Video Game Review: Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon (360)

Despite having played and disliked the original Destroy All Humans! I figured that the latest installment may have fixed any problems I had with it.  Well I can safely say after completing the game in its entirety, achievements and all, that this game is just as bad, if not worse, than the others and I completely hate it.

Released for $40, the game is a “budget” title, and that definitely shows.  For a next gen game it looks incredibly unpolished.  My first impressions from the very first gameplay segment, fighting some mobsters, set the tone for the rest of the game.  It looked like it the series had barely progressed from the first game.  I will admit that the later levels, France specifically, look pretty good, but there are still horrible graphical problems with this game.  There is a tremendous amount of building and texture pop-up which leaves me to wonder if this game was playtested by anyone.  I will admit though that finding the hidden collectibles under bridges in the French level was made much easier by the fact that the draw distance of the bridges was shorter than the collectibles underneath them.  That by the way is a backhanded complement.

Of the eight or so weapons in the game, only two of them are worth using.  Weapons such as the “Venus Human Trap” and “Anal Probe” are completely useless.  There’s pretty much no reason not to use the “Zap-o-matic” all the time in combination with your psychokinesis.

The story of the game is not that interesting, and many of the missions made me angry at just how stupid they were.  The developers attempt at comedy falls completely short and just becomes aggravating.  The choices made by the characters how to carryout the missions just don’t make sense in context.  Some missions will have you be stealthy for seemingly no reason whereas others have you go in guns firing.  There are also WAY too many missions where you have to go through completely unfunny dialogue trees. It’s actually impossible to fail out of them because it whittles away options until the only one left is the option to bring up more unfunny dialogue or complete the mission.

The entire game is much too easy.  I remember having trouble in a least a few parts of the first game, but I flew through this one, and I don’t think that it’s because I’m a more experienced gamer now.  The game is just easy.  The finally boss is pathetically simple, and during the last cinematic there is a moment when it seems like the first boss was just a feint for another one but it’s not.  The last boss is really that easy.

While I was playing the game someone unfamiliar with the game made the comment that it was a lot like Ratchet and Clank because of the many different weapons and I realized that this is so true.  The difference between this series and Ratchet and Clank, however, is that one is successful, fun, and does a good job with weapon variety.  Can you guess which one that is?

I tried to give this game a chance, I really did.  It’s flaws are just to large to overlook, and I didn’t have fun playing it.  If you’re a big achievement junkie like myself though, you may want to check out this game for that reason alone.