Recently, we made the switch from a grapple chain to an energy beam in Wreckout, as explained in the video below:
Aside from the fact that it looks cool, the new energy beam is always in tension and never goes slack like the chain did. This makes the physics feel super tight and responsive, which is paramount in such and fast-paced game. It's the little things which often add up to make a big difference to gameplay!
The idea for the physics model actually came from the way the Buddy Drone is connected to the players ship in our previous game Hyper Sentinel. We realised we could use a similar technique to make Wreckout even more responsive.