Teardown is a famous puzzle-and-destruction game produced by Tuxedo Labs. First announced in October 2019, it was released as early funding in October 2020. The reviews were quite positive due to the game’s uniqueness: all of its levels are made of destructible voxels. You are allowed to destroy literally everything, which is probably the best way to describe the game in general. However, some details are worth exploring.
The Story
The game’s plot is as follows: you are a worker engaged in various illegal things: theft, damage to property, assistance in corporate espionage, etc. At first, you were reluctant but eventually became quite prolific. You neither have enemies nor fight with anyone in this game. What you do is destroy stuff. Characters ask you to do something like a steal, break, or put a bomb, and you need to find a way to complete the mission by destroying the environment nearby. Sometimes, you just need to knock a building down. You also have a health bar in the game.
All the burrowing and smashing helps you to plot the fastest route for completing the challenge. When you are done with the first object you have to steal, you’ll have a minute left to finish with the others. Here you have a set of tools for completing the job, but since their amount is limited, you should calculate the resources. The challenges become more and more difficult with time, and, in the end, you’ll have to spend much more time thinking than playing. Overall, the puzzle probably overweights destruction in it.
What About the Visuals?
The graphics of Teardown are all you’d expect from a destruction indie game. The world made entirely of voxels is combined with realistic physics, lighting, shadows, etc. It looks fantastic and solid enough. Destroying objects into a pile of voxels feels expectedly tactile and very pleasing to the eye. Nevertheless, the damage you cause to some buildings looks quite realistic due to the well-thought-through local laws of physics. The way various objects break, fall, and burn is very natural. This contrast is what is so special and unique about Teardown’s graphics.
Simple Yet Effective: Controls
The controls of the game are pretty basic. Some of the shortcuts are ESC for pausing, W, A, S, D for moving, E for interaction, Spacebar for jumping, Mouse Wheel for changing the tool, Left Mouse Button for using it, F for a flashlight, Hold RMB + LMB for throwing stuff, etc. The game also supports all joystick versions.
