Dustborn

About Dustborn

Dustborn is a single player action adventure game. It was developed by Red Thread Games and was released on August 20, 2024. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Dustborn is a single-player, story-driven action-adventure game about hope, love, friendships, robots…and the power of words. You play Pax: exile, con-artist, Anomal — with the ability to weaponize language. Looking for a new life and a way out, Pax has been hired to transport an important package from Pacifica to Nova Scotia, across the Justice-controlled American Republic. Sounds like a legit r…

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Reviews

64%Audience ScoreBased on 543 reviews

story157 positive mentions

stability16 negative mentions

story
597 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
26% positive mentions, 70% neutral mentions, 4% negative mentions
The story is a complex, emotionally engaging road-trip narrative set in a dystopian America, focusing on themes of resistance, found family, and the power of language. While praised for its character development, immersive dialogue, and unique comic-book presentation, many find the plot uneven, occasionally rushed, and burdened by inconsistent pacing and heavy-handed social commentary. Despite some filler and narrative shortcomings, the story remains the game's strongest aspect, especially appreciated by fans of choice-driven, story-rich adventure games.
- “Dustborn is an ambitious narrative-driven road-trip adventure that aims to fuse emotional storytelling, social commentary, stylized visuals, and light action gameplay into one cohesive experience. At the center of the story is Pax, an 'anomal' gifted with vox powers—abilities that turn spoken language into a literal force. Her mission is deceptively simple: transport a mysterious package across the continent. Even in its heaviest moments, the story finds room for humor and warmth, evoking the spirit of a rebellious found-family adventure. These themes offer fertile ground for storytelling, and the game clearly aims to say something significant about the world we live in. At its best, the story is powerful and heartfelt; at its weakest, it feels heavy-handed, rushing through complex social issues without giving them the nuance they deserve. The road trip structure ensures constant evolution, and by the final act, the journey carries the sense of a story that mattered, even if it stumbled along the way. It is imperfect, sometimes clumsy, but unmistakably bold—a story about survival, resistance, and chosen family told through the strange, powerful language of fiction.”
- “The story is simply fantastic – emotional, gripping, and filled with amazing characters that truly grew on me.”
- “The story so far has been really really good.”
- “The last three chapters were extremely stressful to play through, and watching what unfolded without suffering was impossible (and not in the sense that it’s hard to digest or emotionally overwhelming, no, nothing like that!!! the explanations are practically nonexistent, the story couldn’t be more predictable, and instead of building up any emotional weight toward the finale, it somehow manages to completely shut you down. Disappointment everywhere).”
- “The whole story aspect of this story driven game is incompetently made.”
- “I could not see the reason behind these activities, how they connect to each other or the end, how the characters connect to the story, why they are musicians, why they are deviants, why some of them are not, how the idea of the protolanguage fits in, how language can be free of rhetorical use.”
gameplay
202 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
24% positive mentions, 65% neutral mentions, 11% negative mentions
The gameplay in Dustborn is a mixed but interesting blend of narrative-driven dialogue choices, exploration, rhythm mini-games, and light combat, with the dialogue mechanics praised for their immersion and player agency. However, combat segments are frequently described as clunky, repetitive, and underdeveloped, detracting from the overall experience. While some find the variety and integration of mechanics refreshing and enjoyable, others view the gameplay as unfocused, unevenly polished, and secondary to the story, appealing mainly to players who prioritize narrative over traditional gameplay depth.
- “Dustborn’s mechanics are unexpectedly sharp and rewarding, blending action, traversal, and storytelling systems into a gameplay experience that feels fresh and purposeful.”
- “The dialogue and choice mechanics are cleverly integrated into gameplay. Choosing how to respond alters not only character relationships but mechanical outcomes like available perks and item effectiveness, reinforcing player agency without slowing down pacing.”
- “Upgrades, mods, and skill choices give you real mechanical variety in how you develop your character.”
- “The gameplay is also really bad; it's supposed to be an adventure game but includes badly designed beat 'em up segments which are boring and uninteresting, compounded by a frustrating skill tree system.”
- “The gameplay mechanics in this game are just trash.”
- “Combat in particular tends to be the weakest link: animations feel stiff, encounters lack depth, and repeated enemy types make fights feel more like mechanical obligations than thrilling moments.”
music
191 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23% positive mentions, 64% neutral mentions, 13% negative mentions
The game's music receives mixed reviews, with some praising its integration, emotional moments, and punk-inspired soundtrack, while others criticize the songwriting, lyrics, and rhythm game mechanics as clunky or cringe-worthy. Though the musical segments enhance the narrative for some players, many find the songs unpolished and the rhythm mini-games frustrating or poorly executed. Overall, appreciation for the music largely depends on personal taste and tolerance for its unconventional style within the game's story context.
- “First of all, the music is a real blast - I got hooked on it even before I knew about the game.”
