By Jim Drewes - January 5, 2006

Evaluation

Graphically, DAH doesn’t disappoint, but it doesn’t really impress either.  Because of the humorous nature of the game, designers were able to skate by without providing an insane amount of detail.  The colors are fairly deep, which helps with the aesthetics.  The animation in-game is adequate.  For the cut-scenes, the animation is actually not too bad.  During dialog sections, the mouths of Crypto and his superior move quite fluidly and match the words well.  However, there isn’t a whole lot of head movement or expressions to help “sell” the animation.

Sound is another area of Destroy All Humans! that gets high marks.  The dialog and voice acting is very convincing by video game standards, and the music suits the mood, and style of the game very well.  The sound effects stay true to the 50’s alien movies style, while still providing a satisfying response after incinerating a human.

One major fault of DAH is that it isn’t very challenging.  During fighting/shootout missions, the classic bump and run tactic seems to work almost flawlessly.  Simply fire at your opponents, then hide while your shields regenerate.  There are other types of missions as well, such as checkpoint race side-missions.  Most of these sorts of missions are fairly simple once the path is memorized.  On top of not being very challenging, Destroy All Humans! isn’t very long either.  You’ll probably be able to run through the entire game in one weekend rental.  However, if you choose to explore a little and take on all of the side missions, you may get several more hours out of the game.

Gamers who only purchase two or three games per year may still want to pass on buying DAH, despite its lowered price tag – although if you can snag a copy at your local used game shop, it does make for an entertaining addition to your catalog.  Without a doubt, any gamer who wants to be amused for a weekend, should definitely at least give Destroy All Humans! a chance as a rental.  We wouldn’t place DAH in the top games of ’05 overall, but it at least deserves an honorable mention in the humor department.  In short, Destroy All Humans! is a fun, solid, well-made game that should appeal to many different audiences.

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