Hey Gamers, I have a question… What would you get if pixel art with a ton of explosions and a lot of criminal damage had a baby? TEARDOWN! Now here’s where you can live out your most destructive fantasies! Have you ever wanted to experience a world of destruction? Where everything can be smashed, crashed, and blown up? From using sledgehammers, to a blow torch, guys you can even crash a vehicle through the front door if that’s more your thing, this is your world to smash up… The perfect demolition game by far where everything can be destroyed. Welcome to Tuxedo Labs and Saber Interactives baby… TEARDOWN!
Destroying Things Is A Lot Better Than Fixing Things
Campaign
What is Teardown you’re all probably thinking? Well, my destructive friends this is what choose to make it. We have a total of 5 action packed modes… To start off we have the main mode being the campaign, this is your story packed levels where you are a demolition expert working for the family business, Lockelle Teardown Services where you are approached by email by multiple people asking you to complete demolition and destructive jobs that aren’t always legal like stealing cars or taking out a building because it’s blocking a malls new wing plan. Each mission is never the same, with tons of variety as you progress. sounds fun right? Indeed, but this game is far from easy as yeah, a few plywood walls can be taken down with a sledgehammer, but a metal gate won’t be as simple which is why you will need to use what you can to complete your mission. EVERYTHING can be used, you can use vehicles to smash through walls or just teardown an entire building, you can find explosive barrels which can be launched at structures causing an explosive entrance or just explore till you find something more inventive. During missions there are optional tasks that you can complete if you choose too, such as dumping a safe or container into the ocean. As you progress through Teardown’s story you will unlock more tools, upgrades and harder missions where more than creativity will come to mind, you will need to let your imagination run wild. Do not worry though as you can return later using the computer to return to older missions and get a better score or complete missions you missed. Whilst exploring you will also find valuable items that can be grabbed (STEAL) that will be used to earn more money, they are in places like buildings, offices etc. So grab them when you see them for a nice bit of easy cash.
Gonna Light This Up Like Its Dynamite
Sandbox
Now you have finished the campaign, and you are probably thinking “Hmm… What do I do next?”. Well, Teardown has you covered because now you have more freedom to explore the locations you visited and this time you can do whatever you want to do, with unlimited resources and no challenge this sandbox is yours to play with. Build, Break, and Destroy what you want, how you want with a total of 10 different locations to choose from and if you would rather not play the campaign to unlock this well a feature in the options menu gives you the choice to unlock all levels and tools if you prefer skipping the campaign altogether. A few locations include the Quillez Security and Isla Estocastica just to name a couple so choose your new playground to destroy. Destroy like you’re the Hulk on a rampage or make it look like it was one of the Avengers battle zones! Your sandbox experience is yours to do with what you want.
His Destructive Programming Is Taking Effect
Challenges
You looking for something to really put your tools to the test? Want to show off your destructive side? Challenge mode gives you everything you need to enjoy an experimental game mode where everything you have learned can be tested out. Playing the campaign will unlock more environments and challenges to play. The more campaign you complete the more challenges will unlock. Just to give an example if you go to Lee Chemicals, the first challenge “FETCH” you will spawn in front of the factory and must collect as many items shown on the map as quick as possible and return to your vehicle to escape, once picking up the first item an alarm will sound and you will be granted a minute to continue to collect items so pick the right path and use what you have at your disposal. Can you collect all the items in time?
Did You Catch Fire Again?
Expansions
The Teardown team have amazingly given us access to new campaign expansions which have been entirely made by the team themselves which opens the world to even more destructive mayhem. These modes are available to be played anytime and are recommended to be started after you have completed the main campaign. New expansions are available to purchase such as Time Campers which sends you back in time to the Wild West where tools will be changed to match the period and you are tasked with getting the time machine back to working order to return home. Art Vandals is available free to play, and more being released in 2024 which can all be purchased separately or buying the season pass that will unlock more content as it is released. Who would have thought that Teardown would have so much content and more on its way.
We Believe You Actually… Created Something
Mod Browser
Now this was something that I found to be such an awesome feature and that is Mod Browser. This gives you the opportunity to play the best community- created mods which includes new maps, mini games, vehicles, tools, and so much more. I tried out testing a mini gun against a house… The house unfortunately didn’t survive, and I enjoyed every minute of what building crumble at my feet to the beast. These mods are also ones that the developers have created so I would recommend testing a few out. Mod Pack #1 has some designs and creations put into a pack to download made by the community.
His Only Instinct… To Destroy Everything He Touches!
Gameplay, Graphics and Sound
Teardown is a game surrounding everything being made entirely out of pixel art, like a big, updated version of Minecraft without zombies and skeletons trying to break into your home at night. The art style was beautiful. The difference is with Teardown was how well done the developers had made it feel as realistic as possible for the game it was. For example, when using a sledgehammer, you can go through wood with no problem but trying to put it through a metal door or smash the hood of a car with other than the banging of metal no damage will be done. This would cause you to upgrade and unlock more powerful tools or just get into a bulldozer and its game over for any structure. Vehicles can also be damaged another mechanic that pushed Teardown towards realism. Smashing a car through the building will cause pieces of the car to be damaged and start smoking if your car was to be destroyed and exploded the house or structure would set on fire spreading and causing a bigger fire hazard. Let’s just hope to God you aren’t trapped as you are still able to take damage and die. A house coming down on top of you is a nasty way to go. Any vehicle in Teardown is also available for your destructive needs that includes cars, to construction vehicles, even a boat. When it came to level design the developers at Tuxedo Labs and Saber Interactive hit this right on the head. They created so much variety when it came to creating environments in Teardown that their imagination truly took you on a journey of mayhem. For a destructive game it had a lot of puzzles which although some could drag on for a while it got your brain thinking of different ways of completing the task. Sound varies with music being more atmospheric and sometimes pure silence other than the sound effects of the tools, vehicles and explosions. This is a single player experience with no multiplayer modes.
Don’t Worry, Is All Part Of Plan. We Are Professionals
Options, Accessibility, and Difficulty
One thing I love about games nowadays is the fact developers will do anything to create something available to everyone meaning no one ever misses out. So, on the game options you have features that can be tweaked so anyone can play, and you can choose how difficult you want the game to be. This includes adjusting the alarm time changing it to be easier or harder or just so you can relax a bit. Adjust ammo this will give you more, less or leave you with no ammo. Adjusting your health which again depends on your preference and how you want to play. The ability to skip a mission and allowing you to spawn items in all modes not just sandbox. Unlocking all levels and tools on sandbox so you can truly enjoy yourself. Input to change the controller layout to suit your play style and other options including vertical and horizontal sensitivity and ADS. Left and right stick dead zone. Inverted controls and even turning the vibration function on or off. Audio lets you change the volume of music, sound and menu. The graphics options can also be changed including enabling or disabling motion blur, change the graphics mode from Performance to Fidelity. 120 HZ mode if you own a 120 HZ TV. Gamma correction based on how bright the game is and more.
Final Thoughts
All in all, Teardown was a fantastic experience with so much to see and do and although I still need to return and clean up what tasks and achievements, I have left I cannot wait to see what Teardown has left in store for the future. I would love to see a multiplayer update in time for Teardown so that people can build and destroy together. An experience that was like no other and can’t wait for more content soon.
Teardown is available on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and Steam also included with PlayStation’s Plus Extra today.
GAMERHUB RATING: FOUR (out of FIVE) JOYSTICKS
(Thank you to Peter, Anais and the amazing team at Tuxedo Labs and Saber Interactive for the review code)
