I have fond memories of playing this again and again on my PS2 years ago. What made me get the game back then was the whole premise of a prison island where its gruesome past is made flesh and blood by some unknown force along with the highly unsettling atmosphere that you feel as you wander the bloodsoaked halls of Carnate. Also, the game's monsters were designed by the late Stan Winston, the man who made the Terminator exoskeleton, the Predator and many others, he did an absolutely outstanding job at creating these horrid creatures that each represent a traumatic past of the island's long bloody history. The game also has got multiple endings, depending on how you have Torque act like, so there's plenty of reason to replay the game and see what ending you might try getting next. Another interesting thing to note that there's two journals in the game, one is written by a older inmate called Clem who's decided to make a journal about the many monsters that have shown up and the other one belongs to Conseula, the wife of a prison guard on the island, who has been exploring the island and its ruins, each of the journals provide interesting insight into the hell that is Carnate Island. Well worth the money, plus whatever ending you get in this game can be carried over to the sequel too.
As others have already stated, Dust is a really amazing game with an art style that reminds you of the old Don Bluth cartoons with anthropomorphic animals. And to think this was done mostly by one guy makes you admire it even more. The characters are generally likable, save for this one guy called Gianni you encounter early in the game, lets just say he is the type of stuck up snob you'd really like to punch, but overall every other character is memorable and they're generally well acted, especially the main characters Dust, Fidget and Blade of Ahrah. As for the visuals, it is quite stunning and you really get the sense of that you're watching, or rather playing in this case, a 90's feature length animation with some really good music to accompany your journey through the world of Falana.
This was the last game Pandemic Studios made before EA Games shut them down for good, but oh boy did they go out with a loud BANG. Unlike their last game, the rather disappointing Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, The Saboteur feels a lot more refined and, most importantly, fun to play. You play as the Irish mechanic Sean Devlin who joins the French resistance movement in Paris as it means an opportunity to exact revenge on a cruel Nazi by the name of Kurt Dieker, who 3 months prior had murdered Sean's best friend Jules after they had attempted to get back at Dieker for cheating in a grand Prix race. The most striking aspect of the game is that whenever you enter an area of Paris that's under Nazi control, it will turn black and white with only certain colors being visible, like the red colors in the flags and blood as well as city lights and the blue color of the Resistance, and the general mood being incredibly oppressive with rain and lightning. In order to free these areas, you need to conduct acts of sabotage, kinda obvious considering the name of the game, which involves sneaking into heavily guarded areas and blowing up fuel tanks and many other important installations to inspire the people to take up arms against the Nazis. You can also aquire disguises that lets Sean get inside restricted areas, although you must not do anything suspicious infront of the soldiers otherwise they will realize you're an impostor. This game was quite criminally overlooked when it came out and its a damn shame that this was Pandemic Studios' last ever game, but at least it gets a new chance here on GOG.
As many have already stated, this game is very VERY unfinished. There ain't much of the story aside from the rather well done opening sequence and you have to do the same thing over and over again each day. On top of that, your character gets hungry and thirsty very quickly, something that's an all too common thing in survival games nowadays and it needs to go away as the human body is able to last for several days without food and water. But other then that, it will be interesting to see what Compulsion Games adds to the game as they continue working on it, they've said on the Steam Store page for the game that its gonna be in Early Access for 6 to 12 months so they're under some serious pressure to finish making the game. I'd recommend that people hold off on buying it, at least for the moment unless they're willing to put up with a lot of unfinished ideas at this stage and want to help the devs improve the game.
