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Overview
Destroy All Humans! is a remake of the 2005 original, rebuilt by Black Forest Games and published by THQ Nordic in July 2020. The game casts players as Cryptosporidium-137, a Furon alien sent to 1950s Earth to harvest human DNA and prevent his species from going extinct. The premise sounds absurd, and it fully commits to that tone, blending open-world action with biting satire of Cold War American culture, government paranoia, and suburban conformity.
The story follows Crypto-137 as he tracks down his missing predecessor, Crypto-136, while battling US military forces and dismantling Majestic, a shadowy government organization led by a figure called Silhouette. Orthopox-13, Crypto's handler aboard the mothership, provides mission briefings with enough dry wit to make even the exposition entertaining. The writing punches at McCarthyism, B-movie alien invasion tropes, and 1950s pop culture simultaneously, and it lands more often than not.
Black Forest Games didn't just upscale the original. The remake introduces new missions, updated control schemes, visual overhauls, additional skins, and reworked abilities that make the game feel current without losing what made the 2005 version stick in people's memories.
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Gameplay and mechanics
The core loop revolves around two modes: on-foot chaos and UFO combat. On foot, Crypto carries a selection of alien weapons and psychic abilities that define the experience:
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- Zap-O-Matic: electric crowd control
- Disintegrator Ray: reduces humans to ash
- Anal Probe: exactly what it sounds like
- Psychokinesis: pick up and hurl objects and people
- Body Snatch: disguise yourself as a human to infiltrate areas
Body Snatching adds a stealth layer to missions. Crypto can read human minds to gather intel or scan crowds for mission-critical targets, and blending in requires managing a disguise meter that drains when NPCs get suspicious. It's a simple system, but it breaks up the constant carnage effectively.
The UFO sections lean into classic B-movie fantasy. Hovering over towns and unleashing death rays, abduction beams, and quantum deconstructor blasts on military convoys never stops feeling satisfying, even after the tenth time.
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World and setting
The game takes place across several distinct open areas set in 1959 America, from rural farmland to military installations and suburban neighborhoods. Each map is compact by modern standards, but the density of destructible objects, panicking civilians, and reactive military units keeps them lively. The aesthetic nails the era: drive-in theaters, white picket fences, and government agents in black suits populate every corner.
The satire is the setting's strongest asset. Propaganda posters, radio broadcasts, and NPC dialogue all mock the era's paranoia and conformity with enough specificity to feel researched rather than lazy. Crypto's disdain for humanity reads as genuine alien contempt rather than cartoon villainy, which gives the humor an edge.
Impact and legacy
The original Destroy All Humans! built a devoted fanbase during the PS2 era, and the remake preserves what made that game work while addressing its rougher edges. The PlayStation Store rating sits at 4.34 out of 5 stars from over 7,400 ratings, which reflects a playerbase that largely got what it came for. The remake is available on PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, PlayStation 4, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch, making it one of the more accessible entries in THQ Nordic's catalog.
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For players who want an open-world action game that doesn't take itself seriously, Destroy All Humans! delivers consistent mayhem wrapped in a genuinely funny script. The alien invasion fantasy has rarely been executed with this much personality.