Boom Blox and other destruction-type games usually have an innate satisfaction that brims from every piece of destructible material that is smashed to smithereens. As long as the game knows how to make carnage feel powerful and fun – you can be assured of a decent time. Blow It Up knows exactly how to provide satisfaction with every explosion because its entire premise allows the player to launch bombs at voxel structures and watch everything blow up into tiny little pieces. Yes, it is as good as it sounds.
Blow It Up takes a 3D voxel structure and places it on an almost 2D plain, meaning you can tackle almost every level like a 2D side-on physics game. Inside each level is a selection of green and black bombermen and your primary goal is to either blast them off the level’s platform (suspended in midair) or squish them under voxel rubble. You have five shots in most levels to make this happen and if you manage it, you pass the level. In addition to the bombermen there are lots of presents dotted around the level too. If you blast or squish those alongside the bombers within your shot limit, you’ll get a gold trophy pass. Passing levels is quite straightforward and Blow It Up is towards the easier and approachable end of the gaming difficulty curve. The challenge comes from getting all gold trophies as some of the late-game levels can make blowing everything up tricky to achieve as objectives are scattered around or blocked by fortified walls.
You start off with a basic bomb to aim and shoot much like an archery arrow. As you move around the beautiful voxel overworld map you’ll start to unlock more bomb types which you switch between at any point once you’ve unlocked them. These newer bombs come with an activation trigger for a special move. One bomb is light as a feather but activate it and shoots directly down to the ground. Another has a gun attached to shoot through tiny gaps to hit barrels of TNT for big explosions. Another turns into an aeroplane that flies in a straight line for a few seconds dropping bombs beneath it. There’s also a cluster bomb, a delayed detonation bomb, and a chain bomb for added strategy. Knowing what to use for which type of level is key but you can try different tactics and still get the basic job done half the time. You can also go back to old levels with new bomb types to get those gold trophies too. There are over 70 levels in total and whilst the main premise never changes, Blow It Up never gets old or stale in its level design or new ideas.
Holding everything together is the physics engine. Bombs fly, roll and detonate consistently and that makes each level feel fair and enjoyable to tackle. On occasion, the 3D nature of level designs may catch you out – especially when levels contain weapons that fire back at you. Sometimes this brings unexpected results as the weapons in the level towers can fall off and then fire back into the level causing more destruction. Other times it may look like you’ve won a level but find a little bomber guy hiding at the edge of a platform under lots of voxels and somehow wasn’t squashed. Even when this happened, I wasn’t mad. I hit quick replay and fired away again. Seeing the voxels explode and fire in all directions (including into the camera) never got old. Instead, it was intensely satisfying. I was also pleased that weight played a factor in building survival too. If too much hanging building material is swinging around post-blow-up, it will snap a building in half. Yay for me.
Like a voxel Angry Birds with more fire, Blow It Up is full of immediacy and glee. It also comes with a Steam Workshop for level editing but at the time of review, the level editor wasn’t live for the game yet. However, seeing the test creations looked appetising and being able to build levels and download others will increase the longevity of what is already a handsomely priced game for the level of polish and fun on offer. I’ll be back for level editing at a later point, but even as it is now, Blow It Up is a recommendation.
Review copy provided by the publisher. Blow It Up is out now on PC.
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