u/ItsWilliamDude

We are officially one month away from re-enlightenment! Destroy All Humans: Re-Enlightened, a.k.a. the mod that turns Path of the Furon from crap to peak, is almost here. With the finish line in sight, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on this long, strange trip. What started as a backup plan evolved into something bigger.

A Short History Lesson

History remembers Path of the Furon as a bad game. What was intended to be Crypto's explosive next-gen premiere became 2008's janky alien game of the year. Bad graphics, rampant glitches, and unpolished gameplay meant what should have been another fun Destroy All Humans sequel released as a turkey of a game.

It wasn't the developer's fault. Sandblast had their heart in the right place, but factors like a finicky game engine and a strict deadline made development that extra bit challenging. Just as they were about to put it in the oven, THQ laid off the staff then shut down the studio. Path of the Furon bombs and puts the series into a ten-year coma.

Are those people walking around in the background?!

I wasn't aware of Path of the Furon's reputation at the time. I was excited to play more Destroy All Humans when I got the game for Christmas in 2011. I played it from start to finish, but even as a teenager, something felt off. Maybe it was because there was no ragdoll. Maybe it was because people looked like ants skating around when Crypto was in the saucer.

As a teenager, I didn't really notice the problems. As an adult, all I see are the problems. Yet, underneath its shaky structure is a solid foundation. Path of the Furon brought great ideas to the table like streamlined controls, upgraded saucer gameplay, and new, improved weaponry to destroy all humans with.

The problem is these ideas are stuck in an unfinished game, but almost 20 years later, a God DAHM team came together to finish an unfinished game. To re-enlighten it, if you will.

Re-Enlightening Path of the Furon

Destroy All Humans: Re-Enlightened transforms one of the most infamous games of all time into an enjoyable experience. It squashes several hundred bugs. It improves the gameplay. It turns crusty graphics into clean, crisp graphics.

I've broken down all the work we've done in a couple videos, but the short of it is through the power of modding, we've polished the hell out of Path of the Furon. It's the big things, like fully functioning ragdoll, combined with tiny things like restoring particle FX that are completely absent, that make the game feel more complete versus what we got in 2008.

If you had to ask me what my favorite improvement is, it's the combat. It feels fun fighting enemies who know how to shoot using weapons that feel reliable as opposed to broken or overpowered. The disintegrator ray isn't a pitiful pellet gun anymore. The anal probe is handy for making quick, invasive examinations of humans.

Post processing is no longer a dirty word.

Shoot a building and you'll see a crowd of people come running out, making them an easy target for your intergalactic vacuum cleaner, a.k.a. the abduction beam. Are helicopters giving you trouble? Launch a salvo of seeker drones their way!

Enemies keep the heat on Crypto, doing things like flanking or dodge rolling to avoid his attacks. Final alert doesn't summon clunky Nexo's, but the military who's locked and loaded to take out the little grey menace.

A DAHM Fine Team

Re-Enlightnened wasn't the work of one individual, but a fine DAHM team of people. MaxDeadBear was responsible for dissecting the game's more technical problems, even if it did nearly cause them to go crazy. Yorpie, the greatest Belgian since Jean Claude Van Damme, brought his modding expertise to the gameplay.

Thanks to him, the game feels more complete, and the levels feel more alive thanks to all the cut pedestrians and vehicles that have been restored.

Destroy All Humans Tribute, the world's greatest Frenchman, brough his artistic talents to Re-Enlightened. He breathed new life into the soulless, low-res textures by creating new, non-AI-enhanced, high-quality ones. He also remastered several cutscenes, fixing goofs and adding back cut dialogue to flesh out the cinematics.

One is murky and drab. The other is lively and gorgeous.

Our QA testers made sure we dotted all the I's and crossed all the T's, in addition to pointing out the game's most obscure bugs we otherwise might have overlooked.

