Destroy all Humans! 2

DAH!2 sets out to expand on what made the original such a hit: scads of action, humor, and alien technology.

The original genre-bending abduct-a-thon took place in the rather conservative '50s, but the free love hippie communes, plentiful psychogenic drugs, and paranoid Cold War undercurrent plant Destroy All Humans 2 firmly in the tie-dyed 1960s.

Alien Acid Trip

Those pesky human apes that aren't busy tuning in and turning on are hatching plans to expose alien control to the masses, and the Russians have launched an all-out assault on the invaders. Fuming Furon and Jack Nicholson sound-alike Crypto starts out in the "Hashbury" district of Bay City, a San Francisco analogue, with little more than an electricity gun and a jet pack, and spends most of his time ogling human women, possessing and scanning human brains, killing cops and military personnel, and generally making a huge nuisance of himself. As you progress, you'll visit similarly open-ended burgs in the Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and Japan, each populated with its own peculiar locals.

Freedom and variety are abundant, and there's certainly no shortage of things to do. If it's bipedal, it can be possessed like a fleshy marionette, telepathically interrogated, or incinerated. If it's inanimate, you can levitate it, transmogrify it, or blow it up. You won't just fight humans, either: expect to face off against some pretty nasty bosses. Sure, the story and its widely varying missions give structure to what might otherwise feel a bit aimless, but you're always free to simply explore the five large, open environments: Look for hidden goodies, hunt down alien technology for upgrades, and take on plentiful "odd job" side missions without having to hike back to the mother ship.

This Island Earth

One of the things that made Destroy All Humans so fresh, apart from playing instead of fighting an invading alien, were the constant slams on human stereotypes. The tone remains as sarcastic as ever, and every human is a caricature of one form or another, even when they're played against type for comedic value. (Scan an uptight lady's brain, and you might hear her thinking, "Man, I really need to score," while a hippie chides himself for an unused degree in economics.)

Folks react differently depending on whom you possess when you need to blend in. Most events and conversations are amped up to hilarious extremes, giving every confrontation an exciting and goofy quality. Even the chats that precede each mission are loaded with optional dialogue, and you'll spot plenty of movie parody moments and thinly veiled commentaries on current events.

Two to Tango

The coolest new feature, by a long stretch, is offline cooperative multiplayer, with each participant playing a Crypto clone via a split-screen. Need to collect electronics from all over the city? Have a friend help you out. When in the saucer, one of you steers while the other dishes hot death on anything that moves. What's more, this two-player mode opens up additional missionsnot to mention dueling and a unique game of tennisthat are otherwise inaccessible, practically demanding that you play with a friend to get the most out of the experience.

New weapons include crowd-pleasing meteor strikes, a disc gun that takes even the heaviest tank on an unpredictable aerial joy-ride, and more powerful mental contortions. Poxmart serves as a sort of alien boutique shop for upgrading ammo capacity, damage infliction, shielding, and more. You'll find currency for these items all over the landscape, while the raw materials of gene blending are milked from the hordes of dim-witted humans. While Destroy All Humans! 2 doesn't look revolutionary, graphically or otherwise, it should to pack enough action, laughs, and surprises to keep fans good and busy.

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