Dusty

About Dusty

Dusty is a single player casual puzzle game. It was developed by El Palo Games and was released on November 8, 2024. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

For years archaeologist Dusty has traveled the world discovering ruins, sharing his findings. One day, on one of his explorations, he finds a mysterious notebook. It contains a forgotten language, a location and list of dates written in his handwriting, but he doesn't remember ever writing them down. Following his instinct, he picked up his cane ready to unravel the mystery. Inspired by the Can…

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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Reviews

73%Audience ScoreBased on 37 reviews

graphics10 positive mentions

optimization4 negative mentions

Beautiful and well-crafted art style with pleasant music and soundtrack enhances the game's atmosphere.
Engaging and clever puzzle design that is challenging but not frustrating, providing a satisfying experience.
Free game with substantial content and a neat, meditative exploration theme with intriguing lore and story.

Gameplay suffers from performance issues and lack of optimization, leading to bugs, glitches, and occasional unresponsiveness.
Control mechanics, especially platforming and pole usage, can feel janky, floaty, or overly sensitive, causing frustration.
Missing features such as checkpoints, better save systems, and customization options limit playability and user convenience.

graphics
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67% positive mentions, 13% neutral mentions, 20% negative mentions
The graphics are consistently praised for their appealing art style and pleasant visuals, contributing positively to the game's aesthetic. However, lack of optimization and absence of graphics customization options lead to poor performance and stuttering, which hampers the overall experience despite strong visuals.
- “The graphics in this game are really quite good, which at least makes the game look more appealing.”
- “The visuals are good, pretty enough to be fun to look at, and simple enough to not be a big resource eater with unoptimized 'ultra realistic' graphics that many big studios tend to overemphasize these days.”
- “This was a cute game; it is strongest in its visuals.”
- “There's a bit of puzzle solving, but it's a short experience (student project, not a game made for gamers), and the game lacks any control, display or graphics customisations, dropping this below minimum standards for any PC game.”
- “The gopping banner art is a reminder that regardless of a game's merits, artwork this ugly will put off even free customers from trying your game.”
- “Atrocious performance, can't even get 60 fps in some areas and there are no graphics options to turn all the unnecessary settings off.”
gameplay
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30% positive mentions, 40% neutral mentions, 30% negative mentions
The gameplay combines familiar but well-executed puzzle mechanics with original elements, offering a relaxing and enjoyable experience. While some find the controls slightly floaty and less precise, the overall responsiveness is good, making it appealing especially for puzzle and platform game enthusiasts.
- “The mechanics are both original and known.”
- “Taking into account the usual gameplay of this kind of games, the responsiveness feels really good.”
- “I will note that it took a moment for me to become invested in the experience because I was initially put off by what felt to me like floaty movement and lack of 'snap' to the controls, particularly around the jumping/vaulting mechanic.”
- “As this mechanic is employed so frequently, tightening that up would make this a real joy to play.”
- “As someone who loves puzzle games, I recognized cube-on-button technology from Portal, power core transfer (the light mechanic) from The Turing Test, and magnetic repulsion and attraction from the likes of Relicta.”
music
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67% positive mentions, 16% neutral mentions, 17% negative mentions
The music is consistently praised for being beautiful, pleasant, and well-suited to the game's aesthetic, complementing its art style and puzzles. While the soundtrack stands out positively, some users note that the overall sound design could be improved.
- “The puzzles, music, and overall aesthetic were so pleasant to experience!”
- “The art style and music are good.”
- “Pretty art style, nice music and interesting puzzles.”
- “Although the soundtrack is very successful, the game suffers a little from its sound design.”
optimization
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 33% neutral mentions, 67% negative mentions
The game suffers from poor optimization, leading to performance issues such as stuttering and inability to maintain stable 60 fps in some areas. While the visuals are appealing and not overly demanding, lack of graphics options and suboptimal Unreal Engine performance detract from the overall experience.
- “Which is a shame because the graphics look quite good, and if U-Tad bothered to teach the students about optimization, the game might be playable beyond a stuttering slideshow.”
- “Atrocious performance, can't even get 60 fps in some areas and there are no graphics options to turn all the unnecessary settings off.”
- “The game is not optimized the best and does have a few not fantastic bugs though.”
story
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 40% negative mentions
The story is engaging and well-crafted, featuring a mysterious lost civilization and a helpful companion guiding the protagonist through challenging puzzles. While the narrative keeps players hooked, some frustrations arise from lack of features like jumping to specific story points. Achievements follow story progression and optional tasks, without impacting the overall storyline.
- “The story was interesting enough to keep me hooked and wanting to see how it ended, uncovering the mysteries of a lost civilization.”
- “On Dusty's mission, he receives help from a small and friendly creature which shows him the route to follow (though Dusty has to solve puzzles along the way - these are neither trivial nor impossibly obtuse), and which can open up apparently blocked paths.”
- “Very good story, has all the elements of a good game, but not quite as playable as it could be.”
- “It would have been nice to be able to jump to certain points of the story, especially for the elevator achievement.”
- “The nine achievements in Dusty are for progression (two of which cannot be missed, and two are for a decision that has to be made - choosing either does not mean replaying the whole game to get the other); collecting items (one), and optional actions (four, none of which affect the continuation of the story).”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions
Stability appears to have improved, with many earlier bugs seemingly fixed; however, some users still encounter issues such as buggy, unfinished, and difficult-to-navigate areas, suggesting occasional residual instability.
- “What I experienced was 1 level of a buggy, unfinished, unnavigable landscape.”
replayability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions
The game's replayability is limited due to its unfinished nature, appealing mainly to players who enjoy challenging platforming. Those who dislike overly difficult platformers may find little incentive to replay.
atmosphere
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
Users praise the game for its pleasant atmosphere and visually appealing style, highlighting an overall enjoyable and charming environment.
- “A nice game with a beautiful style and a pleasant atmosphere.”