DESTRUCTURE: Among Debris

Review

Growing up, one of my fondest memories was our European summer holidays. We used to go to Italy's Adriatic coast, either to Rimini or Cattolica, in the '80s. We loved these two places as a family because the beaches were fabulous, but for me, it was the arcade parlour that I loved the most. After being grilled like lobsters most of the day, from three to five each afternoon, we went to play arcade games in gaming venues. The venues were huge, and some of my favourite games were Arkanoid, Space Invaders and Pac-Man. I loved the Air Hockey tables, too, as I was tough to beat; my mother always told me I was a champion, but she is my mother. So, when I had the opportunity to play DESTRUCTURE: Among Debris, which combines three of my favourite games (arcade), I was absolutely up for it.

DESTRUCTURE: Among Debris is a combination of a Bullet Hell, Arkanoid and Air Hockey game set in a post-apocalyptic world developed by Team Instant Defeat and Published by RockGame S.A. on the 28^th of February 2023 on the Steam Platform.

The game consists of 27 levels, each with three to seven stages to complete. The game is laid out as a top-down horizontal Arkanoid, but you control a circular platform instead of a thin rectangular one. Your goal is rather simple; destroy all the buildings quickly without being hit by any projectiles. You also need to keep a multiplayer equation going (five is the maximum) to collect as many blue coins as possible so you can upgrade your skills or power-ups at the end of each stage, if that is what you want.

Each level will have a few different structures, which are mainly made of wood or steel at the start of the game. As you progress, stronger walls and switches will be introduced, as well as bouncing platforms, like a pinball-type setup. You'll also have bunkers that are never totally destroyed as they leave pieces of steel on the floor that can change the direction of your ball(s) when they roll over them, which can be tricky. The other tricky aspect is the shredder. The shredder is several saws instead of the wall, and if your ball goes through it, you lose one bar of health, the same as when a bullet hits your circular platform.

At the start of each stage, you'll be able to see several sockets. These sockets are for enemy turrets which will appear after each warning siren. You can't destroy these sockets without a turret on them. And as you progress throughout the game, you'll have different types of turrets to destroy. It becomes really intense around level 17 when you have turrets that fortify other structures (including turrets), turrets that repair structures and others that shoot projectiles every few seconds. It is really fun.

But it’s not only turrets that shoot projectiles. Some buildings with coloured dots will also dispatch a shell after being destroyed. As mentioned, you need to keep multiplayer going to maximise the value of each blue coin. Every single structure will release a certain number of blues coins when destroyed. To keep multiplying up to 5X, you must destroy buildings as fast as possible, but if you are hit by either a bullet or your ball when it goes through the shredder, you'll be back to 1X and you'll have to start the count again. So, not only do you have to worry about the ball(s) and incoming bullets, but you have to pick up the blues coins as well. It is frantic! You have power-ups in each stage, which are icons that you can see on some structures; for example, the green spanner for repair, the blue arrow and pink shotgun to destroy buildings, and a few others.

You'll have plenty of upgrades to choose from as you unlock them. But if you want to have your name on each of the level leaderboards, do not upgrade before starting the next stage.

I also like the game's physics; moving your mouse faster before the circular platform hits a ball will launch it quicker and stronger towards the standing buildings or turrets and inflict more damage.

In terms of difficulty, you can play on the Casual or the True modes. The difference between the two modes is that if you die in the True mode, you have to restart the level entirely, whereas with the Casual mode, you can restart the stage you were able to beat.

I liked the graphics, sound effects and gameplay; it is a very addictive game and super fun. After 20 hours of gameplay, I haven't experienced any issues whatsoever. There are plenty of levels, and the game is well-balanced.

Review written by THE CPT FROGGY for Zeepond.com

DESTRUCTURE: Among Debris Steam Store Page