Destroy All Humans Hands-On

Destroy All Humans! is the story of an alien on a simple mission: to capture or kill every man, woman, and child that inhabits planet Earth. Equipped with a mighty UFO warship and quite a few varieties of futuristic handguns, our antihero begins in earnest by gleefully reducing agents and tanks alike to smoldering ruin. Like its upcoming console counterpart, Destroy All Humans! mirrors the offbeat aesthetic of sci-fi spoof movies like Tim Burton's Mars Attacks!. Tentatively slated for an April release, DAH! for mobile is coming together very well.

As strange as it may sound, DAH! is conceptually very similar to Grand Theft Auto. There's an on-foot component during which, instead of hijacking cars, you hijack people. This is accomplished through the strategic use of a mind-control beam that wins you one mindless follower, as well as some additional heat on your "wanted" level, which is displayed at the top of the screen. You can reduce your wanted level by mimicking the appearance of any human. As long as you transform while out of the line of sight, you won't come under much scrutiny when disguised. However, you also won't be able to attack anything while in this mode. Your more destructive weapons let you vaporize all manner of humans, which is the kind of thing aliens really get off on.

Again like GTA, Destroy All Humans! features vehicular missions, collectively presented as a sort of vertical-scrolling shooting game. As in the on-foot sequences, you'll have access to a wealth of alien weaponry, most of which targets ground units like infantry and tanks. These battles seem to take place in a suburban sprawl, and they're as comic as they are violent.

DAH! is looking to be technically proficient as well. Weapon effects were well differentiated, and the game moved along at a steady clip. As the alien, you'll emit colorful beams of energy that char your carbon-based foes to various degrees (pardon the pun). The UFO missions alone look more polished than those of most mobile shooters.

Essentially, Destroy All Humans! is two competent games in one. It undoubtedly benefits from its association with the console version, from which it's borrowed its core gameplay. We can't wait to commit genocide for the glory of our bug-eyed race!