Teardown
Review
Art Vandals DLC
by Howie Howard
reviewed on PC
Teardown Expansion
On December 15 2022, Swedish game developer Tuxedo Labs announced that a company developed expansion to their destruction game Teardown had been released. Teardown - for the uninitiated - is a simulation about running a demolition company tasked with...you guessed it... demolishing things. Along with the demolition jobs, other tasks called heists needed to be undertaken. The game environment is fully interactive and items can be destroyed in order to complete the assigned mission. Players use several different tools such as a hammer, fire extinguisher, spray paint gun, explosives, various construction machines and in the new update, a paper gun and jackhammer.
Tearing down things can be quite puzzling
The initial game offering could be played via a campaign mode consisting of a number of missions, or as Tuxedo Lab calls them, puzzles. This is a fitting name as some of the required tasks need to be completed, albeit loosely, in a certain way and time. Even if you fail to complete a puzzle in a demolition company approved manner, the mission can still be completed. However, missions might take longer, or you could fail due to time limits and will need to try again to advance the story. Fortunately, there is no penalty for failing missions.
Teardown and its update isn't just a campaign driven game; it can also be played in sand box mode after levels are completed. More importantly, the developers encourage modding. The Sandbox mode is nice because there are no mission timer constraints that players need to be worried about. In the sandbox, players can tear down and destroy to their hearts content. A new Expansions Section has been added in the Play Menu and that is where the new mod expansion named "Art Vandals" is found. Luckily, although the original campaign is a lot of fun, but it doesn't need to be played before
"Art Vandals". In addition, Tuxedo Labs has added an in-game Mod Menu which will serve to introduce players to the games powerful modding system. It will also serve to make access to player mods easier.
Gordon Woo, Who?
The new Teardown update is actually a mini-multi-stage campaign that Tuxedo Labs developed to provide direction to players wishing to produce their own multi-stage campaigns. Plus, it continues the Gordon Woo story line from the original game. The bonus to the Art Vandals update, along with it being a lot of fun, is that it's a free addition to the game. However, players do need to have the original Teardown game installed to play it. Tuxedo Lab has created this expansion as a mod developed using the in-game mod creation tools.
The new mini-campaign Art Vandals, has players filling the role of Freya - Gordon Woo's daughter - in a series of missions set after the original campaign ends. For those that aren't familiar with Gordon Woo, he is a customer of your demolition company that required questionable jobs or rather criminal heist break-ins be performed by your company. Some of these heists aren't actually outright demolition jobs but they do require knowledge of how to smash holes in walls in order to get the job done without having the finger being pointed at Mr. Woo.
An unintentional criminal enterprise?
The Art Vandals expansion continues where the original Woo series of missions left off. The original campaign mission, The Old Building Problem is where the Woo story begins and its where you start your life of crime. It's a job where a historic building that's under cultural heritage protection needs to be demolished. After completing the job, you discover that Woo's criminal gang is behind your demolition company being placed under criminal charges. Woo requires a lot of discrete heists such as break-ins to steal expensive cars, computers and data along with other criminal tasks. The story continues in this expansion with Woo seeking revenge against his arch-enemy artist Kerstin Straback and he requires the player to do the dirty work. I won't give the entire story away, so let's just say that you can't refuse these criminal jobs from Gordon Woo.
Teardown is a game requiring players to use their brain more than their fast twitch joystick muscles. The game doesn't really seem like a traditional puzzle solving game and that's the beauty of Teardown. Although it does require some planning and thinking in advance, in some cases all of that planning is thrown out the window due to the time limit. Add in the impressive built in module creation tool and this makes for a title that will have unlimited replay value.
I really am a very creative person.
The game itself is essentially the same as the original with a few minor updates. The addition of the new Gordon Woo campaign along with the in-game mod menus has placed an emphasis on fan creativity. This has caused Tuxedo Labs to hit another one out of the ballpark. Computer game playing people are generally very creative and the updates that the developers have added have increased the possibilities for fan creation. The updates have made it easier to be creative and the evidence is supported by fan reaction and the production of fan mods and videos about them. All of this is very creative in nature, and we can thank Tuxedo Labs for that!
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9.3
fun score
Pros
The Teardown expansion module is free and it is quite challenging
Cons
You need to have the original game installed
