Open-World Games with Fully Destructible Cities

Causing wanton destruction in a video game can be incredibly fun, especially given that there is no need to clean up afterward, and no feelings of residual guilt since it’s all a simulation. Games like Minecraft and Terraria allow high levels of destruction, either chipping away block by block or blowing up vast quantities of matter with explosives, even destroying one’s own creation if they so wish. It can be incredibly cathartic.

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Some games require no effort from players in terms of building or mining materials in order to craft explosives, allowing them to jump into a pre-built open-world city and wreak havoc. The vast majority of cities in games have rock-solid buildings and indestructible walls, but in these chaotic masterpieces, players can raze the entire metropolis to the ground if they so desire.

7

The Incredible Hulk

Avoid The Story, Just Smash

• Platforms: PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii
• Released: 2008-06-05
• Developer: Edge of Reality
• Genre: Action-adventure

Based on the 2008 movie of the same name, The Incredible Hulk allows players to completely level New York City. While it may have been poorly received due to myriad issues, such as a dreadful story, an even more horrific ending, and gameplay troubles, the actual destruction portion can be heaps of fun.

The angry green Goliath can also be upgraded as the game progresses, giving players even more options as they smash the Big Apple building by building. Various skins and customization options give players plenty of variety, and filling his rage meter attracts higher-level enemies and grants Hulk the ability to be even more destructive. The only advisable way to play The Incredible Hulk is to skip the story, level up, and break everything.

6

Destroy All Humans! 2

Very Destructive Alien Invasion

Set in multiple fictional locations in 1969, Destroy All Humans! 2 features several potentially destructible cities. Players take control of Cryptospiridium-138 (Crypto for short), a clone of the playable character in the first game, as he heads to the streets of Bay City and other locations based on real-life areas.

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One of Crypto’s new abilities is to abduct humans to his UFO, and then use them to upgrade his skills, which can aid anybody seeking to reduce a city to rubble. Highly damaging weapons include the Meteor Strike, which fires three meteors at a target, and the Anti-Gravity Field for those who want to attract nearby objects to a small point on the map before a massive explosion occurs. Any damage is temporary, as buildings regenerate whenever the player returns or reloads.

5

Mercenaries 2: World In Flames

Multiple Cities In Venezuela Can Be Flattened

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

Third-Person Shooter

Sandbox

Systems

Released

August 31, 2008

Developer(s)

Pandemic Studios, A2M

Set in a fictionalized version of Venezuela, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is an open-world sandbox allowing for maximum carnage. There are many cities across Venezuela that can crumble, such as Maracaibo and the capital city, Caracas, with some cities even suffering permanent damage during story missions.

Just as in Destroy All Humans! 2, any buildings that have been destroyed, and general damage caused, will regenerate when leaving and returning, or reloading the game, so cities can be flattened repeatedly if players desire. There are also some new features in this entry that were not in its predecessor, such as ordering air strikes and enhanced fire damage to environmental elements like foliage and spilled oil.

4

Mercenaries: Playground Of Destruction

Anything And Everything Is Destructible In This Sandbox

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction

Systems

Released

January 11, 2005

Developer(s)

Pandemic Studios

Taking place just across the demilitarized zone on the North Korean side of the border, Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction is a sandbox game that allows players great levels of freedom in gameplay. Dropping them into the game area, players can choose to avoid missions if they wish, and just flatten everything, just as long as they don’t try to cross the “border”, which will result in lethal consequences.

Once again, most buildings are restored after the player leaves the area, so one can always find new ways to keep causing destruction. Caution is advised to some extent though, as murdering civilians or allied factions may result in some penalties, either reputation-based or financial.

3

Teardown

Voxel Destruction Mayhem

Systems

Released

April 21, 2022

Developer(s)

Tuxedo Labs

OpenCritic Rating

Strong

Featuring both a story mode and a sandbox mode, consisting of a variety of maps, Teardown puts players in control of a demolition company. While the story itself can be enjoyable, and presents some unique scenarios and challenges, the general gameplay is the major selling point of this game, allowing complete voxel destruction on open maps.

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Starting out with a few basic tools in the story mode, there are many maps in both game modes, each presenting different structures and challenges, but players can unlock more devastating machinery to deal with these problems. Teardown also features map creation, and some players have come up with many of their own calamitous situations for others to really get their hands dirty.

2

7 Days To Die

Tearing Down Cities In A Zombie Apocalypse

Systems

Released

December 13, 2013

Developer(s)

The Fun Pimps

OpenCritic Rating

Weak

The popular survival horror game 7 Days to Die is another voxel-based game featuring limitless levels of destruction. Set in the fictional county of Navezgane in Arizona, players must gather resources and craft fortifications if they wish to survive hordes of aggressive zombies, so in many ways, destruction is encouraged.

More built-up areas in Navezgane’s 32 square kilometers of open map feature buildings of various heights, which can either be taken apart piece by piece, or demolished more directly, such as removing support pillars to cause the building to collapse. While flattening a city in the game would be impractical and extremely difficult, given enemy hostility, it is possible, and some players love challenging themselves in strange ways.

1

Red Faction: Guerrilla

Complete Carnage On Mars

Following in the footsteps of its successful predecessor, Red Faction: Guerrilla actively encourages players to destroy everything. Set on Mars in a terraformed section of the planet in the year 2125, protagonist Alec Mason can tackle missions in a plethora of ways in order to take down the antagonistic Earth Defense Force.

Breaking walls with vehicles or weapons, as well as completely wrecking a building, bridge, or other structure, are all possibilities when completing a task. Wreckage can even be claimed as Salvage, the in-game currency, which players can use to upgrade or unlock technology and weapons in safehouses. A unique aspect of this series is that non-essential buildings even remain destroyed, so players can bask in the glory of their carnage.

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