From Dust by Ubisoft review
Play God in the hit strategy game whose PC release has been dogged by DRM controversy
Review date: 25 August, 2011. Review by: Darren Allan
Ubisoft's latest offering is a downloadable strategy god game with a shamanic (or some might say hippy) vibe - but controversy surrounding Ubisoft's promise not to employ digital rights management (DRM) anti-piracy protection on the title has meant that the PC port of this Xbox game has been met in some quarters with somethign less than peace and love. More of that below.
From Dust sees you control the 'breath' of the land, so it's probably a good job that From Dust is set in an idyllic-looking fantasy world, and not ours. We shudder to think what the breath of the Earth would be like, but given pollution levels on our planet, we suspect it would require at least a bottle of Listerine and two full packets of extra-strong mints to ensure it didn't strip Saturn of its rings.
Breath of fresh air
The breath in Ubisoft's game is a far more gentle wispy tendril that swirls across the landscape, but despite its airy appearance, this spirit can shape the terrain (on the Xbox) via a squeeze of the Xbox controller's left trigger. This enables it to suck up earth, water or even lava into a floating sphere, which can then be moved around and deposited using the right trigger.
This micromanagement style of terraforming is the basic method by which the player must guide his or her tribe of people to a series of totems. The natives build villages around these totems, and a world is completed when they're all captured. As a bonus, the worship of a totem also confers extra power to the player.
River deep, mountain high
At heart, this is a very simplistic game. Highlighting a totem tells the tribe to make their way over to it, but there may be obstacles in the way. To take a simple example, a river could block your people's passage. While a smaller stream might be bridged merely by dumping a couple of piles of earth on top of it, a wider, faster flowing river isn't so easy to deal with.
You'll dump your first couple of skip-fulls of earth next to the riverbank, only to come back with the third and find most of your efforts have already been eroded by the raging waters. So how is this watery problem solved? With a little thinking, looking towards the source of the river, and some clever diverting of the flow further upstream. The surging torrent is then slowed so you can successfully bridge it.
The interaction of the elements and the game's physics are impressively implemented - even more so when it comes to the natural disasters that the tribe must be protected from. Using molten lava (which hardens to rock) to swiftly shore up holes in a mountain range as a tsunami roars into sight certainly builds a sense of pressure. The swelling flood waters and erupting volcanoes flow authentically, and are a visual treat.
Continued on next page.
Company: UbiSoft
Website: http://from-dust.ubi.com/
