[hr]
You know, if there's one profession that gets brushed in gold and covered in diamonds apart from the front-line soldier, it's the janitor. In many works of fiction, the janitor is seemingly omniscient, in possession of keys to every room in the building that they work in, wise, suave, friendly and dashingly attractive. Unfortunately for these janitors, they never get any action roles. The closest we've ever gotten is Mario in Super Mario Sunshine but he and many others don't count because they were actioneers before they put on the janitor t-shirt that was only temporary. Fortunately, we now have janitors that have action roles even though they started out as janitors and are staying that way. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Dustforce, an indie title brought to you by Hitbox Team that features four janitors that officially kick more bums than any other character from any other game released this year. Well, they will once you get the hang of this game.
Actually, they don't kick bums and they won't. Well, for the most part. What I mean to say is that they're awesome but they're actually trying to do their jobs for which they might be getting paid. You see, what we have here are four janitors: the blue Dustman, the red Dustgirl, the violet Dustkid and the green Dustworth. From the Nexus, you go into one of four level hubs that each hold a bunch of levels and, upon entering a level, you choose one of the four janitors to play as for that level. Your goal is to clean up as much as you can with as much skill as you can muster. Said skill takes the form of never breaking your combo of jumps, wall runs, ceiling runs and monster bashing that are done with such finesse, speed and flow that they'll make absolutely livid assassins everywhere eat their own hoods. No, this game does not have a story. Amazingly, I don't care. Well, the hubs have some NPCs that can talk to you and give you advice but they don't do anything important or give any story. They do add to the atmosphere though, which is always nice.
This is, in essence, a pure platformer. There are no RPG elements, upgrade elements, side missions, ancillary objectives, power-ups, branching storyline paths, puzzles or ridiculously complicated mazes. All you do here is go from point A to point B, automatically cleaning up dirt as you go with your crazy flips and jumps and ninja stunts. The objective is to get S rank on both Completion and Finesse, the former being how much dust you cleaned up and the latter being how well you kept your combo. Also, if you feel like it, you can aim for the fastest time all the while. Also, there's only one achievement: "Double S +". I still don't know what it's for but this is a game in which the achievements are your accomplishments rather than a spontaneous tack-on that you acquire for getting to the next chapter. It's like, after Hitbox Team had decided to make a 2D skill-based platformer, they decided that it must have the most skill-based 2D platforming ever and allocated every resource they had to polishing that part.
You're probably thinking that it'd be really hard to get both S ranks and finish a level under thirteen seconds. It is. You have no upgrades or anything else to help you through the levels. You start out with everything and that's all you're ever going to have. How do you make it through? Simple: skill. Sheer skill is all that you have that will help you through this game. If you're having a trouble at a segment, all you can do is keep tackling it until you finally get through or go back through older levels to build up your skills some more. If any video game could ever become an Olympic sport, it would be this one because you actually have to work for your playing ability and get better. You have to work for your ranks and time. There's no other way and I like the game for this. This is the one game in which I don't care about context or story and just feel content going through the levels, doing the best I can.
Now, before you jump to conclusions, there is actually a goal to work towards in this game if you feel like it. You see, at first, only some levels are available at first. Every other level is either locked with a silver or golden padlock. To open the silver locks, you need a silver key. To get a silver key, you need to do the normal levels to fill a gauge that fills depending on how well you did that level. Getting two D ranks barely fills the gauge while two S ranks gets you the key immediately. Gold locks function the same way but you get their keys from silver levels. Now, above the Nexus, there is a passageway filled with nothing but red-locked doors. How do you get the red keys? Do the gold levels. However, there is one red door for every gold level, meaning you have to double S rank every gold level. But, to get to every gold level, you need to double S rank every silver level. To get to every silver level, you need to double S rank every normal level. Do you see what this is? A milestone system. The only way you can proceed is by being good enough to proceed. You can't level grind or optimise your gear or spam special skills here; this is the ultimate test of skill.
