Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed is a remake of a 2006 game from the sixth console generation. This follow-up to a cult classic aimed higher by taking the diabolical, extra-terrestrial protagonist getting wrapped up in a KGB conspiracy that leads him to England, Japan, and even the Moon.
Previously, in Destroy All Humans!, Crypto managed to infiltrate the U.S. government and become the President after getting payback for killing his prior clone. A few years have passed since and Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed has moved on from the quaint 1950s to the far-out 1960s.
The first remake of Destroy All Humans! was a lot of fun and let players indulge in their inner sadist. It was funny and looked great, thanks to Unreal Engine 4. Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed has a very strong foundation to work off of, but somehow it resulted in a tragic misfire of buggy gameplay and rough optimization.
Destroy All Humans! 2-Reprobed
Developer: Black Forest Games
Publisher: THQ Nordic
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S (Xbox Series S -reviewed)
Release Date: August 30, 2022
Players: 1-2 (local co-op)
Price: $39.99 USD
Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed Graphics
Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed begins strongly with its introductory cutscene and impressive new visual style. Unreal Engine 4 was incredibly fine-tuned in the previous game, so it would be expected that Reprobed would be even better. The slick graphics and expressive characters would definitely have you believe so.
Tragedy strikes immediately as gameplay begins. The framerate is very unstable – a stark contrast with the first Destroy All Humans! remake, which was steady and locked at 60 FPS on Xbox Series S.
Reprobed is jerky and erratic and in a game where there is a lot of explosive destruction, it can be easy to tank the fluidity by playing the game as intended.
The chaos and destruction make extensive use of particle and smoke effects. There are simulations for the crumbling structures to make the devastation feel cathartic; the effects are not as convincing as they were in the first remake. In Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed, the seams are more obvious now and look lower resolution.
Gameplay Bugs
While exploring the various open-ended biomes, the screen tearing will not stop; the image splits apart and is a constant distraction. All of these visual hiccups and shortcomings wouldn’t be so bad if the game wasn’t a buggy mess.
Regretfully, Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed feels like it is held together with used Band-Aids. The physics often go berserk and various objects tend to violently convulse in thin air or into the ground. Crypto has a telekinesis ability and it is often the cause of many of these glitches.
The AI of allies or enemies is also prone to breaking and going utterly haywire. These poor little devils never are convincing as humans and behave more like a coked-up headless chicken.
The most patient and tolerant gamers who can stomach these issues will be tested. Eventually, Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed will push even a Skyrim fan over the edge with the frequency of game-breaking glitches that crash the game or cause a soft lock.
Sometimes mission-related triggers don’t appear or in some cases, bosses become randomly invincible. Crypto can wail on a foe for minutes on end, unloading a glowing neon-like hellfire on a target and it will still be rearing to go and ask for seconds. Then it will be vulnerable suddenly with no visual or audible cue.
There is a great game in Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed. It is the incessant technical issues that stop it from being all it can be.
The technical issues could be fixed and then you would have something great on your hands. Until then, Reprobed is merely an unpolished and rough gem that needs a lot of work.
Gameplay
The predecessor established an excellent foundation. Crypto in both games has a large cache of unique and fun weapons to play with that has utility when it comes to battling giant mutants, armies of robots, and the military.
Some guns rely on physics and will launch enemies and their vehicles spinning into the heavens, while the new and improved anal probe gun can send a swarm of probes to plunge deep inside human rectums.
The playground that gamers have in Reprobed is much bigger with a variety of things to see and do. It is a more ambitious game with an epic scale, a funnier story, and an edgier script. When not running to checkpoints to progress the main story, Crypto can participate in side missions to further expand his abilities.
Now that he is more decked out than ever, it can feel as if Crypto can do anything. Other than swimming, there is almost no limit to the range of actions he can do. Objectives in Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed are rarely complicated and usually amount to variations of causing immense annihilation. What changes is the setting and what kinds of foes you face.
Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed introduces mutant enemies that can take a lot of punishment, but have vulnerable anuses. Using the probe on these guys is the only way to expose their weakness- a tricky endeavor when there are multiples of them spewing corrosive vomit.
The ante gets upped in Takoshima, where a giant kaiju mutant is fought and cripples the framerate. It is one of the rare instances where the framerate drops become almost satisfying from the intense workload that stresses the Xbox Series S. Between the battles with the ninja clans and yakuza; this off-brand Japan is the utter highlight of Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed.
It is hard to not feel a sense of overwhelming disappointment as thoughts of ‘this could have been great’ kept running through my mind, as Crypto’s violent war raged on. Were it not for the lack of polish, it would be that Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed makes egregious cuts and changes to the game’s narrative content.
As per usual, a side mission was cut out in fear of backlash. This was such a harmless gag in 2006, but somehow society regressed and humor is outlawed now. Several copyrighted songs also didn’t make it in, which were originally used as mission background music. Instead, existing scores get recycled in their place.
Whenever content gets cut, there really needs to be something to replace it. Ideally, nothing should ever be cut, (especially when the game’s intro has a disclaimer promising nothing was cut) but if it must happen for whatever reason, the creators owe the customers something in its place. Preferably, the new content must be more offensive and exciting.
Verdict
There may come a day when Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed gets enough fixes to address its many flaws. Until that day comes, it is hard to recommend it. In its current state, there is a good chance gamers will end up wasting time and struggling with a nasty glitch or suffering an epileptic seizure from the choppy framerate and screen tearing.
Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed is so frustrating because it is a great game that is buried underneath technical issues and glaring cuts. Its potential was wasted keeping it out of reach from being a perfect remake.
Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed was reviewed on Xbox Series S using a copy provided by THQ Nordic. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Destroy All Humans! 2-Reprobed is now available for Windows PC (via Steam), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
