Posted by Conor Duffy on Apr 1st, 2009
This is an example of false advertising if ever I saw one. I went into Dust and Sun expecting a series of Wild West quickdraw contests testing my reflexes to the limit and causing irreparable damage to my index finger. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that this was precisely what I didn’t get.
Oh, it’s set in the Wild West, but this is the Wild West of an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie circa 1985 – everyone you see from your first-person perspective is there to die and subtlety is for gays.
There are four missions, each one requiring only that you survive for a certain period of time while simultaneously killing as many people as possible. This is simple enough, but in practice I found this to be harder than expected, because the bad guys all seem to be mutants with the ability to get shot in the head and yet keep firing. There’s also no way to hide from the hail of enemy bullets that constantly rain down on you (your character can get hit even when he ducks behind a rock to reload.) It’s simple and straightforward, but there’s no skill involved here – it’s just a constant procession of evildoers that stand around shooting at you and waiting to get their heads (eventually) blown off.
Indeed, even with overwhelming numbers against me, what do I have to worry about? I’ve got an automatic assault rifle and unlimited ammo – I think I’m gonna be OK.
Indeed, it’s only when the gangs reach double figures onscreen that they pose much of a threat, and on the early levels even that’s not a big deal. After all, you’ve only got to survive a couple of minutes at most.
For even fewer thrills and spills, check out the next part of this review on Page 2.
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