Build the wrecking machine of your dreams in this glorious destruction sandbox
If you like physics destruction sandboxes like Siege as well as pluckthis game should be on your radar: Tools of Destruction is now in Steam Early Access. Not only can you build huge vehicles and decorate them with wrecking balls, chainsaws, rockets, and cannons, but you can also use them to smash ever-living buildings with some of the most beautiful and satisfying physical destruction I’ve ever seen. visible.
Start small with a quick campaign that takes you through 10 small islands, each with its own primary and secondary objectives. Demolish a tower without damaging the stone ruins it sits next to, destroy 75% of the buildings and detonate at least 5 explosive barrels, or simply drive the vehicle to a series of checkpoints (smashing obstacles along the way).
But first, you can build your siege engine by quickly piecing together parts and pieces from a surprisingly large menu filled with metal frames, articulated joints, massive tires and tracks, rocket boosters, and all sorts of destructive things: saw blades, wrecking balls, cannons, and even giant magnets. The only limits are the budget for each level and your cunning imagination.
Ready-made vehicles
Don’t worry if (like me) you’re not very good at building. You can jump right into the awesome destruction part thanks to the collection of ready-made vehicles that are added each time you successfully complete (destroy) an island. From simple little bulldozers to giant metal spiders bristling with spiked wrecking balls, you’re sure to find the mechanical monster of your dreams, even if you don’t build it yourself.
The destruction is simply amazing. Swing a group of wrecking balls like it’s a crane flail and watch the tower turn into a cloud of flying bricks, dust and debris. Windows shatter, walls crumble, sparks fly and towers crash on a display that somehow doesn’t turn my GPU into a molten puddle.
Heck, even the ground will crumble and crumble if you swing your wrecking ball wildly and don’t hit the building you were aiming for. On one level where there were bridges connecting several islands, I had to restart the game because simply moving back and forth across the bridge with the tank tracks damaged it until the whole thing crashed into the water. (Your machines can do a lot, but they can’t swim.) In a world where everything is destructible and you control a destructive machine, sometimes you need to be a little careful.
Sandbox
Once you’ve sharpened your teeth in the campaign. You can replay each level with new challenges such as time limits and a higher percentage of destruction required to complete. And, of course, there is a sandbox mode with several additional maps to create and drive new vehicles without any restrictions. There are over 200 slots to save the cars you’ve created, as well as a library of ready-made cars for you to test drive and modify.
Funnily enough, Tools of Destruction is a bit of a light when it comes to a real sandbox at the moment – most of the islands are pretty tiny and it doesn’t take long to destroy everything on them. Even with the extra challenges thrown in. At the moment there is also no option to share vehicles with other players, but this should change in the near future: Radiangames says that Instruments of Destruction will remain in Early Access for at least a year, if not more, during which time new islands and vehicles will appear . parts will be added. Steam Workshop support is also in development.
