![]() ![]() And as such, finding something focused enough to string you along, but not taking anything about itself too seriously or demanding you elevate it to “ more than just game!” is a rare treat. See, part of DAH!’s popularity over the years has always been explicitly tied to its identity as a self-aware deviation, a little satirical caricature of the whole ‘50s Americana, “Better Dead than Red” mentality a la MARS ATTACKS! More than that, though, it’s a brand of levity that appears as sparse in the deluge of serious, miserable melodrama littering our entertainment media now as it did 15 years ago (*cough* LAST OF US PART II *cough*). And to be honest, that shift does more for the feel of the game than most people would likely give credit for. Simply put, the folks over at Black Forest Games have given DESTROY ALL HUMANS! a total visual facelift, replacing the muddy colors and “realistic” anatomy of the PS2 version with a more modern, deliberately cartoonish style to match its schlocky premise: one that’s got more detailed environments, saturated colors, and utterly exaggerated character design. In order to further these ends, you must disguise yourself amid the hapless yokels, disrupt the local establishment, and when all else fails, raise hell as your little grey self while repelling both the Army and the legally-distinct MiB stand-ins known as “the Majestic.” Sci-fi shenanigans ensue.īecause so much of this remake seems virtually untouched from its original outing back in 2005 (down to reusing all the voice files and sound effects), let’s touch on the most obvious reworked element: the aesthetic. ![]() And for what it’s worth, this quasi-revival is somehow both exactly how I remember (for better or worse), and yet more enjoyable than it probably has any right to be.įor the uninitiated, here’s the basic rundown: you play as Cryptosporidium-137, a blast first-ask questions later member of the Furon Empire who comes to 1950s Earth for two key reasons: first, to harvest DNA from the simpleminded human race for reproductive purposes, and second, to uncover what happened to your “brother” Crypto-136 after he crash-landed sometime before your creation. But with the release of a remake hitting shelves some 15-odd years later (cuz, y’know… money) and the current state of affairs already feeling like some bizarro reality, it seemed only fair to give the sleepover staple another shake and see if it was as enthralling as preteen me remembered, now that I’ve supposedly matured. Though to be fair, it’s not like it exactly presents itself as particularly deep: a sandbox shooter where you run around as a Jack Nicholson-esque alien disintegrating tanks and making people’s heads explode with anal probes to collect their thinky-bits. That game? DESTROY ALL HUMANS!.īeing a wee bablet well before the game achieved cult status, I don’t think it was even possible for me to properly gauge the quality of what DESTROY ALL HUMANS! had to offer. No, I’m thinking something more … banal: your crappy date pick-me-up, what you played at a friend’s house because they had lenient parents, or what you bought because you hit your peak weeb phase as a smooth-brained tween and thought “this game’s gotta be good, it’s NARUTO !” Well, as we all sit amidst the national dumpster fire and reminisce over simpler times, I can’t help but conjure a very particular snapshot in my head: a time in the mid-aughts where I’d sleep at my best friend’s house every weekend, watch edgy cartoons on Newgrounds, and stay up late to play a game we thought was so rad, even if I barely knew what was going on besides abject chaos. I’m not talking about ones that “defined your childhood” or anything else so profound, though. ![]() I think everyone’s got that one game they associate with a very specific time in their lives.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |