ABRISS (PC) Review

ABRISS – from developer Randwerk and publisher Astragon Entertainment – is a physics-based puzzle destruction game. If you’ve opened the game’s Steam store listing, you’d immediately be treated to some gifs of immense destruction and we’re glad to report that the game itself is, quite literally, a blast to play.

So what makes ABRISS so successful and is it worth checking out?

Create

In ABRISS, players will have to create a weapon to wreak havoc with. This, however, is limited to a selection of blocks or connectors and you’ll then have to get creative with your building skills. Earlier levels in the game slowly but surely onboard you into the building process with more and more complicated parts being drip fed to you as you progress through the game.

Eventually, you’ll be able to craft some truly ingenious contraptions to cause untold destruction and mayhem. It might sound formulaic on paper but in action, it’s a lot of fun with only two caveats which we’ll get to shortly.

Destroy

Once you’ve crafted your tool of destruction, it’s time to let it loose and destroy your targets.

In ABRISS, each level has a set objective to destroy. These are typically marked with red explosive targets built into their framework somewhere. Players will then have to create a structure that can damage and destroy all these targets in order to progress further into the game. You’re aiming for 100% destruction at all times here but it’s often quite difficult to achieve this.

You see, ABRISS has a bit of a learning curve and some steep difficulty spikes. There are a few levels where you can easily spend upwards of 10 minutes at a time trying to come up with structural designs that can satisfy the requirements to inflict as much damage and devastation to a target as possible. Of course. once you’ve mastered your design, the destruction you wreak is incredibly satisfying to watch. Therein lies the beauty of ABRISS.

Watching a gigantic structure crumble and cause more damage to its surrounding structures is visually stunning and ABRISS doesn’t hold anything back here. You will be treated to some gorgeous visuals with realistic physics playing a key role in how structures collapse.

Endless and Sandbox Modes

No destruction game is complete without a Sandbox mode to go wild in and ABRISS allows you to do exactly that. The Endless Mode, on the other hand, is equally captivating since it involves using set parts to destroy targets in order to obtain more parts to rebuild structures for yet more destruction. It’ll suck you in and not let go though because of how challenging it is and how satisfying it is to progress further each time.

Playing these modes highlighted 2 major problems that will certainly aggravate gamers who lack patience.

The first is the fact that you cannot simply remove one part from a structure and replace it immediately. The structure must be interconnected by specific parts and, if you want to remove a part that holds it together, you won’t be able to do this without first removing the parts that dependent on it for support.

For example, if you have a connector block in the middle of a tower that you want to replace, you’ll have to dismantle the tower from the top all the way down to the connector block before being able to replace it with something else. We would prefer more “game-ified” control over building with a quick-swap option.

The second major problem is the fact that the game’s camera and camera angle can be frustratingly difficult to maneuver around and build larger structures. Earlier levels are fine, but when it comes to building trebuchets and more complex destructive pieces of equipment – think crawlers, cannons, or bombs – it becomes rather problematic.

Delightful Devastation

ABRISS looks beautiful and thankfully the developers included a photo mode and an amazing option that we wish more games had: gif-capturing! ABRISS lets you capture a 360-degree gif at any point and this is fantastic for capturing complex destruction as it unfolds. Do be warned though, that this can take its toll on your PC’s performance, especially when there’s a lot happening on-screen. Thankfully, for those on older rigs, a “Potato” mode exists in the graphics settings.

Final Verdict

Wrapping up, ABRISS is a visually stunning physics-based puzzle destruction game. Getting through levels and reaching 100% destruction is remarkably satisfying and extremely enjoyable. There are just two major problems but, if you can overlook them or they get patched, it’s still easy to have a tonne of fun with the game. ABRISS won’t be for everyone, but if you’re a fan of games that make you think about how to cause as much destruction as possible, this should appeal to you.

ABRISS was reviewed on PC using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher.