Destroy All Humans! | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Pandemic Studios [a] |
Publisher(s) | THQ [b] |
Director(s) | Brad Welch |
Producer(s) | Gordon Moyes |
Programmer(s) | Adam Iarossi |
Artist(s) | Fiona François |
Writer(s) | Tom Abernathy |
Composer(s) | Garry Schyman [2] |
Series | Destroy All Humans! |
Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 Xbox Mobile phone |
Release | PlayStation 2, XboxMobile |
Genre(s) | Action-adventure |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Destroy All Humans! is a 2005 action-adventure video game developed by Pandemic Studios and published by THQ for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and mobile phones. The game is the first installment in the Destroy All Humans! franchise, and is set in 1959 in the United States, and parodies the lifestyles, pop culture, and political attitudes of this time period. The player controls Cryptosporidium 137 (a reference to the protozoan parasite Cryptosporidium ), a member of this fictional exaggerated alien race called "Furons", and is a Furon spy hitman invading Earth to harvest DNA from humans to continue the cloning process of his species. Destroy All Humans! received generally positive reviews from critics. The original was ported to PlayStation 4 in 2016 alongside its sequel. A full remake of the game was released on July 28, 2020.
Destroy All Humans! is set in the United States in the late 1950s and consists of six settings; Turnipseed Farm (a Southern farm community in Tennessee), Rockwell (a Nebraska town), Santa Modesta (a parody of Santa Monica), Area 42 (a parody of Area 51 but based in New Mexico instead), Union Town (an Eastern seaboard industrial city) and Capitol City (a parody of Washington, D.C.). All buildings and structures in these environments can be destroyed (save for trees and rocks), and humans can become alarmed by Crypto's presence at these locations. While some run or hide, others are armed and fight back. An alert system, much like Grand Theft Auto's "wanted level," denotes how much attention Crypto has attracted. Depending on the alert level, police, military, and eventually the Majestic will attempt to defend civilians from Crypto.
Neutral NPCs frequently refer to pop culture of the 1950s, such as the Edsel, Marilyn Monroe, and 'Ike' Dwight D. Eisenhower when scanned by Crypto. In keeping with the Cold War setting, hostile NPCs refer to Crypto as a 'commie' with his various actions covered up in news stories as communist attacks.
Military technology in the game is depicted as being far more advanced than it actually was in the 1950s, with the US Army having possession of sentry guns, automated anti-air batteries, gigantic, ultra-radioactive tesla coils, and mechanized walkers. The Majestic group also seems to be equipped with energy weapons and reverse-engineered Furon technology.
The hub of the game is the Furon mothership in orbit around Earth, which vaguely resembles the Alien mothership from Close Encounters of the Third Kind . From there, players can receive missions, upgrade weapons, and view unlocked content. This is also the portal to each of the game's Earth settings.
Furons: Coming from the planet Furon, mistaken for Gorta in 'Destroy All Humans!' by the Majestic, in the Proxima Centauri system. Pox corrects the planet's name in 'Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon'. The Furons are aliens with a similar appearance to the Greys, aside from having mouths full of sharp teeth. Furons are named after diseases (such as Orthopox and Cryptosporidium) and are a highly advanced race who use their technology for harsh, unsympathetic science and vicious war. Unregulated atomic weaponry caused a fatal mutation in the Furon race whereby they could no longer reproduce due to their lack of genitalia. Using their advanced biotechnology, they began cloning themselves, rendering each Furon virtually immortal, memories and personalities being technologically transferred to each new clone. However, with each new clone errors appeared in the genetic material, leading to unpredictable results. Without an infusion of uncorrupted Furon D.N.A., they will clone themselves into extinction.
