Every once in a while a game comes along and sets a precedent that future games strive to live up to. Halo 2 ushered in a way to successfully play online competitively on home consoles and Grand Theft Auto gave us a vision of how an open world can extend the shelf life of single player games well beyond the first few months after release. This prompted me to wonder what modern game teaches a similar lesson that could become standard in future titles. That game is Red Faction: Guerrilla and that lesson is fully destructible environments.

Guerrilla won’t win any awards in terms of story, character progression, graphics, voice acting or its depth in multiplayer but it has nailed what it means to truly have an in game playground. The games main hook is that everything can be destroyed in various ways. The physics engine only complements this gameplay element by making the subtleties of destruction as realistic as possible. The question I am posing is whether or not fully destructible environments are overdue in modern videogames or is Red Faction: Guerrilla a special case?

To its credit, the meaning behind Guerrilla’s actions runs on par with what the game encourages you to do. You are a simple man that is thrown into an area controlled by a  fascist, brutal and ruthless  authority figure. They have advanced weapons, armor and massive numbers to hold their ground but you have a weapon that is more symbolic - a sledgehammer. With this hammer you smash the cornerstones or their regime to usher in a new era of peace. It’s the tried and true story of a small band of people taking back their lives through destruction of anything that reminds them of their oppressors. Therefore making everything subject to being blown up fits right in with the guerrilla mentality.

So how would fully destructible environment work on other open world games? Game locales of vast size such as Liberty City are filled with the potential to be annihilated. Many missions involve destruction of some sort whether its destroying a shipment as it moves through the streets or firebombing a entire warehouse. However after these missions are completed the destruction is barely savored at all. We usually just move on without giving second thought.

Another more recent example of an open world game with explosive tendencies is Prototype. The game starts you off with every weapon and power Alex has at his disposal. You are encouraged and instructed to rampage through the city and cause havoc wherever you go but destruction is limited to vehicles and personnel. Granted Prototype takes place in New York City and it wouldn’t be in good taste to destroy its buildings these days, but turning NYC into a war zone isn’t much better. Another arugment for fully destructible environments in Prototype lies within the main character Alex Mercer. Alex doesn’t necessarily have a moral compass. You aren’t given the option to save the city from an evil empire of some sort. His only motive is revenge and he uses brute force to achieve it. So why not go all out and reduce the city to ruins? Prototype is defiantly not without its problems but making building something that can be destroyed would have increased the fun factor significantly.

I suppose what we can take away from this debate is that it is about time for more games to use the fully destructible concept. However not all games can use this mechanic without it looking like a gimmick - like throwing online multiplayer into every recent game. It works best when it’s complemented by the games storyline and doesn’t contradict the core gameplay. For example, it’s pointless to make a game that relies heavily on taking cover if what you’re hiding behind can be easily blown into pieces.

I can’t wait to see who will take advantage of this concept next and to what degree. My hope is that the next Twisted Metal game takes destructible environments to the next level.

One Response to “Should Fully Destructible Environments Become Standard?”

1. Watching Them Fly High « Jeremy Hill’s Verbose Experiments says:

   July 24, 2009 at 10:47 pm

   [...] going to stop though because it is my passion. For now check out a feature I just finished over on GameOnn about destructible environments in [...]