From Dust

From Dust is a short, beautiful game that captures the player throughout the entire experience. This might sound like the conclusion at the beginning, but it’s important to establish from the onset, regardless of its price or method of delivery. As a piece on entertainment, it excels visually, audibly, and ultimately in pure enjoyment.

Well now that that’s out of the way I suppose the rest of this will sound cursory. The mechanics of the game are simple enough- the player controls “The Breath,” which alternates between a snake-like cursor slithering across the environment and a floating sphere of whatever element has been absorbed. Using the ability to transport matter – water, earth, lava, or special plants – the player guides a tribe of early men across varied terrain to reach a series of markers. There are some light puzzle elements, and a few dexterity challenges brought on by time constraints (though no level has a final countdown, floods and other disasters are preceded by a ticking clock).

And yet despite being a rather simple concept that can be distilled into one somewhat lifeless paragraph, From Dust simply shines when actually played. Seeing the environments in motion generates feelings of awe rarely seen in the medium. The sense of scale, the amount of control (taking into consideration the intentional limits), and the fantastic audio (both the score and the well-done cues) – each element of From Dust just works. It does falter, occasionally. Deciphering what your tribe wants you to do (as they navigate from point A to B) can be difficult when they stand motionless and blather on in an imaginary language. They also seem to have a very low self-preservation instinct. But it’s both simple and fun in a market oversaturated with foolishly complicated and endlessly derivative titles.

There is, of course, the nasty matter of the PC DRM. Yes, you need an internet connection to play the game, and it must be always on. Also there’s an entirely unnecessary Ubisoft account-thing you need to make. And the game plays considerably better with a 360 controller and lacks virtually all standard graphics options. Some players, I gather, are demanding refunds in protest. Are they right to boycott the game? I don’t know. Maybe. This is not a review of Ubisoft’s DRM practices or their ability to port a game. I thought about how rotten Ubisoft was once during the install, once when I saw the options, and then never again.

 You should play From Dust. At worst, you’ll be mildly entertained, and at best you’ll be thoroughly enwrapped in the experience. There are worse gambles out there.