The game begins with a Furon, Cryptosporidium-136, hovering over a launch site with military personnel testing a rocket. The rocket is launched and destroys the ship carrying Crypto-136 and leaves him fatally wounded. The U.S. Army later captures Crypto-136. Sometime later, Cryptosporidium-137 travels to Earth with another Furon, Orthopox-13. Cryptosporidium (nicknamed 'Crypto') comes intending to rescue 136, while Orthopox (nicknamed "Pox") desires to extract human brain stems for study. Crypto arrives at Turnipseed Farm in the Southern United States, where Pox mistakes cows for Earth's dominant life form. The Majestic agency is alerted to the Furon presence when Crypto decimates an army brigade passing through the area. Pox, communicating with Crypto through a hologram-like device, then reveals to Crypto that the reason he requires human brain stems is because they contain pure Furon D.N.A. handed down to them by Furon scouts eons ago when the Furons stopped on Earth for "shore leave" following a war with Mars, which was rendered uninhabitable by the Furon Empire.
After several missions in the Midwestern town of Rockwell and the California suburb of Santa Modesta, Crypto and Pox become aware of the Majestic and begin crippling government attempts to stop them by performing acts such as destroying Area 42 with an atomic bomb and defeating his recurring foe, Armquist, the head of the army. Throughout the game, Crypto's various acts are covered up by the government and media, which attribute them either to freak accidents or to Communism.
After being temporarily captured in Union Town, the game climaxes in Capitol City, where Crypto assassinates President Huffman and slaughters all members of Congress. Soon, the U.S. government seemingly surrenders to the Furons. Crypto meets Silhouette, the leader of Majestic, in front of the Capitol. After a brief scuffle with Silhouette, Crypto discovers that "he" is a woman. Silhouette unveils the Robo-Prez, a towering mech controlled by President Huffman's brain. Crypto defeats Robo-Prez in his flying saucer and then defeats Silhouette in a final battle at the Octagon. In her dying breath, Silhouette reveals that there are other Majestic divisions worldwide. Crypto, however, is confident that without Silhouette's leadership, Majestic will be totally powerless to resist the Furon takeover.
The game ends with Huffman making a televised speech, assuring America that the recent events were the work of communists, who have poisoned the U.S. water supply, and that, as a result, testing centers have been set up all across the country to scan people for harmful toxins. People are then shown being herded reluctantly by Army soldiers into strange machines, apparently for brain stem extraction. Huffman is then revealed to be Crypto in disguise.
In Destroy All Humans!, players assume the role of Cryptosporidium 137 (Crypto for short), a warrior and member of the Furons, a race of war-like extraterrestrials with a large empire constantly seizing new worlds through conquest. After centuries of warfare against inferior species using unchecked nuclear weaponry left their species impotent and without genitalia, the Furons were unable to sexually reproduce and became forced to turn to cloning as a means of reproduction, as well as a process by which to achieve immortality. However, after generations of clones, the Furon DNA is degrading, and each clone is becoming less and less stable.
Fortunately for the Furons, one of their scout ships came across Earth many millennia ago while returning from the conquest of Mars. The Furon space travelers impregnated the "nubile" ancestors of the human race to "let off a little steam", inserting a strand of Furon DNA into the human gene pool.
Because of this, each human contains a small amount of Furon DNA in these genetic codes. Crypto is sent to Earth to harvest this DNA from human brain stems, locate and rescue his previous clone, Cryptosporidium-136, and spearhead a Furon invasion of Earth. The game is set up in a sandbox fashion. The player has a selection of weapons and mental abilities at their disposal, as well as access to Crypto's flying saucer. Destroy All Humans! implements the Havok physics engine, allowing for ragdoll effects on bodies and destructible environments.
Crypto possesses advanced Furon weaponry in both his flying saucer and also on foot.
The saucer is equipped with a Death Ray which can burn humans, vehicles, and buildings; the "Abducto Beam", a tractor ray that can lift up people and objects and hurl them into the air, and can capture people making them alien abduction; the Quantum Deconstructor; a highly powerful nuclear weapon that can launch radioactive bombs that utterly destroy anything in this radius that detonates at; and the "Sonic Boom", a bomb that can explode on contact and shock the blast radius like a tremor.
