Dustborn

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"Dustborn is a single-player, action-adventure game with an intriguing story set in a Neo-Western alternate history America. As Pax, an exile with the power to weaponize language, transport a valuable package across the Republic while building a crew, managing relationships, and facing challenges. With stunning landscapes, a robot-driven tour bus, and a looming threat from those who want the package back, Dustborn offers a unique and thrilling experience."

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Reviews

71%

Audience ScoreBased on 167 reviews

story49 positive mentions

stability6 negative mentions

The voice acting is fantastic, bringing the characters to life and enhancing the overall experience.
The game features a rich and detailed world with intriguing characters that evolve throughout the story.
The mix of different gameplay elements, including Telltale-style puzzles and rhythm game mechanics, adds variety and keeps the experience engaging.

Combat feels off and unresponsive, often resulting in frustrating moments where attacks miss or lack impact.
The pacing can be slow, with lengthy dialogue sections that may detract from the overall enjoyment of the game.
Some players may find the political themes and diverse representation to be overly forced or distracting from the main narrative.

story
199 mentions
25 % positive mentions
72 % neutral mentions
4 % negative mentions
The story of the game is a mixed bag, with some players praising its engaging character development and unique world-building, while others criticize its pacing and execution. Many reviews highlight the game's focus on dialogue and character interactions, which can sometimes overshadow the plot, leading to a feeling of inconsistency and a lack of depth in certain themes. Overall, while the narrative has its strengths, including memorable moments and social commentary, it struggles with pacing and coherence, leaving some players wanting a more polished and impactful storytelling experience.
- “A wonderful and moving story with some really memorable characters and moving moments.”
- “The story revolves around Pax, an 'anomal' with the power to influence people with her words, and her 'ragtag' friends on a road trip to deliver a package to New Pacifica in a divided America.”
- “The meat of the game is the incredible story, and the heart of the story is the relationships you build with the other characters.”
- “I can perhaps note the art direction and its crisp implementation, but I cannot forgive such a shallow, awkward, self-congratulatory and preachy ideological sermon where a story and its characters should be.”
- “It's not just that the lyrical content and dialogue feels like it's written by a high school student, but it creeps all the way into the root events of the story.”
- “The story is surprisingly slow at times for such a dialogue-heavy game, instead focusing more on the character interactions.”
gameplay
68 mentions
25 % positive mentions
63 % neutral mentions
12 % negative mentions
The gameplay in the game is a mixed bag, featuring a blend of narrative-driven mechanics, rhythm games, and combat that some players find enjoyable while others criticize for being shallow and poorly executed. While the character interactions and social mechanics are praised, many reviewers note that the combat lacks depth and can feel clunky, detracting from the overall experience. Overall, the game seems to prioritize story over gameplay, leading to a variety of opinions on its effectiveness and engagement.
- “I really loved the art style and gameplay elements.”
- “Sharp writing, a memorable cast of characters, smart social commentary, varied and clever gameplay, and a story that is filled with heart and soul.”
- “The interactivity of these mechanics takes advantage of the video game medium rather than leaving it to a cutscene.”
- “Great character writing, mediocre plot writing, bad gameplay.”
- “The whole game is mostly about annoying repetitive discussions instead of any gameplay.”
- “The gameplay is atrocious and the game feels like it was written by a 14 year old.”
music
64 mentions
25 % positive mentions
58 % neutral mentions
17 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some players enjoying the background score and certain songs, while others criticize the quality of the music during rhythm sections, describing it as weak or even torturous. The interface for music gameplay is noted to be clunky, making it difficult to engage fully, and while the punk-inspired themes resonate with some, many feel the lyrics and overall execution detract from the experience. Overall, the soundtrack's inconsistency and the game's focus on character-driven storytelling overshadow the musical elements, leading to a polarized reception.
- “Really enjoying the visuals and the soundtrack, and so far it's definitely worth the price!”
- “The background music by Simon Poole also set the mood well for the game, and that one Charlotte Heatherley song hit pretty well.”
- “The setting, the aesthetics, and music are all amazing!”
- “The music in the rhythm game sections is pretty weak.”
- “Music, unfortunately, is extremely horrible, and it's especially sad that it's been stuck in my head for days.”
- “The worst, most on-the-nose, terrible music I've heard in a video game.”
graphics
42 mentions
38 % positive mentions
52 % neutral mentions
10 % negative mentions
The game's graphics feature a vibrant comic book-inspired art style that many players find appealing and well-executed, enhancing the overall experience with its colorful visuals and character designs. While some critiques mention that the graphics can feel dated or detract from gameplay, the majority appreciate the aesthetic's alignment with the game's humorous tone and narrative structure. Overall, the visuals are generally well-received, contributing positively to the game's atmosphere despite some mixed opinions on their execution.
- “The comic book art style and themes, along with the character diversity (allowing for some hilarious moments since the game does not take itself seriously) made it a ton of fun to experience.”
- “First of all, the comic style art style is gorgeous; performance-wise, it's pretty steady with some minor bugs here and there.”
- “The game has an art style that is heavily inspired by comic books, which I find pretty cool.”
- “Why does this game look the way that it looks with its art style, which just gets in the way of the UI and copies other games if anything?”
- “Game is damn boring, graphics are worse than 2013-2014 Telltale games, and actually for that price, just get GTA.”
- “The game is aesthetically repulsive and an insult to the entire project of world civilization; playing it for only three hours I developed a terrible headache within the first.”
humor
24 mentions
88 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
13 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is a mixed bag, featuring a blend of tongue-in-cheek jokes, absurd situations, and character-driven comedy that can be both hilarious and cringeworthy. While some players appreciate the comic book art style and the charm of the characters, others find the humor overly reliant on political commentary and unfunny quips, leading to a lack of engagement. Overall, the game's comedic moments can evoke laughter, but they often walk a fine line between genuine humor and awkwardness.
