Destruction All Stars

[mfnick]

No one else try this yet? 
 

Gave it a couple of hours. It’s a strange one. Everything about it seems pretty good, looks nice with good presentation, has a varied selection of characters, the controls are genuinely great, driving and abilities feels good as do the characters. In fact the direct control of the characters surprises most, the way they leap out of cars, jump and wall run genuinely feels spot on.
 

The controller is really well used too, haptics aren’t special but running feels good. What makes the difference are the triggers. The brakes have a real tension to them which builds the more you press and when you’re heavily damaged the right one clicks in such a great way where you really feel the vehicle is fucked and is a brill way of providing feedback without looking at the health bar. I’m desperate for a good racing game on the PS5 now. There’s huge potential there. 
 

Gameplay comes down to running around the map jumping onto pads which have cars on them. Get in the car then ram the competition using dash attacks on the Right stick or the character specific ability on L1 with points awarded for strength or hit and wrecks. You can also run over the people as they’re running about. 
 

There’s 4 different game modes. 2 solo, 2 teams. 
Chaos - basically a free for all where the most points from hits and wrecks wins. Fun enough, especially for a quick 5 minute blast. 

Gridfall - Elimination mode. Parts of the track falls away creating death pits as well as the danger of other players. Not keen on this, can take a short while to match make and can die within 30 seconds meaning a 5 minute wait again. Could do with starting with  a 2-3 lives IMO.

 

Carnado - My personal favourite so far. In 2 teams you earn Gears from hits instead of points, you then have to bank these in the middle of the course. This also blows your car up in a dangerous place so you have to run and dodge your way to either stealing someone’s else’s car or finding another before you get run over. 
 

Stockpile - 2nd team mode. 3 points on the map, team who controls most when time runs out wins. To gain the points you have to wreck opponents and then on foot pick up the gears their wreck leaves. You deliver these to one of the 3 points to defend or gain them. 

The courses and player numbers are well thought out. It avoids the pitfall of most vehicle combat games where you’d drive pass a opponent then have to mess about turning around for another go. There’s enough other players and the arenas are designed in such a way where it doesn’t frustrate like normal as you’re likely to be only a couple of seconds away from having a go at another. 

 

I’ve enjoyed what I’ve played so far but going back to what I said at the beginning, it’s strange. All the parts are good and do work well together but it just seems to be missing something to hook me where I’m desperate for one more go. Hopefully that comes in time. 

[DisturbedSwan]

Once I've finished Sackboy I plan to give it a go.

[Manicm]

Tempted to get a 1 year pass to try this and any other ps5 stuff they release this year...

[mfnick]

I’ve put in another 3 hours. Unfortunately I think I’m done. Just a bit one note and not got that pull really good MP games have. 
 

I’ll probably keep it installed for the time being for the odd match here and there but that’s it. 

[DisturbedSwan]

4 hours ago, Manicm said:

Tempted to get a 1 year pass to try this and any other ps5 stuff they release this year...

 

With Control UE and this it's a great time to dive in, you get all the PS+ Collection games included as a PS5 owner too.

[Whiskey_chaser]

Had a few games of this and yeah, it's a bit wanky isn't it? Feels like it could have done with a few more weeks in the concept/ideas stage to flesh it out.

It's like they mashed Mario Kart's battle mode with Burnout into a full fledged game, made all the characters really unbalanced, the crashes completely underwhelming and sucked all the fun out of it.

[DisturbedSwan]

 

[mfnick]

Wondered what they’d do after the PS+ time. I assumed they’d just add it to the PS+ Collection. Not a unreasonable price but I wouldn’t recommend anyone buy it. Even “free” on + it’s a hard sell.