Dustborn is a game that I wrote a preview for back in June and it is always an interesting process writing a full review after already having worked on a preview for a game. Having to play the vertical slice that you already experienced before getting to see any new content is always a good test to see whether the game has any replayability value, or whether the novelty has already worn off.
With a game like Dustborn that features branching dialogue options and differing outcomes based on the decisions made, one would expect the game to have a significant amount of replay value. Sadly, this is not the case. Not only did I realise that regardless of what choices I made, the outcome ended up being the same, but it also emphasised just how long Dustborn takes to really get going.
Dustborn is launching on August 20 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
Dustborn Is Frustrating and Forgettable
If it wasn’t clear already, my first few hours spent playing Dustborn for review were pretty insufferable. It really highlighted just how important pacing is when it comes to a narrative-driven adventure game like this. Dustborn spends so much of its opening introducing its characters and trying to be witty, that it completely forgets to be engaging.
Unfortunately, after forcing my way through this teeth pulling experience, I wasn’t overly impressed with what I found beyond the first few hours either. Again, Dustborn’s major issue is one of pacing. After spending hours sifting through uninteresting dialogue sequences and painfully easy ‘puzzle-solving,’ the respite offered to break that up should be some satisfying action.
Disappointingly, Dustborn’s combat is one of its weakest elements. I lamented every instance of these sections, and yet they should have been the game’s saving grace from the monotony of the drawn out dialogue segments. It creates a cycle of lacklustre boredom that simply isn’t fun to play.
I already spoke in my preview article about how poor the game’s combat is and unfortunately it is no better in the full release. The baseball bat that Pax uses as her weapon of choice doesn’t have any weight to it. In fact when comparing it to baseball bat mechanics from other games like Dead Rising, GTA and The Last of Us, it may be the worst feeling baseball bat I have ever wielded in a game.
At least the demo that I played for the preview coverage jumped around the game’s story in order to try and show off the variety on offer. However, in the full release everything just feels so excruciatingly drawn out in contrast. It feels as though we are now seeing how the sausage is made, and it is the most uninteresting sausage ever produced.
There was a small part of me that was glad I had played the preview beforehand though and that was due to the fact that I had already been introduced to the game’s cast of characters. Knowing what to expect from them going in made their cringey dialogue a small bit easier to stomach. It rendered the writing more boring as opposed to cringe-inducing, which is a small victory, but one that I’ll take.
From Bad to Worse
On the other hand, I did find that the longer I spent with these characters, the more I grew to dislike them. After spending what little time I did with them in the demo, I was willing to give this crew a chance in the full game, yet in the end I found myself not wanting to listen to any of them drone on more than I already had.
Getting the audience onboard with your characters is important in any story, but it is utterly crucial in a narrative-driven choose-your-own-adventure game. If the player doesn’t care whether this group survives to save the day or not, then why should they bother investing the time into seeing this tale through to the end?
Although everyone annoyed me to a certain extent, there were two characters in particular that I struggled with; Noam and Sai. Noam is the player character’s ex-partner and they are one of the most insufferably rude people imaginable. It is played off as if it supposed to be charming, but it just comes across as mean-spirited. As for Sai, I got so fed up of her constant whining just a few hours in that I began to pray that she’d be killed off imminently.
Dustborn is the first game in a long time that I can definitively say I would not have played to completion if I didn’t have to in order to write a review. Even though it isn’t a particularly lengthy experience, it is one that dragged on because I really had to force myself to boot it up before every session.
Going Down Swinging…
At the risk of possibly sounding masochistic, there are certain games that I take some pleasure in ripping apart. This is normally due to the fact that the team behind the game has been up to certain nefarious deeds prior to release and giving them their comeuppance via a scathing review is somewhat satisfying. This isn’t the case for Dustborn.
Being someone who considers themselves a feminist and an ally of the LGBTQ+ community, I really wanted Dustborn to be great and prove the online toxic naysayers wrong. Thus it is a real shame that the game turned out to be one lacking any real substance and an experience that is a chore to get through.
Besides the fact that I never encountered any glitches, the only real positive I can draw is the cool visual style that the game utilises, which carries across to some aesthetically pleasing comic book segments between chapters. Beyond this though there isn’t much to enjoy here, leaving me clutching at straws when it comes to highlighting any positive aspects of the game, other than saying it ran pretty well.
Dustborn – 3/10
