Looking for something different, original and distinctive? After years available on PC, Teardown has finally appeared on the current generation consoles – and by and large, it’s terrific. As an extra bonus, it’s currently one of the free games on the PlayStation Plus subscription package – and I encourage you to check it out.
Teardown is a fascinating game from the Digital Foundry perspective as its rendering and simulation systems are quite different from the vast majority of titles out there. Like many of the most iconic games of the last 30 years, the core tech behind Teardown is the main enabler of its gameplay systems. At the core of the game are the voxels which make up the game world. It gives the game its low-fi/hi-fi aesthetic, where each and every object in the game you see has a deformed Lego-esque look to it, with all detailed comprised of blocky bits arranged into recognisable shapes we all intuitively understand, Minecraft-style.
Those voxels are not just show, however, as they drive and enable how the game is rendered and how it is played. When combined together into the shapes and objects of the game, each voxel has weighted constraints to it and distinct material properties. So, different objects react differently to different physical forces: some, like wood, come apart into tiny pieces easily with the swing of your hammer, while others like certain metals are more robust and require more violent or explosive treatment to break apart.
