Xbox 360, Ubisoft, cert: 12, out now
From Dust may be a game where the player controls a god, but it's not really a "god game". Peter Molyneux's seminal 1989 hit Populous has been widely cited as an influence on the latest from reclusive French designer Eric Chahi, yet in truth, From Dust is more a puzzler that happens to feature deific powers.
As a spiritual force known as the Breath, players shape the world by absorbing elements – earth, water, lava – in a swirling sphere and depositing them elsewhere. The aim is to guide an itinerant tribe between portals as they attempt to rediscover their forgotten past, setting up villages around towering totems along the way. These nomadic followers can then be given simple instructions, but the focus is on skilful landscaping: channelling a river away from a settlement or moulding cooled lava into a bridge.
Such powers should make for a fascinating sandbox and indeed the remarkable dynamic physics can inspire genuine awe. Unfortunately, the time to enjoy them is all too fleeting, as the forces of nature make for wholly unpredictable opponents. Tsunamis and volcanoes wipe out entire villages with little warning. Any seconds wasted admiring the naturalistic behaviour of the environment as a level's topography shifts can lead to irreparable situations that not even godly abilities can fix.
Its worlds may be uniquely malleable, but rarely is the player given the opportunity to mould something truly remarkable. Each level has a linear route to the exit, and though different means can be used, the end remains the same. As torrents erode and magma scars, the game often degenerates into an exercise in damage limitation, with one particularly fussy task involving the constant plugging of emergent water sources.
Coupled with the sometimes capricious pathfinding of the tribes-people, who happily ascend near-vertical inclines but quibble over puddles of waist-high water, all too often the role of unseen guardian involves little more than tiresome busywork. The distance between deity and disciples, meanwhile, means that reaching the ultimate destination feels less rewarding than it should.
Yet if From Dust is an easier game to admire than to enjoy, its ambition and technical accomplishments should not be ignored. This is brave, thoughtful and unusually intelligent game design that could, with the backing its publisher has suggested it will receive, evolve into something very special.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/31/from-dust-eric-chahi-review
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