From Dust
Eric Chahi’s new epic recently gave a lift to the sandbox game. With its flowing particles and ever dangerous environments, destruction is little more than a footnote to the crazy goings on as the player guides the men to their destinations. Volcanos erupt and scorch the surrounding area and your purpose built dams burst in a flurry of H2O as you vainly attempt to curb the forces of nature. It’s a humbling experience, and an altogether impressive one with some quality destructible environments.
Worms
Nothing beat blowtorching through the map to help your worms flank the opposite team of creepy crawlers. With its randomly generated maps that were fully destructible with any weapon in the game, no two games of Worms were ever alike. Recent entries in the series have carried on the tradition, but this was where we first got our fix.
Red Faction: Armageddon
Update: This video is no longer available.
Most games with destructible environments hit a snag when it comes to important locations. They either need to make said location indestructible, or make the player restart should they blow it up. With the repair tool introduced in the fourth Red Faction game, this was no longer the case. It allowed the game’s awesome Geo-Mod technology to be pushed to the extremes, unhampered by mission critical objectives and their fragile nature. It didn’t get the sales it deserved, as it is a pioneering title when it comes to destructible environments.
