Red Faction
I remember playing this on a friends PlayStation 2, not long after it had released and being blown away by the destructible environments.
At one point testing the limits of the game by seeing how far into a wall we could dig before the harsh realisation came that we had dug too steep and couldn’t get back out again.
Made by Volition and owned by THQ Nordic, the first game came out back in 2001. Although the quality of the games in the series varies quite a bit, Guerrilla is the most highly regarded. This was recently rereleased with one of the worst names I’ve ever heard, RE-MARS-TERED…. ok, I’ll need to give them a pass on that one.
Armageddon was a step in the wrong direction as it stripped away the open world and in the process nerfed the selling point of the game. The levels were too linear for players to make use of the destruction tools they were given in Guerrilla.
Now is the time for a new entry in the series, something on the next generation of consoles that could be a true showcase of their power.
Using destruction tech available from previous games, this could work like the original idea for Crackdown 3, except without the need for The Cloud and the let you level entire cities.