- “The soundtrack reinforces the mood with a mix of punk attitude, atmospheric tones, and soulful tracks that punctuate critical narrative moments.”
- “The music and sound design enhance the experience even more, letting you fully immerse yourself in the world.”
- “Awful rhythm minigame with some of the worst music you'll ever hear with songs you'll hear over and over again like playing Haruka's chapter in Yakuza 5, but instead of the constantly repeated song being good, you have a selection of 5 songs none of which you want to hear once, let alone several times throughout the course of this game.”
- “The music rhythm sections of the game were particularly offensive to me.”
- “The 'guitar hero' clone is glitchy and fails at actually being fun because I can not overstate how egregiously bad the music for it is.”
graphics
115 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
45% positive mentions, 50% neutral mentions, 5% negative mentions
The game’s graphics are widely praised for their distinctive comic book-inspired, cel-shaded art style, featuring vibrant colors, bold outlines, and unique visual storytelling that enhances the narrative experience. While performance is generally solid with minor bugs, some found the visuals minimalist or occasionally stuttering. Overall, the stylish and immersive comic aesthetic stands out as one of the game’s strongest and most appreciated features.
- “The cel-shaded, comic-book aesthetic brings environments and characters to life with bold outlines, vibrant palettes, and exaggerated expressions that highlight emotional beats.”
- “This is a well made game with beautiful graphics/art, appropriate comic style weaved into choices, excellent voice acting, plot is paced well, interactive basically 360 camera control is nice, and story is actually not terrible.”
- “The aesthetics are on point too, with excellent comic-book styling layered over every inch, from the shaded lighting to the outlines to the panelled UI and font.”
- “The graphics are boring, stale, and not really interesting.”
- “Game is damn boring, graphics are worse than 2013-2014 Telltale games, and actually for that price, just get GTA.”
- “Though as graphically undemanding as this game is, it tends to stutter frequently out of nowhere, just jumping from 144 fps to 40 fps and back for seemingly no reason.”
humor
57 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
93% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 7% negative mentions
The game's humor is a mixed blend of clever, campy, and often absurd moments that fans find both hilarious and endearing, especially in character interactions and quirky dialogue. While many appreciate the diverse cast and comedic depth, some find the humor uneven, forced, or overly political, leading to a polarizing experience. Overall, humor ranges from genuinely funny and warm to unintentionally amusing due to glitches and awkward writing.
- “It's clever, funny more often than not, and it gets you to care about the crew before the plot starts putting them through it.”
- “Even background conversations these characters had were so interesting, hilarious and natural that I would avoid ending the night in the game just to listen to them.”
- “The dialogue is funny and has lots of personality, each character is unique and feels distinct, and the voice acting is great.”
- “Dialogs have some problems, with too many unfunny quips that characters make.”
- “There's too many cringey quips that aren't funny or engaging at all.”
- “It's not funny now, and it's going to age like a warm bowl of milk left out in the Arizona sun.”
emotional
54 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The game delivers a heartfelt and emotionally charged narrative centered on community, identity, and deep bonds, with many players feeling genuinely attached to its characters and story. While its ambitious storytelling and stylized aesthetic resonate emotionally for some, others find uneven pacing, underdeveloped character depth, and mechanical disconnects undermine the impact, especially toward the finale. Overall, it offers a memorable, sincere experience for those valuing narrative and emotional engagement over gameplay depth.
- “A heart-warming story about community, identity, and developing deep bonds to survive life's difficulties.”
- “The narrative serves as Dustborn’s beating heart, and the emotional core comes from the makeshift family that joins Pax along her route.”
- “It made me laugh, it made me cry, and I will never forget the journey.”
character development
31 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
32% positive mentions, 58% neutral mentions, 10% negative mentions
Character development is widely praised as a strong and central element of the game, with players appreciating the choice-driven progression, meaningful dialogue, and the growth of characters into a close-knit group. While the character designs receive mixed reactions—ranging from stunning and stylish to inconsistent or overly busy—the narrative depth and impactful relationships clearly stand out as the game's highlight. Overall, the game offers a rewarding experience for those who value rich character arcs and interactive storytelling.
- “The game is heavily leaning on character development of each character, which just gets me all smiley - I am a sucker for character development in games.”
- “The summary is that it's a really nice character-driven story, where the things you say and the choices you make mould the character development along the way.”
- “Dustborn is great for narrative enjoyers, I loved the character development of the characters so far, it really feels like being part of a crew going on a road-trip!”
- “The main cast, especially the main character (Pax), do not start out likable but go through serious character development.”
- “I enjoyed the variety of things to do in this game (exploration and choices with guitar hero and ghost buster and x-men vibes) and while I feel like more of the lore and character development could've been explored and wrapped up better in the end, I'm happy I played this.”
