Dust by IkeC
Dust is a streamlined parser puzzler in the Western genre. Things start out normal enough when you wake up above the local saloon and go out for a walk. But fairly soon you are hit on the head, a damsel is missing, and your cowboy boots will have to function as the shining armour that knights are well-known to wear. Although the damsel in question already has a betrothed, so perhaps all you need is non-shining armour. But I digress.
For the most part, Dust is a friendly and easy game. You get very strong hints about what objects might have to be combined with what other objects, and the availability of said objects follows the order of the puzzles very closely. In fact, I would say too closely. It is obvious that one will need both the parrot and the lamp to enter the mines, but you first have to be stymied in certain ways before you can go to the relevant characters and ask for these items. This happens multiple times. You’re apparently not allowed to see the puzzle solutions before the game decides that it’s time to see them.
Going back to characters and asking them for things is a central mechanic, and one Dust did not convince me is a good one. Again, the game is doing the thinking for me. Instead of me deciding that I need a shovel to solve the problem I’ve met, I have to (a) run into the problem, (b) talk to the shopkeeper… and then the game has the idea that I need a shovel for me. There’s not much for me to do as a puzzle solver, which is a shame.
Not that everything went smoothly. I had a hard time opening the hatch under the gallows. For one, the puzzle doesn’t make a lot of sense to me: there’s only one place for the hatch to be – right under the noose – so why can’t I just locate it that way? But okay, I need to remove the sand. I tried several things, including this:
>sweep platform
Without suitable tools, this is a pointless undertaking.
Going back to Bill after doing this, does not give you the option to buy a shovel. On the other hand, if you try the far less logical action
>take sand
You try to scrape the sand away with your feet, but in this wind that seems to be a pointless endeavor. Perhaps you would have more success with proper tools.
then you can go back to Bill and get a shovel. I would never have found out about this without the walkthrough. This shows again the danger of the game’s approach to puzzles. (I also needed the walkthrough to find ‘drop hankie’, but perhaps that was me being thick-headed or not creative enough, or just not having a good mental picture of the scene.)
That said, Dust is still quite enjoyable. There’s a story here, some action scenes, an implied bigger quest that the character is on, and meticulous programming. But next time, I really think the players ought to be more firmly in charge of solving the puzzles.