes, but this is not the case. The humor can also get a little flat sometimes, as the same joke is played through the whole game (we get it, hippies did drugs).
Still, its a fun ride while it lasts. Its a solid weekend rental for someone looking to kill some time with a friend, and another example of Pandemic's awesome talent.
The game picks up a few months after the first game left off. Crypto 137, our alien hero, was dead. After anal probing human after human, the final conflict with Silhouette killed him. Not to worry. With the DNA harvested from human by Crypto 137, his commander, Orthopox clones him, and we are left with Crypto 138. Now elected president due to a controlled populace, Crypto enjoy his newfound position of authority as well as the chance to explore some of the more... How shall we say it... Physical aspects of his nature. That being he has gained a sex drive. And while the mind-controlled populace was more than willing to give it up to our intrepid president, things turn sour really fast.
In a plot straight out of the cold war, the Russkies manage to blow up Orthopox's orbiting clone station, right along with Orthopox and the mind control machine. Crypto, once president and dominate species on the planet, now is face with two sad facts: One, he left all of his good weapons on Orthopox's station, and two, his status as president de facto is lost. Now int he videogame version of the 60's (the time of free love and free drugs) Crypto must seek the help of the holographic remnants of Orthopox, discover who is behind this insidious attack, stop them, and still get laid.
A few new things have been tweaked for this sequel. For one, those annoying stealth sequences from the first game are gone. Its much easier to take over a human and much harder to be discovered. Missions are more straightforward action and less sneaking around. Crypto has also got much snarkier and more fun to play, as he isn't in this to destroy humanity anymore. No Crypto is in it for sex, sex, and more sex. In fact, the only reason Crypto is going after the bad guys, it seems early on, is to stop them from killing his buzz. He has also gained some new powers. Chief among them is the new 'free love' power, which automatically makes everyone around Crypto dance and forget they just saw an alien.
We won't give away much here in the way of spoilers, but this is one of the funniest games we have played in a while. Bad guys really play the whole 'cold war era' gimmick to the hilt. Each of them has a horrible Russian accent, and the citizens around Crypto range from hippie to psycho. If we had to knock the humor a bit, its that many humans share the same voice and thoughts, and you can't sip them. Hearing the same female voice complain about the same problem over and over again while your trying to track down info can get really annoying. Crypto also gets a female partner part of the way through the game who manages to add some spice as the banter between her and Crypto is hilarious.
Missions run the standard gaument from fetch quest to run and gun to protect. Some can be quiet entertaining, especially as the game progresses and you unlock more of Cryto's abilities. in true GTA-esq fashion, you can get more abilities by doing side-quests. Help a military recruiter capture draft dodgers, collect alien artifacts, and assist an insane cult with its plans for world domination are just a few examples of the side quests Crypto can do while exploring the world of 1960's earth. this time, Crypto gets to visit more than America, as he flies off to Japan and France (as well as other places) as the story progresses.
Top this off with a new ability of Crypto: Co-op play. Its only logical that a game which features a clone as its main character can have to clones fighting side by side. This feature makes some of the missions much easier to deal with. The best part is that the 2nd player can enter and leave at any time, which makes for some great pickup-and-play fun.
Not all is well in this game, however. Controls take some getting used to, as well as you may often find some powers are odd or even worthless. Also, some weapons leave a lot to be desired. As fun as it is to have the variety of weapons, some of them are useless. The map is also pretty bland and objectives are hard to track down. One would think an alien with the power of mind reading might be able to get an address sometimes, but this is not the case. The humor can also get a little flat sometimes, as the same joke is played through the whole game (we get it, hippies did drugs).
Still, its a fun ride while it lasts. Its a solid weekend rental for someone looking to kill some time with a friend, and another example of Pandemic's awesome talent.
February 8, 2010
