Instruments of Destruction is, without a doubt, one of the most enjoyable uses I’ve ever seen for a physics engine. There’s something undeniably enjoyable about watching a structure being torn to pieces, smashed to bits, blown sky-high, or even just have having that one vital part of its base slightly cut through, so after a few seconds of creaking and groaning, the entire thing collapses on its own.
However, you won’t just be destroying things, but building them as well. In fact, building your demolition vehicle is where you’ll have to start (hence the title). Starting with a control cabin, it’s up to the player to assemble the vehicle using a variety of wheels, suspension, beams, arms, connectors, motors, rocket engines, saws, flails, cannons... Basically the only things you’re limited by are your imagination, your budget (depending on the game mode) and your centre of gravity. Want to create a rocket-buggy? Check. How about a vehicle with a spinning centre arm with two powerful electro-magnets attached? Yup. You can even build make-shift rocket launchers, by attaching rocket-engines components which can be detached upon command. No matter how crazy it seems, you can probably build it, provided you’ve got the parts. Speaking of which, though the game’s currently in Early Access, there’s still over 70 pieces to choose from, 10 different islands with their own structures to demolish, and three different modes per island. What’s more, as you complete the various challenges, you’ll unlock a host of elaborate pre-made vehicles for you to play with, and provide you with some inspiration.
Building vehicles is both intuitive and easy, with an excellent interface that means it’s the work of a few moments to assemble and test a basic four-wheeled buggy. Also, for each component that can be activated (pistons, swivels, power-arms, saws, cannons, rockets and so on), you can quickly and easily change which buttons they’re mapped to.
Once your vehicle’s built, it’s time to test it, see how it handles, and whether it does the job you were hoping it would do (or, like my first attempt at a rocket-buggy, it simply got airborne and then started doing cartwheels before crashing into the water). This often means breaking some pesky structure to pieces. If you want to see some of the most spectacular, physics-driven destruction available in a PC game, this is where you’ll find it. The sheer amount of dust, debris and rubble that goes flying is simply amazing – especially when a few explosive barrels are thrown into the mix. Of course, having hundreds, if not thousands of physically simulated objects is computationally expensive. So if you want to see the best this game has to offer, you’ll want a fairly beefy CPU with plenty of RAM to spare. Even then, you can expect the occasional slow-down (although this may improve with future updates).
All up, Instruments of Destruction is loads of fun, and it’s surprisingly easy to lose track of time as you tinker with your latest crazy invention. Highly, highly recommended. ■