Overview: The Dustforce is a team of four janitors whose duty is to clean up dust and debris which has spread throughout the world. A challenging and addicting platformer.
Dustforce DX (PC) (2014)*
*Dustforce (PC) (2012)
Relevant Links:
Dustforce Website
Dustforce DX (Steam Store Page)
Dustforce (Wikipedia.org)
20120928 AM Hours: [20160109]
My first time playing Dustforce. I just play the tutorial.*
*When the game was update to Dustforce DX, this single tutorial level was removed and replaced with three separate tutorial levels.
20120928 Evening: [20160109]
I began to play some of the other levels.
Steam: 2.1 hours (total game time)
20160107:
It's been a long time since I've played this game, but I needed a platformer to test out my new Steam Controller. As such, I booted the game up and gave it a fresh spin.
While I had to reset Steam in order for the controller to be detected, it's likely a hardware problem versus a game-specific problem, because I encountered the same problem with a different game.
After finishing the first two tutorial levels, I jumped straight to Shady Grove and madly replayed the level over and over for at least thirty minutes. Of those thirty minutes, the last eleven were spent improving my personal best time of 0:28.681 to 0:26.283. However, the top ten times range from 0:17.333 to 0:17.982.
This suggests I should focus on finishing all the levels before trying to get the best times.
Steam: 1.4 hours (3.5 hours total game time)
20160108:
Moving on to other levels and somewhat addicted, I more than doubled my total game time.
Steam: 5.6 hours (9.1 hours total game time)
Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Great soundtrack
+ I love the game concept
+ Watch replays of the top runs as a way to improve
+ Nice artwork.
Neutral:
~ The keyboard is the default control scheme. That's strange.
Cons:
- Possibly too difficult
- The game doesn't explicitly explain the difference between the four janitors.
- Lacks an overarching story.
Recommendation:
While Dance Dance Revolution is a rhythm game and Dustforce is a platformer, they have a similarity. When you first play them, they are really hard and it can be discouraging to get any ranking lower than the best possible rank (and for the truly competitive heart, a high ranking score/time). However, with enough time and practice, players can earn the seemingly elusive perfect rankings.*
With that in mind, I would recommend Dustforce to any player looking for a difficult platformer, but I would also recommend that players approach it slowly. Explicitly, my recommendation is for the player to focus on completing any accessible level first and improve on any previously played level as necessary. Regardless, I guarantee there will be some level of frustration and some level of enjoyment.
*I slowly got better at DDR Konamix (PS) (2002), transitioning to the higher difficulties as I began to recognize the various patterns.
Dustforce DX (PC) (2014)*
*Dustforce (PC) (2012)
 |
| Title Screen. |
Relevant Links:
Dustforce Website
Dustforce DX (Steam Store Page)
Dustforce (Wikipedia.org)
20120928 AM Hours: [20160109]
My first time playing Dustforce. I just play the tutorial.*
*When the game was update to Dustforce DX, this single tutorial level was removed and replaced with three separate tutorial levels.
 |
| The end of the (original) Tutorial. |
20120928 Evening: [20160109]
I began to play some of the other levels.
Steam: 2.1 hours (total game time)
20160107:
It's been a long time since I've played this game, but I needed a platformer to test out my new Steam Controller. As such, I booted the game up and gave it a fresh spin.
While I had to reset Steam in order for the controller to be detected, it's likely a hardware problem versus a game-specific problem, because I encountered the same problem with a different game.
After finishing the first two tutorial levels, I jumped straight to Shady Grove and madly replayed the level over and over for at least thirty minutes. Of those thirty minutes, the last eleven were spent improving my personal best time of 0:28.681 to 0:26.283. However, the top ten times range from 0:17.333 to 0:17.982.
This suggests I should focus on finishing all the levels before trying to get the best times.
Steam: 1.4 hours (3.5 hours total game time)
20160108:
Moving on to other levels and somewhat addicted, I more than doubled my total game time.
 |
| The original tutorial has been replaced with three tutorial levels. |
Steam: 5.6 hours (9.1 hours total game time)
Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Great soundtrack
+ I love the game concept
+ Watch replays of the top runs as a way to improve
+ Nice artwork.
 |
| Choose one out of four characters before the start of each level. |
Neutral:
~ The keyboard is the default control scheme. That's strange.
Cons:
- Possibly too difficult
- The game doesn't explicitly explain the difference between the four janitors.
- Lacks an overarching story.
Recommendation:
While Dance Dance Revolution is a rhythm game and Dustforce is a platformer, they have a similarity. When you first play them, they are really hard and it can be discouraging to get any ranking lower than the best possible rank (and for the truly competitive heart, a high ranking score/time). However, with enough time and practice, players can earn the seemingly elusive perfect rankings.*
 |
| Not yet satisfied with S S 0:28.681... |
With that in mind, I would recommend Dustforce to any player looking for a difficult platformer, but I would also recommend that players approach it slowly. Explicitly, my recommendation is for the player to focus on completing any accessible level first and improve on any previously played level as necessary. Regardless, I guarantee there will be some level of frustration and some level of enjoyment.
*I slowly got better at DDR Konamix (PS) (2002), transitioning to the higher difficulties as I began to recognize the various patterns.
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