Innovation of the Week: Destructible Environments & Multiple Destructible Parts

Happy holidays! Today I want to shine a spotlight on a couple of gaming innovations that let us feel powerful and in control, that can add to immersion and realism, and that allow us to let off some steam without hurting others or their property: Destructible Environments and Multiple Destructible Parts. Destructible environments potentially bring more interaction and stimulation of player creativity in games, allowing players to find new ways past obstacles and to conquer challenges. Whether it's blasting through walls, digging past a dangerous part of a level, toppling a building on top of an enemy, or creating cover on the fly, the ability to shape the game world through destruction opens up many new possibilities for the player.

Multiple destructible parts take the concept and apply it to the characters populating game worlds, breaking down larger objects into smaller, individually destructible components. While more realistic this also introduces a tactical element, as players can now target specific weak points that might be more or less beneficial given the situation at hand - for example you might want to cripple a fast enemy's movement by hitting its legs or a sniper's ability to aim by hitting its eyes. When applied to the player avatar it can instead provide another layer of challenge or induce additional stress.

The first example of the former innovation seems to be from the 1975 arcade game Gun Fight (aka Western Gun) by Taito, which longtime readers will recognize from a previous post. In case you forgot, two players are pitted against each other in a gunfight set in the Old West. As a tactical option, players can hide behind objects: one of them is the rock formation which bullets ricochet off of. The other is the cactus, however these are destructible objects removed completely in one hit, producing a short little beep and no animation. Such was the humble beginning of destructible environments in games!

Star Raiders (1979 or 1980) is a 2.5D Space Combat Sim which inspired later games such as Star Voyager, Star Luster, Elite and Wing Commander. It includes some neat features for the time such as an enemy radar with two ranges, a rearview camera toggle, particle explosions and more. More relevant to the topic, however, is that so-called subsystem damage is included. This means parts of your ship can be damaged individually, making it the first game with multiple destructible parts. Your ship's shields, engines, weapons, targeting computer, and scanners can be damaged or completely destroyed.

As time went on, these features became a lot more detailed and advanced with some more recent landmark titles being Red Faction (2001), The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction (2005), Red Faction: Guerrilla (2009) and Minecraft (2011). Let's keep it classic though and check out Some Other Notable Retro Game Examples:

Tank Battalion (1980) - In this prequel to Battle City, players are tasked with defending an objective protected by a thin layer of brick wall, by navigating a tank through a single screen maze full of thicker, rectangle shaped walls and taking out every enemy that appears. Unlike most tank-based games, it doesn't actually have tank controls. Walls are destructible at the tile level and both the player and the enemies can do it.

Phoenix (1980) - This early shoot 'em up seems to have introduced the idea of shooting the core to win. However, to shoot the core in Phoenix one must first shoot the protective shell, or two of them to be specific. In a sort of reverse Space Invaders-style boss fight where the player ship is slowly moving closer to the boss, players first chip away at what might be an asteroid, then what looks like a conveyor belt platform on top of it to be able to attack the alien leader inside its base and end the level.

Aztec (1982) - What's this, the platform adventure/metroidvania subgenre has western roots? It's true, and you can read more about that aspect here. In this game, players start in a randomized temple labyrinth equipped with 3 sticks of dynamite. They have to explore to find new weapons, ammo and health (and eventually an idol, the retrieval of which being the goal of the game), but they also have to create new paths to progress using the aforementioned dynamite sticks. This mechanic is similar to Castle Wolfenstein's from the previous year, but fleshed out to an impressive degree - one can destroy walls, floors, drop the dynamite to a floor below them, and even destroy stairs. Stairs that might be important for progression, so players have to be real careful about placement (one can also use it for optional shortcuts if a room has too many enemies to deal with at the moment), but luckily the bottom floor of the maze is indestructible.

