This remake of Destroy All Humans! is really quite incredible.

Destroy All Humans! is a rare example of a remake that changes just enough to maintain the essence of the original while improving the overall experience. The gameplay enhancements give this a more modern feel but it maintains the original story and visual style to appease those seeking a nostalgia fix. Destroy All Humans! was always a fun game though hasn’t aged all that well. This version revitalizes the title, changing just enough to make revisiting Area 42 a worthwhile invasion.

A decent remaster. Despite some shortcomings it still is fun to join the destructive alien on his adventure, that not only appeals to a new audience, but to old Crypto-fans alike.

The Destroy All Humans remake’s skeleton is geriatric in some respects. Repetitive audio, antiquated objective types, strict fail states, and repetitive audio are dead giveaways that this game is firmly planted in 2005 in detrimental ways that this remake did not address. But the overhauled control scheme and thoughtful new mechanics add a layer of muscle on top of that skeleton and keeps old age from breaking those bones down into dust.

Overall, this remake of Destroy All Humans is essentially the 2005 original with a fresh coat of paint and a few tweaks, and it carries over everything, warts and all. While there are definitely some frustrations in the gameplay mechanics, taken as a whole, the game holds up surprisingly well.

The updated version of Destroy All Humans certainly looks a lot better than the original did on two-generation old hardware, but it really needed the gameplay to be updated as well. Artificial challenge created by horde-tactic mobs of enemies, a clunky skills and weapons system, repetitive gameplay, and claustrophobic open world levels all work against the graphics to really show the game's age. The game's premise still holds up today, so it's a shame that the gameplay was left stuck in the past.

Fans have been clamouring for the return of Crypto for some time and Destroy All Humans for PS4 is their chance to relive the bygone PS2 era and relive those ill-tempered, extra-terrestrial antics from fifteen years ago. The remake looks great but unfortunately, THQ Nordic’s 2020 effort introduces more issues than it solves; keeping repetitive audio while adding in lengthy loading times, performance issues and poorly implemented gameplay updates. For the one small step of increased graphical fidelity, this version takes one giant leap back for overall quality.