On foot, Crypto has an arsenal of four weapons, of which include the Zap-O-Matic, a gun that emits an electric charge, shocking its victims; the Anal Probe, a powerful rod that goes into the victim's rectum and uproots a DNA-enriched brain: the Disintegrator Ray, which turns the target's flesh and organs into ashes and renders only a charred skeleton; and the Ion Detonator, the Furon equivalent of a grenade launcher. He also is equipped with an upgradable jet pack to help him traverse long distances.
The Furons have a psychokinetic ability nicknamed HoloBob to imitate the appearance of any nearby human. This allows a Furon to travel amongst humans unnoticed. The HoloBob requires PSI energy, called "concentration" in the game, which can be continually replenished by reading the thoughts of unknowing humans or other animals. This disguise is not without flaw, as the Majestic have the ability to see through and destroy the disguise. Crypto will flash red when near a Majestic agent; if he comes too close, the disguise will vanish. Additionally, he is able to use an ability known as PK or PsychoKinesis that allows one to psychokinetically move objects around.
The game was conceived of by Matt Harding [7] while he was working at Pandemic Studios, as after Microsoft rejected the more family-friendly game concept Oddballs, he jokingly suggested "a game where you kill everyone", suggesting the title Destroy All Humans. Being a science fiction fan, Harding even thought of using the concept of playing as an alien invader, something that he had not seen in a video game and served as a "premise for getting to do mindless destruction that makes sense". Harding never worked on the game, feeling he lacked the "energy or interest" to "spend two years of [his] life writing a game about killing everyone". He even contested why along with the on-foot action resembling Grand Theft Auto , there were flying saucer missions - "If you’ve got a spaceship, why would you ever get out?" - but pushed for a satirical game, something the rest of Pandemic embraced by taking the game on a comedic approach. Harding left soon after on his Asian walkabout and began recording some of the footage that eventually became the "Where The Hell Is Matt?" videos. [8] [9] The game also sponsored ECW One Night Stand.
Aggregator | Score |
---|---|
Metacritic | (Xbox) 76/100 [10] (PS2) 74/100 [11] |
Publication | Score |
---|---|
Electronic Gaming Monthly | 7/10 [12] |
Eurogamer | 7/10 [13] |
Game Informer | 8/10 [14] |
GamePro | [15] |
GameRevolution | C+ [16] |
GameSpot | 7.5/10 [17] |
GameSpy | [18] |
GameTrailers | 7.8/10 [19] |
GameZone | (Xbox) 7.7/10 [20] (PS2) 7.4/10 [21] |
IGN | 7/10 [22] |
Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine | [23] |
Official Xbox Magazine (US) | 8.5/10 [24] |
Detroit Free Press | [25] |
Maxim | 8/10 [26] |
Destroy All Humans! received "generally positive" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. [10] [11]
GameZone enjoyed the depth of destruction: "The levels themselves have the potential for a lot of damage". [20] IGN praised the presentation of the game, stating as "Phenomenal. Good behind the scenes extras. Great cutscenes. Excellent layout. Really, nicely done", but they thought the game could use a more in-depth stealth aspect: "As it happens, not developing stealth to its fullest potential turns out to be one part of a greater underlying problem with Destroy All Humans". [22] TeamXbox cited excellent graphics, saying that "Destroy All Humans! is delightful to gaze at". [27]
Maxim gave it a score of eight out of ten and said: "Set up like Grand Theft Alien, there are tons of missions to complete, though you can also just roam around, killing filthy humans and destroying their stuff". [26] The Sydney Morning Herald gave it four stars out of five and said: "The freedom to create chaos is terrific but some missions lack variety". [28] The New York Times also gave it a favorable review, but commented that "it's a shame the gameplay lacks the almost flawless perfection of Destroy All Humans' story and presentation". [29] Detroit Free Press gave it three stars out of four, calling it "goofy fun, and that makes up for a lot of its failings. But I couldn't quite forgive the occasional tedium and fairly short length enough to give it a better rating". [25]
The game sold more than 1 million copies by March 2006. [30]
Due to the game's success several sequels have been made: Destroy All Humans! 2 , which takes place in the 1960s and marks the first time Crypto invades across the globe, Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed , a spin-off set in the 1970s in which Pox and Crypto run a fast-food chain, and Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon , which also takes place in the 1970s and begins with Crypto and Pox running a lucrative gambling casino called the "Space Dust," who work to uncover a conspiracy set on destroying the Furon race.