Rampage (1986) - A King Kong/Godzilla simulator of sorts, this game lets up to three people play as a human transformed into a giant monster through a failed experiment, whose sole purpose is to demolish entire city blocks, one room/tile at a time. Like in King Kong, buildings can be climbed and friendly NPCs can be grabbed and let go on the ground (note that each monster prefers a certain type of NPC). Once enough of one is destroyed, the rest starts cracking up and the whole thing soon comes tumbling down, a pretty impressive visual effect at the time. A human army tries to deal with you using grenadiers, tanks, flamethrowers and choppers, but fitting the theme, the game is not about skillfully dodging shots or hits; instead players try to destroy the whole block and eat all the soldiers (and/or food if they find it) before enough damage is dealt to them, reverting their monster into a nude human who leaves the screen in shame while covering themselves. At this point, they can even be eaten by another player!

Contra (1987/1988) - Contra seems to be one of the first games in which taking out parts of a boss or enemy in a certain order has a clear tactical advantage. For example, the "defense wall" boss in level 1 has an enemy soldier sitting on top of it and alternating between taking cover and aiming shots directly at the player, so it's generally best to take him out first. Then, to safely take out the core near the bottom, it's probably best to take out the turrets around the middle first since they are constantly bombarding the platform in front of the core. At the same time, a skilled player with the right weapon can go for a quick kill instead.

MechWarrior (1989) - The first 3D mech sim introduced multiple destructible parts to the genre, while also letting you take advantage of it in a new way: Destroying the legs of enemy mechs makes them topple over, disabling them without destroying them completely, and leading to more salvage which in turn leads to more money. Money that you'll need to repair your own mech's parts, so that you can keep doing this to other mechs until you can find a better one to do it with. It's the circle of mech life.

Lemmings (1991) - This seminal puzzle game in which you guide a bunch of lemmings towards the level exit allowed for environment destruction at the pixel level. First off, you have three different digging jobs that you can hand out to your lemmings, making them dig through most terrain vertically, horizontally or diagonally. Second, you can give them the "blow yourself up" job (that escalated quickly), which they'll happily do, leaving a circular crater where that lemming was. This is actually needed to get through some levels. Now if you're feeling really sadistic, or you give up on a level, you can press the nuke button to set a time bomb on every single lemming still in the level and they'll all be wiped in 5 seconds, sending debris flying all over the place.

Star Fighter 3000 (1994) - This flight combat game, originally for the Acorn Archimedes, impressed at the time with large, highly destructible 3D environments, a long draw distance and a pretty good framerate. Not only can skyscrapers and large ships and pipes be completely destroyed, but if you keep shooting a mountain you will eventually level it to the ground (a feature that might've been added in the 3DO and later versions, haven't been able to try the original yet)! A bit odd for a 3D game, the environments are visually divided into large tiles (or I guess quads) affected by shots and explosions, so if you shoot the ground for example there will be 5 tiles of burnt ground there, giving the game a kind of retro throwback feel.

Warcraft II and Command & Conquer (1995): These games added partially destructible environments to real-time strategy games. In C&C, blasting through walls or destroying bridges strategically can give you the upper hand during a mission, in some cases being part of a larger puzzle that needs to be solved to progress (at least unless you're up for some huge difficulty spikes). In Warcraft II, mountain and forest tiles can be blown away using kamikaze units, creating a more direct path to the enemy base. Zug-zug.

Blast Corps (1997): This is a pretty unique N64 game that has players controlling one of a variety of demolition vehicles at a time to clear the way for a runaway nuclear missile carrier, combining destruction with escorting. A variety of buildings and other objects can be destroyed, usually by running into them in different ways, moving an explosive block into them or using a direct attack. Alternate vehicles and routes can be found through exploration, and you sometimes have to interact with the environment on foot to move vehicles to where you need them, turning various levels into large puzzles that need to be solved for that 100% completion.

BattleTanx (1998): This N64 vehicle combat game brings Battle City to mind, except in 3D and with some new features. Buildings and walls are fully destructible, there are explosive barrels that damage stuff around them, and if you get the nuke weapon, all buildings in the level can be hit at the same time.

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What are some of your favorite retro games that incorporated destructible environments or multiple destructible parts? How did these features make those games better? Share your thoughts and memories!