This is a unique physics-destruction building game by indie dev Randwerk in Berlin. With its dramatic visual style and focus on atmospheric, satisfying chaos, we had a lot of fun with this one.
You can pick it up on Steam, PS5, and Xbox. It launched in September 2023 and we’re surprised there hasn’t been more focus on it in the gaming press, so we’re taking a look at ABRISS right here, right now, and detonating some shizz.
Stylised Chaos in ABRISS: Build to Destroy
The only goal here is to build structures that you must crash into targets. As you do so, you unlock new parts, can make fancier things, and revel in the mayhem.
ABRISS: Build to Destroy looks amazing. That’s crucial, as the attention to detail (watching thousands of bits all implode and explode) makes it the visual marvel it is.
There are many worlds and environments to unlock, with a % rating for the amount of stuff you demolish. If chaos was an artform it’d be this game, for sure, and there’s a certain sadistic sophistication in seeing all that stuff just go boom.
That’s how everything plays out when the planning phase is done. But ABRISS does involve more than just pressing a button and seeing stuff immolate.
Consideration, prep, logistics, and strategy are all-important. You need to think how something can be destroyed, which is sometimes an abstract process with trial and error, all leading up to the big boom moment.
We mean, look at the one from the nine minute mark. Oh, so bloody satisfying (ASMR).
Visually, it’s so striking (made as it was in the Unity Engine). Look at it!
Some Steam reviewers have criticised the build system as limiting, others accused it of being non-deterministic (the destructive results being too random). However, one big criticism was in-game bugs. We didn’t hit too many of these so, perhaps, the devs have patched that over the last few years.
Generally, we had a great time with it across five hours. If you consider it a more relaxing take on destruction, raised to an artistic level, then you’ll have less of an issue with its minimalistic sandbox style.
Away from the enjoyable gameplay, we’re just surprised this indie gem doesn’t have wider recognition. There were few major gaming press reviews of it and it only has 414 Steam reviews (reaching a Very Positive response). PC Gamer did cover it and rated it well, but otherwise it’s just not had much coverage.
A bit odd, as it really stands out in the indie game market.
It did win the German Computer Game Award for Best Graphics. Which is something. Otherwise, we feel ABRISS deserves a new lease of love. It’s a fine game and very bloody rewarding, so how about a Switch 2 release, eh, Randwerk? Give it a whirl.
