History VideoGame / Teardown

* DropTheHammer: Your first tool is a sledgehammer. While it is limited in what it can break, its big advantage is that it's not limited by ammo as other tools.

''Teardown'' is a puzzle indie game by Tuxedo Labs, currently only available on PC, with voxel-based graphics and a heavy emphasis on environmental destruction.

The game exited Early Access on Steam in April 21, 2022, with twenty missions in five environments being available. Two expansions have since been release, a free update and set of missions called Art Vandals which deals with Gordon Woo's daughter helping the family with jobs, and a paid DLC called Time Campers wherein the player is sent back to the Wild West. Both add new maps and missions. Three more DLC have been announced as expected before the end of 2024.

The game exited Early Access on Steam in April 21, 2022, with twenty missions in five environments being available.

* BigBad: Amanatides. [[spoiler: He eventually sends an AI-controlled truck bomb to blow up ''an entire town.'']]

* CowboyCop: A non-action version in Parisa Terdiman, who sees nothing wrong with blackmailing you to help her solve a tax fraud case she's been struggling with then build a case against [=BlueTide=].

* WideOpenSandbox: Each environment is a mini-sandbox that is fully open from the start -- navigation around the map is not part of the actual puzzle needed to be solved. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find a locked door, even when there should logically be one (though almost every door can be easily broken down with the sledgehammer or blowtorch anyway). The only exception to this is Frustrum, where [[spoiler:you're forced to flee from a helicopter trying to gun you down]]. Played completely straight in the sandbox mode, which basically gives you free reign and unlimited resources to do whatever you want.

* AirVentPassageway: The only way to break into the manor's impenetrable vault on Hollowpoint Island is an air vent... which is big enough for a person to fit through and leads to the cavern underneath the manor.

* EverythingBreaks: Outside of specific types of rock and concrete (to prevent the player from breaking the environment entirely and drilling through the ground with explosives), you can functionally level ''everything'' to the ground in a variety of ways. However, you also need the right tools for the job - your sledgehammer is really only good for softer materials like wood, and while a blowtorch is a fantastic cost-effective tool to handle metal, it is useless against brick and concrete, requiring a more powerful tool, a propane tank or construction equipment.

* HairTriggerExplosive: {{Downplayed|Trope}} with the nitroglycerin. While it will explode if you shoot at it or drop it from a moderate height, it's much more stable than what you would expect from it being nitroglycerin.

* MadeOfIndestructium: Robots can't be destroyed no matter how much you throw at them, shrugging off rockets, gunshots, and bombs in equal measure. They don't do so well with being underwater though.

* NominalHero: Let's be honest, the player is basically committing a bunch of crimes in order to build up money to prop up their failing family business. Even the jobs working for the police involve robbery and hacking. They just work for anyone willing to pay them or to get out of trouble, usually for a previous mission. Fortunately, most of the targets pretty much deserve what happens to their property.

* ObviousRulePatch: The alarm will be tripped if the alarm boxes or anything the wire is attached to becomes loose, preventing any attempts by players to avoid triggering the alarm by carving large holes into walls or blowtorching away parts of vehicles.

** The third Hollowrock Island mission and the third Isla Estocastica mission requires the player to hack a bunch of communication terminals and dishes for the former and to destroy a bunch of equipment in the latter. Unlike the heist missions, there is no 60-second time limit; an armed guard helicopter will arrive immediately and start scouting the area to kill any intruders on sight. Any cheeky player trying to shoot down the helicopter with a well-placed rocket or thrown explosive will be disappointed to find that projectiles will harmlessly pass through it, so the only option is to sneak around and avoid being spotted as much as possible as to avoid being gunned down. That being said, most of the time [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the chopper is hovering around your position even when it shouldn't know you're in the area,]] so half the time you're just running from cover to cover trying to avoid getting hit as much as possible.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: After their several missions of Lee and Woo trying to screw each other over, [[spoiler: Lawrence Lee is arrested on charges of tax evasion thanks to documents the player recovers and, after the flood, Lee Chemicals has no choice but to file for bankruptcy. Gordon Woo buys the plot and builds an amusement park called Racing Woonderland... only to ''also'' file for bankruptcy just before the grand opening, after the player is hired to vandalize the place. Woo got robbed multiple times as well, after all]].

* WideOpenSandbox: Each environment is a mini-sandbox that is fully open from the start -- navigation around the map is not part of the actual puzzle needed to be solved. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find a locked door, even when there should logically be one (though almost every door can be easily broken down with the sledgehammer or blowtorch anyway). The only exception to this is Frustrum, where [[spoiler:you're forced to flee from a helicopter trying to gun you down]]. Played completely straight in the sandbox mode, which basically gives you free rein and unlimited resources to do whatever you want.
* WreakingHavok: To a greater degree than nearly every example as of 2020 other than the ''VideoGame/RedFaction'' series (this game doesn't have the same level of structural physics for buildings as ''Red Faction: Guerrilla'', but it makes up for it by having significantly more variety in terms of things that can be destroyed in realistic ways, and not just buildings). If it can be destroyed, it becomes a physics object, even entire buildings can be brought down. Even certain parts of buildings will bend when parts of the structure are broken off.

* BigGood: Parisa Terdiman.

* EntertaininglyWrong: Gordon Woo, Lawrence Lee Junior, and Amanatides keep making hilariously wrong assumptions about who is making trouble for them. In the case of Woo and Lee, they are right half the time to keep accusing each other but not only do they keep hiring the guy who ''is breaking into their property in the first place'', but the other culprits they neglect to consider are the police and the local insurance company.

* HoistByTheirOwnPetard: In one mission on Isla Estocastica you have to destroy a series of targets while being pursued by a guard helicopter that in turn shoots at you with guns and rockets. The helicopter isn't terribly accurate though so if you're clever or low on resources you can maneuver in such a way that the helicopter shoots the targets for you.
** Amanatides gifts you a tank for your service which he leaves on Hollowrock coincidentally on the same night Terdiman sends you there to clear it of robots. It's especially helpful for pushing the big SpiderTank into the water.

* KarmaHoudini: Anton Wolfe never really gets punished for the crimes he has you commit though he doesn't really get everything he wanted either.

* NominalHero: Let's be honest, the player is basically committing a bunch of crimes in order to build up money to support their failing family business. Even the jobs working for the police involve robbery and hacking. They just work for anyone willing to pay them or to get out of trouble, usually for a previous mission. Fortunately, most of the targets pretty much deserve what happens to their property.

** Escalates to [[MechaMook guard robots]] later on, courtesy of Quilez Security. By that point, the player has robbed multiple locations that tried a lot of ways to secure their property and none of them worked, so they might as well use robots at this point.

* StealthBasedMission: The third Hollowrock Island mission and the third Isla Estocastica mission requires the player to hack a bunch of communication terminals and dishes for the former and to destroy a bunch of equipment in the latter. Unlike the heist missions, there is no 60-second time limit; an armed guard helicopter will arrive immediately and start scouting the area to kill any intruders on sight. Any cheeky player trying to shoot down the helicopter with a well-placed rocket or thrown explosive will be disappointed to find that projectiles will harmlessly pass through it, so the only option is to sneak around and avoid being spotted as much as possible as to avoid being gunned down. That being said, most of the time [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the chopper is hovering around your position even when it shouldn't know you're in the area,]] so half the time you're just running from cover to cover trying to avoid getting hit as much as possible.

* AlwaysCheckBehindTheChair: While some valuables (which are sold for money to upgrade your equipment) are on full display, many are hidden away in cupboards, attics, behind boxes, or in secret compartments between walls. It's not uncommon to blow up an area and unexpectedly find something shiny in the wreckage.

