They Came From Outer Space
Graphically, Destroy All Humans does very well with each of the five areas of Rockwell, Santa Modesta, Area 42, Union Town and Capitol City differing nicely from each other and adding a good deal of variety. What would’ve been nice is to have had fewer missions in each location and have more differing locations as by the fifth mission, you have seen pretty much all there is to see are desperate to move on. That said, the environments are nicely drawn with a cartoony style well in keeping with the general feel of the game.
As you progress through the levels, the areas become more and more populated, with people and traffic passing by going about their daily business until you pop up and start a zapping frenzy. Pretty much everything in the game is either movable or destroyable, so much fun can be had zipping around in your saucer blowing everything up and causing panic among the populace. Overall, Destroy All Humans has a cartoony style that is well served by the graphics. The theme is nicely set in a 50’s style America, faithfully echoing those dodgy B-movies the game is based on. Though the graphical effects are what we’ve come to expect from the X-Box, they sit nicely within the rest of the game though none of them stand out as anything special on their own. I do have to give special mention to the disintegrating human effect though… it’s rather class and something I think will take a while to tire of.
Sounds are similarly well done too, the music in particular being a faithful rip-off of those weird, ‘futuristic’ soundtracks that were the hallmark of the B-movie genre. Lots of wooing and wheeing stuff going on here with typical smaltzy eeriness in abundance… great stuff. The dialogue, too, is well done and fits the bill nicely. The chat between Crypto and his masters is fun to listen to and genuinely funny, expecially Crypto’s thoughts on his encounters with Earth life. The training mission itself is a source of constant mirth, especially as Crypto initially thinks the cows are the highest lifeform on Earth… his “But they’re covered in nipples!” quip having me and my kids giggling like loons on nitrous oxide.
