 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
From Dust
- Xbox 360
- Price: $15
- Genre: Simulation
Common Sense Media says
Innovative "god" game tasks players to help tiny tribesmen.
Parents say
Kids say
QUALITY
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that From Dust is a game in which you take on the role of a god who can manipulate the earth and the elements to help a tribe of men survive and spread across the land. Not all of the men survive -- some will be washed out to sea, and others consumed by fire -- but the camera’s nearly stratospheric location means these deaths are never graphically depicted. Though not explicitly educational, players will likely come away with an appreciation for the powerful roles that nature and religion can play in tribal life.
What's it about?
Players become a god to groups of tiny tribesmen in FROM DUST, a downloadable game available through Xbox Live Arcade. Through a series of more than a dozen levels, players use powerful abilities that allow them to shift the earth to create natural water dams, move water to help vegetation to flourish, and even relocate molten lava to create rocky barriers that protect against floods. Players will also gain special powers as the game progresses, including the ability to thicken water for brief periods to allow tribesmen to cross and to cause droughts to keep rising waters at bay. Challenge stages offer players the opportunity to hone their godlike skills in situations involving tsunamis and wildfires.
Is it any good?
In a marketplace swamped with shooters and platformers, From Dust stands out as fresh and original. There’s something gratifying about shaping the earth to your will, sometimes completely altering a landscape with simple depressions of a couple of buttons. It can be fun to simply play with the physics system and watch how the game's seemingly intelligent virtual water finds ways of overcoming your attempts to contain it with rocky and earthen dams.
However, your objectives aren't always as satisfying as the world in which they take place. Short levels provide players a series of simple goals -- reach this tower, collect that artifact -- that force players into playing a certain way using specific abilities. You're teased with the tools and potential for experimentation, but rarely given the opportunity to fully exploit them. It's still a lot of fun, but we came away wishing we'd been given the sort of freedom more befitting a god.
Explore, discuss, enjoy
Families can talk about religion in games. Do you enjoy the feeling of power conferred by "god" games that provide players with seemingly omnipotent abilities? Do they alter the way you think about your own spirituality?
Families can also discuss violence in games. How do you feel when you see your tiny tribesmen washed out to see or taken by fire? Are you emotionally affected by their deaths? Do these scenes make you reflect on real-world disasters?
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Teen, 13 years old
August 9, 2011
AGE
Amazing
Just so you know, it's in the LIVE arcade, not a disc. The "god" you are playing as is this force that the villagers created known as "The Breath." There is some violence, but it's from natural disasters with a high up view. Also you are trying to protect the tribes men from these disasters by building blockades with lava, get ahold of knowledge stones, etc.It does require thinking, especially on the territory "Movements" where you are inside the crater of a giant, active volcano. And if you want some thing where you can create your own island, then play the game. The last level is like that. It's small, but worth the Microsoft Points.
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Kid, 11 years old
September 15, 2011
AGE
mosty all ages
10 and under may not under stand the concept of it all but a good game
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Teen, 14 years old
September 29, 2011
AGE
Careless and disapointing
From Dust is a truly unique game, built around an innovative and clever concept. The console editions received fairly positive reviews, which is fair enough. However, Ubisoft recently ported this title to the PC. Never in my life have I played a game so carelessly designed. There are absolutely no graphical settings so unless you have some £1000 gaming rig, you're going to lag. Mouse sensitivity is awful, with even the lowest sensitivity being jerky and overly reactive. The gameplay is also quite disappointing; it's incredibly linear and there are no sandbox settings. All in all, a very poor game. If you're using a console, go ahead but if you're a PC gamer, give this game a wide berth.
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Parent
January 21, 2012
AGE
Not as violent as you think.
Pretty enjoyable and creative, violence isn't even really applicable and the deaths of tribes men are much less violent the deaths depicted in some books children read in school.
What other families should know:
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| Platforms: | Xbox 360 |
| Available online? | Not available online |
| Genre: | Simulation |
| Developer: | UbiSoft |
| Release date: | July 27, 2011 |
| Price: | $15 |
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