Destroy All Humans is a pretty hilarious, and well worth playing, third-person shooter

User Rating: 7.5 | Destroy All Humans! PS2
As both a history buff and a fan of fifties' horror films, the concept behind Destroy All Humans strikes me as one of the coolest ideas in video game history. In this 2005 game for PS2 and Xbox, you play as an alien named Crypto 137 in the year 1959, and your goal is to... yep, you guessed it! Destroy all humans! Through doing this, the game is delivered in a very similar manner to many horror movies from that time period while also doing a completely brilliant parody of life in the 1950's. Everybody loves America, everybody blames everything on communism, and the cookie-cutter suburban neighborhoods are painfully accurate. Every satirical element in this game is downright genius, and I think this is one of the funniest games I've ever played, hands down.

Unfortunately, if it weren't for the brilliant humor in Destroy All Humans, this would be a pretty unremarkable game. The third-person shooting mechanics are fairly typical of the genre, and a lot of the stealthy sections are frustrating during the later levels. This isn't a tough game by any stretch, but the lack of saves in the middle of some longer levels can be a bit annoying from time to time. It is worth making your way through a few boring stages, though, because Destroy All Humans does have a very cool story, and the last boss battle is a ton of fun.

Destroy All Humans isn't a particularly long game, but I think that's probably a good thing - with a few more levels, the game could very well overstay its welcome, and I think its current length is pretty fun without ever getting too repetitive. In short, Destroy All Humans is a worthy purchase for anyone who thinks that playing as the aliens in an atrocious fifties' horror movie sounds interesting. The controls are smooth, the graphics are great, the soundtrack is pretty epic, and (most of all) the story is freakin' awesome. This isn't the best game out there, but it's worth snatching up for a cheap price at your local game store.