For a few important reasons, Dustborn immediately grabbed my attention upon its reveal. This Telltale-inspired adventure looks like it was ripped off the page of a comic book and translated into video game form, while the story of a rock band on the run seemed like a cool promise to bring a group of misfits together.
While Dustborn is let down by its lack of any deep or challenging gameplay, it’s written with grace and charm, leading to multiple unique characters and interesting conversations that help carry the load. I would recommend the game to anyone who loves witty characters and deeper conversations, even if the combat and rhythmic sections rarely develop throughout the experience.
The Road Ahead
Players take control of Pax, a scoundrel and thief of sorts, who holds an expensive and sought-after item, which may or may not have been stolen from compelling and influential figures. She needs to get this item over the border to Canada, accompanied by three of her close friends, who are all masquerading as a rock band called The Dustborn as they evade almost every single police force on the way.
I personally love the alternate USA this is also set in, where Jackie Kennedy was assassinated instead of JFK, and he essentially turned the police into an advanced militia for extra protection. While the world is oozing with style and interesting bits of information to take in via conversations, the story itself takes a little too long to get going.
The premise is made immediately clear in the first few minutes, but the context behind why everything is happening takes a little too long to make sense at first. While everything is explained later, it doesn’t excuse the fact that it’s rolling with the punches in the hopes that you’re cool with catching up with everything later, when the characters feel like they need to express themselves.
I actually love Theo, Noam, Sai and the robot Caretaker who accompanies Pax. They’re all incredibly charming and well-acted and generally have something important to contribute with. Be it advice or abilities, they never feel too annoying or the butt of a bad joke, but more so real people with real problems, some of which are addressed in some really interesting ways.
Pax herself is a very likeable character with her own demons and even has a special ability known as the Vox, wielded by special beings known as Anomals. The Vox is essentially like an abridged version of The Force in Star Wars, in which Pax can manipulate objects and people in her vicinity. It also plays into both the story and gameplay in interesting ways.
While I like where this story takes players over its 15 or so hours, I wish it had gotten the ball rolling a little sooner.
The Tools of the Trade
For as intermittent as the gameplay is, Dustborn packs in a decent amount of variety. You’ll spend most of your time as Pax chatting to your band, but you’ll also get the chance to explore various areas and camps as you travel through the country, beating up various enemies, usually in the form of rogue biker gangs with your massive baseball bat, and jam out with said band in rhythmically-based minigames.
Chatting is much more interesting, in the sense that your options also come with added context on the top of the screen. You’ll be able to press one of the four face buttons to reply in conversations, but you’ll also be able to see what Pax is thinking before you select those replies, in case you don’t like what he might say. Because conversations and ultimately pilot elements are decided by these responses, it helps clear Pax’s intentions before you pull the trigger on a response.
In terms of combat, things are pretty average. You’ll spam the square button on PlayStation or the X button on Xbox to chain together combinations with your baseball bat, and occasionally be able to use one of your Vox abilities to push enemies around. You’ll also be able to dodge enemy attacks and even taunt enemies for more devastating attacks. It’s not a terrible combat system, and the game early replies to it, but it also rarely develops beyond what is introduced to you in the opening hours.
Thankfully, you can choose to either minimise or maximise combat encounters throughout the story should the gameplay suit, but I simply found that either way, the combat encounters feel a little too few and far between.
The rhythm-based minigames pop up on a few more occasions as you rehearse and play a show with your band, as you press each of the four face buttons to the sound of the beat. Things do heat up and offer decent challenges down the line, and I found myself enjoying a fair few of these songs as well.
All of these aspects merge to create an experience that never feels necessarily boring, but also far from from deep or nuanced, in the sense that the systems behind them rarely change or develop to the extent where they remain fresh the entire time.
Look the Part
Dustborn simply looks fantastic. Be it the cel-shaded comic-style graphics ripped straight from the page, or the vibrant colour scheme and unique, futuristic version of USA, there’s generally something to gawk at.
The game also pieces your missions together in the form of acts, and at the end of each chapter, your decisions are pieced together in comic book panels that describe your choices and show just how many other players made the same choices that you did.
The game also runs relatively well, but I did have the game crash on me during my first hour, which is unusual, especially on the PlayStation 5. But aside from the odd frame rate drop, nothing felt too testing.
Final Thoughts
While I wouldn’t recommend Dustborn for its gameplay mechanics, I would certainly recommend Dustborn for its witty writing, cool characters and engaging narrative.
The story might take a little while to get going but does deliver some important aspects when all is said and done. It’s also visually vibrant and unique, making it a delight for comic-book fans and fans of older Telltale-style adventures.
THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Highlights: Gorgeous visuals; Unique comic-book style; Cool characters; Great writing
Lowlights: The story takes a while to get going; Multiple gameplay mechanics feel shallow
Developer: Red Thread Games
Publisher: Spotlight by Quantic Dream
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Windows PC
Available: Now
Review conducted on PlayStation 5 with a pre-release code provided by the publisher.
