Developer: Black Forest Games
Publisher: THQ Nordic
Platform: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S
Tested On: PC
Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed – Review
Back in 2020, a remake of the cult classic Destroy All Humans! was released. Featuring updated graphics, polished gameplay, and improved quality of life, it was an immediate success. Two years later, a brand new remake has come out for its sequel. Featuring similar updates, Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed is now out for players to enjoy. Here is what it has to offer.
Story
The game’s story continues where the first game ended. You’ll see Crypto as the president of the United States after defeating the secret organization Majestic. Peace doesn’t last long, however, as the KGB decides to attack Crypto and enact an evil plan. The Russians destroy the Furon mothership and leave Crypto without most of his tools. What soon follows is a scramble to prevent the Russians from taking over and finding their true objective.
While the original game’s story was not anything to write home about, it was somewhat coherent and usually stayed on topic. This doesn’t apply to Reprobed, which instead jumps from plot to plot without particularly fleshing out any motivation. Throughout most of the story, Crypto (and thus the player) will be subjected to the whims of other characters without knowing where everything is leading up to. The fact that whole segments of the story are dedicated to unrelated B-plots that break any semblance of pace doesn’t help either.
The game’s sense of humor also seems to have taken a hit, becoming more crass and vulgar for no particular reason. Most of the jokes have been reduced to talking about Crypto’s genitals, sexual needs, or “haha, the 60s and drugs”. This is especially clear while doing the missions revolving around the Arkvoodle cult, which repeatedly consist of talking to hippie stereotypes. While some of the wittier humor remains, it is nonetheless a downgrade from its predecessor.
Graphics
Reprobed’s graphics consist of highly detailed and polished 3D models, which capably utilize the well-known potential of Unreal Engine 4. While some of the models’ details clip through other objects and the game can occasionally stutter with its framerate, these issues are minor and don’t subtract from the experience. That said, the game does have somewhat of a tendency to reutilize models, making most enemies and NPCs clones of each other with little to no variation. Luckily, this doesn’t apply to the environments, which are wildly varied between the different open worlds, making each of them stand out as unique.
Sound
The game’s sound design is rather good, with an especially stellar voice cast that does a great job at embodying their characters. Besides this, the SFX are decent, although not remarkable, and the soundtrack is rather good, even if it doesn’t stand out either. Overall, the updated sound design is very much welcome and is generally high quality.
Gameplay
Like its predecessor, Reprobed is a third-person shooter which sees players annihilating hordes of enemies with sci-fi weapons. The game’s core gameplay loop sees Crypto going from mission to mission fulfilling objectives mainly consisting of defeating enemies, with barebones stealth and escort missions peppered in from time to time. Said stealth usually consists of reaching an area disguised as a civilian until the game gets bored with its own gameplay choices and has the player shoot something up, adding little to the overall gameplay.
In order to sew as much destruction as possible, players will have a slew of weapons at their disposal which they’ll unlock as they progress throughout the game. Said weapons range from an electric gun to grenades and a meteor cloud. On top of this, all weapons and abilities, such as Crypto’s dash and health, can be upgraded for improved effects. These upgrades require Furontech cells obtained from completing missions, side-objectives, and optional quests, alongside the occasional ones spread throughout the world.
A handful of missions will also see Crypto boarding his saucer for aerial mayhem. The aerial sections of the game are incredibly clunky and somewhat outdated, although spread enough that they’re bearable. This clunkiness is mainly due to the game’s maps featuring different heights which make the fixed aim on the saucer annoying to control. Besides this, the saucer can also be utilized in the open world to scoop up humans in order to create special upgrades which require certain types of humans to be absorbed. These upgrades enhance Crypto’s basic abilities, providing more damage, duration, etc.
Other than this, Reprobed doesn’t have much to offer. The game offers a simple but entertaining shooter with wacky weapons and the ability to level the cities in its several sandboxes. Unlike the first game, Reprobed doesn’t feature many additional challenges either, just side-quests that iterate on the usual objectives. Although a few of the optional achievements have more imagination, and completionists will find some amusement in picking up all collectibles, the game is ultimately just a simplistic shooter.
It is also worth noting that the game is currently prone to crashing and contains a certain amount of bugs. Also, similarly to its predecessor on release, Reprobed is not particularly well optimized. The game is taxing even on high-end PCs, regardless of the settings employed. That said, these issues are likely to be ironed out as time goes by, so reader discretion is advised.
Conclusion
Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed is an entertaining experience that provides fans of the original game with more content. That said, the game doesn’t particularly innovate on its predecessor, and even as a remake, it is still a product of its time. Fans of the genre or series will find an overall enjoyable, although not unique, experience in the game. Sold at €/$39.99/£34.99, it is perhaps recommendable waiting for a sale or until the game’s bugs are patched out.
Personal Opinion
“I was honestly a bit disappointed with Reprobed. Having massively enjoyed the first game, it was a letdown to see its sequel being reduced to the same mechanics with more dick and sex jokes and no optional challenges. I’d much rather try a race challenge than engaging with the boring “kill X” or “disguise as a hippie and persuade people to join your cult” missions, which are basically the same as the ones already in the story. I also found my patience running somewhat thin at some of the story segments, which only seem to be there to pad out the runtime. The choices during dialogues were a pet peeve of mine too, since most of them broke the flow of conversations only to go unacknowledged as the characters immediately went back to the topic at hand. Regardless, this is mostly me being picky since I enjoyed the first game as much as I did. Reprobed is an enjoyable game and in a vacuum, it’s pretty decent.”
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