From Dust Review
Earth to earth.
Version tested: Xbox 360
From Dust is a different kind of god game. In most examples of this rarefied strata of strategy game - including its closest relative and direct inspiration, Peter Molyneux's classic Populous - the player-god is a blend of accountant, general and town planner who manages resources, shapes cities, counts off prayers and wars with rivals. A manager, in other words; a director of human affairs.
From Dust's god - known as the Breath - has the same aims: the survival, settlement and progress of its people. But it's both more hands-on and more remote, giving only the most basic instructions to its nomadic tribe of followers while directly manipulating nature instead: shaping rivers, moulding earth and rock like putty, creating order from chaos, coaxing life from barren dust.
The game's designer, elusive Frenchman Eric Chahi - who hasn't released a game in 13 years - is a keen amateur geologist, and it shows. The terrified and displaced tribesmen crawl out of a hole in the ground to find themselves in a fantastic setting resembling the Earth many millennia before human existence. They speak of following in the footsteps of elders, yet the planet is tortured by volcanoes and tsunamis, apparently suffering the birthing pains our own did as it coughed up landmass and life.
It's elemental stuff, nothing less than a video game creation myth. (It's an odd coincidence that From Dust appears shortly after Terence Malick's rapturous invocation of the beginning of all things in his film The Tree of Life - and you could argue that Chahi's vision is the more coherent.) If god games should inspire awe, then From Dust towers over the petty, hand-to-mouth, human agenda of its predecessors.
But it's also a simple game, if generous in scope for a download title (it's released on Xbox Live Arcade this week, PC on 17th August and PlayStation Network some time in the future.) You must use the Breath to protect the tribesmen and help them navigate a series of dangerous but contained environments, settling villages on their way to a portal and the next stage of their journey.
The Breath, represented by a circling tadpole of a cursor, can suck up and deposit huge quantities water, earth and lava. Earth bridges gaps, diverts rivers and spreads vegetation from colonised villages. Lava cools into walls of impregnable but barren rock.
1/7 From Dust's strange, organic art style is classic French fantasy, reminiscent of the great comic artist Moebius.
The interaction of these three elements is at the core of From Dust, and it's realised in a breathtaking living simulation conjured by the coders at Ubisoft's Montpellier studio. Like Q Games' excellent PixelJunk Shooter did in two dimensions before it, From Dust taps into the hypnotic spectacle of real-time fluid dynamics for some truly awesome sights: the first time you witness one of its titanic tsunamis is guaranteed to set your hair on end.
But the game doesn't just subject you to waves and eruptions. It allows you to study and toy with these intuitively understood yet unpredictable elements, using them to solve a series of situational riddles. Displacement, erosion, sedimentary deposit, landslide, wildfire, tide and flood - you watch them all at work and, as the Breath, try to bend them to your will.
Despite the levels' small size, From Dust is more of a sandbox than almost any 'open world' game, and it practically defines the concept of emergent play (as referenced by the title of one of its best chapters.) It's not so much about having multiple solutions to a problem as an infinite variety of ways a single solution might play out. But you do have a selection of additional tools at your disposal.
Each level is dotted with totems and prayer stones. Direct five tribesmen to a totem and they will establish a village; direct a village's shaman to a stone and he will bring back knowledge, enabling the village to resist flood, perhaps, or fire. A village needs to be settled and maintained at each totem for the portal to the next chapter to open. Once settled, most villages grant the Breath a power.
The time-limited powers escalate from a boost to the amount of matter you can move, through the ability to quench fire and evaporate water to the truly godly gifts of the production and elimination of matter. You get the standout power early on: Jellify Water immobilises the fluid and lets you shape it, allowing you to stage your own Moses moment and part the waves.
Other forces of nature come into play. Water springs can be dug out or buried; 'trees' that spread fire or release water can be replanted to combat each other; animals and vegetation establish simple ecosystems. I shan't go into too much detail about how these various devices are employed by the designers, but suffice to say that ideas are seldom repeated across the thirteen stages, and your enemy in one stage is quite often your friend in the next. The importance of balance in nature is a well-rehearsed hippy mantra, but it's seldom been more elegantly expressed in games.
Completed chapters remain open as you left them, and you can revisit them simply to muck around or to achieve the secondary goal of spreading vegetation across as much of the stage as possible. This (like finding certain stones) unlocks hints and the bite-sized Challenge maps.
In contrast to the long-form strategic thrust of most god games, From Dust's goals are immediate and tangible: cross the river, save the village, tame the volcano. The requirements made of you are light - just activating all the totems and getting five men to the portal will complete the map. (Since the Breath is no middle-manager, it doesn't need milestones.)
