Deconstruction Simulator Review (PC)

I’ve been to a rage room, and so, I know all too well how much joy you can find in simply hitting the living daylights out of a pane of glass with a sledgehammer. But it’s an expensive pastime, and, truth be told, it does my back in something awful. Plus, if memory serves me correctly, I wound up leaving that site not with a sprightly spring in my step, but with an aching vertebrae and a premonition that I was aging a lot faster than I feared. But then, after a brisk walk in the park and a session at the local chiropractor, I turned to Deconstruction Simulator to fuel that undying desire for destruction. Surprise surprise, it didn’t cost me an arm and a leg, and it didn’t leave me with a lofty physiotherapy bill. Go figure.

Deconstruction Simulator is, to some extent, House Flipper. Well, it’s House Flipper, if the purpose of House Flipper is to, well, un-flip houses. But it’s the same gig. There are tools to unlock, contracts to earn, and a city’s worth of crumbling infrastructure to put to the grindstone and hack out with whatever ball and chain you happen to find yourself attached to. The rest, well — you can figure it out for yourself, probably. It’s essentially a sledgehammer sim with destructible environments and a series of jobs that require you to bulldoze, break, and mindlessly destroy everything in your path in exchange for better tools, more contracts, and additional upgrades to boost your overall efficiency. And yes, it is a lot cheaper than your average rage room. Less physically demanding, too, mind you. With all of that, what more could you want?

Mindless Destruction 101

Deconstruction Simulator feeds you a campaign that is, quite frankly, a textbook, almost word-for-word iteration of a traditional House Flipper title. Simply put, it offers you contracts to accept, and then hands you the basic equipment to enter various premises to, well, wreak havoc, ransack resources, and offload whatever pieces of rubble you acquire to earn more perks and post-contract bonuses. Herein lies a simple yet annoyingly addicting gameplay loop that invites you to engage in mostly casual house-wrecking jobs. It isn’t glamorous, nor is it bursting at the seams with tightly knitted mechanics or audiovisual finesse — but boy is it satisfying. At least, it is for the first handful of hours, after which it more or less becomes a chore.

If you picture House Flipper’s basic routine—locating highlighted walls, furniture spaces, and stained floors, etcetera etcetera—and then add a big ol’ red cross over it, similar to how a plague doctor might paint a cross over a contaminated building, you ought to have a vague idea of how this contractual obligation works. It’s a basic setup that doesn’t require much of you, nor is it one that brandishes you with a lot of pointless jargon or extracurricular pulp. It just hands you the tools, and tells you to let rip on the architectural bones of the building before you. Not much else to say about that.

Waste Not, Want Not

Sadly, there are several teething issues that sully an otherwise enjoyable deconstruction sim. For example, the game suffers from some tedious shading issues and graphical glitches—furniture and shelving racks sink into the floor, for instance—as well as some irritable gameplay problems that, frankly, would’ve been better if left out. Don’t get me wrong, the act of demolishing a building can be a lot of fun, but it’s the small and somewhat painfully dull tasks—manually collecting bricks and offloading individual set pieces, for example—that dampen the overall experience.

While the career does contain a quality selection of jobs, Deconstruction Simulator doesn’t have a great deal of depth in its latter portions. In other words, if you find yourself getting a little bored after the first few jobs, then it’s highly that you’ll struggle to stick around through to the bitter end. And, sadly, with no real post-completion incentives to unlock, it can feel like a bit of a slog. However, if you couldn’t care less about the “perks of the job” or the lack of twists or turns, then you might be capable of holding out. Even still, I personally wouldn’t go breaking the bank if you’re desperately looking for something with more depth and replay value.

Suffice it to say that, in spite of all its flaws and visual shortcomings, Deconstruction Simulator is still an oddly enjoyable flipping sim that scratches a certain itch. It isn’t perfect, but at least it serves its purpose of being an outlet for people with, well, rage.

Verdict

Deconstruction Simulator is as mindlessly satisfying as it is pointlessly endearing, which is precisely why I feel so oddly drawn to it. It isn’t the sort of game that asks much of you, other than to whip out a hammer and mull over the ruins of a shambolic homestead to harvest a few nifty upgrades along the way. It’s simple and annoyingly more-ish, despite the fact that it has a whole lot of technical issues that sully an otherwise smooth and seamless de-cluttering experience. But, as with any sandbox that has its flaws, a couple of extra screws here and there ought to make it a sturdier product. Here’s hoping that, with any luck, the team behind it address the shortcomings sooner than later.

While there isn’t much for you to work towards here, or even a loot-riddled endgame that flaunts copious amounts of valuable benefits or what have you, the base game and its surplus of stepping stones are quite clearly worth the asking price. What’s more, given that the gameplay hook is made to feel immensely satisfying, it is an easy one to slip into and enjoy whilst whittling down the hours. Does it have a purpose? Not really, no. But then, like a good rage room, at least it gives you an outlet for your inner turmoil and insatiable desire for mindless destruction.

Let it be said that, in spite of all its downfalls, the game itself is a lot of fun to scoot around in. It isn’t the least bit perfect, though, to give credit where it’s due, it is entertaining, albeit in a numskull way that doesn’t really resemble the craft in the most positive light. Still, if you happen to enjoy smashing things up for the sake of it, then heck — let ‘em have it.