THQ announced in 2005 that Fox Broadcasting had purchased the rights to the game and was planning a computer-animated comedy, based on the game, to air in prime time. [31] Jim Dauterive, previously of King of the Hill , was to be a writer and executive producer of the TV version of Destroy All Humans!. Nothing has been unveiled since then and the project was presumably canceled. The show is also referenced in Destroy All Humans! 2 , in the Salad Days bonus video, in which Pox and Crypto reminisce on the past game, and talk about the possibilities of the game's future.
In 2019, THQ Nordic announced a remake of Destroy All Humans! , set for a release in 2020 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The remake was in development at Black Forest Games and featured content that was cut from the original release. [32] [33] The remake is built in Unreal Engine 4. [34]
Asteroids is a space-themed multidirectional shooter arcade video game designed by Lyle Rains and Ed Logg released in November 1979 by Atari, Inc. The player controls a single spaceship in an asteroid field which is periodically traversed by flying saucers. The object of the game is to shoot and destroy the asteroids and saucers, while not colliding with either, or being hit by the saucers' counter-fire. The game becomes harder as the number of asteroids increases.
Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee is a fighting game based on Toho's Godzilla franchise. It was developed by Pipeworks Software and published by Infogrames under the Atari brand for GameCube in 2002. A companion game developed by WayForward Technologies for Game Boy Advance, Godzilla: Domination!, was released in November of the same year. Destroy All Monsters Melee was later released for Xbox in 2003, featuring additional content and enhanced graphics.
Godzilla: Save the Earth is a fighting video game based on Toho's Godzilla franchise. It is developed by Pipeworks Software, published by Atari, and released in 2004 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox.
Star Wars: Republic Commando is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed and published by LucasArts. It was released for the Xbox and Microsoft Windows in March 2005. Set in the Star Wars Legends expanded universe, the game revolves around Delta Squad, a special ops unit within the Galactic Republic's Clone Army consisting of four genetically-enhanced clone troopers, referred to as "Clone Commandos." Throughout the single-player campaign, players assume the role of the squad's leader, RC-1138 ("Boss"), and complete various missions during the Clone Wars. Players can also indirectly control the actions of their squadmates RC-1262 ("Scorch"), RC-1140 ("Fixer"), and RC-1207 ("Sev") by issuing different commands, which allow for certain situations to be approached in multiple ways.
Area 51 is a science fiction first-person shooter video game that was released in 2005. It was developed by Midway Studios Austin for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Microsoft Windows. A Nintendo GameCube version was also in development but was silently canceled. It is a loose remake of the 1995 light gun video game of the same name, and was followed in 2007 by the loosely related BlackSite: Area 51. The player controls Ethan Cole, a HAZMAT operative sent to the Area 51 base to assist in the cleanup of a mutagenic virus.
Destroy All Humans! 2 is a 2006 action-adventure video game developed by Pandemic Studios and published by THQ for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. The game is the sequel to Destroy All Humans! and the second installment in the Destroy All Humans! franchise. It also marks the final game in the series to be developed by Pandemic Studios, as the company was later acquired by Electronic Arts in 2007. A remake of the game, titled Destroy All Humans! 2: Reprobed, was initially released in August 2022.
Dark Summit is a 2001 snowboarding video game developed by Radical Entertainment and published by THQ. It was released for the GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox,
Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon is an action-adventure video game developed by American studio Sandblast Games and published by THQ. The game is set in the 1970s and is the fourth installment in the original Destroy All Humans! franchise. It was released December 1, 2008 in North America for the Xbox 360. Path of the Furon expands on the open world format of the previous Destroy All Humans! games, with five open worlds on the ground and in the air to obliterate with weapons and alien powers.