It's a brilliant move, discouraging methodical play and encouraging experimentation and improvisation. The game starts languidly, but although there are never any time limits as such, the restless forces of nature pile on the pressure in later levels. This gives rise to some awe-inspiring challenges, but occasionally reduces you to frantic to-ing and fro-ing as you try to displace as much matter as possible before the next disaster strikes - more desperate fire-fighter than mighty creator.
This pressured, repetitive style of play doesn't flatter From Dust; it may be far more pacey and tactile than any other god game, but it's still hardly arcade action. It's also the reason many of the time-trial Challenge maps don't really work, although there are a few delightful little puzzles concealed here. Time and population targets for the campaign maps might have been a better way to satisfy Microsoft's contractual (and here ill-fitting) requirement for Xbox Live leaderboards.
There's also a cruel map at the end of the game - a great idea, viciously implemented - that puts a dent of irritation in an otherwise well-sculpted campaign. It can be rushed through in half a dozen hours, will sustain you for twice that, but the game's modest length and size don't reflect its elemental, existential scale. From Dust is a crescendo - of ideas, but mostly of the glorious and fearful drama of nature - that will leave you feeling both humbled and thrilled.
But it still feels like a beginning, and not just because it tells the tale of one. It's a big idea in a small package, and it's begging to be expanded, as Ubisoft has hinted it might be. Pray that it is.
9 / 10
From Dust releases 27th July on XBLA and will be available to download for PC on 17th August. A PSN release will follow.
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Comments (99) Latest comment 9 months ago
Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!
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Got to say well done to Microsoft too - their summer XBLA games ideas are brilliant. First Bastion and now this?, what an excellent breath of fresh air both games are.
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*edit: 3 weeks. Could be worse I guess.
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Microsoft may not have many big boxed exclusive games this year, but their XBLA catalog is seriously brilliant. All they need now is Magicka and I'd be in love.
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edit: Damn your eyes!
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@L0cky: Thanks anyway
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I shall be backing up your bravery for making something new with the purchase of a copy for my ps3
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If it's Jim Sterling, you can safely ignore the review. The guy is utterly clueless.
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Proudly at the top of the List Of Stupid since 2006: Microsoft's demand that every XBLA title implement Leaderboards. So, so stupid in cases like this, Bastion, Limbo and Braid.
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Looks like my kind of game, I'll wait for pc though, xbox controls are never good for strategy games.
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Yes Jim Sterling did the review on Destructoid. It looks like Jim is reviewing all of the Summer of Arcade titles. He gave Bastion a 6.5.
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Its great you are going to support the game (when released) on your PC or PS3, but why tell the world that? Is it some sort of solidarity thing?
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Sorry, but no. Absolutely nothing like it.
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Instabuy, on Microsoft Xbox 360.
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I hope it's irony.
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This is not next gen Populous,sadly
meh
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Either way, this and Insanely Twisted.. have been nailed on purchases for so long. I am quietly happy that we didn't also get Spelunky or Fez because I would have to choose between them and that wouldn't be possible.
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It's like EG finally have some video reviews
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It's a 9/10 because (to Oli at least) it feels like a 9/10, stop yer whining.
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"There are a selection of challenge modes.... After glimpsing a few of them, I decided they weren't really worth my time as they only dally with the idea of uniqueness."
2 paragraphs later, this gem:
"There's just not enough content..."
For fucks sake how does this guy have a job again?
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Go look up the word "subjectivity".
It's clear that not just Eurogamer loved Bastion and Braid.
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oooh. a swear word ona forum. how controversial and rebelious!
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THEN I CANCELLED MY ORDER.
Because, as Ubisoft often does, they postponed it. Just as they did with AC:Brootherhood, and just as I did then.. cancelled my order. I don't think I'll ever buy a game from UbiSoft ever again. They are completly retarded.
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http://www.next-gen.biz/reviews/dust-review (360 version tested) : 9 / 10
/ Ken
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"oooh. a swear word ona forum. how controversial and rebelious!"
It was a swear word within a question that you have still failed to answer, although the response you have given is all the information I need to know that you are just a silly, ineffective little troll.
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Amazing game so far, i'm only on level 3 and it isn't a game I will want to rush through, the graphics, the physics, the water, SOOO good! I REALLY hope they have DLC planned for this game as I could see me playing this for years if there is enough content!
And yup, it controls fine on 360, the triggers are really well thought out too.
Honestly, buy this game! try the demo first if your unsure then buy it!
I'm not sure why but this game really takes you in and makes it feel like your there, amazing!
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"oooh. a swear word ona forum. how controversial and rebelious!"
