Demolish & Build 2018 Review | Nintendo Switch

Demolish & Build 2018 originally launched for the Switch on 15 January 2020. Our interest in the game arose with the Xbox One launch on 6 July 2020, but by that time both the Nintendo Switch and PS4 had the game available. So we decided to take a swing at the Switch version, so to speak.

Demolish & Build is a simulation game that puts you in control of a construction company with four different locations. What is the gameplay like? Will you enjoy the controls? Is it worth buying? Read more in our Demolish & Build 2018 review.

Platform reviewed:	Nintendo Switch
Release date:	15 January 2020
Price:	£13.49 / $14.99 / R244.00
Genre:	Simulation
Players:	1
File size	1.71 GB
Developer:	Ultimate Games S.A.
Publisher:	Ultimate Games S.A.

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Demolish & Build Story

Demolish & Build 2018 starts with you creating your own construction company. You can change your character’s gender and look. Once you’ve created your profile, you can begin running your brand new company.

It’s a tiny beginning in a small town. With a hammer in hand, you receive minor jobs at first in the tutorial. It mostly consists of demolition work, leading to greater jobs down the line as Demolish & Build progresses.

Once you really make some good money in Demolish & Build 2018, you can buy vehicles. Your company rating goes up with every job completed, while also unlocking bigger construction contracts.

Eventually, you’ll end up building more than demolishing. You can hire some workers to help you out with jobs, or do them all yourself. Demolish & Build’s completion consists of three factors:

• Main quest,
• Contracts,
• Land Properties.

To achieve 100% in Demolish & Build 2018, you need to fill the bar for each of the above factors. For Land Properties, you need to buy specific land plots and develop them for a steady stream of passive income. All in all, the simulation game is engaging and immersive enough to keep you playing for days on end.

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Gameplay

Playing Demolish & Build on the Nintendo Switch

Ultimate Games S.A. ensured that Demolish & Build 2018 is really easy to control. While every button has a function, you won’t necessarily use all of them too often. Demolition work, in the beginning, consists of pulling out electrical wires and destroying wall tiles. Later on, you’ll build massive buildings and use a wrecking ball to tear old structures down.

I’m grateful that the developer made some tasks very easy to fulfil. While I truly enjoyed Construction Simulator 3, there were some jobs that the game was rather anal about completing 100%, such as flattening the land. With Demolish & Build 2018, you don’t need to ride up and down a thousand times until the land is happy with its flatness level. Just once will do the job.

The vehicles control a lot easier too. As a matter of fact, I’d go as far as saying that the developer took a lot of the technicality of Construction Simulator 3 away for an easier, fun game with Demolish & Build 2018. However, that also means much of the realism I enjoyed in CS3 is gone too.

Teleporting Vehicles

One of the features in Demolish & Build 2018 that I enjoyed is that you can summon any vehicle to a Parking Zone. It’s almost like a fast travel function, except that your vehicle teleports to you, rather than you to the location. You can also fast travel to construction sites if you’ve already visited them.

Speaking of vehicles and travelling, I need to bring up another advantage that Demolish & Build 2018 has over simulation games like Construction Simulator 3. You can climb out your vehicle and walk around in first-person mode. This feature is necessary for those jobs where a personal, human touch is needed. In CS3, you can merely switch between vehicles.

Hunting For Scraps And Gold

Treasure hunting!!! Argggh, there be treasure, me matey! Ok, not quite appropriate here for our Demolish & Build 2018 review, but I love that you can hunt around for metal scraps and bits of gold ore. There are ore deposits you can mine for and take to an ore refinery.

The exciting part in Demolish & Build 2018 is finding old rusty vehicles and tearing them apart for scrap. Alright, I would have enjoyed a feature of building them up again, like a ‘Rust to Riches‘ episode, and then selling them. Yet, using the right tools to rip parts off and then selling them at scrap yards is equally fulfilling.

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How Demolish & Build looks

Where Demolish & Build 2018 loses some of its shine on the Nintendo Switch is with the graphics. I’ve seen the PC version’s graphics and can confirm they are much superior (I guess that would be obvious). It’s not all bad though, as there are some scenes that are stunning.

I think my complaint is mostly that some of the details are rather blocky in certain instances. The resolution or quality could be better. Once you play the game for a few hours, though, you get used to the detail. I just wish everything wasn’t so… square. It reminds me slightly of how GTA Vice City looked.

How it sounds

When you’re walking around the streets, you’ll hear the scuffling of your shoes. Some of the demolition work sounds a bit cheap, and the vehicles also sound rather strange. I don’t always get the impression I’m driving in a vehicle; my bakkie (or pick up truck for you non South Africans) sounds a bit bland.

What I do enjoy is the radio stations you can listen to while driving around. You can also listen to music while working, which is a bonus. Other than that, there isn’t anything remarkable to state.

Demolish & Build Nintendo Switch – Final Verdict

Although Demolish & Build 2018‘s graphics put me off at first, with a slight annoyance at how the hammer handles, I must admit that I’ve grown rather fond of this simulation game. Ultimate Games S.A. have a treasure here worth improving, and I’m delighted that I can play it anywhere on the Nintendo Switch. There are also some exciting features in the game, such as searching for scrap metal and logging.

Overall, Demolish & Build 2018 is worth buying at the low price it’s at now. There’s so much you can do that will keep you busy for days (some of which I didn’t get to cover in this review!). It’s a steal for anyone that loves simulation games and enjoyed building a construction empire.

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