History Main / WreakingHavok

* ''VideoGame/SecondLife'' pre-dates ''Vindictus'' by about six and a half years. Its WideOpenSandbox nature and physics engine permit players to create all sorts of interesting situations, although some exercises, such as a ten-link chain, have been known to wreck havoc upon the server's CPU. (The chain in question did sway quite convincingly, at about a frame every five seconds.)

*** A personal favorite along the same lines. Picture this: you're the Mage's Guild's Archmage, sitting in the Imperial City's University with a Mage Scholar just finishing their lecture to a bunch of student magisters. [[SaveScumming Saving Here]], you break out your [[DiscOneNuke Lightning-Powered Daedric Bow & Arrows]] [[ShockAndAwe (yes, both are electrified,]] [[ForTheEvulz but it has to be an over-time effect on one or both for maximum pleasure)]] then fire away into the small group. Chances are, the magister you've targeted gets up as normally intended, then drops dead after getting up, all accompanied by Wes Johnson's (they're all Imperials) voice in a five/six-man unison so thick, the voices become flanged! Even better, target the benches, instead; those closest and opposite will see the magisters flying in all directions and croaking in mid-air! One even flies directly into the lecturer's podium and dies there!

*** By the divines, use that same arsenal against anyone that can succumb to it in one shot; you shoot, it hits, they fly, guaranteed to die/fall unconscious at the apex of ascent, and drop like the ragdolls they become! It's incredible! Chances are, much like ''Skyrim'' with {{G|oodBadBugs}}iants, the excess damage still needed to drop a target filters out as excess force to propel the target to such incredible heights. Have fun!
*** Also, keep in mind only Lightning does the trick here. Fire launches a target only so far and Frost does nothing to their current momentum, though it's fun to see a target suddenly drop dead in mid-run.

These exercises in game physics conspicuously draw attention to themselves rather than meshing with the rest of the game. [[TropesAreTools Note that this isn't necessarily a bad thing]] -- in some cases, playing with the physics doesn't mesh well with the rest of the experience because ''[[RuleOfFun it's more fun than the actual game.]]''

*** A big part of the fun of the first dragon shout you receive in , Unrelenting Force, is to let it loose in a place filled with objects (such as a dinner table) and see where everything ends up after being blown across the room.
** This can also be done with impunity in Oblivion if you create a custom spell with an area effect but no damage, such as Light.

** The NPC with one of the best [[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Reservist's_rifle sniper rifle]]s in the game likes to take potshots at people from the Dickerson Tabernacle Chapel's bell tower. Killing him may or may not cause him to fall down the hole in the floor to a location where you can loot the rifle, entirely depending on Havok's mood. Since the game treats gibs as lootable, the easiest way to get the rifle is therefore to launch a rocket in the bell tower window. With any luck, the NPC will be gibbed, virtually guaranteeing that of all the Havok-ed gibs at least one will fall through the hole.

Since the first release of the Havok engine in 2000, it's been the go-to software for developers looking to add a little verisimilitude to their worlds -- it allows [[CrateExpectations crates]] to stack realistically, chains to swing convincingly, and [[RagdollPhysics corpses to collapse satisfyingly]]. Its success inspired the creation of [[FollowTheLeader several other physics engines.]]

If you're playing a game that puts a [[VideoGame/HalfLife2 Gravity Gun]] in your hands, expect to run across a ''lot'' of these. Depending on the circumstances, Wreaking Havok may qualify as a form of [[BenevolentArchitecture Benevolent]] or MalevolentArchitecture.

* ''[[VideoGame/ExileBBCMicro Exile]]'' ([[SimilarlyNamedWorks not]] [[VideoGame/{{Exile}} that one]]) has a sophisticated physics engine for a 1988 UsefulNotes/BBCMicro game. It's still impressive for its time in the UsefulNotes/{{Commodore 64}}, UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}}, and UsefulNotes/AtariST ports.

** In [[VideoGame/BioShock1 the first game]] you can knock over things, chip the walls, [[KleptomaniacHero break shop windows]] (which summons [[EasilyAngeredShopkeeper a security alert]]), and when you get the Telekinesis plasmid, you can start throwing random debris at Splicers. [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential Or you can pull their masks off and beat them to death with them]].

** Silver the Hedgehog's psychokinesis in ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 Sonic '06]]'' is enabled by the Havok Engine and is treated with as much reverence and respect as the rest of the game. [[ObviousBeta That is to say, absolutely none]].

