Destruction AllStars (2021)

It's tough when you have to give a mediocre score to a game that you know has the potential to be something special. Destruction Allstars could have led the way forward for a new era of arcade derby games, following in the footsteps of games such a Flatout and Motorsiege.

There is charm and polish here, especially with the destruction mechanics and the characters. Decent representation throughout the lineup of drivers too. But where this game falls short is the unforgivable lack of content and the reliance on online matches over single player content. The game was doomed and slandered from the moment it was unveiled during the PS5 launch lineup which is odd considering it was the only original PS5 exclusive IP announced that either wasn't a remake or continuation of an existing IP. Issues at launch hinting at a shift towards a live service model meant it was delayed and content was pulled.

Fast forward to the eventual launch and entire seasons were dropped, story content featuring in game challenges were added but only accessible via MTX, and radio silence for the most part from the devs, Lucid Games. Apparently they've moved on to assisting Rare with their maintenance of Sea of Thieves without as much as a goodbye or a thank you to the players. One tweet from 2021 talking about destruction Allstars, and the immediate next tweet a whole 2 years later announcing their partnership with Rare. Furthermore, content is locked behind certain events which aren't even live anymore meaning players will never be able to earn items even if they paid for the game.

I wish the outcome was different for Destruction Allstars, I wish they could have found a way to strike a balance between singleplayer and online modes without alienating one. There's a great game here at its core, but it was just never fully realised. 4.5 stars for their ideas. 3 stars for the game that ended up in players hands.

Destruction Allstars is a silly online multiplayer game where people compete by destroying each others cars. The game was free in February's PS+ games for ps5 users and I decided to give it a shot.

Let's not make this long, the game is nothing really too special. I find the game pretty hooking tho, when I boot it up i usually spend at least an hour playing it before i get bored or frustrated. The dualsense features are great so the game shows great potential of haptic feedback use in future driving games. Even though the game is fun to play, you can get frustrated super fast, because balance doesn't exist there at all. There are like two meta characters, five okish characters and the rest is completely trash. The server lag doesn't make it easier to play and the lack of music (totally no music during gameplay) and awful, just awful voice acting doesn't help either. You can buy things for real money in the game, but i can't really see why would you, because cosmetics are really bad and you shouldn't pay to unlock five minutes of single player content. The game forces voice chat every match and you have to turn it off every time, it's so laughable that it's hard to imagine.

After all the criticism, I kinda like the game. I boot it up when i don't want to play anything ambitious and i have fun with it. I find it perfect for a PS+ title, I would never pay for it, but i can have fun with it for a while and forget it. The fact that the game was meant to be priced as 70 euros is laughable.

If they fix the lag, add music and balance the game I might play it more from time to time, because as I said, it's pretty fun, otherwise i see upcoming destruction of Destruction Allstars and the game will be dead in a month.

5/10

Just a fine game for the price of PS+.

~Wo