Few people who read my review of 2005’s Destroy All Humans! from THQ and Pandemic could have missed the fact that I loved the game. While the actual game execution was not stellar, the presentation and attention to detail of the 1950s United States setting and science fiction references made it one of my personal favorite games of last year. Now Pandemic is planning yet another giant step on mankind and this time the action takes place in the swinging 1960s.

When the original Destroy All Humans! ended, we left the wise-cracking and extremely violent Crypto Sporidian 137 ruling the good old USofA disguised as the president after defeating all enemies – including the dreaded Majestic organization and its shadowy leader. Time has pasted and now Crypto faces what South Park’s Cartman would consider to be the dirtiest and worst-smelling enemy ever breed by mankind … the ‘60s hippy.

What follows is a wild send up of the counter culture movement in one of the USA’s most turbulent times. Also getting into the act are spy movies and the cold war. If we’re lucky, the DAH!2 apple will not fall far from the tree and we can all look forward to some truly bizarre moments as free love and the peace movement meet James Bond and warheads. And all of it will surely receive the scathing alien commentary of Crypto.

The game takes place in five environments throughout the world where our antihero Crypto can unleash a wide variety of human-killing destruction. Almost all the old weapons and powers are back like psychokinesis and the dreaded anal probe. New to the game is the ability to actually take over the bodies of humans and make them do a little more than just create a distraction. Also new is a designator device that is used to call down a meteor strike on a target. Good fun getting hit by rocks from above!

Also new to the game is a cooperative mode that lets two players tackle missions together. This could be a lot of fun. As Dr. Venkman might say, “Good idea, we can do more damage that way.”

My brief time with the game did not allow me to learn as much about Destroy All Humans! 2 as I would have liked, and it was hard to tell if the gameplay is really going to see much of an improvement over the game that came out a scant year ago, but the irreverent tone and great attention to cultural detail in the humor of the game, along with some serious weapon upgrades, is going to make it a must-buy for me when it comes out later this year. - Will Jayson Hill.