Demolish & Build Classic review

I came in like a wrecking ball (before feeling wrecked).

Objectively, Demolish & Build Classic is not a good game. Built on the Unity Engine, the title freezes momentarily when entering each of the game’s four austere environments or even just when you’re pulling up to a job site.  And while the game lets you seize control of hardware like a back-hoe loader and a concrete mixer truck, most of the time the game looks like it cobbled together by combining different bargain-priced asset packs.

Operating vehicles like a bulldozer can cause unexpected problems. Within the first fifteen minutes of play, I inexplicably damaged my power shovel (causing a whopping $23 repair bill!) and soon got it stuck when razing a dilapidated shed.  Not long after, I ran out of fuel which was worrisome since I hadn’t noticed any gas stations.

Unlike the comprehensive tutorials found in most modern titles, Demolish & Build offers little more than button prompts and on-screen to-do lists, so don’t expect any help when your vehicle just stops working. That’s just the game’s merciless worldview- and you’ll have to get used to it. Undoubtedly, this is a budget title, so there’s no voiceover and most of music seems culled from a royalty-free catalog.

Trial and Error- as Well as Glitch

But that’s not to say that Demolish & Build Classic isn’t entirely devoid of enjoyment. There’s an iota of fun to be found- at least in a non-traditional sense. Most commercial games strive for immersion, letting players loose in game worlds where there’s little uncertainty associated with performing basic tasks. But Demolish & Build Classic unleashes you in spaces where you’ll have to figure almost everything out for yourself. It feels like visiting a country where you don’t know the language or even any of the basic customs.

Interaction is built around gaming ‘grammar’, so when you’re first asked to demolish an array of columns, it feels a lot like excavating in Minecraft. Your career as a contractor means that jobs arrive in an orderly role-playing game fashion, where you’ll have to buy better tools before accepting the bigger bids. It’s evident that the team at Demolish Games were devoted gamers growing up. Everything about Demolish & Build feels culled from another (and almost always better) title. And whether you’d rather revisit Blast Corps or just play Teardown, other titles satiate an appetite for destruction far better. Perhaps, D&B’s worst offense is that it doesn’t let you go wild with its heavyweight hardware and formidable tools. Taking a mallet to a passing vehicle won’t even leave a scratch.

Classic? That’s Contentious

But back to leveling that aforementioned shed. Like many of the game’s handheld tools, I wasn’t sure if I was making any progress when battering the hut with a sledgehammer. The first few swings offered no visual or acoustic feedback, which makes the game feel like a work in progress, even though it’s billed as a ‘Classic’ and is a port of a seven-year-old title.

Adding to the confusion is Demolish & Build’s collision modeling. Sure, it looks like your hammer is connecting with a wall or pillar, but unless the aiming cursor is directly over an object, your swinging is futile. And because there’s no feedback, there’s bound to be frustration when you discover that you’ve been wasting time. On another assignment, my saw was only cutting one side of a fence and I have no idea why. Driving around vehicles like a dump truck could be needlessly trying, as many of Demolish & Build’s trucks habitually can get stuck slinking up minor grades.

More Like a Glitchy Escape Room

Sometimes, there’s a workaround, which can feel like a puzzle-meta game. There are semi-obvious solutions that involve attempting to reset things by say, canceling and reaccepting a contact. Although there’s scant explanation, clicking on the left analog stick triggers ‘work sense’ which highlights task-related objects, making you feel like RoboCop in a Road Roller.

But in other moments, I wasn’t as fortunate. No matter how many times I tried to respawn a bulldozer, the vehicle refused to move. I had attempted to bring a cargo truck to pick up some lumber, but I couldn’t figure out how to load wood. Since Demolish & Build wasn’t playing fair, I decided I wouldn’t either. So, I tried to discover how other players made their way through this section. Sadly, they were just as perplexed as me. Here, I discovered Demolish & Build’s Let’s Play potential, as I watched streamers laugh, curse, and occasionally quit in frustration, mirroring my own succession of emotions.

Conclusion

Should you stick with it, you’ll eventually be able to unleash a wrecking ball on buildings, become a property mogul, and staff each lot with autonomous workers. But here’s the thing: neither the journey nor the destination feels rewarding. Too often, I found myself in a repeating cycle of uncertainty and monotony that became of Sisyphean test of patience. Just let me wreck shit.

Demolish & Build Classic was played on PlayStation 4 with review code provided by the publisher.