PC Gamer - UK (2022-07)

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

I

t 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.

SMASHING STUFF

Tearing down TEARDOWN’s voxelated worlds never gets old

By Nat Clayton

Modders have

tinkered with

the way things

fundamentally

break

ABOVE: Next stop, third floor.

Time to make a

hot exit.

NEED TO KNOW

WHAT IS IT?

A detailed voxel

destruction engine

framed by heist puzzles

and sandbox carnage

EXPECT TO PAY

£18.50

DEVELOPER

Tuxedo Labs

PUBLISHER

In-house

REVIEWED ON

Nvidia RTX 2070, 16GB

RAM, AMD Ryzen 5

3600

MULTIPLAYER

No

LINK

teardowngame.com

Teardown

REVIEW