Me? I stood around and looked handsome. In all seriousness, besides steering the ship, I was heavily involved in the work, in addition to promoting the project in a respectful, non-spammy matter. To think I went to college to study journalism, not how to fix broken games.

Challenges

Working on Re-Enlightened has been exciting and gratifying. It's a project that's surprised us every step of the way with just how much we've been able to do. I didn't expect us to implement at least half of the things we have, but over a year later, we've been proven otherwise.

Yet, for every high, there have been some lows. The biggest one was navigating those early months when it was just Max and I working on it. Many late nights were spent figuring out what did what. Having ragdoll back was great, but Path of the Furon has a laundry list of problems beyond no ragdoll.

It didn't help when I made a video early in the project's life claiming 60 to 70 percent of the game had been fixed, when it was more like 10.

A wise man once said, "Don't hype what you don't have," and I did the opposite and hyped something that was far from ready. From then on, I only updated the community on Re-Enlightened's progress when it was necessary.

Average DAHM Team Moment

My biggest challenge was knowing I was the one bearing the weight of responsibility. Re-Enlightened is DAHM Team's baby, and as the creative director, I'm making sure it's a smooth delivery. This means ensuring the project is being worked on and not neglected.

There were periods of progress where we were firing on all cylinders, and periods where we weren't. We're human. We have our lives and responsibilities, but those slow periods left me frustrated and overwhelmed.

"Burnout is real." I didn't heed this advice because when burnout hit, it hit like a freight train. My body and mind were like mush. I took the week off, gathered my bearings, and after reaching out to the other DAHM Team members, we got things situated.

What's Next?

Re-Enlightened started as a backup plan to salvage the recomp we had initially been working on. Now, it's arguably the thing people are more excited for than the recomp itself.

I think people are excited because it's the first new Destroy All Humans content in almost five years. THQ Nordic hasn't done much with the series since Reprobed. They've ported the first two remakes, yes, but that's all they are, ports of already existing games.

While I'm glad, they haven't run the franchise into the ground like old THQ did, it's led to an endless "Will they? Won't they?" in the Destroy All Humans community. People are always asking when's the next DAH or what they should do next. Re-Enlightened might be a fan project, but it fills a void that's been left in the wake of any official announcements.

Between this, ReDAHM (the Path of the Furon recomp we're cooking), Big Willy Refried (Tribute's texture overhaul for Big Willy Unleashed) and Tribute's top secret project he's working on, fans are about to be eating good again. Who knows, maybe THQ Nordic might see what we're doing and give us a call. You never know.

Spot the difference.

Once Re-Enlightened is out, I'm disconnecting. I'm unplugging the computer, putting away the phone, and spending the following week free from Re-Enlightened's grasp. I've put a lot of time and effort into this; a lot more than I expected to be honest. It's been gratifying for sure, but I'm ready to not have anal probes and laser beams always on my mind.

The last thing I'll say is Destroy All Humans: Re-Enlightened is a watershed moment. We gave an infamous game a redemption run and now it's a legitimately enjoyable experience. At the same time, I can help but think all of this could have been avoided had THQ let Sandblast cook instead of forcing them to compromise the final product.

To the Destroy All Humans community, I say thank you for your support. To DAHM Team, I say thank you for being awesome and doing such a great job. Now, let's finish this!

With regards,

William Lowery (Creative Director)

P.S. If you see me reaching for a device during my hiatus, please tackle me.

Re-Enlightened Discord: https://discord.gg/PnPa8ybZpK

The wait is almost over! Destroy All Humans: Re-Enlightened, the "Fine, I'll do it myself" remaster of Path of the Furon drops August 21!

It's been a long, crazy journey. Tears were shed, blood was spilled, and chairs were thrown, but our DAHM Team pushed through and soon you'll get to play the fruit of our labors! Thank you for your support and your patience. Let's finish this mod and finish it strong!

As always, join the Furon Army on Discord: https://discord.gg/PnPa8ybZpK