There are a lot of choices in Red Thread Games’s new title Dustborn. There are some really tough ones that shape relationships for the characters, but none gave me as much pause for thought as the moment after the first fight when the game asked me whether I wanted more or less combat going forward.
I sat on that screen for a long time.
I have a lot of fondness for Red Thread’s releases. They started with Dreamfall Chapters a fantastic, heavily narrative piece (that satisfyingly concluded a decades-long story), and Draugen a first-person talk-em up in an unusual time period. Something that these developers understand is dialogue and plot, and Dustborn continues this tradition.
The story follows Pax and her three friends who are on the run through a splintered United States. Pax is in possession of a package that she needs to transport to Nova Scotia. In tow are her motor-mouthed buddy Sai, her nonbinary (possible love interest) indifferent friend Noam, and the mysterious Theo who is a chest-haired-hotty. Pax, Sai, Noam are Anomals, this means that their words have physical impacts in their world. These manifest in different ways – during conversations with other people they can interrupt, pacify etc. It is understandable as to why Anomals are feared, because when these powers come into effect, the people under the spell are aware they are being manipulated. Watching Noam sedate someone as they try to fight the affect is uncomfortable viewing as a player, which I think is the point.
All of this is supported by cartoon style that brings each character and their abilities to life. The whole world has a cell-shaded look, with the Anomal words manifesting as giant sound effects. It is great look and allows for expressive scenes to be even more emphasised. Pax shutting down a conversation with a huge ‘STOP’ bursting on to the screen makes the player feel the impact of her anger on those around her.
It is in the conversations, unsurprisingly, where Dustborn excels. As the characters make stops, Pax will walk around each area solving small puzzles and talking to people – this will either unlock more story, or change the relationships of the main characters. These little hubs feel a little empty but the writers on this team have invested heavily in making the dynamics between each of the 4 (more like 6?) leads feel impactful. The relative lacklustre hubs can be ignored due to the way the story explores alienation, neurodivergence, oppression but does it with a level of warmth and humour that endeared me to even the more difficult characters.
Then I got to the action sequences.
The first few are quick time events and some light Guitar Hero segments where the team have to prove they are a band. These are fine distractions that don’t get in the way, and as I encountered them, I just found myself wanting to get onto the combat. Now, this could be an expectations problem but all the footage I saw suggested some kind of tactical fight, using Pax’s powers combined with other members of her team. As much as I enjoyed talking, I felt like the game was building up to physical combat and was eager to get into it.
I was not wrong, Dustborn does lead to altercations, but it isn’t tactical and instead a 3-D brawler. There is a smash, a dodge and block, and a meter that builds up to use Pax’s word powers, and a couple of specials. While the player runs around, they will usually have at least one teammate joining in.
While it does feel cool to shout at enemies and have them knocked to the ground… The collision doesn’t feel great, and the impact of the hits feels quite sloppy. The powers lack the impact they have during conversations, and the teammates don’t really offer any interesting variety to the game. In most of the fights the antagonist is the camera angle, and too many encounters are just dodging an area-of-effect attack and then mashing the attack button with a clumsy set of animations.
So, when the game asked me if I wanted more or less combat, I was stuck with this dilemma – Dustborn’s best bits feel like they are supposed to be building up to fights, but the fights really suck. Did I just want to turn this into a chatty game? Or did I want the full experience, despite that complete experience feeling somehow like less?
I chose more combat, and I think that might have been a mistake.
I think Dustborn is really going to connect with a certain audience. The story is as good as anything Red Thread Games has ever released, the characters are endearing and feel like their own people. The visuals are great and the soundtrack rules. It is just there are a lot of parts that really diminished my enjoyment. Turn all of that off where you can.
As it stands, Dustborn reminded me of meeting cool kids during my secondary school, all of them were really interesting and fun, they invited me to a gig at a local pub, I was devastated when this group of fun people made some of the worst music I’d ever heard.
Conclusion
Where Dustborn works – its characters and story – it really works. Leaden combat and side-missions leave it a little lacking.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
