Teardown review: Appetite for destruction

This ingenious heist sim demolishes (literally) the idea that every getaway should be clean and silent. Imagine if the crew from Ocean’s 11 had sledgehammers and JCBs instead of their wits and ninja suits.

The comparison with Minecraft extends not just to its concept but also the visual style, with Teardown using voxel-based rendering that looks like a slightly sharper version of the famously blocky game. The voxels allow the developers to create totally destructible environments, a design that has been desperately underused in gaming despite efforts in the likes of Battlefield and Just Cause. Here you can take apart buildings brick by brick, raze them with an explosion, or merely punch a convenient hole through one wall with a bulldozer.

Teardown’s physics model could not be described as fully realistic since it harbours its own deliberate idiosyncrasies. But the game’s sandbox enables multiple solutions in story mode – as crazy as you like – to your task, which usually involves the destruction or theft of something in warehouses, mansions, etc.

The twist with Teardown stems from its exceedingly tight time limit. Once you put your dirty mitts on the object – a car, a document, a safe – a 60-second countdown begins to the arrival of police. But until that point you have free rein to explore, plan and carve an escape route – unfettered by time and often unchecked by in-house security.

Teardown gives you tools such as a sledgehammer and blowtorch to expedite and streamline your path – with successful missions gradually bringing in a raft of additions including a shotgun (for blasting doors) and planks (for bridging gaps).

The robust physics open up enormous possibilities for creativity as you line up your heist in meticulous detail before rushing like a madman for the exit once the alarm goes off, completing optional quest goals quickly on the way. Why bother running for the door when you can avail of that nearby gap in the wall you blew open earlier? One mission, for instance, demands you steal and destroy several valuable vehicles in rapid succession – requiring a headspinning sequence of deftly executed, closely linked moves to pull it off.

The physics model is also rich with inadvertent comedy, such as when you sabotage your own plan by accidentally exploding a key vehicle, driving into the sea or collapsing the scenery in an unhelpful way. It seems odd that dropping a ton of bricks on your own head doesn’t hurt a bit and that entire buildings can be remain suspended by a single voxel – but hey, videogames, eh?

Teardown is generous with its difficulty level, allowing unlimited quicksaves to test your theories. If the default 60-second margin feels too tight, you can extend the time limit that governs the arrival of the cops.

The game first emerged in Early Access on PC three years ago and the wealth of content now within is testament to its long life.

As befits a title that follows in the Minecraft tradition, story mode is just one way to play, with a full sandbox letting you tinker/wreck to your heart’s content with no fixed goals. Multiple challenges can also set specific modifiers on certain levels that increase replayability. The console versions even get the downloadable mods that broaden the game’s options further.

Teardown has wit, cunning, tests of reflexes and explosions – what more could you want?