Teardown review | PC Gamer
It will be so, really easy to put in writing off Teardown as only a tech demo. A easy framework of maps, instruments and missions constructed to indicate off developer Dennis Gustaffson’s unbelievable voxel destruction expertise. However over its 18-month stretch in early entry, Teardown has confirmed itself not solely a surprising show of technical prowess, but in addition a bloody good little heist ’em up and essentially the most artistic sandbox platform since Garry’s Mod.
Teardown is, firstly, all about that destruction. It is a recreation of picket shacks, concrete partitions, metallic catwalks and plaster corridors—all of which reply appropriately to being wailed on with a sledgehammer. Regardless of its blocky look, Teardown’s worlds break in splendidly convincing methods. Steel pipes bend and snap when helps are eliminated, whereas plaster partitions chip away to show sturdier brickwork, kicking up clouds of mud as they crumble.
I reckon Teardown could be enjoyable sufficient if all it provided was a set of context-free ranges to smash aside. However the recreation’s genius is in the way it brings methodology to this insanity—how, from this set of supplies and environments, Teardown’s marketing campaign duties you with a collection of damaging heists to drag off with a restricted set of instruments. You’ve got limitless hammer swings, certain, however that will not get you thru brick partitions or barred home windows—and whilst you’ll slowly unlock an array of blowtorches, shotguns, bombs and rocket launchers, their makes use of are restricted.
Early missions see you utilizing these instruments to carve a route by an empty map, speedrunning that course to gather valuables earlier than the alarm timer hits zero. It is a quite simple form of mission, however splendidly satisfying in the way it forces you to contemplate your carnage. It is not lengthy earlier than Teardown throws in new twists, both—from fireplace alarms that require you to place out any stray sparks to rocket-toting assault helicopters.
Teardown first launched with half of its marketing campaign, and people early missions can really feel a little bit bit samey. However because it made its manner by early entry, Gustaffson received extra artistic with the sport’s mission design, resulting in a recreation that backloads its extra attention-grabbing challenges to Act 2. Out of the blue you are coping with automotive chases, tornados, and killer robots, and the spectacle of Teardown’s destruction engine actually comes into full drive.
See, regardless of being a recreation of voxels, Teardown is an absolute stunner—and perhaps the one convincing argument I’ve seen for ray tracing in video games. Teardown merely would not work with out gentle naturally filtering by crumbling partitions, filtering by mud clouds, and reflecting off rain-slicked cobbles. When a constructing comes down it actually comes down, collapsing in a burst of volumetric smoke, splintered wooden and shattered glass.
Wrecking crew
As a marketing campaign, Teardown is a enjoyable experiment with lots to prod at, framed by a light-hearted story a couple of contractor who retains getting employed by the identical feuding businessmen who, truthfully, all kinda should have their toys smashed.. Chasing side-gigs and optionally available aims offers you additional cash to improve and unlock new instruments, and extra excuses to revisit demolition jobs you might need left unfinished.
Every accomplished mission additionally sees your mission hub slowly rework from a decrepit warehouse into a beautiful household house, your invisible demolitions professional managing to construct one thing new from all this destruction. There’s nothing to cease you from driving a truck by the aspect of your new house, in fact, but it surely’s a pleasant contact.
That mentioned, I am undecided these heists alone would have stored me coming again month after month. As an alternative, the actual, enduring lifeblood of Teardown might be present in its modding neighborhood, which has completely exploded because the recreation’s 2020 early entry debut. Bored with its 9 maps? There are dozens, if not a whole lot extra on the Steam Workshop, from recreations of Counter-Strike arenas to miniaturised recreations of New York and photo-scanned trainyards.
A sledgehammer is enjoyable sufficient, however why not go to city on these new wrecking spots with laser rifles, miniguns akimbo, or transportable black holes? Portal-style take a look at chambers function working Portal weapons, although you possibly can at all times bazooka a gap within the aspect of a puzzle if it is doing all of your head in. There are mods that take these pesky assault helicopters and switch them into horrifying cyborg dragons that relentlessly hunt you thru dingy Russian streets.
Modders have even tinkered with the way in which issues basically break. Teardown’s destruction would not account for structural stability or pressure, that means complete buildings will usually be held up by one voxel. Varied modders have tried other ways to treatment that, breaking objects in flight or chaining destruction to create extra plausible constructing collapses.
It is harking back to the most effective bits of Garry’s Mod, trawling the Steam Workshop each week to see what new nonsense I can plug in. Smashing stuff is a delight, and there is sufficient new stuff to smash on the workshop to maintain me occupied for years to come back.
The one actual disgrace is in Teardown’s full lack of multiplayer. Whereas I can admire the programming nightmare that should include attempting to sync hundreds of exploding voxels throughout a number of shoppers, it is all too simple to think about the sorts of latest, impromptu video games that might spawn from Teardown’s foundations.
As a result of these foundations actually are unbelievable. Teardown is not only a tech demo—it is a window right into a world the place recreation worlds solely grew to become extra dynamic, extra bodily, extra breakable. A world that noticed Half-Life 2’s physics and Purple Faction: Guerrilla’s destructible structure and doubled down—as a substitute of pursuing increased graphical constancy and more and more static worlds.
Teardown is a recreation that is enthusiastic about its personal expertise, and needs to indicate you all of the methods it might break stuff. It is a quietly good collection of heist puzzles, a endless collection of latest worlds to interrupt and new instruments to interrupt them with. However most of all, Teardown actually is only a smashing nice time.