Destroy All Humans 2 was genuienly more fun than Destroy All Humans, all told, but I think it also derailed the series in a way that made its downfall inevitable.
DAH was, conceptually, a sci-fi B-movie game that was taking the piss out of 1950s America
as part of its setting of being a sci-fi B-movie game. Genre came first, setting came second as a container for the genre.
DAH 2 completely lost the plot right off the bat in deciding it was first and foremost about being Retro Fun Times first with setting driving. Because of that they then change the genre focus (to you being an alien invader... and President of the US... and now this is a part-Bond, part-Austin Powers-parodying-Bond spy movie about hippies and Russian agents and Japan being wacky anime land). It still had some real high points; I think folding in the Space Race and Soviet side of the Cold War was inspired with Tunguska and the Moon base and I'd be a liar if I said I'm not a sucker for all hippie/60s-70s San Francisco stuff, but still.
What do you get after 2? 70s DAH, done twice. You get a Jacques Cousteau villain because we're doing Paris and what's more 1970s France than Jacques Cousteau, am I right? You get martial arts Hong Kong because what's more 1970s than Jackie Chan or whatever?
The thing went up its ass chasing something that was almost like reference humor but historical reference humor more than pop culture reference humor. Or, both at once. What it forgot is that it's a fucking alien invasion game. I'd have as rather if they were going to do that shit gotten a War of the Worlds-ass Edwardian prequel.
Even the cities in the sequels showed that they were losing the crisp, tight vision of the original to chase after marketing MOAR CITIES. Every single location in DAH existed to give you a different slice of UFOland. Countryside (underused in my opinion) abduction crop circle land, rural town as larger stage for the same thing, peak 50s suburbia, gloomy industrial Northeastern harbor city, Area 51, Washington DC. That is a whole, impressionist collage of places where little gray men frolic and harvest organs. (I will admit, though, I didn't play Path of the Furon and having Scientology as a major plot point DOES fit.)
Days Gone was legitimately one of the worst games I have ever played. The first quarter was nice, but the quality just kept dropping and dropping, and by the end I was actually insulted that I was tricked into playing such a pile of shit. The gameplay is slightly better than The Last of Us, I will give you that, but that's only because the first few hordes you fight are an absolute blast to get through, not because the actual gameplay loop is actually good. And even that is heavily marred by the fact that looting has environmental permanence, so if you want more junk to make gadgets, you have to do more and more chores and backtracking.
The story and characters are horrendous though. One of the most progressive propaganda filled games I have ever had the displeasure of consuming, which was clearly a bait and switch since it starts actually quite pleasant overall. I knew INSTANTLY that the militia leader was super evil when he was an old, White, Christian man. Of course he turned out to be an evil lunatic, there was a 0% chance he would be anything else in a game like that. Also, all the bad guys in the finale are all White Christian men too... really subtle. Also, they completey wasted the Hispanic bad guy that led the doomsday druggie cult. They built him and his group up throughout the game, then they turn out to be a sidequest to get to the evil White man and you resolve that whole storyline in a mission, in the most unsatisfying way possible. Also, why were there so many buildings on fire and still standing after you flooded their town with a reservoir by destroying a dam? It's like they had a completely different level made, and decided to not bother remaking it just to put as little effort into the bait and switch as possible.
That wasn't my experience but I can see where you're coming from. I may also if I'm being honest be overreacting to The Last of Us in remembering it critically.
What I liked about it was that it nailed a very specific tone it was aiming for of The Walking Dead like mundanity and seriousness that feels heavier over time. I got something similar out of Prey (2017) where everything about the world was so dry that it felt real. Really admired the way it depicted a swathe of Flyover Country accurately.
Compared to other recent media I thought it was actually pretty light on diversity, it even popped at me when the first Black showed up because I hadn't seen one yet so when one did pop up I was impressed, it felt like accurate rural heartland America diversity where these people exist but are rare and not all that remarkable when you do run into them (contrasted to Far Cry 5 being set in a similar environment with them everywhere). It had the lesbo characters and I couldn't take it seriously for how... goofy the idea of them together was. When I met the Colonel I would have followed him off a cliff if I could, very charismatic character. I didn't read him as being anti-Christian propaganda but more just a character choice, there's little hints throughout it that the guy is a recent convert coping with it all in a way that's making him erratic. Reminds me of some historical generals whose religiosity fused with their war effort in ways that made them surreal and scary, like Haig and Stonewall Jackson. So "this wasn't as annoying as Far Cry 5" is a really, really low bar and not something to aim for, but I'm inclined to be charitable to it for that reason.
I hated the doomsday druggie cult subplot, I'm tired of seeing random ooga-booga raider types as the default enemy in everything. At least had it the twist of them actively worshipping and adjusting to living around the zombies.
TLDR for me is I can see the subtext you're pointing out, as far as modern vidya goes I thought it was pretty benign, the plot never sails as high as TLOU but I liked the way it committed to a specific kind of realist melodrama while still remembering it was an action game and not a movie with a great specificity of place.
