We’re giving you a bit a double feature review of From Dust and a talk on why fans are upset over Ubisoft DRM.
Ubisoft has put out “From Dust” a shades-of-populous God simulator. In a tree-hugging hippie friendly game, you play the incarnation of God within nature. You won’t be smiting Demons mightily or slaying your followers for fun this time around.
The Earth itself is mad, and you as the “Breath of God” have to help the people survive. While the story may be a bit cheesy, the gameplay is solid. You steer your people and the environment through a variety of disasters. You will be able to control rocks, water flows and even sandstorms over the course of the game.
Overall it seems like a solid offering from Ubisoft, who has have had many solid offerings from Rayman to No More Heroes. But there is a controversy that has been going on between Ubisoft and the fans.
With most of its recent games, Ubisoft has been adding DRM that requires you to be online to play them. This is mostly true of their console games, and From Dust is no exception. It requires a constant connection to the internet to play this single player game.
So why is this a problem? Legitimate gamers shouldn’t care one way or the other, right? Wrong. When Ubisoft’s servers go down, you will be unable to play your game. Who will be able to play their game? Pirates who have already broken this DRM and can play it as much as they want.
Basically this is an insult to the legitimate consumers that tells us we aren’t wanted. They would rather let pirates play their game for no money. Some fans are asking for a boycott. Ubisoft has been and very likely will be a great company, we can only hope they change their mind on this issue.
