Teardown

Teardown's incredibly destructible environments and meticulously detailed physics make it a satisfying destruction game despite a disappointing campaign.

An endlessly delightful destruction sandbox.

A first-person heist 'em up about smashing buildings apart chunk by chunk so you can get in and out quickly.

Blowing stuff up is fun, and Teardown gets that. Its varied voxel environments combine with nuanced physics and deformation systems to make levelling buildings, eviscerating vehicles, and orchestrating massive explosions a thrill. An inconsistent campaign and lack of multiplayer don't keep it from setting a new standard for video game destruction.

Teardown is everything that drew me to video games in the first place. It gives me something I’ve never seen before with its voxel sandbox and marries it with cutting-edge graphics technology. If I was still a kid and you asked me if I wanted to play Monopoly or with the fully-fueled excavator that someone just left in the yard, you can be sure I’m gonna be outside digging up holes and breaking things. Teardown satiates my urge to be destructive while offering nearly endless opportunities through mod support. Calling it a game may be a bit of a stretch on account of its loose structure, but you can’t argue with the fun.

Teardown is a wonderful game when it’s utilizing its strengths. Tuxedo Labs created a technical marvel of a game reminiscent of Red Faction: Guerrilla where destruction is its bread and butter and deserves endless praise on that front. Nothing’s quite as refreshing as throwing explosives at a building where it’s weakest and watching it tragically crash to the ground or explode into glorious pieces. All the surrounding elements, however, from the stunted variety and diminishing returns of the heists to the lackluster campaign, work against Teardown to create an uneven seesaw that soars during its highs but underwhelms as it slowly descends from its great heights.

If you have had a bad day and what to let off some steam, Teardown is the game for you. Similarly, if you want to solve puzzles and pull off amazing heists, this is the game! I thoroughly enjoyed my playthru of the various modes and loved not only how simple it is to learn, but also how intricate and destructive it can be. The voxel graphics look amazing and the physics engine is a true marvel.

I had a blast with Teardown as it really got its hooks in me with its clever combo of destruction and strategic missions. Great stuff!

Teardown, needless to deny it, is a decidedly fascinating production. The ability to integrally shape the game world with one's actions is a concept that is the preserve of very few other titles. Tuxedo Labs thus marks, in this sense, a great milestone for independent productions by giving a rewarding and layered experimentation. At the same time, the more exquisitely playful components are not as captivating partly because of an immediacy that is not always ideal. The result is a title as entertaining as it is susceptible to quickly becoming boring depending on your answer to the question: how much do you like destruction?

It ultimately comes down to how much you want a game that gives you insane levels of power but that also puts checks on it. You’re the creative type who appreciates that balance, there’s plenty to like in Teardown. If you just want to go smashy-smashy, you can do that here, too, but the end result may be more frustrating than you’re expecting.