10 Games With Destructible Environments

An appetite for destruction has been around since the dawn of time, and it is no different in entertainment and the arts. Whether you associate destroying buildings with Buster Keaton and Miley Cyrus, there is pleasure in making things go boom and watching them fall apart.

Now, virtual destruction comes in many shapes and sizes, but it is universally agreed that they are all better than watching a wooden shack magically stand after being hit by a weapon to surpass Metal Gear.

Before anyone asks, we are not throwing Minecraft here because it is a game about manipulating every block in the world, rather than bona fide destruction. It's also just not that good of a game, but that's a discourse for another time

10 Rainbow Six Siege

Competitive Teardown

As an oldhead from the Red Storm Entertainment days, I hate what Rainbow Six has become under Ubisoft, and I wish someone had the guts to bring the franchise back to its roots. Nonetheless, if there is one thing Siege does well, it's destruction.

The entire game is functionally modelled around which surfaces you can and can't punch a hole through, spicing up the cat-and-mouse game between attackers and defenders.

One of the peculiarities of Rainbow Six Siege compared to other shooters is that individual bullet effects are represented in the world, meaning the map is constantly transformed during firefights.

9 Worms: Armageddon

Uh-oh

You are a worm. You also love blowing things up and killing your fellow worms, slapstick style. Never has such a simple setup been so fun, and Team17's turn-based masterpiece remains one of the most iconic games ever made.

The environmental destruction mechanics in Worms: Armageddon are fairly straightforward, but they are arguably the key element to the game. From a simple bullet to your cousin's customized Holy Hand Grenade with a yield closer to a small nuke, everything makes a dent in the terrain.

This affects how weapons and worms move around, and it is always the slightest bump left by a stray bazooka that makes your silly guy go fully aerial before plunging into the depths.

8 Sherman Commander

HE, Up!

While movies like Fury glorify tank-on-tank combat, these hulking sardine cans really excel at bullying infantry. Sherman Commander drives this home by giving you the ability to blast buildings, trees, walls, and anything else to smithereens with your main gun.

High-explosive ammunition dismantles all sorts of structures that foolish German soldiers thought would protect them against your bloodlust. Ironically, the game's building damage models are actually more visually diverse than those of other tanks there.

Keep in mind that punching a hole through any structure doesn't outright destroy it or kill its occupants. A partially destroyed building sometimes makes the soldiers there harder to hit with machine gun fire, and stops your own troops from being able to storm it reliably.

Praise Be Unto RNGesus

Destructible environments were actually not introduced with XCOM 2, but this marked the first time you had more control over what and when something breaks.

The first game limited this to shots peppering cover, itself a useful thing, but what's life without some explosives? Even the humble frag grenade can punch a hole through different structures in XCOM 2, making it easy to remodel the world.

Easily the most useful use of environmental destruction in XCOM 2 is to blow through the floor in maps that allow it, then blast the alien scum from the higher ground, per the teachings of Master Kenobi.

6 Battlefield 3

Blackburn Did Nothing Wrong

I was between Battlefield 3, 4, and Bad Company 2 here, and honestly, they are all great picks, but I am sticking with my personal biases here.

For all the noise EA made about destruction in Battlefield 6, the end result was quite underwhelming compared to the absolute mayhem a dedicated demolitions expert could unleash on earlier titles.

Battlefield 3 was the first to feature 'levolution', one of the coolest things with the corniest names in gaming. While you had slightly less explosive freedom compared to Bad Company 2, the things that did go boom were cinematic heritage. Not one tower shall be left standing.

5 BattleBit Remastered

Low Poly, High Intensity

The BattleBit Remastered early access path hasn't been all roses, but after the devs launched the aptly-named Operation Overhaul late last year, I feel comfortable recommending it again.

Despite its low-poly visuals, BattleBit Remastered matches and sometimes even exceeds Battlefield in terms of realism. One of its advantages is in the environmental destruction category.

Virtually anything in BattleBit can be blown up, provided you have enough explosives, giving you a chance to reshape the battlefield to your team's needs.

4 The Finals

If Counter-Strike Were Good

Before reaching god-tier status in the multiplayer shooter realm with ARC Raiders, Embark Studios had carved out a nice niche for itself with The Finals.

Arguably the best free PvP first-person shooter in the market, The Finals is fast without being as sweaty as its competitors, and it stands out due to the dynamic environmental destruction.

The granular approach to structures and their damage model means that nothing ever crumbles quite the same way, and the physics-based model makes every spontaneous demolition a joy to witness.

3 Over the Top

A Long Way to Tipperary

Most games with destructible environments focus on man-made structures, with the odd tree. There's nothing wrong with that, but Over the Top takes things to a new level with its over-the-top destructible terrain. I'll face the firing wall for that one.

Flying Squirrel Entertainment cooked up perhaps the most all-encompassing World War I game to date, and it wouldn't be a depiction of that hellish conflict without trenches and craters deforming the world.

Although Over the Top has a few preset trenches, it is the job of engineers to build fortifications and shape the battlefield. Artillerymen, conversely, are charged with blasting these to smithereens. This build-demolish dynamic is abject chaos, but it is a beautiful depiction of the scars war leaves in the world, especially since the maps have persistence between rounds.

2 Control

Break Concrete Jungle

Remedy Entertainment's love letter to brutalist aesthetics is beautiful, but Control also lets you wreck the precious interiors and architecture to your heart's delight.

Jesse Faden can destroy furniture, walls, windows, the floor, you name it. If it's there, odds are you can take it apart. What makes Control all the more impressive, however, is the fragmentation mechanics of the Northlight engine.

Everything comes apart in a believable way, leaving a trail of destruction that not only feels but actually looks right, and which you can use to your advantage throughout the game.

1 Red Faction Guerilla

Just a Quiet Backwater Facility

It's hard to mention Red Faction Guerrilla without breaking into '2125, I was on a mining colony on Mars', but I will try nonetheless.

This 2009 game still holds up as one of the most technologically impressive destruction games ever released. Just about everything you touch can (and most likely will) be picked apart in the course of your gameplay.

Structures blow up in satisfying and realistic patterns, reacting differently depending on what you're using to disassemble them. My favorite weapon in the whole game has to be the plasma beam, which allows you to cut buildings and antennae in half by simply melting through the supports. Never gets old.