I’ll preface this by saying I am 100% not aware of every game in existence, but:
What happened to all the good games with a focus on destruction physics?
Red Faction: Guerrilla was one of my favorite games ever. It had its buggy moments, but overall its destruction physics system was fun and satisfying.
Then Red Faction: Armageddon was so terrible it killed the entire studio (that’s probably not exactly what happened but I’m going with it), so now Red Faction is in some weird legal limbo or owned by a company with no plans for it or something like that.
The next choice seems to be Just Cause. The cables in Just Cause are great fun, but the structures all feel like they’re made of cardboard and mostly are not destructible. Not very satisfying and not very fun long-term.
The best option I’ve played for current-or-previous-gen (yeah sorry still a console peasant, working on that) was Battlefield 6, which does destruction very well but it’s hardly the main focus of the game like it was for RF:G.
So… what happened to good destruction-physics focused games? Are there any out there that I don’t know about?
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Noita is part pixel physics part programming simulator. The tutorial involves fighting your way downwards to the final boss, while the rest of the game involves destroying the environment in every other direction until you’re stronger than the sun.
I think it’s because modern games have high quality assets that would be harder to explode and interact with the rest of the world. Also maybe it doesn’t fit in the world, something like battlefield 6 works cause it’s a new map every time but it doesn’t seem to fit in an RPG
It seems like Crimson Desert did it very well, but it’s not really central to the gameplay
Beamng.drive
if your into driving Sims, or maybe just smashing up a car, you might like it.
You might like Teardown, it puts the Smash in Smash and Grab
Wtf this looks like Minecraft but with physics lol, I am very interested. Thank you! Really didn’t expect to find so many good recommendations given PS5’s limited library.
if you’re only getting it on console, check the mod packs out sometime! they’re free DLC so console players can enjoy the modding scene from Steam
Okay listen I haven’t played it and I hate shilling for Nintendo but… wasn’t that the whole gimmick of Donkey Kong: Bananza?
Maybe but
I havent even finished TOTK yet lol I am not Switch 2 ready!
Well, keep it in mind I guess! I am not going to be buying any Nintendo products in the near future but from what I can tell everyone who played DK Bananza loved it.
For other games I would say The Finals is also featuring impressively destructible environments, although that one is multiplayer only.
My recommendation as well.
How about Teardown? It got voxel physics where you can break anything in the game
Assuming you aren’t just talking FPSes (as all your examples are shooters). If not:
- ABRISS
- Besiege
- Hardspace: Shipbreaker
- Space Engineers
- Kerbal Space Program (the first one) (half the fun of this game is blowing your shit up by accident)
- Forts
If you want to stretch the term a little:
- DCS (an combat aircraft simulator that simulates physics and flying so well that even the USAF uses it for A-10 pilot training)
- Avorion
- Empyrion - Galactic Survival
Hardspace Shipbreaker is fantastic. Such a unique concept, cutting up old spaceships for company store money to pay off abysmal debt for accepting the job, with fun and relevant developments along the way.
Noita
I used to play KSP all the time but my shit crashes every time, quickly, since they updated it to be more realistic. I am apparently not very good at rocket appliances.
I’ll check out all the rest though, I actually havent heard of any except maybe Space Engineers. On another website, people recommended Crimson Dawn and The Finals. Crimson Dawn especially looks like it has insane destruction physics.
Besiege is great. Its fun and really accessable even on potato hardware. Its also nice because they are small bite style levels. You can really easily pop in and out.
abriss frustrated me because mid game they made timing an important element. kinda ruined it. Be warned
Another good one is Instruments of Destruction. The dev was lead tech designer on Redfaction: Guerilla. It takes a similar approach to making structures have satisfying interior detail.
Deep Rock Galactic
No physics sadly
Embracer just announced that they want to use Red Faction again amongst other franchises. That could mean anything from shitty mobile cash grab to proper full price video game cash grab.
HUGE NEWS
Maybe hugely exciting and maybe hugely disappointing, but definitely one of those
Please post your source. After them killing Deus Ex 3 I have no reason to think they are seriously about anything
Oh FUCK DEUS EX MENTIONED
💯🚨 This is not a drill
ALSO SAINTS ROW
Granted it was pretty ass towards the end (though the final one was kinda okay almost), but Saints Row 2 was great
Wreckfest is the modern Destruction Derby. So much fun
There’s The Finals that seem heavily centered around blowing everything up.
Guerilla wasn’t even half as good as the first one destruction wise (as in: almost everything).
But yeah I agree. It would be so awesome to include this more again. Yes, there are games several games mentioned but it’s not really the same. Too bad.
Same for voxel games BTW.
I tried playing RF2 on my modded Wii but using the Gamecube controller for Red Faction was a little bit of a nightmare lol. But yeah having the terrain also be destructible is amazing, especially for how old it is.
Playing rf 1 on a capable pc was awesome.
Battlefield is the only FPS series that has kept some sort of environment destruction that I’m aware of. It’s absolutely acceptable strategy to drive a tank through a building to take out a sniper. But it’s not for everyone
I blew a sniper’s whole shack up with a car bomb once lol, I love “unconventional warfare” in Battlefield games.
BF6 is my favorite Battlefield since BF3 so it’s definitely for me, I just wouldn’t call it a destruction-focused game like RF:G necessarily. The physics are great, but really only designed to support the FPS gameplay - it would be boring to just go around smashing stuff.
VOID/Breaker has good destruction physics! It’s an integral part of the combat.
Maybe too old of a game, you’d have to run it on an emulator, but anyone remember Treadmarks, the tank racing/killing game? That was lots of destruction physics.
“You’ve got the nuke!”