I do, however, have one problem with the game and that is the process of selecting one of four characters to do a level. Normally, this would be fine. However, Dustman and Dustgirl share the same hitboxes and abilities while Dustkid is much smaller and capable of triple jumping or air dashing and Dustworth can jump higher and dash further. This means that, if you intend to play around with every character, there are three different builds to go for. This is a bit much because the levels get ridiculously hard later on and having to memorise and familiarise your body with three different controllable objects is just unnecessary and cruel. It's like going to the Olympics and having to switch between the bodies of Dwayne Johnson, a giant mech, an old lady and a dolphin before each event.
The thing about the levels is that they are very well designed with a lot of attention to detail, allowing you to perform a seamless succession of jumps and slides and loops and awesome stunts without slowing down. That is, of course, when you have the right character for the level. You see, since the characters have their own individual attributes, precisely one character (or two) can get you through a level lickety-split and the others will only cause you to fumble time and time again. Dustworth's far-moving abilities sound useful but this is a game in which you need to be ludicrously precise with your movements to navigate tight corners and squeeze through narrow gaps that are lined with hazards so he's more of a liability than anything. However, some levels have unreasonably large gaps that seem to be only crossable by him alone as I have discovered after several billion attempts at crossing them with Dustman and Dustgirl who served perfectly well for the level up to that point.
One could solve these issues by removing all but one of the characters but I'm actually sort of opposed to this for a rather petty reason. The four of them, put together, have very refreshing visual personalities that really work to complement one another. Taking out any of them would just make the game lose some of its charm. It has a lot of that, mind you, and I wouldn't mind reading a comic about the game. Hitbox Team has gone through a lot of trouble making a rather neat retro soundtrack and there are a lot of tracks to go around and it feels like every level has its own unique theme (of course, this could be because I was a bit too busy flipping back and forth evading every disaster coming my way to notice otherwise) even as this isn't the case. The art style's also rather nice although some objects and enemies have a tendency to blend in with the environments and it's sometimes hard to tell what counts as an object that can be traversed and what doesn't.
There are some other problems I can nit-pick. Firstly, the game seems to be a bit too enthusiastic about testing you; even the level hubs can be a bit ridiculous to navigate. In fact, getting to the red doors was such a chore for me that I switched to Dustworth just to make it easier. It's almost as if he was a necessity. Also, the controls are a bit fiddly and I found out the hard way several times that, as if to stick a middle finger up at platformers of the past that have imprinted into my muscles otherwise, you're supposed to jump before you hit the edge rather than right as you hit it otherwise you just fall and a jump is wasted. I didn't have to but, as I try to get the highest ranks, this caused me to restart some levels more than several times which was annoying because some levels go for a bit too long. Sometimes, the levels are made even longer by the presence of enemies that take ages to go down. Hitbox Team seems to understand that enemies in a game like this are to be used as stepping stones rather than obstacles so why are there big lads that can take a minimum of three heavy hits before dying? It completely breaks the flow.
Well, regardless, I still like Dustforce. It's very hard but it takes skill to get through and it'll last you a very long time if you intend to be the very best at it (no joke; there's at least one person who's clocked over 540 hours on the game). I also like how minimalist it is with how you only have your basic platforming skills to carry you across the levels. If you're the kind of person who still likes arcade-style games about getting the highest score and the #1 spot, Dustforce is for you. Just be prepared to spend countless hours of your life going over the same levels, trying to find the fastest and most efficient ways through them so that you may finally get all the red keys and figure out what's behind all those doors. Oh, you're wondering what I think's behind them? I dunno but, if you're getting the keys just for cleaning sidewalks, I can't imagine it'd be worth that much.
[hr]
Here are the rest of my reviews [http://porecomesisreviews.blogspot.com.au].
I'll be honest... I have an awkward relationship with indy titles. On one hand, it's very true that their creative freedom allows the developers to make virtually whatever they want and their lacking resources can actually benefit them by making them think outside the box. On the other hand, speaking as someone who's played quite a few indie games from the Internet's equivalent of a lucky dip by request, this also results in them running around without anyone over their shoulder saying "That's a stupid idea". Therefore, I tend to find a lot of indie games that are, well, crap. Thankfully, Dustforce averts this and I highly recommend it.
