Dustoff Heli Rescue is a game that not only came out of left field, but one that surprised the pants right off me when while playing. Developed and published by Invictus Games, Dustoff merges two worlds that you wouldn’t expect. The game has a voxel style that will draw comparisons to Minecraft, but it’s only used a an art style because Dustoff only holds the most tenuous connection to the game. Instead it’s the second style of game that gets makes up the core of the gameplay, which is based on the classic Choplifter style games that have been around since the Atari.
Seriously, Dustoff is about as basic as it gets, and that’s a wonderful thing in a world of games that want to revolutionize the gaming experience. There is a reason a game like Choplifter on the Atari /Arcade/Sega/etc still holds up some twenty plus years later, while games as recently as ones on the Xbox 360 are already long forgotten. Dustoff is also as easy or difficult as you want to make it, once again calling back to a simpler age of gaming where gamers prided themselves on their difficulty level.
If you know Choplifter you’ll know exactly how Dustoff plays. You pilot a helicopter during the Vietnam war and make several passes in the games twenty-five stages picking up POW’s and stolen vehicles. You do this by controlling your helicopter by tapping the left arrow or right arrow (of which can be mapped to any keys you want) to move in each direction. If you hold down a key your helicopter will fly continuously in said direction. Before you can head out though, you are going to have to get your bird off the ground.
Tapping both the right and left keys at the same time will get your bird in the air. This combination of key taps and holding makes the game a breeze to learn, so much so that a tutorial is almost not need for most people. It’s really simple and friendly, but the games physics will test your control as the levels get more challenging. Each stages environment will hinder the control you have over your helicopter. You might have to contend with rain that will pull down your bird, shifting wind that will fight you, or even the tight spaces of large and tight cavers that will challenge your skills.
While dealing with all this you’ll have to also deal with a plethora of enemies that want you dead as dirt. Jeeps, tanks, and boats will patrol their areas and try to bring you down with cannons and rear-mounted machine guns. SAM sites will also be hidden through many stages and their rockets will find you with their laser sights and these can be real trouble. You will be constantly busy dealing with tons of different things at once, and this is even before trying to land your bird to pick up POW’s.
You’ll have to be careful as your helicopter isn’t a tank. If you land too hard you will take damage that will lead to your demise and a hard restart of the level. But you won’t be limited to a single bird like you would in other games of this nature. The levels are laid out in the manner of a mobile game like Angry Birds (shudder), but after completing certain stages you’ll have access to better birds. These offer more health, a larger capacity for POW’s, and increased control. On top of that you’ll get the chance to upgrade your weapons as well.
While you won’t start with any guns, you will be able to earn a few throughout that range from a basic machine gun to the rocket launcher that those deadly SAM sites in game use. Dustoff also gives you a choice in how you want to use this weapons which is a nice twist. You’ll be able to have full control shooting with your mouse, but if you’d rather just focus on the flying, Dustoff lets you set the guns controls on automatic and let the game handle things. I felt that the auto shooting was less accurate, but it’s an option for those that want to focus on the flying aspects of the game.
Where Dustoff gets really tricky is in the cargo aspect of some of the levels. You’ll often be tasked with bringing tanks and jeeps back to your home-base, but these segments can get crazy when the environment is against you. There are physics in the game, but they are far from realistic. You’ll hook onto the cargo and it will start flying around like a loose bar of soap in a gym bathroom. Couple this with wind and rain and you are going to have a lot of “Oh, shit… Oh, Shit… OH, SHIT!” moments when your cargo bounces off everything it can.
Rescuing POW’s is also problematic as Dustoff changes up by having cave systems with narrow corridors that you chance to contend with. If you thought things were difficult enough with everything, flying your bird through a rat-hole it a test of patience and wits. Not only that, but some of the levels are pretty long and will include every single hazard making the game a real challenge. Even with these challenges, Dustoff Heli Rescue is real joy to play, especially for fans of true retro experiences.
While the game is a fantastic outing from Invictus, it isn’t without its issues. The hit detection can sometimes be called into question, especially in the cave section, and the cargo physics can drive you up the wall with how it plays with your bird. I even once spent twenty minutes flying around a six-minute level looking for a POW only to realize he simply had glitched out of existence. As stated earlier Dustoff is set in Vietnam, but this can be more of a hindrance to the overall game.
Levels and cave sections will begin to repeat themselves towards later stages of the game and I more than once noticed a few copy/paste segments to parts of levels. If the game weren’t tied to the jungle setting it would have had more room to grow and play with its settings. Other Choplifter type games were pretty basic, but for what they lacked in innovation they made up for with ever-changing levels and locales.
Those misgivings aside, Dustoff Heli Rescue is a blast to play and will satisfy that retro itch. I hope that we get more Dustoff int he future and that the team can expand on the setting and level structure a bit. I’d love Steam Workshop support to add in my own POW’s too. How cool would it be to rescue your Minecraft friends and original characters, or to design your own helicopter skins. As it stands Dustoff Heli Rescue is one you should check out.
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