At E3 2004 THQ was seriously pimping Pandemic's Destroy All Humans, and while thousands flocked to the game I just didn't understand the hype. Sure, being able to play as an alien and torture "innocent" people is a cool concept, but at the time the game just didn't look so hot. My valued opinion was further supported when I actually got my hands on the game last April, and again, I just didn't get it. However, dear reader, this is why us journalists (the good ones, anyway) wait to play final review code, because even a week of development can make a lot of difference, and that's what's happened here. I haven't fallen in love with Destroy All Humans, but Pandemic's managed to vaporize the majority of my complaints. This is a damn good videogame that's hampered by a few design flaws, but those flaws don't keep it from being a must play.

The cool thing about this game (one of many cool things) is how Pandemic chose to portray the aliens. There are movies and other games that fall back on this notion that alien beings are far superior to us, but in Destroy All Humans they have flaws just as we do. While they certainly possess better technology, evolution hasn't necessarily been kind to them. You see, the Furons (as they're called) cannot biologically reproduce and therefore need stockpiles of precious DNA to make this happen. The problem is the new aliens that are based on older copies aren't up to code, so the Emperor instructs the scientist Orthopox and the drone Cryptosporidium (that's Crypto for short) to go to Earth and harvest fresh DNA from us humans. The first mission was going well...that is...until this Crypto landed on a nuclear device and these army dudes captured him! Thankfully, Orthopox has another Crypto raring to go and a second mission is executed.

This is basically where you come in. Playing as this second Crypto, you must explore Earth, "play" with its inhabitants, and cause the sort of terrifyingly sweet chaos us humans have come to expect from DNA-hungry aliens. Crypto has numerous weapons at his disposal that allow you to levitate objects and living creatures, blast things to smithereens, and cause heads to explode, revealing tasty brains. Most of the time you'll just be wandering the countryside blasting anything that moves, but there will also be missions where you'll need to use some stealth to get by your adversaries, and finally, moments where you can just obliterate towns, cars, and other stuff while in Crypto's flying saucer! The latter is clearly the most enjoyable because the environments are big and filled with plenty of cool stuff to annihilate (though not being able to burn down trees is a bummer), but running about tossing people into next Tuesday and toying with cows is also highly enjoyable. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the stealth missions where you need to disguise yourself as a human and avoid the opposition. The gameplay is quite monotonous and it actually damages the overall flow of the experience.

Stealth is really the only bad part of this game, as my other complaints are just nitpicks. For example, I love flying around in the UFO, but I don't like how Crypto can only land in certain spots and that the camera cannot be adjusted. Also, I'm not a fan of using the right analog stick to move objects around once I've levitated them. That's really the only way that it can work well, but manipulating Crypto and a cow around at the same time is a chore because in order to levitate you need to keep a finger on another button. I don't know about you, but I only have two hands.

Destroy All Human's mini games aren't anything special either. Normally stuff like this is a bonus, but here it's just a boring collection of ho-hum extras that we've seen before, such as racing through a select number of checkpoints or collecting stuff before time runs out. I'm also not a fan of Crypto's Jack Nicholson voice because it simply doesn't fit the character. It's bad enough that the aliens speak perfect English, but I can do without the impersonation.

Lastly, I wish a little more thought went into the game's weapons. He's got some sweet gear for sure, but Pandemic could've come up with some really neat ways to torture these people. Perhaps I just have an overactive imagination.

This game's certainly not without its faults, but it's still a very, very good product. It's just fun exploring the various environments and causing havoc, and its graphics (which were my biggest concern back when I first saw Destroy All Humans) have been significantly improved. I dig the alien designs, love the space ships, and I'm especially fond of the draw distance. Unlike in other games (but very similar to Pandemic's Mercenaries), I actually feel like I'm in this enormous and highly-detailed environment.

So there you have it! Despite my early criticisms, Destroy All Humans turned out to be a pretty good game after all. Its story is amusing, its graphics are pretty, and it's just fun to play. There are definitely several areas that I wish Pandemic put more thought and time into, but then again, that's what sequels are for.