SMASHING STUFF
Tearing down TEARDOWN’s voxelated worlds never gets old
It would be so, so easy to write off Teardown as just a tech demo. A simple framework of maps, tools, and missions built to show off developer Dennis Gustaffson’s incredible voxel destruction technology. But over its 18-month stretch in Early Access, Teardown has proven itself not only a stunning display of technical prowess, but also a bloody good little heist-’em-up, and the most creative sandbox platform since Garry’s Mod.
Teardown is, first and foremost, all about that destruction. It’s a game of wooden shacks, concrete walls, metal catwalks, and plaster corridors – all of which respond appropriately to being wailed on with a sledgehammer. Despite its blocky appearance, Teardown’s worlds break in wonderfully convincing ways. Metal pipes bend when supports are removed, while plaster walls chip away to expose sturdier brickwork, kicking up dust as they crumble.
Teardown’s genius, however, is in how it brings method to this madness. The game’s campaign tasks you with a series of destructive heists to pull off with a limited set of tools. You have unlimited hammer swings, sure, but that won’t get you through
brick walls – and while you’ll slowly unlock an array of blowtorches, shotguns, bombs, and rocket launchers, their uses are limited.
Early missions see you using these tools to carve a route through an empty map, speedrunning that course to collect valuables before the alarm timer hits zero. It’s a very simple kind of mission, but wonderfully satisfying in how it forces you to consider your carnage.
Teardown first launched with half of its campaign, and those early missions can feel a little bit samey. But as it made its way through Early Access, Gustaffson got more creative with the game’s mission design, leading to a game that backloads its more interesting challenges to Act 2.
Suddenly you’re dealing with car chases, tornados, and killer robots, and the spectacle of the destruction engine really comes into full force.
WRECKING CREW
As a campaign, Teardown is a fun experiment with plenty to prod at, framed by a light-hearted story about a contractor who keeps getting hired by the same feuding businessmen who, honestly, all kinda deserve to have their toys smashed. Chasing side-gigs and optional objectives gives you more cash to upgrade and unlock new tools, and more excuses to revisit demolition jobs you might have left unfinished.
That said, the real, enduring lifeblood of Teardown can be found in its modding community, which has exploded since the game’s Early Access debut. Tired of its nine maps? There are dozens, if not hundreds more on the Steam Workshop. A sledgehammer is fun, but why not go to town on these new wrecking spots with laser rifles, miniguns akimbo, or portable black holes?
Modders have even tinkered with the way things fundamentally break. Teardown’s destruction doesn’t
Modders have tinkered with the way things fundamentally break
account for structural stability or tension, meaning entire buildings will often be held up by one voxel. Various modders have attempted different ways to remedy that, breaking objects in flight or chaining destruction to create more believable building collapses.
The only real shame is in Teardown’s complete lack of multiplayer. While I can appreciate the programming nightmare that must come with trying to sync thousands of exploding voxels across multiple clients, it’s all too easy to imagine the kinds of new, impromptu games that could spawn from Teardown’s foundations.
Because those foundations really are incredible. Teardown isn’t just a tech demo – it’s a window into a world where game worlds only became more dynamic, more physical, more breakable. Teardown is a game that’s excited about its own technology, and wants to show you all the ways it can break stuff.
It’s a brilliant series of puzzles, a never-ending series of new worlds to break and new tools to break them with. But most of all, Teardown really is just a smashing great time.