Destroy All Humans
Just do as the game says and everybody gets hurt.
Published: May 25, 2005
One of the random warm fuzzy memories I have during my time living down in LA was passing Pandemic Studios' office in Santa Monica on the way to go running on the beach. I never stopped in to see anyone there -- hell, I never even rang the doorbell to drop off a business card -- but it's one of those things that just stuck with me for some reason.
Maybe it was because, at the time, the only people that were closet Pandemic fans like me were those who played Dark Reign 2 or (if you were really brave) Army Men RTS. Then they had to go and start making some really impressive games like Mercenaries and Full Spectrum Warrior that really put them on the map.
Their latest, Destroy All Humans may be the most impressive yet. Blending a 50's alien invasion monster movie vibe with a Plan 9 From Outer Space style (an obvious homage, the game even features the title on a movie theatre marquee), the game puts you in the little grey feet of Crypto Sporidium 137, an alien in charge of enslaving (or, uh destroying) all of humanity.
See, here's the problem: Crypto's race, the Furons, lack junk. No twig and two berries, no wedding tackle, no one eyed purple people eater, no Christmas ornaments, no... well, you get the idea. To further their race, they simply clone themselves and move on. As anyone who's tried to make a copy of a copy of a VHS tape back in the day will tell you, the more you clone something the less fidelity it has. The Furons, for lack of a better description, are dying off as their genetic material is spread ever thinner with each new cloning.
But there's hope, you see. Long ago, Furons hopped and bopped their way down to Earth and did the hippity dippity with the locals, imbuing the human race with part of their DNA. DNA that, once extracted, can replenish the cloning stockpiles the Furons are getting so painfully low on. So it's Crypto's job to head to Earth, get as many DNA samples as possible, and generally just wreak havoc.
What he discovers shortly after touching down is that the U.S. Government is already hard at work enslaving and controlling the populace through drugs, propaganda and the usual fun stuff they were up to during the Rise of the Commies. Crypto must now foil government plots to take over the country so he can take over the country, thus resuming his grand plan to go about harvesting genetic material as he sees fit.
The build THQ recently shot over to our offices offered a fairly complete look at the game, and let us dive into the intitial tutorial level that had us popping the heads and probing the butts of farmers in no time. In fact, Crypto gains quite a few abilities even early on, including the ability to cloak himself and appear to be anyone he targets, hypnotize people to take them to his ship, put them to sleep or cause a distraction.
Disguising himself or implanting suggestions in minds takes concentration, indicated by a handy meter that fills as he walks around cloaked or takes over noggins. Luckily, he can suck brain juice out of anyone passing by to essentially walk among humans for as long as he wants. This also has the added benefit of extracting the thoughts of the target at that moment, sometimes getting info, but almost always making for a great laugh.
Or he can just screw the subtlety and bust out the big guns.
Maybe it was because, at the time, the only people that were closet Pandemic fans like me were those who played Dark Reign 2 or (if you were really brave) Army Men RTS. Then they had to go and start making some really impressive games like Mercenaries and Full Spectrum Warrior that really put them on the map.
Their latest, Destroy All Humans may be the most impressive yet. Blending a 50's alien invasion monster movie vibe with a Plan 9 From Outer Space style (an obvious homage, the game even features the title on a movie theatre marquee), the game puts you in the little grey feet of Crypto Sporidium 137, an alien in charge of enslaving (or, uh destroying) all of humanity.
See, here's the problem: Crypto's race, the Furons, lack junk. No twig and two berries, no wedding tackle, no one eyed purple people eater, no Christmas ornaments, no... well, you get the idea. To further their race, they simply clone themselves and move on. As anyone who's tried to make a copy of a copy of a VHS tape back in the day will tell you, the more you clone something the less fidelity it has. The Furons, for lack of a better description, are dying off as their genetic material is spread ever thinner with each new cloning.
But there's hope, you see. Long ago, Furons hopped and bopped their way down to Earth and did the hippity dippity with the locals, imbuing the human race with part of their DNA. DNA that, once extracted, can replenish the cloning stockpiles the Furons are getting so painfully low on. So it's Crypto's job to head to Earth, get as many DNA samples as possible, and generally just wreak havoc.
What he discovers shortly after touching down is that the U.S. Government is already hard at work enslaving and controlling the populace through drugs, propaganda and the usual fun stuff they were up to during the Rise of the Commies. Crypto must now foil government plots to take over the country so he can take over the country, thus resuming his grand plan to go about harvesting genetic material as he sees fit.
The build THQ recently shot over to our offices offered a fairly complete look at the game, and let us dive into the intitial tutorial level that had us popping the heads and probing the butts of farmers in no time. In fact, Crypto gains quite a few abilities even early on, including the ability to cloak himself and appear to be anyone he targets, hypnotize people to take them to his ship, put them to sleep or cause a distraction.
Disguising himself or implanting suggestions in minds takes concentration, indicated by a handy meter that fills as he walks around cloaked or takes over noggins. Luckily, he can suck brain juice out of anyone passing by to essentially walk among humans for as long as he wants. This also has the added benefit of extracting the thoughts of the target at that moment, sometimes getting info, but almost always making for a great laugh.
Or he can just screw the subtlety and bust out the big guns.
