Wreckreation is taking a “completely new approach” to car damage

Smashing cars is a staple of the Burnout games. There’s even a dedicated Crash mode, where the goal is to cause as much carnage as possible to earn the highest score.

Since EA put the brakes on Burnout, Wreckfest and BeamNG.drive have set new standards for vehicular destruction. And yet the car damage in Burnout Paradise still holds up remarkably well over 15 years on, with vehicles deforming like tin cans in spectacular slow-motion replays.   

With the series on hiatus despite fans begging for its return, original creators Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry have attempted to recapture the spirit of Burnout in games like Danger Zone and Dangerous Driving at Three Fields Entertainment.

Unfortunately, limited resources meant that Dangerous Driving’s destruction didn’t live up to the standard set by Burnout.

“Dangerous Driving was limited in its damage modelling due to time constraints,” Sperry admits to Traxion. “Some body parts could open, and there was basic paint scratching.”

Thankfully, longer development time has enabled the team to radically improve the vehicular destruction in its latest game, Wreckreation, a highly customisable open-world racer where players can create tracks and edit them in real-time with other players. As a recent trailer demonstrated, bodywork will deform during impacts, unlike before.    

Wreckreation’s vehicle damage won’t be pre-calculated

“We’ve taken a completely new approach,” Sperry explains. “We use a deformable mesh that reacts in real time to the magnitude and direction of each impact. This isn’t pre-calculated damage. Nearby areas of the car also deform dynamically in response to that impact.”

As your vehicle takes more punishment, parts will become loose and detach. “Doors and bonnets can fly open, and we even added a mechanism that lets players close the doors again, which we’ve turned into gameplay moments,” adds Sperry.

“Take enough damage, and those parts will break off entirely,” the Three Fields CEO continues. “They also react physically to the environment, so a door might be knocked shut or torn off, depending on where and how the impact occurs.

“As you’d expect, there’s also localised paint scratching and VFX tied directly to the deformation.” Trailers have shown that severe impacts will produce sparks and fire effects, creating plenty of spectacle.

If you were disappointed with Dangerous Driving’s limited vehicle damage, Wreckreation looks like it will satisfy your appetite for destruction. It remains to be seen if it will be on par with Burnout Paradise, but the level of destruction showcased so far looks promising – especially considering that Wreckreation is being developed by a small team of ten.   

For more on Wreckreation, check out the rest of our interview with Three Fields Entertainment CEO Fiona Sperry, who tells us why Burnout fans will “feel right at home” and reveals what to expect from the single-player experience.

Wreckreation releases on 28th October on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions were originally in development but subsequently cancelled.