A Post-Apocalyptic Battle Against Frustration
Dustwind: Resistance, is actually part of a wider universe, following on from a previous release in the form of Dustwind – The Last Resort. The thing is, I’ve never dived into this universe before, so for the purposes of this review I’ll be treating it as a standalone game.
Billed by the developers Z-Software as “a tactical single player game set in a post apocalyptic world” (how many times have I typed those words?), I guess the question I need to attempt to answer in this review is as follows: Why play Dustwind: Resistance over any of the others in the same genre?
Well, it’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it, so let’s go to the future and see what is occurring, shall we?
Clichés and Crusaders: The Story of Jake and Diesel
A game needs a story, and an attempt has been made here in Dustwind: Resistance to provide one.
We play as Jake, a farmer in a post apocalyptic landscape, trying to get by in a tough world. In the tutorial, we meet a girl, fall in love, get married and all that good stuff, and life is pretty good. That is, until the Raiders appear, lead by The Warlord, who come to the region intent on conquering the world or something. Anyway, he attacks the farm, which turns out to be a mistake, as Jake and his dog, Diesel, are the last two Boy Scouts in America (I assume this is set in America, but it isn’t made clear).
This is the catalyst for them to embark on a crusade for truth, justice and all that corny stuff. Yes, the story is full of cliches and has absolutely zero originality, but an effort has been made…
Pixelated Post-Apocalypse
Presentation of the game is next on the list, and here the news is mixed. There is a kind of almost pixel art look to Dustwind: Resistance, which works quite well. The action is viewed from an isometric perspective and shows us what we need to see, by and large, and a good thing that happens when you get close to buildings is that the roofs become transparent, allowing you to see the layout of the rooms, if not the enemies in them. Invisible enemies becomes a bit of a theme, as I’ll talk about later.
The world is also pretty good, and a decent size, allowing us to go running about all over the place. However, the enemies all seem to have come out of a cloning factory, being identical; fighting a swarm of cookie cutter Raiders is not an uncommon experience. But on the flip side, everything is nicely animated, so swings and roundabouts.
Sound is the usual kind of thing that you’ll find in these type of games, with gunshots being the primary soundtrack. Jake’s footsteps counterpoint the action, and that’s really all she wrote. See, the story is presented in a series of text boxes, so there is no voice acting.
Brutal Difficulty and Inconsistent Stealth
Now, the gameplay. Honestly, we should expect these kinds of games to be challenging, and this is certainly that: in fact, I think someone needs to take a dictionary to the developer’s office with the word “Easy” underlined, as the difficulty is anything but.
This is a major hurdle in getting into Dustwind: Resistance, as the difference between the tutorial (so called tutorial) is like running into a brick wall. Enemies are bullet sponges, while Jake and Diesel appear to be made of porcelain, as they die so easily. The damage taken also doesn’t seem to register through the interface, which leads to some annoying deaths: I was killed, without a word of a lie, by a Raider wielding a sink plunger while my rifle did nothing.
Anyway, aside from the difficulty, Dustwind: Resistance plays okay. There is a stealth mechanic that you can utilise too, but it seems to be inconsistent, only allowing you to use it in certain places. This causes issues when you are trying to avoid conflict, as the Raiders and mutants seem to have some Steve Austin- style bionic hearing and will detect you from miles away. It is inevitable that you will end up in combat. And it is here where the news is again mixed.
Strategic Advantages
There is an odd mechanic that has been brought into Dustwind: Resistance, which is kneeling down. If you take a knee, the chances of hitting the enemy will increase, and it also makes you harder to hit. The downside is that your movement is slower when kneeling, but it turns out this is actually wrong: melee attackers need a bit of time to prepare an attack, so constantly shuffling backwards while shooting can deal with them, while ranged attackers have a higher chance of missing, so a win-win. It slows the game down to a crawl, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as without it, you should expect to be swarmed. Add in a quick save mechanic that you can spam, literally saving after every step if you wish, and you are basically immortal.
There is a good amount of gear and equipment to find in Dustwind: Resistance, and this can make a big difference to the survivability of Jake and his party. Light weapons, heavy weapons, ranged, melee – you can build your character any way you wish, and then using the skill trees to enhance your chosen path; something that is very involving. This is by far the most interesting part of the game.
Flawed Tutorials and Frustrating Encumbrance
However, for every good part, there is a corresponding bad part, so here we go with the list.
First off, with a game like this, a good tutorial is vital. Sadly, Dustwind: Resistance doesn’t have a good tutorial, by any stretch of the imagination. I still don’t know, after numerous hours in the game, if I can select all my units and move them as one: at the moment, I’m running in with one guy dying, and then everyone else dies trying to get the victim back on their feet.
Further, the difficulty is on the brutal side of extreme, and could do with adjusting. And then the other annoyance I’ve noticed is that when you pick things up, there is a limit to the amount of weight you can carry. However, if you pick up more than a certain amount over the max (this figure is a secret) you just cannot move, at all. You then have to dive into menus to try and drop some stuff, while the enemy are sink plunger-ing you to death. We’ll not even mention the invisible enemies that seem to infest the levels, and the way they can attack through walls.
A Niche Tactical Game for Die-Hard Fans Only
All in all, the annoyances with Dustwind: Resistance outweigh the good points. There is no doubt that it is a solid enough game, with a few good ideas, but they are buried beneath a layer of obtuseness that makes playing Dustwind: Resistance a chore.
There are much better post-apocalyptic games out there, and much better tactical games too. And that makes it hard, in good conscience, to recommend Dustwind: Resistance to anyone but the most die-hard fans of the Dustwind universe.
Important Links
Guns Blazing or Pure Stealth? You Decide in Dustwind: Resistance – https://www.thexboxhub.com/guns-blazing-or-pure-stealth-you-decide-in-dustwind-resistance/
Buy Dustwind: Resistance on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/dustwind-resistance/9NC3C9ZX5B7W/0010
