Gameplay Today - Because You're Always Gaming

Puzzle games come in all shapes and sizes, and Ubisoft's From Dust definitely exists on a plane all its own. Comparable to almost nothing, From Dust is a unique experience graphically and in play. As the second game in the 2011 Summer of Arcade promotion, it has had a quite large amount of hype following its release. While I personally enjoyed bits of the game, I'm mostly left disappointed with what I imagined would be a completely different game.

Maybe it's due to my adoration of sandboxes when I was a child, but I was really hoping From Dust would offer more of an open ended experience. The physics engine allows the player to move and toy with water, lava and earth; but only for the sake of protecting and aiding a group of tribesmen. Advancement is really nonexistent in From Dust, this is not a Sim City competitor despite the unique engine and potential to do so. From Dust is a linear puzzler that will only appeal to a small group of players. Moving and shaping the world is in itself rewarding, but the constant task of saving your people is irritating when coupled with bonus objectives and requirements.

And after clearing the short story mode, a challenge mode is available which is exactly that: challenging. Even the introductory courses can be out of some players' reach in terms of difficulty, pushing away even more potential players. Rarely do I ever question a developer's thinking behind something as colossal as the genre of their game, but this is a case where I spot nothing less than a wasted graphics and physics engine. Maybe I'm being selfish, but From Dust would have made more sense to me as a strategic-RTS; something like Tropico.

I wouldn't have so many problems with From Dust if it weren't for the control scheme. Coupling an awkward set of camera angles with poor selection tools is frustrating, this would have worked far better with a mouse and keyboard. No multiplayer shouldn't be a given either; as the prospect of cooperative or even competitive game modes is quite exciting.

Fifteen dollars just seems like too much money for a moderately lengthy set of missions and tasks. Disguised behind wonderful graphics and effects, the core gameplay of From Dust is uninteresting and surprisingly repetitive despite the game's focus being on changing your environment. The idea of moving the Earth's contents to save a group of people is intriguing, but the game at hand isn't quite as fun. Some gamers might get quite a bit of enjoyment from this kind of puzzle, I just fail to see the allure.