From Dust

Give it a chance and let the world of gaming open up to something uniquely different.

From the tiniest trickle of water to the largest tidal wave, or the smallest grain of sand to the biggest mountain top, every element combines to make From Dust one of the most beautiful and compelling games available on Xbox Live Arcade.

When put against some of the other excellent Summer of Arcade games, From Dust isn't for everyone. It's a fully unique experience, with a pace and style that might turn some people off. But for people willing to play a more meditative game, a god game without much building or even very terrific amounts of power, and people who're interested in games as art, From Dust is a beautiful experience and one of the best ways to spend $15 in Microsoft Spacebucks.

Yet one more demostration of the great potential of digital delivery: an innovative, inspired and highly satisfying game, capable of proudly standing amongst the best Xbox Live Arcade titles.

The framerate remains solid throughout, and seeing a giant tsunami rip through the world and completely submerge it is very impressive.

From Dust is the God game for the rest of us, shallow enough for arm-chair deities, deep enough for messiahs who want to come to Earth and shape the world elbows deep. As one of the few games you can actually relax with and still enjoy to its fullest, From Dust should be in your library.

Like nothing else I have played.

From Dust is the ideal Xbox Live Arcade game. It would be a tough sell as a retail product simply because it's so creatively constructed and hard to easily define, but as a 1200 MS Point download? It's not to be missed.

If this can even be called a game, it's a highly unusual one. Instead of doing missions and killing enemies you construct landscapes and battle for control over the always unpredictable elements brought to life by impressive physics.

A sandbox game in its truest interpretation - nature simulated via a charming strategy game. [Oct 2011, p.84]

Designer Eric Chahi is possibly absolute genius and his game is very unusual experience in all aspects. Missing sandbox mode is the only flaw in this perfect god game. [Issue#208]

Truly a must-have XBLA game, From Dust can hold its head up high amongst the likes of Limbo, Braid, and Super Meat Boy – much like those platformers, Eric Chahi's long-awaited return has brought back a sadly forgotten gaming genre and given it a fresh breath of life. It's been a long time coming, but with any luck a god gaming renaissance is upon us.

It's a shame we don't see games like From Dust more often. It doesn't get repetitive, it's entertaining and shows like no other how a great power comes with a great responsability.

From Dust shows that playing god is never a dull task. Trying to tame the forces of nature proves a challenge and provides a different experience every time you play. The sometimes troublesome pathfinding and suicidal tendencies of the villagers make up the only small gripe we have with this otherwise fantastic game.

A risky and original game that does well everything it proposes. Magnificient and engaging, with a design that gives the player absolute freedom to solve the challenges.

From Dust shows that a cheap, downloadable game can compete with the biggies. You'll find yourself lost in this games for hours, just to create a perfect world. It requires some thinking, but most of all it requires enjoyment. Just sit back, kick your feet up and enjoy the beauty that is From Dust.

It's pure, ambitious, rewarding, challenging, surprisingly visceral, utterly engaging and proof positive that from even the basest of materials, genuine wonders can be wrought.

From Dust is a great playground that constantly impresses with its jaw-dropping technology and dynamic environments. A must for anyone that craves more than just an action fix.

From Dust is a crescendo - of ideas, but mostly of the glorious and fearful drama of nature - that will leave you feeling both humbled and thrilled...But it still feels like a beginning, and not just because it tells the tale of one. It's a big idea in a small package, and it's begging to be expanded, as Ubisoft has hinted it might be. Pray that it is.

From Dust's not magnificent because of its breezy intricacy and rugged grasp of geology. It's magnificent because it's designed with a playful deity in mind. It's built for a god who knows that to succeed is human, 
but to err – and to be creatively led astray time after time – is truly divine.

With a great variety of maps and tons of secrets to uncover, From Dust's amorphous sandbox ensures a consistently entertaining journey.

From Dust is something we've never seen in the last years: a wonderful god game with good challenges for the player. At the same time there are several limits with the camera and a gameplay where you can't do too much things.

From Dust is a very well put together puzzler that's obviously had a lot of thought and effort put into it. Not only does it offer a rather breathtaking setting to the player, but the various simple mechanics all come together to create a fun and compelling gameplay experience that hasn't really been duplicated on the Xbox Live Arcade before.

From Dust is a magical experience, but it could have been just that little bit more. The Xbox 360 controls aren't as precise as we would have liked, meaning that putting down dirt in exactly the spot you wanted can be tricky. The camera is also completely awful, only allowing you to look from two viewpoints - a 35 degree angle, or from the top. Restrictions on the camera are always a bad idea, period.

From Dust is an outstanding approach to the long-forgotten God Genre, but with a few new elements that, combined, give this title a fresh look from what we're used to seeing on the digital market.

