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Destroy All Humans!

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Destroy All Humans!
74
8.8 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 50 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 25 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: THQ

Developer: Pandemic Studios

Genre(s): Third-Person Action, Adventure

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Release Date: June 19, 2005

Summary

Use destructive weapons and innate mental powers to take on the most feared enemy in the galaxy - Mankind! Play as Crypto, an alien warrior sent to Earth to clear the way for the Furon invasion force.Your mission is to infiltrate humanity, control them, harvest their brain stems and ultimately destroy them. You choose the method - infiltration or disintegration! Arm yourself with a variety of alien weaponry on land or in the air. Use the Ion Detonator, the Zap-O-Matic, the Sonic Boom, or even the Quantum Deconstructor to eradicate feeble humans. Explore and interact with 5 huge environments using an arsenal of alien abilities to manipulate humans into submission: hypnotize, body-snatch, read minds, levitate and more. Take to the skies in your UFO, abduct animals, cars, and humans for research, or cause large-scale destruction. [THQ]

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

90

Stuff

The spicy, tangy combination of third-person action and real-time strategy is unlike anything we've played before.

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90

GamePro

Every once in a while there comes a game that truly defines creativity. Destroy All Humans is indeed one such game; it has all the right elements to make it a smart, intuitive, and hilarious experience.

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90

AceGamez

You really can't go wrong with this game - there's nothing else quite like it at the moment.

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89

VGPub

It’s a real shame the camera problems weren’t resolved, but they don’t kill the game. They might put a hurting on some controllers though.

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86

TotalGames.net

Aside from a few camera issues the game is visually stunning, combine this with the show stealing repartee between the major players and Destroy All Humans! becomes an almost essential addition to your gaming galaxy.

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85

GameSpot AU

An amazing amount of fun but it doesn’t just rely on its novelty to carry it - it’s actually a good game and in the early missions at least has a good pick-up-and-play element.

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85

GameBiz

A breath of fresh air amongst other games lacking in uniqueness and creativity.

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85

Next Level Gaming

It's got originality, solid gameplay, and is outright fun. Come on, you're the alien! It's time to kick some Human butt!

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85

PSM Magazine

The missions vary from the mundane to the extremely challenging, and are chock full of sci-fi references and in-jokes, not to mention a whole slew of political zingers. [Aug 2005, p.74]

85

eToychest

Blowing up buildings and abducting humans may eventually get old for the more cerebral gamers in the audience, but Crypto's adventures pack enough charm and polish to avoid much criticism from anyone else.

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82

PGNx Media

The atmosphere whether it is the environments or the dialogue or the music is simply top-notch. The game mirrors its source material with amazing fidelity and keeps you laughing all the way through. That elevates it from a simply okay game to one that is certainly recommended.

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80

Gamer's Hell

Made worse by its squandered potential. Pump the rating up to “Mature,” add some blood, a few guts, craft a story and gameplay more appealing to an older audience, and the game designers could have a hit on their hands.

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80

Gaming Target

It's also annoying that you have to redo every portion of a mission if you fail at one of the later objectives.

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80

G4 TV

Makes destroying humans fun with an original setting, enjoyable alien arsenal, and cleverly designed missions. Its sense of humor may falter once in a while, and content freaks will definitely find the game on the short side.

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80

Game Informer

No aspect of life remains unscathed, from sexual repression and homophobia to government conspiracy and rampant paranoia. And it's funny. Very funny. [July 2005, p.114]

80

Play Magazine

Bottom line: being an alien is fun, even if it is a bit rough around the edges. [July 2005, p.76]

80

Yahoo! Games

Once the greater story starts, you'll face some great combat (the "Area 42" assault), moments of pure oddness (like making a brainwashed politician B.S. his way through a public speech), great little period touches, and some cool bits of humor from the alien who thinks he's Nicholson.

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80

GameSpy

And while the title may never be mistaken for the deepest game on the PS2, Destroy All Humans! could very well be one of the funniest.

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80

games(TM)

It could be argued that Pandemic’s extra-terrestrial effort is a little on the simple side, but in terms of sheer playability, scale and freedom - albeit within fairly limited areas - Destroy All Humans! is a class act indeed. [July 2005, p.96]

80

Maxim Online

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.

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80

GameShark

If Pandemic had not so thoroughly nailed almost all the presentation aspects of this game, I would probably have given it only three sharks. But the out-of-this-world attention to detail and sci-fi insider humor raise the score by a full point.

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80

VideoGamesLife

The enemy's endless determination to take you out (the A.I's strong point) balanced with the direct and simple nature of play results in a polished and genuinely enthralling experience. Always at the heart of the game is a determination to be fun.

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80

DarkStation

Pandemic Studios takes what we love about campy alien B-Movies and turns it into this relentlessly funny and solid action title.

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79

BonusStage

A repetitive, simplistic and accessible game with a wealthy plating of good ole’ fun-in-small-doses style that makes it the quintessential rental.

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77

The New York Times

Worst of all, if you die at any point during the series of several tasks that make up a mission, you must start from the beginning, at times replaying the least interesting sections of the game over and over. It's a shame the gameplay lacks the almost flawless perfection of Destroy All Humans' story and presentation.

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75

GameSpot

And while the gameplay doesn't really do anything especially remarkable, and the adventure is unfortunately quite short, Destroy All Humans! shows such enthusiasm for its thematic inspiration that you can't help but at least appreciate what it tries to do.