*** A personal favorite along the same lines. Picture this: you're the Mage's Guild's Archmage, sitting in the Imperial City's University with a Mage Scholar just finishing their lecture to a bunch of student magisters. [[SaveScumming Saving Here,]] you break out your [[DiscOneNuke Lightning-Powered Daedric Bow & Arrows]] [[ShockAndAwe (yes, both are electrified,]] [[ForTheEvulz but it has to be an over-time effect on one or both for maximum pleasure)]] then fire away into the small group. Chances are, the magister you've targeted gets up as normally intended, then drops dead after getting up, all accompanied by Wes Johnson's (they're all Imperials) voice in a five/six-man unison so thick, the voices become flanged! Even better, target the benches, instead; those closest and opposite will see the magisters flying in all directions and croaking in mid-air! One even flies directly into the lecturer's podium and dies there!

*** By the divines, use that same arsenal against anyone that can succumb to it in one shot; you shoot, it hits, they fly, guaranteed to die/fall unconscious at the apex of ascent, and drop like the ragdolls they become! It's incredible! Chances are, much like ''Skyrim'' with [[GoodBadBugs Giants,]] the excess damage still needed to drop a target filters out as excess force to propel the target to such incredible heights. Have fun!

* ''VideoGame/{{Vindictus}}'' may be the first MMO to have fully functioning physics (powered by Valve's Source engine, in fact, which uses Havok extensively) and is quite proud of the fact. Many of the higher-tier weapons and armor are covered in chains and baubles that swing about as the player moves, and one of the highlights of the combat system is the ability to pick up random objects and use them as [[ImprovisedWeapon Improvised Weapons]], such as pots or chunks of stone or mid-sized ''trees''. HilarityEnsues.

* ''{{VideoGame/Hammerfight}}'' is essentially a physics simulator disguised as [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome a badass, mouse-only fighting game.]] Suffice to say, seeing as physics are literally half the game mechanics, it has some of the best a 2D game will ever see.

*** There's also a highlevel telekinesis spell which requires a ''lot'' of points and you to be at 100 in the category(I don't remember the skill class you need), but you can use it to lifet ''everything'' within range twenty feet in the air, walk around with them doing ragdoll despite being alive then drop them for fall damage, get a few guards chasing and BOOM instant sky party!(It also effects(affects?) followers though so be careful!)

->'''Civil Protection Officer:''' "Pick up that can."
->'''Gordon Frohman:''' "How the heck do I do that? Oh. Whoah! I can pick up things in this game! ...I mean, world."

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' had a completely superfluous display of realism in the Tanker chapter. Snake can enter an elaborate bar aboard the ship early on, replete with several bottles and glasses to be shot and shattered, but also an ice bucket sitting on the countertop. Shoot that and it will tumble over, spilling its ice around, which will then proceed to ''realistically melt away to nothing''.

* ''VideoGame/BoomBlox'' almost qualifies as an inversion; whereas most applications of WreakingHavok involve the physics engine intruding upon the game's atmosphere, the story mode in ''Boom Blox'' tacks a completely unnecessary plot onto the abstract, physics-based gameplay. It's as though they came up with a story mode for ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}.''[[labelnote:*]][[VideoGame/TetrisWorlds Which they did.]] [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer Seriously.]][[/labelnote]]

* ''VideoGame/GarrysMod'' is ''all'' about this entire trope, bonus points for using both the [[{{VideoGame/HalfLife2}} Source Engine]] and Havok. Building anything will involve physics and it's just plain fun to try various physics experiments such as creating dominoes with large flat panels or a collapsing building. Just be warned you can run into a GameBreakingBug by WreakingHavok ''too'' much.

* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' slips into WreakingHavok territory early in the game. Part of the [[HeKnowsAboutTimedHits tutorial]], if you pick up the bow, asks you to shoot a target with an arrow. Had the target been anything but a hanging bucket, the incident probably would have passed unnoticed; since it ''is'' a hanging bucket, which jostles around amusingly on the end of its rope and hangs differently from the weight of the arrow stuck in it, it's obvious that Bethesda was using the opportunity to show off the physics engine. To Bethesda's credit, the game only prompts you to do this if you pick up the bow in the room, which is entirely optional.
** At other points in the game, the physics engine mostly leads to you knocking everything off the tables when you so much as walk slowly by them.
** An extremely hilarious one happens should you be able to kill a guard before it tries to arrest you: the guards constantly accelerate to ''ensure'' they will actually catch up to you. Land a headshot on them at the right moment, and their lifeless body will ''knee-slide'' right below you, then continue at a ludicrous speed. Careful positioning can result in dead Imperial Guards shot into space.
** A personal favorite along the same lines. Picture this: you're the Mage's Guild's Archmage, sitting in the Imperial City's University with a Mage Scholar just finishing their lecture to a bunch of student magisters. [[SaveScumming Saving Here,]] you break out your [[DiscOneNuke Lightning-Powered Daedric Bow & Arrows]] [[ShockAndAwe (yes, both are electrified,]] [[ForTheEvulz but it has to be an over-time effect on one or both for maximum pleasure)]] then fire away into the small group. Chances are, the magister you've targeted gets up as normally intended, then drops dead after getting up, all accompanied by Wes Johnson's (they're all Imperials) voice in a five/six-man unison so thick, the voices become flanged! Even better, target the benches, instead; those closest and opposite will see the magisters flying in all directions and croaking in mid-air! One even flies directly into the lecturer's podium and dies there!

** By the divines, use that same arsenal against anyone that can succumb to it in one shot; you shoot, it hits, they fly, guaranteed to die/fall unconscious at the apex of ascent, and drop like the ragdolls they become! It's incredible! Chances are, much like ''Skyrim'' with [[GoodBadBugs Giants,]] the excess damage still needed to drop a target filters out as excess force to propel the target to such incredible heights. Have fun!
** Also, keep in mind only Lightning does the trick here. Fire launches a target only so far and Frost does nothing to their current momentum, though it's fun to see a target suddenly drop dead in mid-run.

** A big part of the fun of the first dragon shout you receive in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', Unrelenting Force, is to let it loose in a place filled with objects (such as a dinner table) and see where everything ends up after being blown across the room.

* VideoGame/GravityGhost has you slingshotting around planets to collect items.

If you're playing a game that puts a [[VideoGame/{{Half-Life2}} Gravity Gun]] in your hands, expect to run across a ''lot'' of these. Depending on the circumstances, Wreaking Havok may qualify as a form of [[BenevolentArchitecture Benevolent]] or MalevolentArchitecture.

* ''{{PAIN}}'' is not much more than a Havok demo. You score points by flinging your ragdoll at bits of scenery, many of which break or collapse using the physics engine, scoring additional points. Add some BlackComedy and that's the whole game.
* Pretty much the entire point of the ''{{Breakout}}'' clone ''BreakQuest'' are the advanced physics.
* ''StarWars: VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed'' is made of this, to the point where developer interviews prior to the game's release focused pretty much exclusively on the awesomeness of the physics.
* ''[[{{VideoGame/Hammerfight}} Hammerfight]]'' is essentially a physics simulator disguised as [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome a badass, mouse-only fighting game.]] Suffice to say, seeing as physics are literally half the game mechanics, it has some of the best a 2D game will ever see.

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'', which might be the TropeCodifier, contains heaps of physics puzzles, from piling cinder blocks on see-saws to placing buoyant barrels under an aquatic ramp to removing cinder blocks from a pulley system, right down to a carelessly dropped can in the opening. And these all occur ''before'' you get the Gravity Gun. One wonders whether every member of the Resistance fleeing from City 17 had to pass the same series of puzzles, or whether this was an elaborate obstacle course set up to determine whether Gordon Freeman was truly the Chosen One...
** Ironically, the physics engine Valve chose wasn't even made by Havok. It was made by a German competitor named Ipion Virtual Physics who got [[StealingTheCredit bought out by Havok]] before ''Half-Life 2'' came out. It was effective enough then that Valve was willing to pay Havok $50k per game until they made Rubikon for Source 2.
* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}} 3'' has the occasional corpse hanging from a ceiling, and they make very tempting piñatas. The Resurrection of Evil expansion pack introduces its own version of the gravity gun, and things got really interesting. In an interview, it's revealed that they used their version of the gravity gun to create the damaged areas in Doom 3. You're armed with a ''Developer weapon'' in the expansion.

These exercises in game physics conspicuously draw attention to themselves rather than meshing with the rest of the game. [[RuleOfFun Note that this isn't necessarily a bad thing]] -- in some cases, playing with the physics doesn't mesh well with the rest of the experience because ''[[SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer it's more fun than the actual game.]]''

