The following was a one page review I was required to write for a Quality Assurance job application I did a few months ago. I haven't heard anything back since, but no matter. After recently replaying the game momentarily I re-read this review and still agreed with everything I had previously written. Thought it was worth posting after a month of inactivity. Voila.
A review of Eric Chahi’s and Ubisoft
Montpellier’s ‘From Dust’
‘God games’ are few and far between these days and it seemed
like From Dust would satiate that craving for creationism. However building
houses and amenities for your dedicated followers and cultivating their
existences is not what this game is about, despite the expectancies the likes
of Black & White and Populous may have predisposed us to.
Essentially From Dust
is a puzzle game where the main tool for solving the problems presented to the
player is a rather advanced environment physics simulator. The player controls
an aptly named omniscient being called ‘The Breath’. Appropriately named since
the world is slowly and subtlety altered by you, rather than instantly and profoundly
shaken by a single mouse click. Every world’s overarching objective is to
populate a number of totems on the map which then opens a portal to the next
world. Sounds like a simple objective, but one that is difficult to attain when
the unforgiving forces of Gaia are unleashed upon you.
You have the freedom to terraform the world however you
please in order to protect your tribesmen and guide them to the objectives. Earth,
water, lava and other peculiar plants can be manipulated as you please. However
there often isn’t as much freedom in how you solve the numerous hurdles the
game presents. The game largely expects you to solve its puzzles the way it
wants you to solve them. The lack of lateral thinking required is
disappointing. Despite how often pre-determined the answers to the puzzles feel,
the levels are designed superbly in a way that subtly conveys to the player the
recommended solution. For example: dry, rocky river beds near flowing water
often hints that you should redirect the water flow towards them.
Nature is unpredictable and it is entirely possible for your
carefully crafted stream to suddenly turn into a rushing river, perhaps
unexpectedly drowning your poor tribesmen. Some thought definitely has to be
put into how you change the environment, as the slightest misplacement of earth
could end up changing the landscape entirely. Taking earth from one spot may
reveal a water source that can start a rushing river thereby changing the landscape
and the nature of the problem you were trying to solve completely. It is in
moments like this where From Dust can be the most fun, when you are forced to
think and react quickly with the resources available to avoid Mother Nature’s
wrath.
For a game about the beauty and merciless nature of the
environment, From Dust is suitably pretty. Watching a dusty desert spring to
life with rolling grass, palms and wildlife is so immensely satisfying. It is just
unfortunate there is no equally profound change in how the game is actually
played when this happens (besides unlocking a new tribal ‘memory’ i.e. a
paragraph of story flavored text). Though I can accept the game’s focus is that
of its environmental physics system, some sort of deeper establishment between
the player and the actual ecosystems you have created would add another
interesting aspect to the game rather than simply shifting elements around. The
same routine of claiming totems and entering portals every level also gets
stale. But at least the methods to which you succeed towards these objectives are
varied enough in every world to keep the game interesting.
That said From Dust knows its strengths and where its focus
lies. What it does focus on, its superb landscaping simulation, is immensely satisfying
to sculpt with. Whether you’re playing purely to answer the ‘what if’ scenarios
you conjure in your mind or if you’re trying to guide your tribesmen to
salvation, From Dust is a triumph in logical puzzle solving through
environmental simulation.
