ABRISS - build to destroy

I was looking for some Besiege alternatives, but unfortunately this one does not make a good first impression. There some good and interesting ideas here, like not having to build vehicles to carry your weapons, like having multiple "moves" per level, and the game in general is fun [b]when it works[/b]. The graphics are good, the sound is decent, the destruction - satisfying. But the bugs are just unforgivable. Having to restart the game every 10-30 minutes is just not acceptable. Therefore I simply cannot recommend it. (Unless you are willing to deal with the BS) Unlike Besiege the levels here are mostly easy, even when trying to 100% everything. [h3]The bugs[/h3] The game often just becomes a black screen when pressing "Next Level", making the game unplayable until you reboot. It appears that this bug existed since around 2022 of the early access after reading some Steam discussions, and 3 years after the full release it's still not fixed. Within the first 30 minutes of playtime I also encountered a weird bug where building previews were stuck on a specific piece. Lastly, the "destroy 100% of blocks" goal of each level seems to get more bugged the more you use the "revert" feature, to the point of having to restart the game/level to be able to actually reach the highest threshold. [h3]The rest[/h3] The controls are sub par: No keyboard controls to start the level/simulation. No UI button to revert back to the editor (had to open settings to discover the key binding). Can't select multiple pieces or just move already placed pieces in general. Cannot pan the world map using the mouse. Camera controls are quite annoying to use, basically have to manually switch to first person camera controls every level, and the camera up and camera down bindings are the same as building block rotation... for some reason. The game does not save your per-level builds that you used to beat each level. Meaning if you want to go for high scores later, you have to rebuild from scratch. This also means level and game restarts due to bugs are that much more annoying, even if it doesn't take that long to rebuild your stuff. It's a simple thing that should be in the game. Finally, there's a significant issue with "reproducibility" of the levels. A lot of randomness. With the exact same build you get fairly varying results in physics simulation, so level completion can just be doing the same thing over and over until it works, just having to hope the physics works out in your favor. This doesn't help the fact that reverting over and over too much seems to break the 100% destruction goal.

[h1]I bought this game to watch gorgeous destruction animations and it did indeed delver on that[/h1] I mean, that "Best Graphic Design" in the game's profile is fully waranted - game is SO stylish and cool. Gameplay isn't as cool since it's [i]very[/i] unfinished. So probably waiting for sale is a good thing to do. Also I'm very hyped for this develooper's next game (Vandenburg) so I wanted to support them a bit.

I didn't realise when I shelved this two years ago that I was on the last mission, crazy time to beat. The machine creation is too limited leading to the solves feeling too RNG based with the destruction getting in the way and repeating levels to get different results. 5 / 10

Great short game for relaxation, just like Besiege. All 7 worlds with bonus levels done in 12 hours. Sometimes it is really satisfying, the destruction, the booms, the particles everywhere... :)

controls suck ass

Game goes to a black screen after every level completion, a full restart is needed after each level, according to discussion threads it's broken since 2022 and no fix exists, don't bother

You'd expect a 2023 steam award nominated game to be more innovative and fun than the flash game Crush the Castle, but maybe I'm just some sort of game snob or something.