* {{Homage}}: The final mission is one to VideoGame/BlastCorps, in terms of it involving [[spoiler:a large yellow truck on autopilot with enough explosives to destroy the entire area that must be guided to a specific point to be safely disarmed. Though ''unlike'' Blast Corps, you can also redirect the truck itself (and more or less have to since its starting path includes some indestructible terrain).]]

* NoGearLevel: Isla Estocastica only gives you your starting hammer, fire extinguisher, and spray paint with the reason that you're 'on vacation' and the rest of the stuff couldn't get through security in time. You can scavenge small numbers of better tools on the island itself, however.

* NominalHero: Let's be honest, the player is basically committing a bunch of crimes in order to build up money to support their family business. Even the jobs working for the police involve robbery and hacking. They just work for anyone willing to pay or to get out of trouble. Fortunately, most of the targets pretty much deserve what happens to their property.

* ProperlyParanoid: A lot of missions involve dealing with things that are hooked up to alarm systems, sometimes in the weirdest places. Even random power tools just lying around in the open. Naturally, of course, they become the targets of theft anyway. Apparently whoever was paranoid enough to hook up any remotely valuable items to alarms is more or less justified.
** Escalates to [[MechaMook guard robots]] later on, courtesy of Quilez Security.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: After their several missions of Lee and Woo trying to screw each other over, [[spoiler: Lawrence Lee is arrested on charges of tax evasion thanks to documents the player recovers and, after the flood, Lee Chemicals has no choice but to file for bankruptcy. Gordon Woo buys the plot and builds an amusement park called Racing Woonderland... only to ''also'' file for bankruptcy just before the grand opening, after the player is hired to vandalize the place.]]

* TimedMission: The heist missions, once you trigger the alarm. You always have 60 seconds to complete your objective and get to the escape vehicle.

* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: While not made explicitly clear, the mission to demolish the tower at Lee Chemicals mentions it's the 75th anniversary of the tower's construction. Since Lee Chemicals was established in 1922, it can be inferred that the campaign takes place in 1997.

* WreakingHavok: To a greater degree than nearly every example as of 2020 other than the VideoGame/RedFaction series (this game doesn't have the same level of structural physics for buildings as ''Red Faction: Guerrilla'', but it makes up for it by having significantly more variety in terms of things that can be destroyed in realistic ways, and not just buildings). If it can be destroyed, it becomes a physics object, even entire buildings can be brought down. Even certain parts of buildings will bend when parts of the structure are broken off.

* AmbiguousSituation: Amanatides's last few emails. [[spoiler: Is he just doing a spot of EvilGloating to the person he sees as [[TheDragon his chief henchman]] or did he figure out it was you who has been breaking into Hollowrock the whole time and is taunting you with the fact you helped him set up his revenge on you? The messages can be interpreted both ways. Ultimately it doesn't matter if he [[SpotTheThread figured it out]] or was RightForTheWrongReasons since his plan has to be stopped either way.]]

** Amanatides gifts you a tank for your service which he leaves on Hollowrock coincidentally on the same night Terdiman sends you there to clear it of robots.
* {{Homage}}: The final mission is one to VideoGame/BlastCorps, in terms of it involving [[spoiler:a large yellow truck on autopilot with enough explosives to destroy the entire area that must be guided to a specific point to be safely disarmed.]]

* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: While not made explicitly clear, the mission to demolish the tower at Lee Chemicals mentions it's the 75th anniversary of the tower's construction. Since Lee Chemicals was established in 1922, it can be inferred that the campaign takes place in 1997.

Currently in Early Access on Steam, with twenty missions in five environments being available.

