What is it?

• In Destroy All Humans, you control Crypto Sporidium 137, an alien from the Furon race.
• The Furon race finds themselves in a jam after having deteriorated due to over cloning of their population.
• This has forced the Furon’s to seek out beings with compatible DNA that they can use to re-seed their over copied DNA strands.
• Wouldn’t you know that humans happen to have compatible DNA.
• Crypto is sent to Earth by his masters to take over the planet and to retrieve as much DNA as possible.
• Throughout the game Crypto will be able to find collectibles and extract brain stems from victims that will help him increase his psychic abilities.
• Abilities include:
• Psychokinesis – allows you to pick up objects in the world and either slam them around, or toss them off into the distance.
• Telepathy – allows you to read other beings minds. Not just humans mind you.
• Hypnotism – allows you to plant commands into others so that they will do your bidding.
• Camouflaging – allows you to take the form of another earthly creature. This adds a stealth element for times when you don’t want to be recognized.
• Extract – this is a basic ability that allows you to rip the DNA brainstems out of your foe.
• Crypto is also promised to have different weapons that he can use. However, the only one known at this time is his ray gun.

Preview Gameplay

• The demo we played got our feet wet with the controls and some of Crypto’s psychic abilities by letting us play through the tutorial.
• It was immediately apparent that the game is full of humor.
• Set in the 50’s, the game is full of alien stereotypes.
• The first objective you have is to mutilate the cows.
• Even the voice work of the unlucky farmers are full of over exaggerated redneck, who are not to bright to pick up the clues.
• Overall, I think the comedy is going to be one of the highpoints in the game.
• Throughout the tutorial, you are given small objectives by your mentor Pox, who apparently is observing from the mother ship somewhere.
• Often after completing one of these small objectives, the game switches to some in game cinematics to advance the story and setup the next objective.
• The tutorial does a good job in introducing you to the controls and basic gameplay mechanics.
• By holding the left trigger you can activate your psychic abilities through the use of the colored buttons.
• Psychokinesis is the first offensive ability at your disposal which allows you several different ways to deal with your foes.
• You can pick up your foe and slam them on the ground or against a tree, all while maintaining your hold on them.
• You can pick up one foe and aim it at another foe and then hurl it at them, taking them both out.
• Sometimes, doing this will take out even more nearby enemies off the rebound.
• You can pick up your foe, and just hurl them off into the distance.
• You can even pick up most objects in the environment and then drop them on your foes.
• As you use your psychic powers your psychic meter will drain. When it reaches zero your ability will cease and you will have to wait a little bit while your psychic powers recharge.
• You will also have a death ray gun at your disposal.
• In the tutorial, I found this to not be very effective for eliminating your foes.
• It does do a good job in freezing them for a second. This gives you time to regenerate your psychic power.
• Some levels also let you get in your space craft and allow you to demolish nearby buildings and structures.
• This was fun but quite simple in the demo.
• There was no Z axis flying, so it was all just left, right, up and down on the screen which was basically a top-down to ¾ view of the environment.
• This means if you can see your target and want to tilt up to fire further into the distance to hit it, you won’t be able to. You’ll have to fly closer to the target.
• Maneuvering Crypto was also very easy and fluid.
• Shooting or throwing something at a foe is pretty easy, as a target receptacle will clearly tell you when your aim is locked on.
• Crypto also uses a jet pack that allows him to jump over and onto most obstacles with easy.  
• Graphically the game looked great on the Xbox.
• The environments were nicely detailed and colorful.
• Grass and Trees were well rendered and are often a good checkpoint for how much quality is put into the graphics.
• Crypto himself is highly detailed.
• Human characters though were a little less detailed.
• Most objects found in the world are destructible.
• Drop a truck and it might explode into a burning heap of metal.
• Hay bails can be thrown at foes but will disintegrate on contact.
• In the audio department, it sounds like Destroy All Humans will deliver.
• The demo showcased a little of the voice acting that we can hope to hear.
• Much of the script either over exaggerates the stereotypes or pokes fun at the old 50’s era alien infatuation.
• Your alien mentor sounds menacing and cocky.
• When probed the thoughts of the farmers and other humans are usually entertaining.
• Overall, the demo was short and to the point, but definitely feels like the game has potential.

Preview Hype

• Destroy All Humans looks like it will add a little bit of a different twist on action games using psychic powers.
• Playing as an alien trying to take over the Earth is a fresh change of pace.
• The free form game play as well as a story with the potential for good humor keeps this game on the watch list.
• The ability to fly your space craft sounds like fun, but it felt like it could get very repetitive to do so.
• The level design promises to offer detailed and expansive environments with hidden items and sub objectives, and even some mini game distractions like jetpack races.
• With the ability to use camouflage to disguise yourself as well as using hypnotism to control other humans, the game looks like it will offer plenty of opportunity for creative gameplay.
• If the rest of the game can be polished, and can offer enough variety so as to not make the game stale, Destroy All Humans will be an above average action game.
• The world is set to be destroyed on June 19^th.