Derek spent most of the time explaining what was new in DAH!2. In particular, he went into great depths informing us of the new story. The plot is meant to kick off straight after the original DAH!. Basically, our protagonist, Cryptosporidium 137 (or Cryto) has settled in to his new role, but somehow his mothership is destroyed and he’s left to figure out what happened. For those who have yet to play the original, the story is one of the stronger points of the game and we think that it will be tough for the developers to replicate. Whereas the original was a take on the alien movies from the 1950’s, DAH! 2 is looking to poke fun at the Russian spy movies of the 1960’s.
We don’t want to give too much away but the story is meant to be expanding across much more than just America. Whereas the last game dug into every nook and cranny imaginable in terms of the American stigma, the developers have decided to look into other places. Basically, you’ll be traveling through England, Japan and Russia, as well as an undisclosed location to find out why the mothership has crashed. Along the way, the developers are looking to poke more fun at each locale and add some humour such as love interests, James Bond, Samurais, the KGB and Crypto managing to regain his, err… “mojo”.
There's likely to be plenty of boom.
In terms of gameplay, the developers are looking to improve what already was a solid formula by adding some smarter design elements. They are looking to keep the now mandatory open-ended setting but realistically realise that each of the locales are unlikely to be as large as their GTA counterparts. That said, you will have at least five major areas to explore, with each unlocked as you complete the story mode. It was expressed that there has been effort put into making the mission objectives requiring much more thought but at the same time, not requiring the player to run around too much.
We have been informed as well, that there has been extra effort put into making the side-objectives more relevant as well. Instead of arbitrary objectives such as “kill 10 humans”, the developers are looking to make them fit into the story better. One such example given was one that had multiple aspects to it. It required Crypto to build a transmitter but over several objectives. There will be different categories as well, including one called, “Ruin a Life”. This involves seeking out a particular someone using your “powers” and deciding whether you want to do them over or let things be.
Crypto has had a few power upgrades from the last game. Whereas before, you had an ability to create a hologram over yourself that looks like a body, you now are actually and literally taking over the body. Depending on the body you snatch, people will react differently when you talk to them. Other powers include the spreading of “free love”, mind flash a.k.a. Men In Black memory eraser, and your UFO will have the ability to cloak.
There have been four weapons added to the previous four to make a total of eight. You have a mobile turret manned by a character named Gastro (he has a lot of comedic potential), a weapon known as the “Disk Locator” (or something close), the Burrow Beast, that will follow a scent marker that you can toss into a group of enemies and a meteor strike that will allow you to take out whole buildings from the ground. Your UFO will have an added weapon, in the form of an anti-aircraft gun.
But certainly no peace.
We were informed (though Derek nearly forgot to tell us) that DAH!2 will indeed include co-operative multiplayer. Simply by plugging in another controller, players will be able to take two aliens out and create havoc instead of just the one. We were intrigued to hear about the mischievous possibilities, such as playing telekinetic tennis.
We would have liked to have spent a bit more hands-on time with the game, but our weak little minds couldn’t comprehend the presence of two rather discerning (and convincing) hippies. From the hands-on time that we did have with the game, it played very similarly to DAH!. In terms of presentation, the game looks reasonably good close to completion and a lot of the great voicing from the original has come back to record for the sequel.
We were left with the word that Pandemic are willing to look into doing sequels and follow-ups to what is conceptually and relationally a fantastic franchise. While the spy setting takes a little bit away from the original alien spoof, from what we’ve seen and heard, the humour is unlikely to suffer. The more promising thing is that the game is shaping up to be a much better design and we’re informed that it should be around double the size, in terms of play time, compared to the last one.
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