Quick answer: Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed is a faithful remake of the 2006 game, and faithful is the catch. It looks terrific, the whole campaign runs in two-player split-screen co-op, and the 1960s satire still lands. It also kept the original's repetitive mission design, and it launched in August 2022 with serious performance problems. Patches have fixed most of those. Oddly, it scored lower than the game it remakes. Buy it discounted, ideally with a friend on the sofa.
Original illustration created for IGGG Guides.
Here's the strange thing about this remake. The 2006 original holds a 74 on Metacritic. Reprobed, rebuilt from the ground up in Unreal Engine 4 sixteen years later with better everything, sits at 67 on PS5 and 72 on PC and Xbox Series.
That's not because the remake is bad. It's because it is almost exactly the game it remakes, and what counted as a generous open world in 2006 reads as thin and repetitive now. Black Forest Games made a beautiful, loyal copy of something that had already aged.
The score gap, and what it means
Original illustration created for IGGG Guides.
| Version | Score | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Original, 2006 (PS2 and Xbox) | 74 | The higher score, on sixteen-year-older hardware |
| Reprobed, PC | 72 | Best-reviewed version of the remake |
| Reprobed, Xbox Series X/S | 72 | |
| Reprobed, PS5 | 67 | Worst performance issues at launch. One outlet gave it 3/10 |
| OpenCritic | 68, "Fair" | 41% of critics recommend. Bottom 34% of all games |
| Steam users | 79% positive | Around 2,300 reviews, "Mostly Positive", and recent reviews trend higher still |
Players landed meaningfully above critics, as they usually do with games like this. We saw the same split, far more extreme, in our Terminator: Resistance review, where critics said 47 and players said 8 out of 10. Budget and licensed games get scored against the year's best. Players score them against what they paid.
The feature nobody talks about
Original illustration created for IGGG Guides.
The entire campaign is playable in two-player local split-screen co-op. Plug in a second controller at any point and somebody drops in. No separate mode, no explanation, it just works, and it transforms the game. A repetitive mission becomes a competition over who causes more damage. There's also a versus mode and a mini-game called PK Tennis, both thin, but the co-op campaign is the real draw.
Two honest caveats. **There is no online co-op**, which in 2022 was a genuinely odd omission, though PC players can route around it with Steam's Remote Play Together. And split-screen costs performance, noticeably so on weaker hardware, because the game renders two views at once.
If couch co-op is the thing you want, this is one of the few modern games that still commits to it properly. Most of the industry gave up on it, for reasons we went through in why big budget games stopped being fun.
What it's actually like to play
You're Crypto, a Furon invader, dropped into four 1960s regions: a San Francisco analogue, a Soviet city, London, and Takoshima in Japan. You have a Zap-O-Matic, a disintegrator ray, telekinesis, mind reading, a holographic disguise and, yes, the series' infamous Anal Probe. Your saucer handles the large-scale destruction.
The real improvement over 2006 is that abilities now chain. You can hold enemies in telekinesis while shooting others and swap weapons mid-action without dropping the hold. That one change does more for the combat than any visual upgrade.
The satire is still sharp. The hippies, the Cold War paranoia, the KGB and the B-movie earnestness are all played straight enough to work. The toilet humour is relentless and will either suit you or it won't, and the game makes no attempt to meet you halfway.
Where it falls short
Mission design is the core issue and no patch can fix it. Destroy the thing, kill the target, survive the timer, repeat across four maps. The 2006 structure was preserved precisely, and preserving it was the problem.
Saucer sections remain the weakest part. They were clumsy in 2006 and they're clumsy now, just prettier.
On performance, be fair to both the critics and the current build. At launch in August 2022 the complaints were severe and legitimate: screen tearing in cutscenes, texture pop-in, frame drops, audio dropouts and outright crashes, worst on PS5. Patches since have improved stability, frame rates, Steam Deck performance and progression bugs substantially, and players who scored it 3/10 at launch have publicly revised upward. It is not flawless even now, and PC compatibility trackers still list occasional instability, but anyone describing it as unplayable is quoting 2022.
Will there be a third one?
Probably not from this team, at least not soon. In January 2024 Black Forest Games cut roughly half its staff, around 50 people from a headcount of about 110, as part of Embracer Group's restructuring. Embracer shed more than 7,800 jobs and closed or sold dozens of studios across that programme. The studio that remains, around 50 people, moved on to a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game.
Worth knowing before you buy in hoping for a continuation. The series has two further entries from 2008, Big Willy Unleashed and Path of the Furon, neither made by Black Forest Games and neither well regarded, so there's no obvious third remake waiting.
Buy, wait or skip
| You are | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Looking for couch co-op | Buy | Full campaign in split-screen. Very few modern games still offer this |
| Nostalgic for the 2006 game | Buy on sale | It is the same game, rebuilt. That's the appeal and the limitation |
| New to the series | Start with the first remake | Tighter, shorter, and generally better received |
| Playing solo, wanting depth | Skip | Mission repetition is hardest to ignore alone |
| On PS4 or Xbox One | Check first | The 27 June 2023 last-gen release is single-player only. No co-op at all |
| You remember launch reviews | Reconsider | Most of what they describe has been patched |
Where to get it
Launched at $39.99 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. A single-player-only edition arrived on PS4 and Xbox One on 27 June 2023, and a Nintendo Switch 2 port followed on 15 September 2026.
It is discounted hard and often, with 75 percent off appearing regularly, which puts it around ten dollars. There is no sensible reason to pay list price for a 2022 remake of a 2006 game. One thing to verify before buying: if you want split-screen co-op, buy the PS5, Xbox Series or PC version, because the last-gen release does not include it.
Verdict
Recommended on sale, strongly recommended with a second player. The remake is handsome, faithful and funny, and faithful is why it scored lower than the 2006 game it copies. Buy it cheap, put someone next to you on the sofa, and the repetition stops mattering. Playing it alone at full price is the one way to come away disappointed. Assessed against the current patched build.
Frequently asked questions
Does Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed have co-op?
Yes, the full campaign in two-player local split-screen, plus a versus mode and PK Tennis. There is no online co-op, although PC players can use Steam Remote Play Together. The PS4 and Xbox One version has no co-op at all.
Is it still buggy?
Much less than at launch. The August 2022 release had screen tearing, pop-in, crashes and frame drops, worst on PS5. Patches improved stability, frame rate and progression bugs considerably. Occasional instability is still reported, but reviews calling it broken describe the launch build.
Why did it score lower than the 2006 original?
Because it's a near one-to-one recreation. Mission design that was acceptable in 2006 reads as repetitive now, and launch performance problems cost it further. The original holds 74 on Metacritic, the remake 67 to 72.
Do I need to play the first remake first?
Not for the story, which stands alone. It is a good idea anyway, since the 2020 remake of the first game is tighter and better received, and it tells you quickly whether the humour suits you.
How long is it?
Around 12 to 15 hours for the main campaign, longer if you chase collectibles and free roam after finishing.
Is a third Destroy All Humans remake coming?
Nothing announced. Black Forest Games cut about half its staff in January 2024 during Embracer's restructuring and moved on to a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles project. The 2008 sequels were made by other studios.
What platforms is it on?
PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S from 30 August 2022, PS4 and Xbox One single-player only from 27 June 2023, and Nintendo Switch 2 from 15 September 2026.
Where to go next
- Terminator: Resistance, the clearest example of critics and players disagreeing
- Chernobylite, another mid-budget game that improved long after its reviews
- The Division 2, judged on its launch build and much better now
- Why studios like this one keep getting cut
- Why a faithful remake can feel worse than the original
- Browse more Action, Open World and Multiplayer guides