So Destruction AllStars, a game that was supposed to come out during the PS5 launch week, finally came out on PS Plus this month, and we get an interesting car combat game that includes reality game show elements with acts of vehicular crashing.
Its destruction looks and feels solid, gameplay too but its range of characters has made us think of it as the equivalent of Fortnite Carmageddon. For good reasons.
Crash and Bash
The carnage part of this game is quite hectic. You and many other players or AI fight together to either collect points, bank in points, or team battle your way to victory. Its premise is simple and makes for amazing casual play.
The cars in DAS have lots of variations, from those cars you can pick up from inside the arena to your character’s star car.
It has their own unique handling and health points which makes switching cars during battles a very strategic move when your car is on the brink of exploding.
And I do love how they implemented the usage of the DualSense in this game. The triggers will fight you as you press on the L2 hard to brake, and it will vibrate according to your car’s current state of damage.
It’s these little touches that make it the current standard for racing games to follow for this generation (that is until Gran Turismo 7 comes out).
The destruction is quite detailed for an arcade racer like this. Cars will get crunched from the sides and front. Car parts will fall out, albeit briefly before despawning, tires will pop and roofs will be bent with a roll if your car doesn’t get t-boned after it. That level of damage is quite a sight to see.
Side By Side
The characters in DAS all have unique traits and cars which differ from person to person. From a macho luchador to a girl wearing an emotion board on her face, the cast of characters that you get to use is unique in personality, special move Breaker, and even color, which you’ll see whenever you use a car within the arena.
Most of their motive and background are within their own character challenge modes, where you get to see the cast interact with each other. This brings us to our problem with the game right now.
All-Grind
So, to unlock any of the story mode content, which is special for each character, you have to pay for them. Which right now is fine due to it being a free game but after April, the full game will cost around 70 dollars or 284 MYR and each character’s challenge mode will cost around 300-400 Star coins.
The cheapest coin bundle is 29 Ringgit and that includes 500 coins. So you’re looking at 9 ringgit per Character unless you want to Grind for it. This sort of Mobile game practice is unacceptable for a future priced game and might stray off players if the grind gets too hard later on.
Even I feel that the Character challenge doesn’t really convey the fun of the multiplayer mode as it feels far too easy at times. So even if you want to enjoy the story mode only, you might get bored of playing it even before you get the monetary satisfaction of buying a character’s backstory.
DAS It Hold Up?
For now, Destruction AllStars is like Destruction Derby way back in the PS1, with lots of great styles and not really a lot of substance, even when you consider the many modes which feels fun to play but gets boring after a prolonged session.
Matchmaking issues don’t help it either and I do hope Lucid Game does a Fall Guys and makes the game as fun as possible to play in the future seasons. It needs the player fun factor to make it not fully crash and burn after the free period is completed.