I feel like even today the effects of Overwatch upon the gaming world are still being felt. Now you may take that as a bit of a misrepresentation, and honestly it might be, but I think when you look at the current face of a lot of multiplayer darlings and aspiring multiplayer darlings; Jeff Kaplan's punchable mug glimmers beneath them all. (That's not a comment on Jeff as a person, I just think he has an unfortunate face. Okay, maybe it's a little bit of a dig at his person...) The reason I say this, is because Overwatch started a trend that we see in almost every new multiplayer game that isn't trying to be Fortnite; (we'll call that game the other chief influencer behind today's multiplayer landscape) it started the 'Hero' trend. Now yes, Overwatch is a 'hero shooter' that owes it's formula for TF2, but people weren't flocking to capture TF2's success nearly as reverently as they do for Overwatch. Blizzard started a movement. And I think a little bit of that movement lies in the genesis of 'Destruction Allstars'.
But let's start by going over exactly what 'Destruction Allstars' is. Simply, 'Destruction Allstars' is the modern day's answer to 'Star Wars Demolition' the old school vehicular destruction game that I refuse to accept aged poorly. (It lives on as a classic in my memory, dammit!) It's proposition is simple; here is a world themed around a 'game show' environment where larger-than-life figures ride around in powerful vehicles and attempt to blow each other up in loud, audacious ways. In the trailer alone we can see cars smashing into each other, getting caught in huge traps around the arena and also people on foot going at each other. (not sure how that last part fits in, to be honest, but there it is.) So this is hardly a brand new idea that's never been seen before, in fact it's be done in satire-themed gaming for literal generations now, and I still remember something very similar parodied in 'Dead Rising 2'. There's also this sort of aesthetic vaguely obscured within the lore for Apex Legends and PUBG, and what I'm trying to say is that this is neither clever nor original, but the demo derby angle could be seen as a little unique, I guess.
Perhaps the biggest claim to fame right now for this title is that fact that it's due to be a Playstation 5 title (seemingly exclusively) and so the visuals we see should be indicative of what that console has to offer. In terms of fidelity this title looks fine, though it's character designs made the smart choice being cartoonish and dis-proportioned in order to be easier to differentiate characters and make them unique. (There's a page out of the Overwatch handbook.) Where the visuals really shine is in the destruction itself, as it appears Lucid Games went to great lengths to capture the appetite for destruction that those who visit demolition derbys show up for. You have decently explosive collisions, impactful crashes and a gore-system for the cars that has parts and debris fly off in a flashy way in order to sell the damage that's been dished out here as well as look spectacular all around. I can't say for certain whether or not all of this would have been possible without next gen tools, but I certainly don't think it could have been this pretty and widespread in a cohesive competitive multiplayer environment. (If there's no slow down, then this new generation will be worth it.)
Now if this sort of game sounds somewhat familiar to you, either in visual aesthetic or in concept, then I don't know what to tell you, there's no real connection to derive there. But the team behind the game where responsible for the old wipE'out' game, so maybe there's a little bit of recognisable history in that little factoid. wipE'out' (No, I'm not having a stroke, that's how it's stylised) was a futuristic racer title that very much owed it's genes to the old F-Zero titles, featuring that one character who's now spent more time outside of his vehicle than inside of it. (Smash Bros has really stolen a lot of thunder from old series', huh.) In play it was a high-speed racer with slick, improbable, vehicles racing around spacey tracks to implacably sci-fi tunes, and I actually played and loved at least one of these games back in the day. (And as someone who doesn't like racing games, that's saying something.) So this paints some precedent for the team being able to make off-kilter car-themed games, perhaps that sort of pedigree with shine for them here.
But why do I say that Overwatch has it's hand in the pot for this title? There's not a single car in all of Overwatch, what am I on? Well I think that feeling comes from the aforementioned loud personalities that seem to have gotten ample amounts of thought and effort behind them. Heck, even on the key promotional art we see a luchador take the front rather than any of the big vehicles which are the heart of this game. It's indicative of the way that multiplayer games, nowadays, are just as keen to build a rooster of instantly placeable 'heroes' as they are to build a solid game. I intend to go into this in detail at a later point, but modern multiplayer marketing calls for this sort of 'instant recognition' factor to be attributed to games where it doesn't even make sense. As far as I can tell this is supposed to be a title about smashing cars together, so who cares about the wacky person inside the car? Why aren't the cars on the front box?
Of course, to play Devil's advocate, this could be an intention on the part of the developers to add a little depth and replayability into their title, in the vein that most modern mulitplayer titles do, by throwing in hero playstyles. One of the reasons that games like Valorant and Overwatch overshadowed their more tame predecessors is due to the very hero-obsession that I just mocked, because it actually opens up the potential for diversity. Traditional shooters are usually limited by constraints such as player roles, which only really covers a few narrow archetypes (Usually; healer, tank, DPS) with some hybrids tossed in there. But if you instead base your roster on unique characters, you can have characters who achieve those archetypes with unique skills, thus letting you make several tanks or several healers and drawing players in with the concept of mastering these different playstyles. Now it's still very much sparse as far as marketing for Destruction Allstars goes, so I can't confirm whether or not this is definitely the direction they're going with their game, but the implication is certainly there from what I've seen.
It's early days, but I already know I'm not the first one to look at a title like this and get immediately struck with subconscious 'Rocket League' parallels, such to the point where a few people believed this to be Rocket League 2 during the reveal footage. (Which it obviously wasn't; there isn't even a ball!) Think about it; both games include vehicular avatars in competitive showdowns that conceptually differ from the majority of the day's competition. When Rocket League came out, the sheer newness and originality of the concept was enough to propel it to international gaming stardom for a time, and even now the game is going decently strong with dedicated fans. That could be the sort of arena, so to speak, that Destruction Allstars wants to step into to try their hand at, and if they can I think there's the potential there for some serious oneupmanship to take place. There's also a lot of potential customisation choices in the car-avatar concept too, so this is a title that already has it's monetisation sorted out. When you really break it down, it's a wonder there aren't more car-combat games on the market today!
When it's all said-and-done, Destruction Allstars is not the sort of game that appeals to me, I'm not sure if that came across in my writing on it, I'm just not the type for multiplayer carnage games. That being said, I'm still interested in titles that break the mould a little like this and that goes especially true if this game has the potential to be 'the next big thing', and I think that if this game launches right it just might. If only there was a bit more of a wider audience to launch to, this might even be the kind of game to enter the multiplayer annals. Unfortunately, the exclusivity angle will undoubtedly hurt the wide-spread appeal of the game. (See that Sony, your draconian practises are becoming a nuisance.) But irregardless I hope for the best for this title, what can I say; I'm a sucker for an underdog story.
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