Destruction All-Stars

(Available for PlayStation 5 only)

The PlayStation 5 launch has not been a total success with the issue of shortened supply due to scalpers and while it has launched with a few great games as well as some truly great enhancements to some PlayStation 4 games it hasn’t changed the fact that while Sony has stated several games like Horizon Forbidden West and the New God of War game do have 2021 as their scheduled release year no dates have been assigned, Returnal which was the only dated exclusive has been pushed back to April 30^th and we still feel like we’re waiting for that next big exclusive game that’s going to make the PS5 investment worth it though the news that Ratchet and Clank Rifts Apart has a June release date eases some of that worry. During it’s first unveiling of the PS5 we saw the first trailer for an online multiplayer game called Destruction All Stars that would be a PS5 exclusive and be at launch, though later got a delay to February 1^st 2021. To make up for it Sony made it a free game for it’s first month to PlayStation Plus account holders which is how I got it. The game is similar to classic destruction derby games with several hero like characters to pick from a kin to games like Overwatch and League of Legends. The big difference is you won’t be in cars at all times and you will have the ability to leave your car try a new one or jack in to someone else’s. the game comes with 4 multiplayer modes which range to 2 battle royal modes one of which is score based and the other being survival as well as a 8 vs 8 team game. there’s also an offline single player campaigns but some of them require extra purchases

Pros

• Use of the PS5 controller: this is one of the game’s best features they really have taken the innovative Dual Sense controller and looked at what ways that it can enhance the experience. It does so by making using the trigger button really feel like you’re pressing down on a pedal and having the rumble make you feel the impact of crashes or the effect of the spring
• Controls: they’re actually perfectly serviceable and I got to grips with them fast and they were largely responsive the only issue I really had was that the camera occasionally wasn’t great but other than that don’t really have a negative

Mixed

• Hero designs: the heroes do have very good designs for the most part and the Overwatch inspiration is very apparent but there’s a couple designs that are bit on the nose to their inspiration from other game, for example both the lucha libre characters bear a bit of resemblance to Juan from Guacamele and I can’t see a character with a lion head without thinking of King from Tekken ( I know King wears a Leopard mask but the point still stands). Plus the heroes are really lacking in personality, I really couldn’t tell you much about them off the top of my head which is not something I could say in regards to overwatch.
• Graphics and performance: performance is good it runs at 60 fps and despite some lag issues (and this was with an Ethernet cable connected to the PS5) it most of the time ran at a consistent 60 Frames per second. I’ve heard some people have had desynch issues with matches though I didn’t experience this much though that’s probably due to the fact that there’s a dedicated server in Europe and most issue are with people in regions like South East Asia and Australia which don’t have that. As for the graphics they’re fine and do feel like they certainly are a slight step above the PS4 but this is not a game pushing the Playstastion 5 hardware

Cons

• Boring level design: all the maps look the same, they have all these different locations like Bacelona or Vegas but I couldn’t tell you on sight alone what the difference was between them. There’s also no real change in strategy or even much to do with the layout depending on which map you get so they all blend into each other.
• Most Game modes are uncompelling: the game is currently sporting 4 modes, Mayhem which is a point based destruction derby style games and is the default option in which every match I was in was really confusing and kind of dull with no real consequences for wiping out and doesn’t reward too much experimentation since all the cars don’t feel all that different including the hero cars which only stand out because of the unique power ups, Gridfall a battle royal on a map with slowly disappearing floor in order to elimiate the competition which was so quick that I barely was playing before I got eliminated and had to go back to the menu (couldn’t even spectate the match if I wanted to) and this game mode would’ve been way better with multiple lives, Carnado which is an 8 vs 8 team game that involves wrecking cars to earn points then attempting to transport for most of the great them to a tornado to bank the points whichever team scores the most wins and finally Stockpile which is another 8 vs 8 team game and sucks because it involves getting out of the car for large portions which sucks because that’s the worst gameplay gets lots of flailing around hoping you hit someone . All these modes suffer from a lack of ability to experiment with the cars and there really doesn’t feel like much rhyme or reason as to how the wrecks effect the points scored
• Several modes can’t be played with your friends: ok I finally have at least one friend with a PlayStation 5 and I was going to ask him to party up for a few games to test what it’s like to play this with friends. However I never ended up inviting him because I soon discovered that many of the modes do not let you play with players you party up with. This means you just have to hit the mode you want to play at the same time as your friend and hope you get partnered together and that really sucks. Right now we’re incredibly cut off from each other and online games are a great way to do that and this game wouldn’t allow for that.
• Paying extra for lacklustre single player: the single layer is really not great and what’s worse is they charge you extra for parts of it. on one of the 3 single player options comes with the game the rest cost extra, the one single play I tried wasn’t great so I wasn’t willing to pay more for content that should’ve come with the game. Now I’m aware when I picked this up it was a free game with my PlayStation Plus subscription but if I’d bought the physical release I would’ve had to pay extra on top of a full price release.

Overall thoughts

Whenever I review a game with a largely online multiplayer focus I always say to myself will this join the games I will regularly play for the online multiplayer and this game will certainly not be joining them. It’s functionally all right but the games are far too quick, the gameplay is dull and boring with no real sense of experimentation to find a style that works for you, the online maps have virtually no difference between them and the multiplayer is not well handled in terms of playing with friends. It really is not worth it right now maybe it’ll get better as time goes on but it’s on weak foundations to do so right now.

Score: 5.1/10

Get it digitally right now while it’s free if you are morbidly curious the physical edition is not worth it for the price.