From Dust - a five star XBL Arcade game

From Dust is one of the XBL Summer of Arcade games. I haven't been tempted by any of the others, so I'll miss out on the free Fruit Ninja deal, I guess. However, From Dust is an incredible 3rd person (God perspective) game where you gather mass (matter) of different types (earth, water, and lava) to create paths, bridges, and areas for vegetation to grow. You act as "The Breath" created by a tribe of masked people who find themselves stuck on islands and in need of rescue from the volcanos and tsunamis that threaten their villages. Each level is a new puzzle and continues the story line - there are a dozen levels. Also, there are over 20 "challenges" where you must use all your ingenuity to beat them.

So you are The Breath, able to accumulate and distribute a sphere of mass wherever you want, and you can also send the villagers to take a rune stone to start a new village there, move the village to a safer location, or capture a stone with powers from the ancients to protect each village from fire and/or water. Of course, they still have to run that knowledge to each village, and getting that done before the next great wave or lava flow is sometimes very difficult. Some missions seem to have infinite possibilities to accomplish your goal, and some will seem to only have one and you must experiment to find it.

Collect water out of a low area so your people can pass, build an earthen bridge so they can get to the next landmass, distribute soil evenly to cover the area in plants and animals, create dams and barriers to direct the current of rivers and volcanic erruptions, and rebuild mountains to break the tsunami before they crush your villages.

The naration is interesting, the presentation is very eye-catching, the gameplay is smooth and polished, and the overall feel of the game will grab you and not let go until you have exhausted all the possibilities.

I absolutely loved this game. It is $15 and I almost balked at that price, but downloaded the demo and was hooked! I urge you to download the demo and give it a spin - it is a refreshing change of pace in game style with some very innovative game elements that I know you will enjoy. This game is well worth the money and was a great experience. Post up with your thoughts, please!

Happy gaming!

Ahh! Glad you ended up trying it Coolhand. And you're absolutely right. This is a great little gem. I am currently on the last level and really love this game. It's so much fun to mess around and experiment. I find myself just messing around with the levels even after I have completed all the goals. The first few levels are a little slow and limit what you can do but once you get going it's really amazing. Like most games the first few levels teach you the basics but pretty soon it opens up and gives you full control. Some of the later levels even have you pretty much make the whole level as you see fit. It's pretty sweet.

The other main aspect of the game is that it's almost like a puzzle game. For the most part each level has a specific theme that you have to overcome using your abilities to manipulate the landscape. So you're not just sitting around creating an island but constantly working to avoid certain doom.

And possibly the best part is the things you never intend to happen. This is a living place and nature finds the path of least resistance. You are often the unwitting creator of your own downfall. For instance, on one level I was pulling sand from a beach to make other structures else ware. Well this beach had a small flow of ocean water coming in, filling a small lake. All was in harmony until I started taking away sand. After a while too much sand had been taken and the balance of nature was thrown off. The ocean started to flow in like crazy (due to the fact that there was no longer enough sand to hold it back). Before I knew it, pretty much the whole level was flooded. And the cool part is that this was not a preprogrammed danger. It just happened. Same thing has happened with lava flow that I thought I was sending to a safe place and before. Knew what happened it was destoying my village.

It was these little things that really hooked me. Almost like the game had a life of it's own. Very cool. Well I could go on but the point is that I really liked this game too. Check out the demo if you get the chance.

Sounds cool, think I'll pick it up on Steam.

Played it, finished it, loved it.