It was a swear word within a question that you have still failed to answer, although the response you have given is all the information I need to know that you are just a silly, ineffective little troll. "
ooh. An insult to boot! Must be my lucky day! Oh and i dont owe you anything fool!.....especially not an answer
/re casts line
/waits patiently
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First thoughts: god, this tribe really is useless. They just stand there and shout in their made-up language stuff that sounds uncannily like 'comment ca va?' until you come over and help them. I therefore took pleasure in grabbing the biggest glob of water possible from the ocean, dumping it on a mountain overlooking the village and watching it run down and completely inundate them.
And then the rest: Fucking hell, the second proper level gives you hardly any time to go and retrieve the MAGIC SONG OF STOPPING TIDAL WAVES before the tidal wave itself arrives and Fukushimas the village out of existance. It's not helped that the sand you can dump to make bridges for your savages is eroded quite quickly by the water.
That said, if you (like me) have a fascination with flowing water and love making channels for it and dams to see where it will go instead, you'll love it. You can also just start sucking up all the water further upstream and until your capacity is filled it will mean dry land for your little savages to cross. Likewise, when I overused this tactic in lieu of rebuilding an eroded bridge, the lone man who'd come to get the MAGIC SONG OF STOPPING TIDAL WAVES got swept away and I had genuine panic and desire to rush and save his life before he reached the open sea. Alas, this took a long time and by then the tsunami was upon us, so he lived 5 seconds longer than his tribe.
In a way, I suppose it's a bit arrogant of them to go building their villages in these wholly inappropriate places, JUST BECAUSE there's a totem there (which looks like a mutant between a giraffe and a meerkat) as opposed to ensuring they won't be killed now, searching out their ancient wisdom later.
I wish it were possible to tell what I am about to scoop up... sometimes a small amount of standing water can remain after a dam is placed, and that sand you wanted to scoop up to go and assist the tribe is instead water you need to go and dump elsewhere (without flooding the village again) in a hurry.
As it stands, though, Chahi is a bastard. The trial gives you a piffling three levels (one of which has almost nothing to do) to play, before a volcano erupts dramatically and then it ends. It doesn't even take you back to the main menu, you either buy it now or you are returned to the Xbox Dashboard. As a result, I have no idea how good lava is when you drop some on your savages.
Similarly, the 1200MSP price tag makes me look at my unopened 2100 point card and think that's over half of it gone in one fell swoop. 800MSP would have been an instant purchase, 1200MSP makes me thing the 13 level campaign (which I'm nearly a quarter of the way through already, mathematically) might either be over in a flash or pointlessly bastard hard to pad it out. The presence of 30 scenario levels only soothes my wallet somewhat.
I can't decide. Clearly it doesn't speak to me like Section 8: Prejudice did (what with it being Tribes 2 with almost everything except aerial vehicles) but on the other hand I want Eric Chahi to be back. I spent most of seventh grade reloading that bit in Another World where you kick the guard in the nuts, then quickly do a COMBAT ROLL OORAH to grab your pistol and reduce his enraged, doubled-over form to a crispy skeleton. Errr, likewise, going into the room with the guard with long spikes on his head who locks himself in to escape your gingerness, but if you get close he punches you repeatedly in the head with a wonderfully realized fleshy thump.
Dust? Um.
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It's like Populus meets Black and White with a physics engine I can't see being topped for a while, destructiod shuld stick to reviewing cod blops and the like, the game has way too much soul for these simple saps to understand.
One things for sure, mother nature is a bitch in this game
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You have barely scratched the surface of the game tbh.
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I suggested better places for dams but it still took a lot of tries and frustration at the cutscenes repeating unskippably each time before she finally managed to retrieve the song. The wave was actually hitting as he made it back so it would have been impossible to cut it any closer!
Then trying to reach the second totem, more eroded dams and washed away savages, culminating in a second appearance by the tidal wave that by sheer dumb luck carried five of them onto the second totem and winning the demo!
She enjoyed looking after the villagers and the lack of shooting and hookers, but didn't like the camera controls or time limits. Even if you just look around that level before founding the first village, the wave still comes after four minutes!
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(ps: some numbnut keeps negging you so my "+1" is getting cancelled out
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its a beautiful game and they could just let me at it in the world builder I think I would be happy!
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Jim Sterling is a troll, his 5/10 for Assassins Creed 2 proved that.
Its not possible to take him seriously. No wonder he works for Destructoid.
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If I sat down and played this game as a time attack, try to race through it as economically as possible, it probably would be rather underwheling. But seeing as im the sort of person who will spend nigh on 30 minutes using lava to write my name in rock (worship me, little minions), this game is great. Of all the games I've ever played, this genuinely feels more like a "sandbox" than anything else. It even has actual sand.
