Dust to Dust.
This year's Summer of Arcade has been a bastion of great downloadable games over the past couple of years. Games such as Braid, Shadow Complex and even Bastion have been clear reminders of what SOA can achieve. This year has been a bit disappointing as there hasn't been a great game to showcase the importance of SOA. I'm happy to report that Dust is said game. Dust is hack & slash game of the likes of such games as Odin Sphere and Muramasa: The Demon Blade. The game mostly relies on quick reflexes and stringing combos together in order to succeed. It plays rather well as gameplay is both swift and simply. I found it to be easier than I was expecting. There is a specific combo with the Dust storm and Fidget's magic powers that can take care of most enemies. I didn't have much trouble with the combat and was repeatedly looking for challenging fights. Regardless, the game plays well and looks great in motion. While the furry art style may scare off a few people it doesn't matter in the end as the game looks great. The story in Dust is better than it should be for a downloadable game. It starts off with an amnesia-ridden hero(I known it is cliche as hell) called Dust. He is awakened by Fidget and a sword called Ahrah. The main story mostly revolves around war and Dust's mysterious past. The story and characters are interesting enough to keep you interested. Lastly the animations in this game are unbelievable. Dust specifically has thousands of animations for every action that he does. Kudos to Humble Hearts for putting extra polish on an already good game. Most downloadable games are short, but not with Dust. I spent well over 20+ hours with Dust as I nearly completed everything in the game. I'm usually not a completionist but with Dust I felt compelled to keep coming back and getting different thing like any great Metroidvania game. I highly recommend Dust and urge people to get past the furry aesthetics. You owe it to yourself to play SOA best game this year.