You know, if there's one profession that gets brushed in gold and covered in diamonds apart from the front-line soldier, it's the janitor. In many works of fiction, the janitor is seemingly omniscient, in possession of keys to every room in the building that they work in, wise, suave, friendly and dashingly attractive. Unfortunately for these janitors, they never get any action roles. The closest we've ever gotten is Mario in Super Mario Sunshine but he and many others don't count because they were actioneers before they put on the janitor t-shirt that was only temporary. Fortunately, we now have janitors that have action roles even though they started out as janitors and are staying that way. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Dustforce, an indie title brought to you by Hitbox Team that features four janitors that officially kick more bums than any other character from any other game released this year. Well, they will once you get the hang of this game.
[small]Never has cleaning been so fun or awesome.[/small]
Actually, they don't kick bums and they won't. Well, for the most part. What I mean to say is that they're awesome but they're actually trying to do their jobs for which they might be getting paid. You see, what we have here are four janitors: the blue Dustman, the red Dustgirl, the violet Dustkid and the green Dustworth. From the Nexus, you go into one of four level hubs that each hold a bunch of levels and, upon entering a level, you choose one of the four janitors to play as for that level. Your goal is to clean up as much as you can with as much skill as you can muster. Said skill takes the form of never breaking your combo of jumps, wall runs, ceiling runs and monster bashing that are done with such finesse, speed and flow that they'll make absolutely livid assassins everywhere eat their own hoods. No, this game does not have a story. Amazingly, I don't care. Well, the hubs have some NPCs that can talk to you and give you advice but they don't do anything important or give any story. They do add to the atmosphere though, which is always nice.
This is, in essence, a pure platformer. There are no RPG elements, upgrade elements, side missions, ancillary objectives, power-ups, branching storyline paths, puzzles or ridiculously complicated mazes. All you do here is go from point A to point B, automatically cleaning up dirt as you go with your crazy flips and jumps and ninja stunts. The objective is to get S rank on both Completion and Finesse, the former being how much dust you cleaned up and the latter being how well you kept your combo. Also, if you feel like it, you can aim for the fastest time all the while. Also, there's only one achievement: "Double S +". I still don't know what it's for but this is a game in which the achievements are your accomplishments rather than a spontaneous tack-on that you acquire for getting to the next chapter. It's like, after Hitbox Team had decided to make a 2D skill-based platformer, they decided that it must have the most skill-based 2D platforming ever and allocated every resource they had to polishing that part.
[small]Just another obstacle in my way.[/small]
You're probably thinking that it'd be really hard to get both S ranks and finish a level under thirteen seconds. It is. You have no upgrades or anything else to help you through the levels. You start out with everything and that's all you're ever going to have. How do you make it through? Simple: skill. Sheer skill is all that you have that will help you through this game. If you're having a trouble at a segment, all you can do is keep tackling it until you finally get through or go back through older levels to build up your skills some more. If any video game could ever become an Olympic sport, it would be this one because you actually have to work for your playing ability and get better. You have to work for your ranks and time. There's no other way and I like the game for this. This is the one game in which I don't care about context or story and just feel content going through the levels, doing the best I can.
Now, before you jump to conclusions, there is actually a goal to work towards in this game if you feel like it. You see, at first, only some levels are available at first. Every other level is either locked with a silver or golden padlock. To open the silver locks, you need a silver key. To get a silver key, you need to do the normal levels to fill a gauge that fills depending on how well you did that level. Getting two D ranks barely fills the gauge while two S ranks gets you the key immediately. Gold locks function the same way but you get their keys from silver levels. Now, above the Nexus, there is a passageway filled with nothing but red-locked doors. How do you get the red keys? Do the gold levels. However, there is one red door for every gold level, meaning you have to double S rank every gold level. But, to get to every gold level, you need to double S rank every silver level. To get to every silver level, you need to double S rank every normal level. Do you see what this is? A milestone system. The only way you can proceed is by being good enough to proceed. You can't level grind or optimise your gear or spam special skills here; this is the ultimate test of skill.
