Dustborn by Red Thread Games is like the well-meaning friend, who always tries to make everyone happy but got overstressed.
A cross between adventure, rhythm, and beat’em up genres, the game finds its footing the moment it stays true to its message on social justice similar to what Telltale Games was famous for.
Although, the concept of action combat and rhythm sequences appear and don’t quite match with the game’s deep character emotions.
At its core, Dustborn is a game filled with all sorts of mechanics, characters, and themes. Sadly, this bursts the game with content to the point where playing it feels like it’s filled with every idea that was thrown into the game without being given enough time to be refined.
Even though the premise of having a group of superpowered outcasts on a road trip sounds appealing, not every character gets the focus they need which feels rather unbalanced.
The plot revolves around the protagonist Pax, who is captain of a team of mutant smugglers that travels over the ruined United States of America. The members of the group are introduced over time acknowledged by the fact that some are more emphasized than others.
In the beginning of the game the player comes across several characters whose branching can be influenced by the player’s decision.
For instance, the main character in the group men, Theo experiences how you treat him – different relationship outputs and termination result. This is very engaging because the decisions made affect the story and characters’ perspectives of Pax.
However, this mechanic does not apply to characters introduced later into the game. These newer characters are sometimes read more like plot motivation than people meant to have their own wants and needs.
One of the larger problems with the game lies primarily in the imbalance of character development. The latter characters seem like underdeveloped concepts and their inclusion weakens the overall plot of the game.
Dustborn begins with an engaging premise: Pax–with her friend Sai and former girlfriend Noam–is a member of a punk band that’s also a smuggling operation. They help Theo to move a data key through an alternative version of America.
In this world, President John F. Kennedy survived his assassination in 1963, but his wife Jackie was killed. This led to the formation of fascist group Justice which hunts superhuman known as Anomals, like Pax and the company she’s Keeping.
Every member in the group possesses abilities, and while Pax can make people feel bad with her voice, Noam on the other hand has the ability to hush down a tensed-up crowd.
However, as the events spin out of the thin plot, which the initial setting suggests will be a road trip of adventure, the tale delves in a realm of complication.
Each successive location in the tour bus introduces new characters and plots and subplots and conspiracies and twists stacked upon previous ones without adequate payoff.
It is toward the halfway point that one begins to see the game struggling under the pressure of its grand concept. Dustborn tries to cover different themes, cultures, and wars but as it does so it forgets where its strength lies.
Subgenre and related mythos elements just obscure the deeper, personal drama of its characters and never quite give enough payoff.
Some parts are pretty jarring to get through, switching from high-intensity and serious moments, to lore exposition, to side stories that seem to be unfinished. Dustborn is at its best when it looks at how its cast of oppressed characters are finding hope in a dystopian USA.
Conclusion
Dustborn tries to handle more than it can handle. It becomes successful in its ability to cultivate relationships/develop characters but fails woefully in the area of branching out into other genres causing it to become a game that is filled with too much content but loses focus.
Had the game been better optimized and featured a more straightforward narrative, Dustborn could’ve served as a unique adventure game.
Also read: Astro Bot Review