All in all, thus far it's been extremely fun.
edit: by "actual sand", of course I mean actual digital sand.
And oh, the only problem I've noticed is the game seems quite dark, and there doesn't seem to be a brightness option. Given that my tv isn't backlight, it has made things a bit, well, dark at times.
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Yep. How anyone can give AC2 a 5/10 is rediculous. He also gave Bastion a 5/10 (i think)
Maybe he can only count to 5 because his other hand is constantly fiddling with his choade.
Or he's trying to impress Edge (who gave a 9/10 LOL) Suck it Sterling.
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Theres simply nothing else like this out at the moment, not on the 360 anyway.
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I personally didn't have any problems with getting my lazy hobo to the stone in time. I suspect you're perhaps not spreading the sand to make a bridge but just dumping it instead? To my eyes, the sand has a rather nice property of gently levelling out a mild hump. I don't think it's the effect of water eroding that you're seeing but I could be wrong.
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It's sub-HD, quite low resolution, and even though there's a lot of anti-aliasing being applied in the upscale process to remove jaggies, that doesn't really make it easier to see what's going on. Even the menu text and subtitles are blurry. That and the fact that the camera never allows you to peer around your cursor to see where you're dropping stuff just makes it a bit too clumsy. You're really not much of a god if you lack omniscience.
Don't buy this sight unseen, play the demo, and see if the resolution bothers you.
Also, yes, the time limits are too punishing - in the first level to feature them you have about 50 seconds to spare if you do things exactly perfectly (ie, if you've already failed and you're playing it again) - and that's if your villager follows the path correctly and doesn't complain about it. Conversely, it seems to easy the rest of the time, when you're landscaping, vegetation flourishes instantly and without much real explanation. Animals arrive, with the briefest of mentions from a popup, and they seem to destroy what you've already laid out. It all happens way too quickly, there's absolutely no sense of it being a strategy experience that is long in the tooth.
Sandbox is a little too accurate a term.
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Secondly, the graphics are fine, yes they may not be up to battlefield 3's standards, but then BF3 doesnt give you the ability to flood large plains with water does it? And the water effects are really the star of the show so far for me.
I never had any problems whatsoever reading any text in the game. It looks like it may have been sized with people with SDTV's in mind though, but its hardly game breaking. And the animals actually dont destroy anything until much, much later in the game, at the start they just eat and poop out plants, so they recycle rather than destroy. I've also had absolutely no problem with accuracy when it comes to picking stuff up/putting stuff down. I'm not sure how you can mess it up, really. 9/10 seems about right as far as I'm concerned.
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If that's not a time limit, what is?
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Such a simple thing to change though, just make the camera movement as graded vertically as it is horizontally and let me set my own comfortable viewing angle.
And as for timed stuff - I don't like timed stuff really, generally I find them a frustration. In this case in the demo, my guy grabbed the song first time, but got back to the village by the skin of his teeth just as the wave was breaking.
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MetalAngel - OK, its just people have been mentioning time limits like they are game breaking, and present all through the game. The only one I've encountered that could cause any problems is that one on the first level, only because people who've just started playing, dont really know what they're doing. BUT if you get that gameover screen more than once on the first level, I really cant see how theres any hope for you in games
At the end of the day, theres absolutely nothing like this on either console at the moment, and for any rough edges it might have, I think it deserves to be bought by everybody on the basis that it doesnt involve murdering people or smashing stuff or driving really fast and is, in fact, incredibly fun when you just start messing around and forget about the objectives the game gives you.
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With regard to the dams not holding back the water - sometimes you have to go further upstream to weaken the flow so it won't hit your dams as hard and wash them away. I like that kind of thinking. I imagine later in the game you'll have to suffer consequences of diverting a river - i.e you divert a river somewhere else to allow men to pass to an island, but later you need to get somewhere else and you diverted river is now in the way.
I'm def gettin this tonite.
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I quite like it, but not as much as I did in the earlier levels. There's a certain amount of frantic gameplay required that doesn't really fit the controls or the premise (in my opinion).
Still.. I'll go back to it and finish up, no doubt.
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Looking at the US Price of $15 on the PC – this would be sub £10 if they did the conversion properly, yet they are trying to charge £11.99 … blatant attempt to rip the UK off (again)
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Whoever is put off by time limits, I do hate time limits, too, but really only noticed it in 2 maps. You usually have enough time to play at whatever pace you want once you secured your villages with the "repel fire&water totem".
If you have a PC gamepad available, use that. Controls better than with keyboard/mouse.