[small]One of these days, doors... One of these days...[/small]
I do, however, have one problem with the game and that is the process of selecting one of four characters to do a level. Normally, this would be fine. However, Dustman and Dustgirl share the same hitboxes and abilities while Dustkid is much smaller and capable of triple jumping or air dashing and Dustworth can jump higher and dash further. This means that, if you intend to play around with every character, there are three different builds to go for. This is a bit much because the levels get ridiculously hard later on and having to memorise and familiarise your body with three different controllable objects is just unnecessary and cruel. It's like going to the Olympics and having to switch between the bodies of Dwayne Johnson, a giant mech, an old lady and a dolphin before each event.
The thing about the levels is that they are very well designed with a lot of attention to detail, allowing you to perform a seamless succession of jumps and slides and loops and awesome stunts without slowing down. That is, of course, when you have the right character for the level. You see, since the characters have their own individual attributes, precisely one character (or two) can get you through a level lickety-split and the others will only cause you to fumble time and time again. Dustworth's far-moving abilities sound useful but this is a game in which you need to be ludicrously precise with your movements to navigate tight corners and squeeze through narrow gaps that are lined with hazards so he's more of a liability than anything. However, some levels have unreasonably large gaps that seem to be only crossable by him alone as I have discovered after several billion attempts at crossing them with Dustman and Dustgirl who served perfectly well for the level up to that point.
[small]Okay, that's just plain unfair.[/small]
One could solve these issues by removing all but one of the characters but I'm actually sort of opposed to this for a rather petty reason. The four of them, put together, have very refreshing visual personalities that really work to complement one another. Taking out any of them would just make the game lose some of its charm. It has a lot of that, mind you, and I wouldn't mind reading a comic about the game. Hitbox Team has gone through a lot of trouble making a rather neat retro soundtrack and there are a lot of tracks to go around and it feels like every level has its own unique theme (of course, this could be because I was a bit too busy flipping back and forth evading every disaster coming my way to notice otherwise) even as this isn't the case. The art style's also rather nice although some objects and enemies have a tendency to blend in with the environments and it's sometimes hard to tell what counts as an object that can be traversed and what doesn't.
There are some other problems I can nit-pick. Firstly, the game seems to be a bit too enthusiastic about testing you; even the level hubs can be a bit ridiculous to navigate. In fact, getting to the red doors was such a chore for me that I switched to Dustworth just to make it easier. It's almost as if he was a necessity. Also, the controls are a bit fiddly and I found out the hard way several times that, as if to stick a middle finger up at platformers of the past that have imprinted into my muscles otherwise, you're supposed to jump before you hit the edge rather than right as you hit it otherwise you just fall and a jump is wasted. I didn't have to but, as I try to get the highest ranks, this caused me to restart some levels more than several times which was annoying because some levels go for a bit too long. Sometimes, the levels are made even longer by the presence of enemies that take ages to go down. Hitbox Team seems to understand that enemies in a game like this are to be used as stepping stones rather than obstacles so why are there big lads that can take a minimum of three heavy hits before dying? It completely breaks the flow.
[small]Just let me dust you, damn it![/small]
Well, regardless, I still like Dustforce. It's very hard but it takes skill to get through and it'll last you a very long time if you intend to be the very best at it (no joke; there's at least one person who's clocked over 540 hours on the game). I also like how minimalist it is with how you only have your basic platforming skills to carry you across the levels. If you're the kind of person who still likes arcade-style games about getting the highest score and the #1 spot, Dustforce is for you. Just be prepared to spend countless hours of your life going over the same levels, trying to find the fastest and most efficient ways through them so that you may finally get all the red keys and figure out what's behind all those doors. Oh, you're wondering what I think's behind them? I dunno but, if you're getting the keys just for cleaning sidewalks, I can't imagine it'd be worth that much.
[hr]
Here are the rest of my reviews [http://porecomesisreviews.blogspot.com.au].
I'll be honest... I have an awkward relationship with indy titles. On one hand, it's very true that their creative freedom allows the developers to make virtually whatever they want and their lacking resources can actually benefit them by making them think outside the box. On the other hand, speaking as someone who's played quite a few indie games from the Internet's equivalent of a lucky dip by request, this also results in them running around without anyone over their shoulder saying "That's a stupid idea". Therefore, I tend to find a lot of indie games that are, well, crap. Thankfully, Dustforce averts this and I highly recommend it.