Dustforce Review

2012-11-08T13:58:15-08:00

Developed by Hitbox Team, Dustforce is an interesting mix of technical input, platforming, and speed. You play as one of four janitors whose job is to clean up the game world and bring cleanliness back. As an old-school gamer, this game still makes me giddy and excited when I play it. If you enjoy technical games that require a lot of skill, high difficulty, and are a perfectionist, Dustforce is a great fit for you. Steer clear if you lack patience!

Graphics

The graphics in Dustforce are best described as light and airy. Most colors are low-saturation and shading is softer, leading the game to take on a sort of clay-ish look. The form of the graphics themselves looks as if they were made with a vector art application. Long story short, the art style is interesting and suits the game's atmosphere. Where it lacks in detail it makes up for in personality. Additionally, it runs at a crisp 60 frames per second, so it feels very smooth.

If I had to lodge a complaint, it would be the dust/leaf/grime/triangle particles that scatter when you sweep them up. In the later levels, it can obscure your character from view and make it difficult to make precise movements. That's rather minor, however, and may simply be a reflection of my own optic shortcomings.

Sound

Ambient but engaging, out-of-the-way and yet comfortably catchy... It's so hard to describe just what this game's music is like. Terence Lee, AKA Lifeformed made the music for Dustforce. Without a doubt, he's created one of the best video game soundtracks of 2012. Electric Relic features a strong bass-line and good synth strings, while It's Not Supposed to Be Snowing takes on a more melodic, almost somber approach. Then there's Sepia Tone Laboratory, which brings the strings to the front with an almost hip-hop beat that makes the game feel underground. Despite the general tone of the music feeling sort of simplistic and out-of-the-way, there's a surprising level of understanding for what makes catchy or immersive sound.

My only complaint is that there isn't more of this music!

The sound effects match the game effortlessly, and as I've covered in prior reviews, sound effects that don't stand out are good sound effects. One can hear character footsteps, each sweep of the broom, high-energy stomping when falling from tall heights, and an intense slap when you strike enemies. All is as it should be in the sound effect department.

Difficulty

If you're new to platformers or video games in general, you'll want to steer clear of Dustforce. While the early levels are unassuming and friendly, the game quickly takes off the kid gloves and throws you into levels that demand tight maneuvers, spot-on timing, and intimate knowledge of the game's mechanics. It's the kind of game that old hands like me revel in learning the nuances of.

Gamers with high levels of patience or manual dexterity will take to Dustforce pretty well. Others will grow frustrated of not nailing the S ranks and stop playing. This game is not for the faint of heart.

Gameplay

Playing Dustforce is rather straightforward despite its depth. You can use the keyboard or a PC controller. I opted to use a PS3 controller and emulated an Xbox360 controller with DS3Tool. On Gentoo GNU/Linux, I use the uinput kernel module. Regardless of the human interface, Dustforce's controls are simple. You have your directions, jump, attack, strong attack, and dash. You can activate a special move by hitting both attack buttons at the same time, too. That's it. The game works within these confines very well.

Most platformers give you simple characters that improve over time. Not so in Dustforce. The improvement comes from you, the player! Your character has everything they need to finish a level, even with a perfect score. It's up to you to pull it off. You'll need to master running up walls, wall-jumping, using your broom in strategic locations, and combating enemies all while maintaining a combo meter, which keeps track of how much dust you've accumulated. Once you've swept 100 dust up, you can use your special move to eliminate all dust within a large radius of your character. Learning the most advantageous times to use this move is what separates novices and masters.

At the end of each level (and there are over 50), you'll be judged according to completion (how much dust you got), Finesse (how long you kept your combo), and time. The game features leaderboards, so if you sign up for an account (or go through Steam), you can see how you rank among others who play Dustforce. If you're aiming to get the best times, beware! It takes a ton of practice to get anywhere close to the times on the leaderboards. I've managed to make it to the top 10 on a level, but it took me a few hours of practice to do it.

For each level that you get S rankings on, you'll get progress toward a key, which you can use to unlock other levels. Easy levels are available right off the bat, while the intermediate levels are unlocked with silver keys and hard levels are unlocked with golden keys. In order to reach the last set of levels (which are all unlocked), you must get an S rank in Finesse and Completion (a double S) on every level. Attaining that is no small feat. The developers realized this, and created the last set of levels, each referring to a digital unit of measure proceeded by "Difficult". These levels are incredibly difficult, and only the most dedicated (or insane) players will attain SS rank on them.

Final Verdict

Dustforce is a game that satiates the classic gamer's thirst for difficulty, nuance, and solid level design. It's really a Nintendo Hard game prettied up with modern graphics and polish. New gamers or gamers that lack patience will not enjoy Dustforce beyond a handful of levels into the game, when the game starts to push back and demand more from the player.

In short, I feel that Dustforce is a contender for Independent Game of the Year 2012. Between its great music, stylish graphics, and refreshing difficulty, I believe it embodies exactly what the video game industry needs.

Dustforce was available as part of the Humble Indie Bundle 6 and can be purchased on Steam.

Metadata

Platform: Windows, OS X, GNU/Linux
Release Date: 2012-01-17
Genre: Technical Platformer
Developer: Hitbox Team