- “The character designs just feel like they spun a wheel or had a dart board with various quotas they needed filled and after landing on a couple of options that's how they decided to "diversify" their cast.”
optimization
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40% positive mentions, 40% neutral mentions, 20% negative mentions
Optimization for the game is mixed, with generally good visuals and steady performance but frequent issues such as stuttering, buggy combat, and poor collision detection that impact gameplay. Audio mixing problems and UI nuisances further detract from the experience, making the game feel rough and in need of patches to smooth out performance and fix glitches. Despite these technical flaws, some players still find enjoyment in the story and character performances.
- “The graphics are one of the strong points; they look good and don't destroy performance.”
- “First of all, the comic-style art is gorgeous; performance-wise, it's pretty steady with some minor bugs here and there.”
- “It just needs a patch to iron out some minor issues and improve performance a bit.”
- “The optimization is horrendous, the coding feels like it’s held together with duct tape, and the collision detection is an absolute mess—constant clipping everywhere.”
- “The game doesn't run well for what it looks like, the audio mixing is terrible, you have to look at characters to hear them correctly which is incredibly annoying, the overall UI is a nuisance, subtitles contain misspellings, the combat is buggy, glitchy, clunky, and stutters badly despite decent boss fights.”
- “While this game is good for a laugh due to insane writing (like calling two bar bouncers Nazis for not letting you in), it is also poorly optimized, with boring combat that you can spam the basic attack to win most of the time, and extremely shallow characters making it a chore to play.”
stability
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 80% negative mentions
The game's stability is mixed, with many users experiencing various bugs, glitches, and occasional crashes that sometimes require restarting or reloading autosaves. While some find it buggy and rough around the edges, others report it runs smoothly with minimal issues. Overall, stability issues are present but generally do not prevent progressing through the story.
- “Game is not buggy.”
- “On a positive note: the game actually works and is bug free.”
- “Runs great on the ally.”
- “There are a few glitches; I tried to wash the sink at the end and it crashed the game 4 separate times. There was a weird bat visual glitch that made a light effect on the screen until another battle segment at one point. A lot of times when I threw anything but the bat it would bounce the item instead of breaking, which caused issues in one segment. There were also other little glitches like that.”
- “It doesn't help either that the game is buggy as all hell, with visual glitches galore throughout and even some actual game-breaking bugs that require reloading your last autosave.”
- “Also, it has some bugs, like characters repeating the same stuff twice, a couple of animation glitches, and at one point after some fighting my character model just disappeared, so I had to restart the game, but luckily the progress was maintained.”
grinding
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 10% neutral mentions, 90% negative mentions
Grinding in this game is widely criticized as tedious, time-consuming, and poorly integrated, especially given the game's focus on vocal abilities where leveling feels disconnected from the core singing gameplay. Combat and enemy tracking issues further exacerbate the monotony, resulting in repetitive and stale encounters that fail to scale in difficulty. Overall, grinding is seen as an unenjoyable chore rather than an engaging challenge.
- “It’s so tedious and it takes so long and it’s literally required.”
- “Again…the whole plot of the game is your character is leveling up her voice/vocal powers…why is this guitar hero game where you are literally singing how you level up your powers instead of this other tedious mini game.”
- “With the exception of the final boss, they never scale in difficulty as you progress, making them quickly become tedious and stale.”
atmosphere
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
83% positive mentions, 17% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The game features a unique and well-crafted atmosphere, blending an "always on the move" style with a fitting comic art style and a soundtrack that enhances the mood through punk, atmospheric, and soulful tracks. Its road-trip dynamic and light narrative choices contribute to an engaging and immersive experience. Overall, the atmosphere is praised for its cohesiveness and strong cultural vibe.
- “The soundtrack reinforces the mood with a mix of punk attitude, atmospheric tones, and soulful tracks that punctuate critical narrative moments.”
- “It offers a unique atmosphere, light narrative choices, and a road-trip dynamic that instantly reminded me of Road 96.”
- “The comic style is beautiful and perfectly fits the atmosphere.”
replayability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33% positive mentions, 34% neutral mentions, 33% negative mentions
The game offers strong replayability due to its numerous twists and multiple outcome possibilities, encouraging multiple playthroughs. However, the experience could be improved with better save point placement or manual saving options.
- “There are so many twists and turns and potentials for different outcomes that this game also has good replayability if you're into doing multiple runs!”
- “It would also help with replayability if save points were always after conversations ended or if players were able to manually save.”
monetization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 50% negative mentions
The game is praised for its monetization approach, notably the absence of microtransactions and DRM, which users find refreshing and appreciate.
- “I appreciate that there are no microtransactions or DRM.”