What started in 2005 with Destroy All Humans has somehow ended up here at Path of the Furon. This was once a quirky, funny take on ‘50s sci-fi that has now flatlined into an unfunny, unoriginal, spin on the 1970s. Path of the Furon is an example of what can go wrong, will go wrong.
Crypto is an alien who likes anal probing. He’s here to take over the world, and has been doing so for the better part of three decades (you would think they’d be done by now). Anyway, this open world title offers little of what fans expect from this genre, especially with the bar constantly being raised with the likes of GTA IV and Saint’s Row.
While the competition has heated up, Furon has cooled. There is almost no innovation since the original in 2005. This feels exactly the same, with similar mission types, guns, and flying combat in a UFO. The latter remains the best part of the game, and with new weapons, blowing up buildings remains a blast. Unfortunately, much of the game takes place on the ground.
Missions feel similar, or unclear. In one early quest, Crypto must snag toxic waste from a military base to fuel his UFO. Halfway through, the army begins an assault which is impossible to survive on the ground. Since you’re trying to get fuel for the UFO, it doesn’t make sense to get into it to survive the strictly human attack, but that’s exactly what you’re supposed to do.
Countless missions have the player walking around, reading people’s minds to find the right one. You take over the body, and then proceed to dupe someone through an inane dialogue tree. Crypto’s strictly male voice hardly makes sense when in the body of woman, yet the people still fall for it. To make matters worse, dialogue doesn’t always load correctly. Characters will either stand there doing nothing before moving on (keep the subtitles on to ensure you hear everything), or the camera will stay still until the words do load.
Despite brining nothing new to the table, Path of the Furon is an unforgivable technical mess. Glitches are rampant, from both a visual and technical standpoint. Crypto becomes stuck in buildings, enemies begin spinning around at random, dead foes have their hats float around, and the camera goes crazy when taking over the body of another human.
On top of that, the game is unbelievably ugly. This would have been at home in the first generation of the PS2, with unforgiveable pop-up, slowdown, frame rate dips, and weak effects. Building collapses are initially impressive until you realize it’s the same animation every time.
It’s not that the Destroy All Humans series has fallen. It’s simply failed to move up. Stale writing, familiar gameplay, and loads of technical problems hinders this fourth sequel every step of the way. Even the most ardent Crypto fanatics should be advised to avoid this slop.