The game takes place in some fictional version of Sweden/Europe. You work for Lockelle Teardown Services, a family-owned demolition company. And right now, you are very much running low on cash. You take a shady job for a real estate developer, only to find out that you've illegally torn down a protected heritage building. Next thing you know, you're doing jobs for the local police department, while you're also doing ''more'' shady jobs two different businessmen who have it out for each other (all while not knowing you're working for both of them), and an insurance company who wants to teach them a lesson as well. All the while, you're blowing stuff up and generally trying to figure out how to rob a place and get out of dodge before the police can arrive to stop you.

While not all the missions are in the "heist" format, it is the type of mission you will be doing the most - stealing or destroying every objective item and leaving before the police arrive. The objectives are tied to alarm systems that will immediately go off if the link is severed. This requires players to be creative when it comes to achieving their objectives. Fortunately, you have unlimited time to manipulate the environment and plan your heist, a quick save function so you can try again immediately if you fail, and you have plenty of tools at your disposal, starting with a sledgehammer, a fire extinguisher and a blowtorch, and eventually you can get your hands on timed explosives and a rocket launcher by completing objectives and gaining higher ranks.

* AlwaysCheckBehindTheChair: While some valuables (which are sold for money to upgrade your equipment) are on full display, many are hidden away in cupboards, in attics, behind boxes, or in secret compartments between walls. It's not uncommon to blow up an area and unexpectedly find something shiny in the wreckage.

* CowboyCop: A non-action version in Parisa Terdiman, who sees nothing wrong with blackmailing you to help her solve a tax-fraud case she's been struggling with then build a case against [=BlueTide=].

* EntertaininglyWrong: Gordon Woo, Lawrence Lee Junior and Amanatides keep making hilariously wrong assumptions about who is making trouble for them. In the case of Woo and Lee, they are right half the time to keep accusing each other, but not only do they keep hiring the guy who ''is breaking into their property in the first place'', but the other culprits they neglect to consider are the police and the local insurance company.

* HairTriggerExplosive: {{Downplayed|Trope}} with the nitroglycerin. While it will explode if you shoot at it or drop if from a moderate height, it's much more stable than what you would expect from it being nitroglycerin.

** In the mission where you have to throw safes into the water, to avoid triggering their water-sensors prematurely, you can use the trailer truck out the front to haul nearly all of the safes around without exposing them to the rain. (Easier said than done, of course, but if you do it carefully it will make the heist a lot easier.)
* NoGearLevel: Isla Estocastica only gives you your starting hammer, fire extinguisher, and spraypaint with the reason that you're 'on vacation' and the rest of the stuff couldn't get through security in time. You can scavenge small numbers of better tools on the island itself, however.

* NominalHero: Let's be honest, the player is basically committing a bunch of crimes in order to build up money to support their family business. Even the jobs working for the police involve robbery and hacking. They just work for anyone willing to pay, or to get out of trouble. Fortunately, most of the targets pretty much deserve what happens to their property.

* NoWaterProofingInTheFuture: Quilez's security robots are bleeding edge technology with incredible damage resistance to small arms and explosives. The only way to destroy them is submerging them in water.

* SerialEscalation: Half the jobs the player gets in Part I will be Gordon Woo and Lawrence Lee Junior trying to screw over each other, starting with Woo getting the player to steal some cars from Lee. Lee retaliates by hiring you to destroy Woo's fancy car collection, and it escalates from there. It gets to the point where Woo ''assumes'' that the destruction of the safes with insurance papers are the work of Lee as well, even though that was actually a job the insurance company hired the player for. Neither of them figure out that you're working for both of them, or the police for that matter. Eventually this results in Woo hiring you to ''blow up the dam by Lee Chemicals'', which ''completely floods the area''. [[spoiler:Eventually you need to stop a bomb truck from ''blowing up an entire town''.]]

