A neat twist on being God... well sort of God
From Dust largely remained under the radar for me. Any real previous exposure to the game was some tech demo trailers showcasing the innovative flow of the game's natural elements. I was impressed enough to remember the name so I jumped on it when it came out on XBLM.
From Dust separates itself from other God games in that rather than focusing on purely influencing your people, you focus on altering the land in order for them to survive and progress.
You play as 'The Breath' a god like entity summoned by the native tribe of this harsh world. The tribe itself seems to be an amalgam of various tribal cultures in the real world, being both unique and somewhat nondescript in their own way. They seek to learn their history and the ultimate fate of 'The Ancients.' A tribe of legend that left large totems scattering the lands.
These large totems serve as the centers of villages the tribe will establish. This is the ultimate goal of each stage, helping the tribe expand to establish villages around each totem on a given map and making sure the villages survive the onslaught of a violently changing landscape.
This is the core of From Dust, as you can alter the face of the landscape through various means. Collecting sand to build a wall to stop an incoming flood or diverting the flow of a river to give access to totems. This is also where the game really shines in its performance. The flow of the natural elements (sand, water, lava, etc) is a wonder to watch and experience, acting and responding to the player's actions how it would in reality. You can't simple dam a river and end the flow of water. The water will rise and find other ways of flowing. Piles of sand will erode against water and other elements. Lava will expand and make new land as it flows. It challenges the player to think about every decision that comes with trying to alter the landscape, as going about it without taking in the greater consequences will result in failing the stage.
As the story mode progresses new elements to game play are added, such as various plants that create water or fire, or even explode. Village totems will also start bestowing limited powers to the player, such as allowing to gather larger quantities of elements, putting out fires across the map, etc. These powers will become essential to completing stages when faces will continuous dangers such as tsunamis and giant volcanoes.
Sadly, despite all this game has going for it, it doesn't quite reach its potential. I completed the story mode in just a hand full of hours will relative ease and by the end the features and elements to the game play felt a bit lacking. Granted the final stage was a blast, even for how short it is, but it left me wanting a lot more from the game.
The tribe AI also has some frustrating moments, as many times trying to lead them to a new totems I was see indicators that their path was unsuitable for them to pass at certain spots. No sooner would I fix this but they'd sudden change paths and I'd be forced to fix a new route they randomly took.
The graphics are nice. Nothing groundbreaking but suitable for the game. I do wish I had more free range will the camera as players are largely forced to remain quite high up from the ground.
The controls are also good. I was concerned the lack of a mouse would hamper the finer tuning mechanics of working with the land but after the first couple stages I got use to using my controller and had no issue.
Wrapping this up I recommend this game for anyone looking for something a little different to fill time before the big fall/winter titles begin pouring out. It's an interesting take on god games, as well as puzzle solving games. I can only hope a sequel gets made with a much greater range of play, as the game at times felt like a sampler of something greater to come.