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An alien with big red eyes raises two fingers and smiles.

Image: THQ Nordic / Black Forest Games

The PS2 era of video games was characterized by wacky and original titles, especially when compared to what we see in the gaming industry today. It was a great time, and during that time the Destroy all people franchise appeared. utilities, after recreating the first game in the series in 2020, Black Forest is back with a new, great looking remake of the bigger and wilder sequel. And while it has some technical flaws, it’s still a great blast from the past with an alien theme.

The original Destroy all humans! 2 was released in 2006 for the PS2 and Xbox. It was developed by Pandemic, the same studio that developed the first game in the franchise, along with the original Star Wars Battlefront spell. Like the first game, DAH2 put yourself in the little silver boots of an alien invader on Earth who has access to a growing arsenal of strange alien weapons and even has his own personal UFO complete with a powerful death ray. While the first game was set in the 1950s and was heavily inspired by alien movies from the era, DAH2 is set in the 1960s, expanding its parodies into more movie genres and general jokes about hippies, the beginning of the cold war, and cults. Also, the game’s main alien now has genitals, and boy, does he love to joke about it.

Destroy all humans! 2 – Tried again – Release trailer | PS5 games

Like the first Destroy all people remake, this new and improved version of DAH2 Developed by Black Forest, it is a true remake, with a brand new engine and all-new textures and models. And it’s a damn good looking game. Sometimes when I was jetpacking through the different levels and destroying people, of course I would stop and just take in the beautiful views that exist in this game. The lighting in particular is often beautiful and reminds me more of an animated film than a PS2 game with an open world. And the game has a lot of small details, like how characters get covered in mud when they walk through the mud and then leave muddy footprints.

Although these enhanced images come at a cost. The game sometimes has framerate issues in busy scenes, plus some screen cracks and stutters in large areas of cities. It’s not unplayable, but it sticks out every now and then.

The story behind this alien adventure is that ten years after the events of the first game, the Russian KGB somehow discovered what happened and attacked the Furon invaders’ mothership, destroying their plans to destroy the world. to steal and destroy people’s DNA. help rebuild their species. Of course, Crypto (the alien you play as) and his boss fight back against the KGB and start learning more about Russia’s history with aliens as they fly around the world visiting and destroying several famous cities, such as San Francisco and London. .

An alien creature stands on a cliff overlooking a cartoonish view of San Francisco Bay.

Screenshot: THQ Nordic / Black Forest Games / Kotaku

As with the first remake, DAH2: Reprobed reuses the audio files from the original, and as a result becomes a fairly faithful recreation. Maybe too faithful? There are definitely some missions and activities that feel shaky, like something you’d play in a PS2 era open world game, which I think makes sense because this is basically… a PS2 open world game. era. Also, some of the jokes and dialogue feel a little out of place and dated 2022, something the game even warns you about before you start. Fortunately, you can skip all the dialogues and cutscenes in DAH2 if you just want to blow up buildings with your UFO or anal probe folks.

While the story and overall mission structure remain unchanged, the Black Forest has done a lot to improve the combat to make it more modern and responsive. You shoot with the right trigger and aim with the left trigger, while the sticks react to your movements as you would expect from any good third-person shooter released in 2022. As Crypto, you’ll have access to a vast weapon wheel of destruction, including lightning guns, plasma guns, anal probe weapons, and even a “Free Love” beam that can force any human around you to dance and come in handy for escaping sticky situations.

And all of this stuff, plus your shield, jetpack, and hoverboots, can be upgraded over time as you visit new cities and complete missions. Sure, nothing groundbreaking, but the progression is fun and after a few hours I felt more powerful and tougher than I did at the start.

A large UFO uses a blue tractor beam to transport a small retro van above a park.

Screenshot: THQ Nordic / Black Forest Games / Kotaku

Most missions involve a mix of big firefights, a bit of physics fun and some light stealth – after all, you’re an alien and people will call the police if they see you. Fortunately, completing a mission in the game doesn’t take more than a few minutes and with all the weapons and skills at your disposal, missions can be completed in many different ways without getting boring or old. Each mission also has at least one optional objective that gives you additional upgrade resources to do something like “Kill 10 Agents” or “Blow Up Five Hippy Vans”.

Destroy all humans! 2: Re-probed doesn’t reinvent the wheel or shake up the formula of the original sequel too much and I’m fine with that. In many ways it was nice to have a crazy open world game that doesn’t feel too big and too full, with a map with a million icons. It’s the kind of game that most people only need 20 hours or so to beat, not 200 hours. And most of that time will be spent having fun and doing crazy things like fighting mutants or putting hippie trucks on rooftops to start a cult.

It’s not a game for everyone, but if you miss that era of crazy and weird PS2 originals, this is a faithful and modern remake one of the best of the time. Let’s hope they fix some of the performance issues in a future patch.

Destroy all humans! 2: Re-probed is out now on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.