* StealthBasedMission: The third Hollowrock Island mission and the third Isla Estocastica mission requires the player to hack a bunch of communication terminals and dishes for the former and to destroy a bunch of equipment in the latter. Unlike the heist missions, there is no 60 second time limit; an armed guard helicopter will arrive immediately and start scouting the area to kill any intruders on sight. Any cheeky player trying to shoot down the helicopter with a well-placed rocket or thrown explosive will be disappointed to find that projectiles will harmlessly pass through it, so the only option is to sneak around and avoid being spotted as much as possible as to avoid being gunned down. That being said, most of the time [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the chopper is hovering around your position even when it shouldn't know you're in the area,]] so half the time you're just running from cover to cover trying to avoid getting hit as much as possible.

* {{Sting}}: The music abruptly changes to become more foreboding and alarming when [[spoiler:Amanatides reveals he's planning to sent the "Truxterminator" (aka the ridiculously explosive truck he's been preparing) in the direction of your mother's house, [[OhCrap and you quickly find out that she hasn't evacuated.]]]]

* VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck: The security robots with flamethrowers are the weakest by far. Being slow and short ranged, they are really easy to outmaneuver.
* WideOpenSandbox: Each environment is a mini-sandbox that is fully open from the start -- navigation around the map is not part of the actual puzzle needed to be solved. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find a locked door, even when there should logically be one (though almost every door can be easily broken down with the sledgehammer or blowtorch anyway). The only exception to this is Frustrum, where [[spoiler:you're forced to flee from a helicopter trying to gun you down]]. Played completely straight in the sandbox mode, which basically gives you free reign and unlimited resources to do whatever you want.
* WreakingHavok: To a greater degree than nearly every example as of 2020 other than the VideoGame/RedFaction series (this game doesn't have the same level of structural physics for buildings as ''Red Faction: Guerrilla'', but it makes up for it by having significantly more variety in terms of things that can be destroyed in realistic ways, and not just buildings). If it can be destroyed, it becomes a physics object, even entire buildings can be brought down. Even certain parts of buildings will bend when parts of the structure are broken off.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: Most levels are about stealing or destroying items. Then there is one where you have to do some car racing.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: After their several missions of Lee and Woo trying to screw each other over, [[spoiler: Lawrence Lee is arrested on charges of tax evasion thanks to documents the player recovers and, after the flood, Lee Chemicals has no choice but to file for bankruptcy. Gordon Woo buys the plot and builds an amusement park called Racing Woonderland...only to ''also'' file for bankruptcy just before the grand opening, after the player is hired to vandalize the place.]]

* WideOpenSandbox: Each environment is a mini-sandbox that is fully open from the start - navigation around the map is not part of the actual puzzle needed to be solved. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find a locked door, even when there should logically be one (though almost every door can be easily broken down with the sledgehammer or blowtorch anyway). The only exception to this is Frustrum, where [[spoiler:you're forced to flee from a helicopter trying to gun you down]]. Played completely straight in the sandbox mode, which basically gives you free reign and unlimited resources to do whatever you want.

* SerialEscalation: Half the jobs the player gets in Part I will be Gordon Woo and Lawrence Lee Junior trying to screw over each other, starting with Woo getting the player to steal some cars from Lee. Lee retaliates by hiring you to destroy Woo's fancy car collection, and it escalates from there. It gets to the point where Woo ''assumes'' that the destruction of the safes with insurance papers are the work of Lee as well, even though that was actually a job the insurance company hired the player for. Neither of them figure out that you're working for both of them, or the police for that matter. Eventually this results in Woo hiring you to ''blow up the dam by Lee Chemicals'', which ''completely floods the area''.

** There are missions in Part II involving security robots. The first two where you are introduced to them don't count, though getting spotted by them ''will'' result in them shooting at you, but starting with "Ornament Ordeal" at the Evertides Mall, there are missions with security robots that will trigger an alarm if they confirm the presence of an intruder. Fortunately, they don't detect you immediately, you can stun them with explosives, and they can't jump to higher levels.

* SpiderTank: [[spoiler: You have to deal with one in the last Hollowrock level. Its size makes it too large to drag like the smaller robots, but large vehicles can still push it around.]]