From Dust not only looks good and unique, but it plays notably enough to back up its artistic and technological value. A lovely crafted unclassifiable game with enough fun and personality that you'll want to help those little people and its settlements to the end.

All in all, Ubisoft seems to have another winner with From Dust.

Memorable, beautiful and unique, something that stays in your mind long after you've moved on to something else. It's a game that's as fascinating to watch as it is to play, a thought-provoking spin on the power fantasies of the traditional god game.

From Dust is a fantastic game and a great follow-up to the Summer of Arcade's first game, Bastion. It's not quite like anything you've ever seen before and there's plenty of content to warrant a purchase. There are a few kinks that need to be worked out but overall, this is a game that everyone should check out, just make sure you don't let your newfound godly prowess get to your head.

Beautiful, it plays great, and is an amplified breath of fresh air.

From Dust is one of the best gaming experiences of the entire year.

In the desert or on an island … you have to travel with your villagers from one place to another to find the true origin and the secrets of the world. Yes, and this makes fun.

Overall, From Dust is very vibrant and interesting game and concept, with many compelling aspects to the gameplay. The visuals are stunning, the gameplay is simple and it can easily be played for an hour or five. However, it can become very tedious and frustrating in later levels. And because of the great simplicity of the game itself, frustrated players can find themselves losing interest in the game itself. It's a compelling game for puzzle lovers, but I would suggest caution for others who find themselves getting easily frustrated by having to juggle multiple aspects at once.

From Dust marks a successful return to the "god games".

It's been a while since we've seen a "God game", and Ubisoft brings back the genre in a truly inspiring way.

From Dust has a simple concept, executed exceptionally well. It's almost worth the price of entry to see the physics alone, but there's plenty more beyond that to make a purchase worthwhile.

From Dust is sublime – it's arguably close to being a piece of art. But prospective players should be warned you will only succeed here if you are a calm, benevolent and (above all else) patient god. Wrathful Old Testament types needn't bother; you'll only end up staring at the Game Over screen.

Though the AI may not be the smartest, playing around with the elements is a lot of fun.

From Dust is hugely satisfying and might herald the revival of the almost forgotten god games. It's a damn intelligent game and Eric Chahi did not forget how to build an extraordinary atmosphere of another world. [August 2011, p.59]

This title does do a tremendous job of showcasing how brutal nature can truly be and the helplessness that you feel when you can't do anything about it. If you are a fan of "god" games then I urge you to give From Dust a chance.

From Dust's concept is sublime and the simplistic controls make it accessible, despite some wonky camera controls. It isn't perfect, but it is still an excellent game and one that should be welcomed into any self respecting gamer's library.

Because of its minimalistic design and unique feel, From Dust is one of the most intriguing experience of this year. However, its flaws in controlling and dependance upon coincidence in the game ruins the gameplay and make it somewhat frustrating to no avail.

An impressive and well thought-out offering that delivers a truly original and memorable strategic experience, even if interface and pacing issues help keep it from feeling quite as monumental as its inventive abilities.

From Dust is a lovely acquaintance. It's elegant, relaxing and gets your gears grinding. It's a different but excellent twist on the puzzle and strategy genres, and one we'll happily recommend.

A wonderful new addition to the Xbox Live Arcade that suffers from small irritations more than anything else, but it's still a beautiful experience.

A fantastic value, all told, with a bare minimum of eight hours or more that never feels like you're doing exactly the same thing twice.

From Dust's malleable world is intoxicating to wield power over, even if your control feels more like work than actual fun at times. Juggling resources and racing against the cycles of nature isn't for everyone. Though stages grow progressively harder, the game doesn't really have a climax to break up its even-keeled rhythm, making it less of a thundering ride and more of a blissfully Zen, workman-like process.

Achingly beautiful god sim that struggles at times over structure and difficultly curve, but never in terms of spectacle or vision.

From Dust is a great experience, a game with a strong demeanor and an awesome gameplay. If you are looking for a slow peaced game with great physics and a nice concept, this is a great choice inside the XBLA catalogue.

It's a fine god game, for sure. But From Dust does not reach its full potential. A fantastic physics engine and some clever ideas do not entirely compensate for its lack of missions and storytelling.

Despite the simple end goal, the game is filled with vagaries resulting from an unclear interface and a perplexing process for setting waypoints. That turns the masked men's path finding into a grueling, aggravating operation as they stop within sight of their goal for no apparent reason. Still, seeing how all the elements react to one another is captivating.

From Dust will please the real-time strategy fans or those looking for an alternative styled puzzle game, but if you are not into either genre, you should look past this conceptually brilliant, yet flawed strategy game.

A mostly successful experiment. While the plodding pace of its first half is off-putting, the second half and the challenge levels become so gripping that I find myself stopping to play for a little bit in the midst of writing this review -- and when I'm finished, I'm heading right back to it.