Destroy all Humans! Path of the Furon Review for Xbox 360

Destroy all Humans! Path of the Furon box art

System: X360	Review Rating Legend
Dev: Sandblast	1.0 - 1.9 = Avoid	4.0 - 4.4 = Great
Pub: THQ	2.0 - 2.4 = Poor	4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
Release: Dec. 1, 2008	2.5 - 2.9 = Average	5.0 = The Best
Players: 1-4	3.0 - 3.4 = Fair
ESRB Rating: Teen	3.5 - 3.9 = Good

However, buried beneath Path of the Furon's plethora of problems lays the same Destroy All Humans experience that one would expect. Players will once again take to the air in a suped-up UFO, blasting enemies and abducting locals. New UFO landing sites will once again require you to perform a small task for Arkvoodle in exchange for the right to use them. Crypto can still complete an abundant supply of humor-infused missions while gaining new weapons and powers to help him along the way. Collecting human brain stems still provides Crypto with Furon DNA that can be used to further upgrade his tools of destruction.

Destroy all Humans! Path of the Furon screenshot

While the heavy usage of the words "still" and "again" in my descriptions of the gameplay may seem repetitive, it is actually quite appropriate because this game doesn't really try anything new. Sure, there may be a few new weapons and abilities, but they do little to distract players from the fact that all of the missions in the game severely lack variety and some even feel like they were extracted directly from previous games in the series: destroy X number of buildings/objects using your UFO; keep character X safe until a timer runs out; read this person's thoughts and assume that character's body to proceed, etc. and repeat endlessly.

Even the game's multiplayer has taken a big step backward. Gone is the ability to have a second player help you through the game's story. In its stead are three fairly lame mini-games that you'll likely not want to play more than once or twice each. One has you and a friend in separate UFOs trying to hang onto an abductee to fill an onscreen meter. Another consists of using Crypto's psychokinetic power to grab and hurl pedestrians into a rotating brain harvesting machine. The only one that might provide the slightest amount of fun and replayability is called Ion Soccer. Here you and your opponent use the Ion Detonator to direct a sphere into goals to score points. This mode can be entertaining but since there is no real variety to it, it also fails to keep you interested past the first few matches.

In the end, Path of the Furon fails to raise the bar for the Destroy All Humans franchise, even taking some dramatic steps backward. While new weapons like the Venus Human Trap and new powers such as the ability to freeze time can be useful and amusing, even they can't disguise the repetitive and uninspired nature of the game's missions. Players can no longer play through the story side by side, instead getting three halfhearted mini-games to ignore after only a few matches. Add in some fairly lackluster graphics, numerous glitches, and recurring framerate issues and Path of the Furon becomes even less fun to play than the series' previous iterations. If you absolutely need a new Crypto game to play, then rent Path of the Furon. Otherwise, you may just want to revisit one of his previous exploits.

By Adam Brown
CCC Staff Contributor

RATING OUT OF 5

RATING DESCRIPTION

1.9

Graphics
This game doesn't look too dissimilar to its predecessors on the last generation of consoles. That is, except for all of the glitches and framerate issues that continually plague the entire experience.

3.7

Control
The game controls fairly well except for some problems that arise when trying to aim at specific enemies.

4.0

Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
The original voice actors are back and continue to do a great job.

2.2

Play Value
Repetitive and uninspired missions abound as do glitches that can make completing missions more difficult or even impossible without reloading. The lack of a co-op mode for the campaign is also a huge letdown.

2.2

Overall Rating - Poor
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

Devastating mental abilities: Embark on the Path of Enlightenment to learn devastating new mental powers from an ancient alien Kung-Fu master. Freeze time and manipulate the world around you with your psychokinetic abilities, hypnotize humans to do your bidding, or snatch their bodies to mingle with the locals.

Unworldly arsenal: Battle enemies with a devastating arsenal of alien weaponry. Old favorites like the Zap-O-Matic and Anal Probe are back with next-gen upgrades, while new weapons like the Black Hole Gun and the Venus Human Trap let you wreak havoc in new and exciting ways.

Next-gen UFO: Tight handling, smooth ride, fine Corinthian leather, and lots of guns is how Crypto rolls. Take to the skies and wreak havoc from above with new weapons like the Plasma Cannon and the Tornadotron, or engage in air-to-air combat with the new "fire-and-fugetaboutit" Seeker Drones.

High-fidelity destruction: Manipulate or destroy anything in the world. Create disaster movie-level destruction with advanced multi-stage destruction capabilities, collateral damage, chain reactions, and advanced physics. Lay waste to entire cities, creating panic in the streets.

Open-world play: Go anywhere at any time in an open world mission structure. Explore five huge open environments without ever leaving the game world, or take on a variety of side missions and mini-games.

Multiplayer modes: Destroy All Humans together through a variety of co-op and adversarial multiplayer modes.

Screen Resolution: Up to 1080i (Standard HDTV).