Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed PlayStation 5 Video Game Review

A little over two years ago I took a look at the remake of the original Destroy All Humans!. Having played the original release of the game, I was pretty impressed with the work that was put into the game to modernize it. I don’t quite remember if I ever played the original release of the sequel, but I was excited to try it out with how well the remake of the first game went. I hoped the sequel would improve upon some of the issues of the first game, while expanding on the elements from the first game that worked well. Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed is a fun sequel that is quite reminiscent of the original game in both its successes and failures.

Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed takes place ten years after the original game. It is now the 1960s. Crypto is enjoying his time after his success in the first game. This comes to an abrupt end when KGB agents learn of his existence and shoot down his mothership. You must fight against this new threat and may even find some unexpected allies in the process.

For the most part the gameplay of Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed is very similar to the remake of the original game. Those who played the original game should already know what to expect from the gameplay. If you never played the original Destroy All Humans! the gameplay basically has three main elements.

The first is to kill and destroy everything that opposes you. As you progress through the game you will acquire a number of different weapons. While some of these weapons return from the first game, there are new weapons as well. You also have psychic powers which allow you to fling people and other objects through the air. You have a limited amount of health, but if you can avoid getting hit for a while, your health regenerates.

The prospect of causing wide scale destruction is the main selling point for a game like Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed. For the most part the game handles it relatively well. Like the original game, it is quite fun using your weapons and powers to destroy anything that stands in your way. The game does a good job making you feel like an alien with highly superior technology. You can mow down any enemy rather easily. Most of the buildings in the game are completely destructible after enough damage. It is also oddly satisfying flinging enemies and objects through the air with your mind. Basically if you enjoyed this element in the first game, I think you will enjoy it in the sequel as well.

The next main gameplay element is the ability to use your UFO. Your UFO has a number of weapons which allow you to destroy things on a massive scale really quickly. Part of the new upgrade system also has you using the UFO to abduct certain types of humans in order to get upgrades for your various psychic powers.

My feelings towards the UFO elements of the game are similar to the original game as well. You will be spending most of your time in the game on the ground. The UFO elements are usually pretty fun though. Just like it is fun destroying things on the ground, causing mayhem from the sky is fun as well. While it gets kind of repetitive, I found it oddly fun abducting the humans for the upgrades as well.

The final element of Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed is what I would refer to as the “stealth” mechanic. Like the original game, you can take over the bodies of humans. You will use this ability to avoid detection. You can also read people’s minds in order to find information that you need for missions. If you are detected as an alien you will be attacked. The threat level grows if you engage with the enemies or don’t try to hide/avoid detection.

I think players are likely to have mixed feelings about the stealth mechanic. If you only care about destroying everything in sight, you likely will find this mechanic to be a waste of time. I thought it was relatively fun though. Being stealthy and going undercover can help you avoid a lot of fights.

Generally I enjoyed playing Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed. If you played the original game, your feelings about the gameplay will likely be the same for the sequel. Outside of some little tweaks here and there, mostly involving new weapons, there isn’t much that is new to the sequel. I would say that I think Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed is a better game though. If you had fun with the original game, I think you will like the sequel as well. If you didn’t care for the original, I don’t see the sequel really changing anything.

One thing that is different about Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed is that the game now has a multiplayer mode. You can actually play the entire game with another player in splitscreen (there is no online multiplayer). In general I liked the addition of multiplayer. It is fun causing mayhem with another player. Players can’t directly impact one another though. The layout of the splitscreen is a little weird as well.

I generally had fun playing Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed. It is hard to not have fun playing as an overpowered alien that can easily destroy anything that stands in its way. While the game has been completely remade, it still feels like a game made in the mid 2000s though. In some ways I appreciated this. Those looking for a blast from the past will likely enjoy a callback to a prior age of video games.

In some ways Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed feels a little outdated though. The gameplay loop is satisfying, but it gets repetitive after a while. Basically every mission in the game involves some combination of the three main gameplay mechanics. There isn’t a lot of variety in the missions. The open world areas feel kind of small compared to more modern games as well. While this was common for a game from 2006, it feels like there is just something lacking from the game. While I had fun throughout the game, I will admit that it got a little repetitive at times.

I think some of this might be due to the fact that the game is surprisingly easy. I ended up playing the game on the second hardest difficulty, and rarely had much trouble completing missions. There were a couple missions that I might have died a couple times on (mostly the boss fights), but I breezed through most of the missions.

I can see the game making you feel overpowered as a technologically superior alien should be able to easily deal with human enemies. Most of the missions aren’t particularly challenging though. In fact most of the challenge comes from trying to complete the various optional objectives which force you to complete the mission in a specific way. The game has modifiers that you can apply to a mission when you replay it to make it more challenging. Your first time playing each mission is likely going to be quite easy though.

As for the story, I found it to be kind of hit and miss. I would say that there is more depth to the story than the original game. Instead of just wanting to destroy the humans and take over for yourself, you actually face off against a threat in the game. I appreciate that the game has more of a story than the original game. There are parts of the story that I enjoyed as it can sometimes be funny.

Unfortunately for every funny moment, there are just as many unfunny moments. The game seems to have kept the story the same as the original game. The ending was slightly changed, but the story otherwise seems unchanged. As the original game was made 16 years ago, some elements of the story could be considered controversial today. Some elements of the story don’t hold up all that well today. At times the game seems to think it is funnier than it actually is. Some of this is probably due to the fact that the game is 16 years old and the dialogue wasn’t changed from the original release.

As for the remake itself, I was pretty impressed by the graphical overhaul. This is the area where the game has improved the most from the original game. While it may not quite live up to a AAA game, I thought the game looked quite good for a remake of a 16 year old game. In some ways it looks like a completely different game from the original release. Sometimes the character model animations could be better, and you will see the same character models over and over again in the world. Otherwise just looking at the game you wouldn’t even know that it is a remake of an older game.

How much time you get out of Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed is likely going to depend on if you just focus on the main story missions, or if you complete all of the side missions and want to cause some destruction for the fun of it. The game is considerably shorter if you only focus on the main missions. I was kind of surprised by the number of side missions in the game though. The game does seem a decent amount bigger than the original Destroy All Humans!. I ended up completing almost all of the side missions and all of the main missions. I ended up beating the game in around 20 hours. If I took the time to find all of the collectibles, that would likely add a couple more hours to the game. Overall I found the game’s length to be pretty good.

In general I had fun playing Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed. Everything that was enjoyable about the original game is present in the sequel. The gameplay is still quite fun. How could you not have fun using your superior alien powers to wreck havoc on any humans that stand in your way. The remake does a really good job remaking a 16 year old game and make it feel like a contemporary game. There is quite a bit of content as well as it is longer than the original game. Unfortunately the game falls into many of the same faults as the original game. The gameplay gets kind of repetitive after a while as every mission is a variation on a couple different formulas. Elements of the game feel somewhat outdated as well as open world games have come a long ways since the game was originally released.

My recommendation for Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed is actually quite simple. If you didn’t care for the original Destroy All Humans!, the sequel will not give you anything that will make you change your mind. If you enjoyed the original game though and are fine with more of the same, I think you will enjoy Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed and should consider picking it up.