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Dustborn has something extraordinary about itself that managed to capture my attention from the first time I set my eyes on the game. The exciting setting, art style, and story that left me in awe on several occasions are just some of the features that quickly captured my attention and left me glued to this game to the very end, and even for a couple of hours after that.
And yes, from the very beginning of this game, you can tell it is quite different and, let's say, not the usual type of action-adventure you used to play but something unique and unusual.
Dustborn is a mix of action adventure with very minimalistic player involvement and a story-driven game that heavily relies on choices, which can lead the story to many endings and form a lot of bonds between the characters.
Story
The story is truly exceptional and stands out as the game's greatest strength. At the end of the day, Dustborn is all about storytelling. While other aspects of the game are present and, in some cases, even well-executed and above average, it's the story that truly shines. I believe many players will be drawn to this game only because of the story's high quality.
The story is too complex to be summarised in just a few sentences, but it can be outlined like this: You play as Pax, a young girl who is part of a group of four individuals with special abilities known as the Anomals. The Anomals possess special powers known as Vocals, which allow them to manipulate people. This four-person crew travels across the country, taking on various jobs to make the most of their unique abilities.
However, one job changes everything: a mission to transport a special data terminal across the country to a rebel camp. With this risky task and their status as wanted fugitives pursued by the police nationwide, they face grave danger. Yet, their higher purpose justifies the risks, setting the stage for their epic adventure.
Apart from a very good plot, what sets this story apart are the relationships between the characters and their unique personalities. Even in high-budget films, I can't say I've seen character development of this quality. The characters in this game are exceptionally well-crafted, each with their own quirks, fears, unique looks, and special powers that perfectly complement their appearance.
On a couple of occasions, Pax (the protagonist) will have to deal with other characters' breakouts, trying to keep the entire crew together, and even the game has a mechanic for doing so, where your decisions produce consequences that can assign special roles to different characters.
While mentioning decisions, I must say that Dustborn did a stellar job with them. During some conversations, Pax will have to decide what to do and how to react, choosing one of two or three responses, and each response can trigger a different branch of the story or change a relationship with a character. Doing all this can heavily alter the story and make you replay the game several times to find out what will happen next.
To track down the progress of the story along with your decisions, at the end of each level, the game shows you the recapitulation in the form of a comic book page and the percentage of how many players made the same decisions as you. As the game progresses, your comic book does as well, so tracking the story and all the terms and names of the characters becomes very easy. In this way, you can always see what you have done so far and what to choose next.
Gameplay
As I said earlier, the gameplay of Dustborn is quite minimalistic. It's not a walking simulator per se, but you won't participate much either; most of the time, you'll just rotate the camera, choose which option to take, and which answer to choose.
You play as Pax, as I mentioned earlier, and you'll control her from a classic third-person perspective like in many other action-adventure games. However, her movements are super clanky and unresponsive, and doing any fast-paced action would be impossible in such a setting.
While in this perspective, you will have a chance to explore the levels and search for some items you'll be using throughout the game. For example, on some levels, you'll find several items that can be given to your comrades as gifts, which can greatly improve your relationship with them.
Apart from the exploration, there are other activities throughout the game, like musical mini-games and even real combat encounters. The music mini-games are very cute and heavily rely on your reflexes. To get them finished, you'll have to be very fast and press the prompt buttons at the given times. Once you do it, the new song will be unlocked for you to listen to later.
Regarding combat encounters, there's not much to be said about them, really. The fights are very generic and, luckily, not so frequent. The only weapon at your disposal will be a baseball bat with a very primitive, spamming attack and block command—simple as that. Apart from these conventional combat moves, you'll be using the special one as well, connected to your Vocal ability.
However, the fights are designed in such a manner that, in my humble opinion, it would be much better if this segment of the gameplay was completely omitted. It doesn't matter which difficulty you choose during the game; fighting sequences are easily my least favourite part of the game.
Beyond these few gameplay elements, there's not much more to mention. However, if you choose to play Dustborn, the gameplay becomes secondary as the story takes centre stage.
Graphics and Sounds
If you enjoy the visual style of games like Borderlands for example, you'll likely appreciate Dustborn as well. The game uses the same cel-shading technology, featuring highly detailed rendering, vibrant colours, and an overall striking design.
Graphically speaking, Dustborn is a stunning game. The art style is visually impressive, with gorgeous landscapes, unique character designs, well-crafted levels, and impressive variety in its visuals. Every region you visit, every town, camp, or settlement has something recognisable, and such variety in level design is something that makes this game very beautiful and different.
Every character, whether it is one of the main four or any others the crew is meeting on their journey, is designed uniquely with very recognisable characteristics in mind. For example, Theo is the only man in the crew, and all the others look at him as a fatherly figure, but his appearance tells its own tale on the matter. He looks really masculine, and this role fits him perfectly.
Sai, on the other hand, is a very big girl, a bit overweight, with a very strong appearance, but behind this facade, you'll recognise a scared girl who is afraid to speak about her emotions. All this can be seen by only looking at the characters without even speaking to them or hearing them speak because the visual presentation of the characters is that good.
Regarding graphical settings in the PC version I played, you won't find a lot of them to tinker with. You can only choose the graphical level without further detail, as well as the resolution, refresh rate and motion blur settings, but no more than that, so do not expect some modern graphic settings made for the top-of-the-line GPUs.
However, this graphical simplicity comes with benefits as well, and that's a very good performance with zero problems. In my 15+ hours spent in-game, I didn't encounter a single crash or anything of the sort, and the game ran at 60 FPS and more all the time. Some occasional FPS drops can occur in bigger spaces with lots of details, but only for a couple of moments before the textures load, and then everything goes back to normal.
Sound presentation deserves praise as well because, at the end of the day, this is the game in which the music plays a vital role. As I mentioned earlier, some gameplay sections are tied to the music mini-games. The cover of our heroes' crew is that they travel as a rock band called Dustborne. From time to time, they will play some tunes and even perform together, and those songs hold a certain quality and are very catchy.
Apart from a very good soundtrack, the voiceover is simply top-notch, with each actor doing an extraordinary job in that matter. Like the visual excellence in the portrayal of the characters, the voiceover presentation deserves a special commendation as well, because the personality of each character is largely determined by very good voice acting.
Conclusion
The excitement and interest I felt when I first started playing Dustborn never faded away. This is one of those games that you can't put down once you start, thanks to its very interesting story and everything connected to the narrative in general.
The impressive graphics and sound design also enhance the overall experience which is held back a bit by minimalistic gameplay and poor combat. With all that being said, Dustborn remains a game well worth playing, especially if, like me, you appreciate a game with a very good story.
The Good
Exceptional story and narrative quality- Unique and well-developed characters
- Impressive graphics and art style
- Good sound design and music
- Engaging decision-making and story-branching
The Bad
Minimalistic gameplay with limited player involvement- Poorly executed combat system