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74

Inside Gamer Online

While the game is fun for nearly 8 hours, there's a certain amount of forced length in the game, when you wander around and collect DNA from brain stems or the rather simple sidequest missions in order to progress to the next mission.

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74

GameZone

A fun experience that puts you in a refreshing role, but there is just not enough in here for me to recommend anything besides renting.

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74

Game Over Online

The combination of frustrating mission mechanics and limited replay value leads me to strongly suggest renting Destroy All Humans before buying, if at all, regardless of your love for bad sci-fi.

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72

Jolt Online Gaming UK

In the end, Destroy All Humans! just doesn’t provide good value for money, and that’s something the developers seem to have lost sight of.

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72

WHAM! Gaming

A fun, zany, irreverent, violent (yeah!) and humorous game. It's just not very deep. It makes for a really good rental game as most of the coolest and engaging parts of the game are encountered in the first few missions and are then repeated throughout the rest of the experience.

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70

Pelit (Finland)

A nice 50's space-alien-communist-paranoia theme and good audiovisuals, but the actual content fails to impress. The game has boring missions and repetitive gameplay with emphasis on the wrong things. [Sept. 05]

70

Loaded Inc

In Destroy All Humans, play from the Alien perspective and finally know what it feels like to have the upper hand.

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70

Deeko

Spending time trudging through this so-so title, I feel a bit cheated. Rent this one, blaze through it in a few hours and get back up on the roof and wait for the real thing.

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70

Cheat Code Central

Perhaps if the reward system offered better mini-games this game might have been an instant cult classic.

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70

TotalPlayStation

Destroy All Humans isn't a bad game, it's a good game stretched a little too thin with not enough engaging story layered between the missions. Hopefully the sequel will give us a bit more to play around with, but this is a definite rental.

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70

Gamezilla!

At the end of the day, the missions do feel a bit repetitive and the objects that were leveled on one mission are mysteriously fine on the next, causing a certain amount of unevenness in the whole experience.

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70

IGN

It features all the underdeveloped and totally unessential components of other notable and forgettable open world action games, yet it also boasts terrific personality, a great premise and some generally solid action.

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70

Electronic Gaming Monthly

The game has a great sense of humor, and I enjoyed the story missions, but the side quests hardly vary at all from one level to the next. Just screwing around and messing with citizens isn't as fun as it could be, either.

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70

Eurogamer

Pandemic failed to make the core gameplay as compelling as it should have been and we're left reflecting on a game where no one play component really stands out as being good enough, and the missions just lack the spark that more solid core mechanics would have leant them.

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70

Total Video Games

For the B-Movie enthusiast Destroy All Humans could be a worthy purchase, packed to the brim with an assortment of Sci-Fi references and replicating the style to good effect. As a game however the action just grows a little too thin, a little too quickly; there’s no real substance to the game, which will likely have you switching off far too quickly.

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70

Pelaaja (Finland)

Destroy All Humans! is a successful mix of 3d-action, free roaming game play, conspiracy theories and sci-fi silliness. It has no apparent flaws but there’s still something missing from the mission design and the game as a whole. It promises a bit more than it manages to deliver. [June 2005, p.64]

70

PSX Extreme

The biggest problem with Destroy All Humans! is that it doesn’t bring anything new to the table. Sure, its story is different from the standard free-roaming game, but the gameplay is run of the mill, and there’s little innovation to speak of.

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67

Gaming Age

At the very least, you have to rent this one just to experience the 50’s B-movie hilarity.

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65

1UP

The main game isn't terribly long, and the missions, though sometimes creative, are often frustrating because there's usually only one way to complete them, making them feel needlessly restrictive--something that stings a little more in a sandbox game such as this.

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60

Edge Magazine

It’s very easy to while away the time just terrorising the populace of each level in an increasingly destructive fashion, but to actually care enough to contribute anything to a completion percentage is another matter entirely. [July 2005, p.86]

60

Official U.S. Playstation Magazine

Instead of the feeling of freedom found in a really good sandbox game, Destroy All Humans! generates a feeling of, well, boredom. You're walked mercilessly through the main story in baby steps, and side missions are infrequent and uninspired. [Aug 2005, p.86]

58

Game Revolution

While there’s some good stuff here, its sense of humor and playful vision doesn’t extend to its repetitive gameplay.

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50

PALGN

Great concept; shame about the execution. Here's hoping THQ is willing to fund a sequel to iron out the flaws. It's the least that Pandemic deserves.

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40

Computer Games Magazine

Unfortunately, unless Crypto's race is looking to harvest tedium and repetition from our earthly minds, he's better off just harassing than destroying them. [Sept 2005, p.90]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 25 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Alcatraz34 Monkeys gave it a10:
Great game! I wish there weren't any invasion sites, but other than that, you can't go wrong!

Crypto S. gave it a10:
I like the game! I just like how you could come home from school and release your anger on the people.! I just wish it came in eyetoy version to put teachers faces in in the people faces. I also like the graphics.

David M. gave it a10:
It's great. computer games magazine doesnt know what they're talking about.

Jesse E. gave it a9:
Short but has hard parts and was fun picking up stuff and had greatly enjoyable environments.

amir h. gave it a10:
It is an excellent game,buy it!!

Huggy gave it a10:
Woah this is a cool game.

M. C. gave it a9:
Awesome game obviously has some flaws but a great and original concept with humorous dialouge.

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