Developer Summary:

Demolition, Inc. is a new action strategy game: Assume the role of the daring demolition worker Mike and start a devastating chain reaction on earth. Use cool tools and weapons and expand your destructive powers!

What We Think:

In this physics-based puzzle game, you play the role of an alien bent on demolishing the earth. No, you aren’t a Vogon constructor fleet levelling the entire planet in order to make way for a hyperspatial express route. You’re just one greasy backwater alien who managed to undercut his competition and get the contract to smash all of Earth’s cities and return it to the green place it used to be so it can be used as an intergalactic recreation area.

German-based Zero Scale Game Development has built one solid title in Demolition Inc. From top to bottom it shows a level of polish that, while becoming more common, is still a pleasant surprise in independent games.

Graphically we aren’t talking cutting edge here. The intro and levels have a low polygon 2005 vibe to them, but the cartoony style of the game lends itself nicely to that level of detail, so it isn’t detrimental. It made me think of GTA 1 + 2, converted to 3D, which is a good thing.

Each level consists of one or more roads winding their way through buildings that must fall before your mighty…intergalactic tow-truck? The army has detected your presence and are on the way, so you must quickly smash those buildings with your deadly…oil slicks, glue bombs and exploding cows?? OK, so the premise, while funny, is also pretty stupid, but I think the moment we accepted birds going kamikaze just to get back at some pigs who were being jerks we collectively gave up our right to complain about such things.

Other than a couple of super attacks, your saddled with demolition by proxy. Oil clouds slide vehicles out of control. Wheel glue jerks vehicles into skids. Explosive cows…explode. When you get the game (and you should) I don’t think there’s an item that isn’t self-explanatory; once you’ve gotten your vehicles to smash into a building or something suitably explosive and things start falling down, swoop down and suck up all that debris for cold hard cash. Finish off a block for a bonus and the sight of grass and trees magically replacing all that nasty steel and concrete. Clean up every block to clear a level.

The physics model used in Demolition Inc. isn’t the most realistic, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t entertaining. Buildings teeter precariously after having an 18 wheeler full of gasoline smash through their front lobby, only to fall over into the street when the fuel tanks inevitably explode. Canisters, concrete and bits of burning cow fly into the air causing unexpected secondary explosions elsewhere on the map. It’s mayhem on a grand scale and you are its master.

Music in the game is upbeat and fun, though there are so few that it can get a bit repetitive. Sound effects are well done.

I’d say the difficulty level of Demolition Inc. is easy to moderate. Most levels you’ll finish on the first try, but there are a few tricky ones that will take the right set of lucky circumstances to pull off. If there’s a single glaring problem it’s that there aren’t enough of them. You’ll probably finish the game in a couple of hours and, while a quick game in rampage mode once in a blue moon might be fun, you aren’t likely to play again once you’re done.

Fun as this game is, I hope the good folks at Zero Scale are already hard at work on additional DLC or, better yet, a construction kit so the community can build and share their own smash-tastic cityscapes.

Rating:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAp0EEY-K3Y[/youtube]