A well-written story that happens to be a fantastic platformer with adorable characters and beautiful graphics. The gameplay is just at the correct level - the maps are well designed, often featuring places not accessible right away and tempting player to come back later; the monsters are challenging enough; the combat is fun, with gazillion of combos, hits and opponents being thrown around; the controls are intuitive and it all plays quite well with keyboard and mouse (well, gaming keypad and trackball in my case, but the point is still valid). The only thing that is a bit annoying is that monsters respawn after a cut-scene, thus after clearing an area and going back to a point of interest all have to be slaughtered again... on the other hand this ensures there is something hapening on every screen. The visuals are simply stunning. Each level has its own identity, from snowy mountains to the inside of a volcano. The animation is smooth and the game is simply beautiful. Due to hand-drawn animation it is not going to age - it looks pretty after 5+ years since its release. The music is equally good. It is a bit sad that the soundtrack is not included, but hey, we cannot have everything. Also the character voices in the game are perfect. The story is engaging. Without spoiling the details, the search for the lost identity of Dust is entertaining and while to some degree predictable, a lot of thought went into writing. This is the story about fate, love, justice and many other things. And it manages not to be too cliche at all. Finally, the characters. They all are adorable (I am looking at you, Fidget), some are a little annoying (I am looking at you, Fidget), some are creepy (especially once you know what is in the box), some can make you cry (even if you did everything right)... All in all, it is a bit hard to imagine that one person did most of this game. Or rather an interactive story. Or a small masterpiece. Become part of Dust's adventure. It is worth it.
