When we last saw Crypto, he and his cranky cohort Pox were busy harvesting the brainstems of the human race in hopes of fixing a genetic snag that left them unable to reproduce. Without giving away too much from the first game, it's safe to say at least a few humans survived. Otherwise, there would really be no point in this sequel. Destroy All Humans! 2 picks up the story about ten years later where, thanks to some ingenious scheming, Crypto is now President of the United States. Oh, and he's also managed to fix his previous little asexual reproduction problem, making the White House feel more like a brothel.
Life seems good for the little guy... that is until the KGB interferes. It seems the Russians have managed to blow Crypto's mothership to smithereens, leaving Crypto stranded on our little ball of dirt. To make matters worse, there's some sort of conspiracy afoot that involves a commune leader named Coyote Bongwater spiking everyone's drinking water and effectively killing off the remnant Furon DNA that Crypto's race needs to survive. Naturally, this isn't something the pint-sized Jack Nicholson will take lying down. And so, a new globe spanning adventure begins.
Crypto's newly developed... ahem... "package" isn't the only piece new equipment appearing in DAH! 2. His arsenal of weapons and abilities has been improved too. Alongside his trusty Zap-O-Matic and Disintegrator from the first game, Crypto gets to play around with the new Dislocator and Meteor guns. The Dislocator fires a short pulse of energy that launches its targets through the air, higher than many of the game's hippie population has ever been, even WITH chemical assistance. With the Meteor Attack gun, Crypto paints the target for a couple of seconds before unleashing a storm of fiery death from the heavens.
Overall, it looks like the guys at Pandemic have gone the extra mile when it comes to listening to criticisms of the original game. The missions are more varied, as are the locations Crypto will find himself traveling to. No longer content to settle down in Bay City, Crypto will make his way to England, Japan, Russia, and a few other surprising locales before the game is over. Also, players can take on most of the missions in any order they see fit, so if you get stuck in one stage, you can hop to another before the game becomes to redundant. I'm hoping there's a little more polish added to the AI before the final release though, as most enemies I ran into didn't ever to much more than run and shoot. Maybe I've just gotten spoiled lately, but I like to see it when the AI ducks for cover or shoots at me from behind a wall. It just feels more realistic that way.
Crypto doesn't have to go it alone this time around either. Pandemic has included a co-op mode that works almost as well in the version I tested as the single-player experience. Two players can work together via split-screen to accomplish the main objectives of each mission. And just to keep the competitive streak alive, the players also try to outdo one another's kill count in each mission. And if that's not enough competition to keep your friends entertained, there's even a small collection of fun minigames to keep the multiplayer fun going on. It was nice to see Pandemic give fans a way to bring others into the DAH! experience, but if you're going to go this far, why not add some online multiplayer into the mix?
Destroy All Humans! 2 is just about everything fans of the first game could ever hope for. The developers took the strengths of the first game and made them stronger, shored up most of the weakness, and added a few new goodies that fans and newcomers alike will surely appreciate. If this current build is any indication, humanity's days may be numbered, but we'll be going out with a bang.