* ''MaxPayne2'' does this early in the game when one of the first mooks you encounter runs into the room and past a freestanding shelf filled with little boxes and cans. Cue the gratuitous slo-mo shot of said mook being hit by your bullets, thrown back, colliding with the shelf, knocking it over, and collapsing on the floor in a shower of said boxes and cans.

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals'': has quite a bit of this, one example being that the Aurora Alpha Bomber's Fuel Air Bomb is so explosive, it can ''flip'' the humongous Emperor Overlord Tank, the Overlord, being well, a Mammoth expy, tends to survive non-direct hits from the fuel air bomb, unless it gets flipped over, in which case it dies instantly. Further hilarity includes using explosives on infantry, watching the guy on the back of a Technical fly off, (if you used a big enough bomb, he flies ''into the screen'').

[[folder:Sports]]
* ''VideoGame/SumotoriDreams''

[[folder:Stealth]]
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' had a completely superfluous display of realism in the Tanker chapter. Snake can enter an elaborate bar aboard the ship early on, replete with several bottles and glasses to be shot and shattered, but also an ice bucket sitting on the countertop. Shoot that and it will tumble over, spilling its ice around, which will then proceed to ''realistically melt away to nothing''.
[[/folder]]

* ''VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans'' Just '''screams''' havok.

* ''[[LegoAdaptationGame Lego Harry Potter]]'' lets you kick Lego bits around the room, levitate them, etc.

* ''VideoGame/ScrapMechanic'' made the rather uncommon choice of using the Bullet physics engine, resulting in the game's physics behaving quite differently around the edge cases than players are used to. In particular, collision tunneling [[note]]A physics body phasing through another solid object when it should not be able to[[/note]] happens much more easily, and tends to result in the affected object collapsing into a relatively static (though still dangerously unstable) state instead of going into seizure mode. If you manage to tunnel your character through the ground, you get a [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything special]] [[EasterEgg message]]: "[[StopHavingFunGuys You're playing the game wrong. Stop that!]]"

* ''VideoGame/{{Lugaru}}'''s physics modeling is goofy but fun. Kicking enemies into each other nets you a "Nice Aim!" bonus, downed enemies struck with a bo staff will sometimes launch hundreds of feet straight up into the air, and ragdolling yourself with the Leg Cannon attack and tumbling down hills never gets old. ''{{Overgrowth}}'' looks to continue the tradition, but with more complex ragdolls and objects.

-->-- ''[[http://www.screencuisine.net/hlcomic/index.php?date=2005-05-10 Concerned #7]]''

* ''DemolitionCompany'' has physics as a major part of the game since it obviously involves demolishing parts of/entire structures. The tutorials show off collapsing a structure by you destroying some of the supports and getting out of the way before it does so.
* Like Octodad, in recent years just about '''every''' game with ''Simulator'' in the title (Surgeon, Snowcat, Goat, Tabletop...) is a physics-based game where most of the entertainment (or insanely frustrating challenge) comes from performing actions using the physics engine.

* ''SecondLife'' pre-dates ''Vindictus'' by about six and a half years. Its WideOpenSandbox nature and physics engine permit players to create all sorts of interesting situations, although some exercises, such as a ten-link chain, have been known to wreck havoc upon the server's CPU. (The chain in question did sway quite convincingly, at about a frame every five seconds.)

** The NPC with the best sniper rifle in the game likes to take potshots at people from a bell tower. Killing him may or may not cause him to fall down the hole in the floor to a location where you can loot the rifle, entirely depending on Havok's mood. Since the game treats gibs as lootable, the easiest way to get the rifle is therefore to launch a rocket in the bell tower window. With any luck, the NPC will be gibbed, virtually guaranteeing that of all the Havok-ed gibs at least one will fall through the hole.
* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has many weapons in its DLC's that have some rather interesting qualities. First, Dead Money gave us the gas bomb, a land mine thrown like a grenade that also can role. Old World Blues has a sonic emitter that hurls people backwards on a critical hit, which can make the grand canyon a tempting hunting ground. And the Gun Runners Arsenal adds timed explosives that ricochet off surfaces.
** Dead Money also gives us the complementary voucher bug, which gives you a potentially infinite number of floating little squares, which you can place anything one. You can literally build a house out of minigun ammo, guns, money or anything else with its aid. (though 5mm ammo is preferred by players)

* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' has fluid dynamics that differ subtly between water and magma. You are advised to learn their differences well, lest ye flood your fortress. They're both quite useful if you want to build a DoomsdayDevice.