From Dust Review
Publisher Ubisoft
Platform Xbox Arcade
Release Date Out Now (PS3 version to follow)
From Dust which has recently been released on the Xbox Arcade format is Ubisoft’s latest entry into the God games genre, a genre that has always enjoyed huge success mainly due to the vast majority of gamers having a God complex. The genre is quite wide from the more civic minded titles such as Sim City to Civilisation which focused on the human races evolution all the way to the brilliant evolution based Black and White franchise.
From Dust is very much in this genre but instead of giving you control over the roles or outcome of your world you are much more a deity of terror forming than the city civic manager. You control what is called “The Breath”, an orb that can absorb elements and deposit them again using the L2 and R2 triggers. In the early tutorial levels this is mainly moving sand and water, but quickly it develops to include molten lava to construct firm rock face. Materials react to each other in real time, sand will get washed away by the water and of course the second the lava hits water it is cooled to form solid rock.
On top of being able to distribute the basic elements the player also unlocks some special plant material. Fire tress which spark into flames and water trees which spit water at oncoming forest fires can all be distributed around to help you. These can be combined to give different results, a quick example being placing a water tree will quench any oncoming fire approaching your village.
Of course you are not just a glorified gardener. It is your job to look after an emerging tribe. Using your earth moving skills you must ensure they have safe access to the world and can live in harmony and advance to learn the lessons left behind by their ancestors. Within each level there are a number of totem poles, getting your tribe members to a totem pole will allow them to set up a little village. Unlocking all the totem poles will clear the way to completing the level.
On top of all that each totem pole unlocked will also give you an extra special power that can be used to halt the ever dangerous advances of nature. Powers such as Jelly Water does what you think and turns all the water to jelly, using it at the correct time can keep your village safe from an emerging tsunami. Other powers quench all fires on the island or evaporate the water if things are getting beyond the paddling stage.
The gameplay is really engaging and incredibly addictive but a special mention has to be made to the graphics, From Dust is a stunning looking game and the natural elements you encounter throughout look amazing and all interact brilliantly.
One or two tiny faults do haunt this tittle but they are minute, the replaying of the same sequence between each level is odd and the control pad is perhaps not the most intuitive of control methods for such a game. But these are very small issues and for a arcade game you will struggle to find anything of similar quality.
Overall : From Dust is like all god games and very addictive but also engaging, and it is a game that offers lots of replay value as each level reacts in real time it is almost impossible to get the same exact response from each level. Released right now on Xbox but a PS3 version is in the pipeline and with the addition of the Move as a control option if included will make this a modern classic.
SCORE 9/10
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