When comparing Dust: An Elysian Tail vs Rust, the Slant community recommends Dust: An Elysian Tail for most people. In the question“What are the best low-spec PC games?” Dust: An Elysian Tail is ranked 84th while Rust is ranked 105th. The most important reason people chose Dust: An Elysian Tail is:
Hand-drawn graphics are pleasing.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Gorgeous visual aesthetic
Hand-drawn graphics are pleasing.
Pro Very emotional and funny
Cut scenes are deep and expressive.
Pro Spoken storyline
No need to read, just listen to the narration.
Pro Great combat system
The combat system is smooth and entertaining.
Pro Nice soundtrack
Pro Non-PvP servers are available
If worrying that another player might kill you and loot your corpse is not your thing, or if you don't want to deal with someone constantly harassing your base, there are servers available that take away the risk of other player's malicious behavior.
Pro Building system is simple, efficient and intuitive
Hold a key while holding a hammer, and with your cursor, select the piece you want to build.
Upgrading a piece of building is done in the same fashion.
Pro Game's multiplayer nature creates psychological tension
While there's obviously potential for working together with other players towards achieving certain goals, the more likely scenario is someone trying to kill you to get your stuff. Or even worse, deceiving you in working together to achieve a particularly difficult goal only to stab you in the back when you're not needed anymore. It's easier to take stuff from someone else than gather it yourself. And since your base is a the perfect bullseye to other players, there is constant threat of griefing.
Pro Lots of variety in ways to die
Fauna, including bears and wolves, is trying to kill you, radiation, that's ever-present, is trying to kill you, zombies, in a multitude of colors, are trying to kill you, other players on the server, equipped with guns, are most definitely trying to kill you, and you, yourself, if you don't find food, will die.
Pro Base building allows for less punishing gameplay
Because you can build your base that you respawn back to when killed, losing only what you had on you at the time of death, it allows getting back to where you left off quickly.
Cons
Con Saving Issues
You can only save at fixed places, and sometimes it takes multiple tries to save a game.
Con Cheesy
Both character design and dialogues are incredibly cheesy. This may work well for kids though.
Con Hard to play solo
Rust is all about clans fighting for territory and loots. Solo players (or ones with a couple friends) can easily be killed by bigger clans.
Con Not yet finished (buggy)
Since it's a Steam Early Access game it still has lots of glitches, placeholder text and unreliable infrastructure. But for all its unfinished nature, it's surprisingly playable.