Red Faction: Guerrilla is a third-person shooter video game developed by Volition and published by THQ. It was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in June 2009 and for Windows in September 2009. The game is the third installment in the Red Faction series. A remastered version titled Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered with improved graphics was released worldwide on July 3, 2018, for the PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One, and on July 2, 2019, for the Nintendo Switch.
Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed is a 2008 action-adventure video game developed by Locomotive Games and published by THQ for the Wii and is the third installment in the Destroy All Humans! franchise. A PlayStation 2 version was originally going to be released alongside the Wii, but was ultimately canceled because of budget cuts. A PlayStation Portable version was also canceled, due to "control issues" involved with translating the Wii version's controls to the port.
Destroy All Humans! is an open world action-adventure video game franchise that is designed as a parody of Cold War-era alien invasion films. Destroy All Humans! and Destroy All Humans! 2 were released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox; Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed was released for the Wii; and Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon was released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. A remake of the original game and its sequel were developed by Black Forest Games and were released in 2020 and 2022, respectively.
Saints Row is a series of action-adventure video games created by Volition and published by THQ and Deep Silver. The series follows the 3rd Street Saints, a fictional street gang originally operating out of the Saints Row district, hence the series' title.
Saints Row: The Third is a 2011 action-adventure game developed by Volition and published by THQ. It is the sequel to 2008's Saints Row 2 and the third installment in the Saints Row series. It was released on November 15, 2011 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, and May 10, 2019 for the Nintendo Switch. A remastered version of Saints Row: The Third, titled Saints Row: The Third Remastered, was released by Deep Silver on May 22, 2020 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, March 5, 2021 for Stadia, May 25, 2021 for PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, and July 29, 2021 for Luna.
Universomo Ltd. was a Finnish video game developer based in Tampere, Finland, founded in 2002, and acquired by THQ on May 9, 2007. Universomo also had offices in Helsinki, Finland and San Diego, United States. The studio focused on games for mobile phones, the iPhone and the N-Gage. On January 12, 2010, THQ announced the Nintendo DS title Beat City, developed by Universomo, marking the developer's first entry to the handheld gaming market.
Red Faction: Armageddon is a third-person shooter video game developed by Volition and published by THQ in association with the TV network Syfy. It is the fourth and final installment in the Red Faction series, and was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in various countries around the world between June 7 and June 10, 2011.
South Park: The Stick of Truth is a 2014 role-playing video game developed by Obsidian Entertainment in collaboration with South Park Digital Studios and published by Ubisoft. Based on the American animated television series South Park, the game follows the New Kid, who has moved to the eponymous town and becomes involved in an epic role-play fantasy war involving humans, wizards, and elves, who are fighting for control of the all-powerful Stick of Truth. Their game quickly escalates out of control, bringing them into conflict with aliens, Nazi zombies, and gnomes, threatening the entire town with destruction.
Black Forest Games GmbH is a German video game developer based in Offenburg. The company was founded in July 2012 by a team of 40 staff members, including chief executive officer Andreas Speer, previously employed by Spellbound Entertainment, which filed for insolvency earlier that year. As of August 2017, it is a subsidiary of THQ Nordic. As of August 2024, the company employs 50 people.
Downloadable content for Saints Row: The Third was announced before the game's November 2011 release along with a commitment from publisher THQ to support 40 weeks of content. Among smaller upgrades, three main content packs were released: Genkibowl VII, Gangstas in Space, and The Trouble with Clones. Reviewers found all three packs short—around an hour in length—and considered The Trouble with Clones the best of the bunch.
Destroy All Humans! is an open world action-adventure video game developed by Black Forest Games and published by THQ Nordic. The game is a remake of the 2005 original game and the fifth installment in the Destroy All Humans! franchise. This remake is the first entry in the franchise since Path of the Furon (2008).
Destroy All Humans! 2: Reprobed is an action-adventure video game developed by Black Forest Games and published by THQ Nordic. It is a remake of the 2006 original game, the sequel to the remake of Destroy All Humans!, and the sixth installment in the Destroy All Humans! franchise.