1.0 Release Announced for Instruments of Destruction

It was only at the last Winter sales that I bothered to pick up the Re-Mars-tered edition of Red Faction: Guerrilla. I haven’t played it yet, as I had reviews and Baldur’s Gate 3-based smooching to be getting on with, but my PS3 edition of Red Faction: Guerrilla certainly has a lot of hours worn into it. Aside from my casual love for terrorism against a French-owned British energy company, I think more games should take on the Guerrilla approach to architecture: Making buildings out of chocolate-covered wafers. Luke Schneider’s Instruments of Destruction aims to do that very thing, providing Radiangames with that experience.

Radiangames previously worked on marvelous titles, such as The Powerpuff Girls: Defenders of Townsville, and Schneider particularly was the “Project Design Architect” for Red Faction: Guerrilla. Currently in early access, Instruments of Destruction is Schneider’s latest project and it is about done according to a press release from Wednesday. This is what it had to say:

“Break thru [sic] walls, tear down buildings, and send structures crashing into each other in Instruments of Destruction, Radiangames’ new vehicle-action game featuring advanced physics-based destruction. Created by the lead technical designer of Red Faction Guerrilla, Instruments of Destruction gives players a variety of unique vehicles and fun objectives to overcome while engaging with a highly interactive and destructible world.”

Schneider would go on to say, “Instruments of Destruction‘s key feature may be the physics-based destruction system, but the huge lineup of vehicles and missions are just as important to unlocking the full potential of the immersive and satisfying gameplay. The missions and environments provide a framework for fun objectives, while the systems-driven gameplay provides an intuitive way to interact with a simulated world.” However, none of that is the juicy – leaving early access – part.

“Instruments of Destruction launched into Early Access in March of 2022, and has a 94% positive review rating on Steam and over 20 million views across hundreds of videos on YouTube,” notes the press release, with something about early access updates and the Steam Workshop community. Finishing off with: “Version 1.0 is coming to Steam on May 10th, 2024, and will be launching at a discounted price of $16.99 (15% off the regular $19.99).” That’s what we wanted to hear!

For a similar lengthy piece on the 1.0 release, you can check out the Steam post here. The press release continued on with: “Version 1.0 features the addition of a massive campaign where each mission has its own custom vehicle. From everyday wreckers and flying bulldozers to ornithopters and spider tanks, Instruments of Destruction features one of the most unique and varied lineups of vehicles ever assembled.

While the 50-mission campaign takes you on a thrilling journey as a test pilot for Sharpe Industries, it’s just the tip of the iceberg for players who truly want to engage with the vehicles, physics, and destruction. Each mission also hosts a high-score challenge where players use a different vehicle to test their limits. The missions and challenges combine for dozens of hours of destructive carnage.

If over a hundred playable vehicles [aren’t] enough, players can take on a secondary campaign where they are challenged to build a custom vehicle from scratch. With an instructional campaign and more cerebral missions and objectives, the 25-mission Build & Destroy campaign allows players to take the reins of the powerful vehicle build system, but is completely optional. Finally, Sandbox mode offers players a chance to load up any of the nearly 100 maps–and any unlocked or custom vehicles–and play with no objectives or restrictions.“

A bit more Besiege than Red Faction, Instruments of Destruction looks to be a fantastic and sometimes explosive update to the idea of tearing a hole in buildings. No naturally built-in hammers, but I’m sure you can make a Terrorhurtz-like vehicle to cause ultimate destruction come Friday, May 10th.