Crypto is back in Destroy all people 2 rejected, 12 years since the original. This remake of Black Forest and THQ Nordic will put this stereotypical alien in your hands on August 30th for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X | S. It took a long time, so let’s not talk about this. There are commies on the loose!
OPTIONS TO INVESTIGATE
There are no “exceptional” options to play with for the remake, which is somewhat disappointing. I had hoped they could include more accessibility options, besides making it more beautiful for the times. In any case, you have the usual that includes:
- Language
- difficulty level
- Tutorials
- HUD display
- Damage numbers
- Camera Sensitivity
- Pinned Goals
- Shortcut keys
- Controller (fixed configuration)
- audio
- Video
HIPPIE GLASSES INVOLVED
Having absolutely no idea what to expect – as usual, really – I fire up the game for a sexy lounging guy, and maybe that’s all I need to know. It’s the sixties, I got dropped in hippie central and everyone sounds vaguely high or pretends not to sound high. Crypto has none of the stuff he should have had from the first game because the commies wrecked his ship and he was too busy smoking the joints and fucking.
It’s absolutely incredibly polished: on a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU, it could work like a dream with almost any setting on the standard Ultra, with DLSS on quality.
Crypto and his flying saucer have a number of customizable presets that he can change into if you feel like styling. I don’t find them impressive, although it’s nice to have the options.
For added flavor, there are little flyers or newspapers about closing missions.
COMMIES GIVE THE SWIRLIE
As the sequel to Destroy all people, the story essentially begins assuming you know everything that happened in the previous game. Getting high and getting sex is the hand-waving reason you lost all your cool stuff, besides, you know, blowing your ship to the kingdom.
DAH2 is both open world and not, something I’ll elaborate on later. The tutorial phases take about an hour to ease you into the controls before you can finally fly around in your UFO. In a way the game reminds me of watchdogs: reading minds (rather than hacking the network) to get more info, clearing their memory so as not to get called by the police, accidentally blowing their heads off because you’re not used to the keybinds and skill icons and some DNA collect, or just body snatch to pretend to be human. Just don’t reach in front of people, there are plenty of little cul de sacs to dive into.
There are plenty of tools at your disposal, including telekinesis to lift objects, or guns to zap or bounce people and things around. Your arsenal and your flying saucer can be upgraded and you can see what future upgrades are available to you. The bouncy castle is really my favorite to see how the physics of the game throw things around.
I recommend using a controller for: DAH2. The keyboard and mouse feel especially whining when I try to use the flying saucer, which may well be just me. There’s the problem that if the visual effects weren’t there, I wouldn’t be able to tell if my UFO actually worked. This is mostly true for the abduction beam which is supposed to suck up objects and people, but without the beam changing color and some more subtle effects, it didn’t feel like it was working properly. I can’t imagine this would be easier if you’re visually impaired.
So for the part “open world but not completely open”. You are quite free to roam the world and zoom around on your saucer or run around. Your saucer can temporarily cloak, so you won’t be shot at while you’re trying to find the DNA points you need to make a DNA smoothie for upgrades, for example. With nowhere to park the dish, it felt like it was cramping my style. Unfortunately.
As for “not quite”, the game world gets inventoried somewhat once you accept a main story mission. Because mission objectives can be timed, you have less room to go off the beaten track. The optional goals you can achieve for bonuses are usually in the immediate vicinity as well. These missions have checkpoints to restart if you get freezing cold.
I didn’t try the co-op, which is local, split screen for up to 2 players. After all, duplicating NFTs is impossible (har har).
TINFOIL COVERED
As someone who didn’t play the original, Destroy all people 2 rejected looks good and plays well. It’s just not something that particularly appeals to me, especially since there are visual effects that trip my motion sickness.
There are both linear missions for those who prefer to progress through the story, and there is some exploration and shenanigans for those who prefer to fly around. Why not take a picture with the (barebone) Photo Mode?
If you are new, you should probably try the first game first to decide if you can invest in Crypto. As for existing fans, I don’t think there’s much to fault with this release.
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PROS |
CONS |
|---|---|
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A great, well-polished remake |
Missing other modern features like controller key rebind, accessibility |
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Fans of the original shouldn’t find much fault with it |
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