- “I enjoy a tongue-in-cheek kind of humor.”
- “They decide to pose as a band on tour, despite not being very good musicians, which does result in some funny moments.”
- “The comic book art style and themes, along with the character diversity (allowing for some hilarious moments since the game does not take itself seriously) made it a ton of fun to experience.”
- “The dialogues have some problems, with too many unfunny quips that the characters make.”
- “There are 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.”
character development
12 mentions
42 % positive mentions
33 % neutral mentions
25 % negative mentions
Character development in the game is a mixed bag, with some players appreciating the depth and variety of character arcs, while others find inconsistencies and a lack of resolution in the storytelling. The graphic novel art style and character designs receive praise, though opinions on the designs themselves vary, with some labeling them as mediocre. Overall, while the game offers engaging character development options, it struggles with execution in gameplay and narrative cohesion.
- “I was drawn to it originally from the character design and was amazed at how I actually found a hidden gem.”
- “It's a game heavily leaning on character development of each character, which just gets me all smiley - I am a sucker for character development in games.”
- “If you are into simplistic yet fun wack-em combat and very interesting character development options, while also stopping to have a guitar hero session every now and then, I highly recommend picking up this game!”
- “The character designs are... okay.”
- “[h3]awful character designs[/h3]”
- “The same cannot be said for the character designs.”
emotional
12 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The emotional aspect of the game is polarizing; while some players find it deeply engaging and rewarding, highlighting moments that evoke laughter and tears, others feel distanced from the characters due to their angst and emotional instability. The game's mechanics, centered around emotional manipulation and dialogue, can sometimes disrupt the flow of the narrative, leading to frustration. Overall, it offers a mix of heartfelt moments and critiques of character depth, appealing to those who appreciate a more cerebral approach to storytelling.
- “It made me laugh, it made me cry, and I will never forget the journey.”
- “It rewards you for paying attention to the emotional states of the other characters.”
- “The main 'mechanic' of the game is using words as a weapon to manipulate the emotional state of people around you; this immediately reminded me of a lecture I heard once by this philosopher named Stephen Hicks.”
optimization
10 mentions
30 % positive mentions
40 % neutral mentions
30 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is notably lacking, with users reporting significant performance issues such as bugs, glitches, and stuttering, particularly during combat. Audio mixing problems and inconsistent voice acting further detract from the experience, although some players appreciate the story and art style. Overall, while there are moments of enjoyment, the game requires patches to address its numerous technical shortcomings.
- “First of all, the comic-style art is gorgeous; performance-wise, it's pretty steady with some minor bugs here and there.”
- “A solid story told in a game that's very rough around the edges, though even with the janky combat and occasionally mixed vocal performances, I had a thoroughly good time learning about this world.”
- “The game doesn't run well for what it looks like; the way that the audio is mixed is terrible, and the fact that you have to look at characters to hear them correctly is incredibly annoying. The overall UI is actually a nuisance, there are misspellings within the subtitles, the combat is buggy, glitchy, clunky, and stuttering like crazy, even though the boss fights are actually pretty okay. The voice acting is sometimes so bad that it's as if I'm hearing a straight-up studio session.”
- “The game isn't exactly optimized and can cause some issues.”
- “It just needs a patch to iron out some minor issues and improve performance a bit.”
stability
9 mentions
33 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
67 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's stability is mixed; while some players report a smooth experience with minimal bugs, others encounter significant issues such as audio problems, combat glitches, and character model disappearances. Despite these technical challenges, many users appreciate that their progress is often saved despite needing to restart due to glitches.
- “Runs great on the Ally.”
- “On a positive note: the game actually works and is bug-free.”
- “The game doesn't run well for what it looks like. The way that the audio is mixed is terrible, and the fact that you have to look at characters to hear them correctly is incredibly annoying. The overall UI is actually a nuisance, there are misspellings within the subtitles, the combat is buggy, glitchy, clunky, and stuttering like crazy. Even though the boss fights are actually pretty okay, the voice acting is sometimes so bad that it's as if I'm hearing a straight-up studio session.”
- “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 has been maintained.”
- “On the downside: there are some technical glitches where the characters get stuck that are annoying, but I've only seen them happen right after auto-saves, so it wasn't a big deal.”
grinding
4 mentions
0 % positive mentions
25 % neutral mentions
75 % negative mentions
Reviews indicate that the grinding aspect of the game is tedious and lacks depth, as enemies do not scale in difficulty, leading to repetitive gameplay. Players feel that the game is designed for casual play rather than extensive grinding, making the experience feel less engaging over time.
- “The combat system was very clearly an afterthought, but this game seems like it was made for people who consider games small entertainment mediums rather than things you spend hours and hours grinding on.”
- “With the exception of the final boss, they never scale in difficulty as you progress, making them quickly become tedious and stale.”
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
replayability
2 mentions
0 % positive mentions
50 % neutral mentions
50 % negative mentions
Reviewers suggest that the replayability of the game could be significantly enhanced by implementing more strategic save points, ideally positioned after conversations, or by allowing players to manually save their progress.
- “It would also help with replayability if save points were always after conversations ended or if players were able to manually save.”
atmosphere
2 mentions
100 % positive mentions
-150 % neutral mentions
150 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is highly praised, with players appreciating its immersive quality and the way it provokes strong reactions, particularly from those with opposing views.
- “Great atmosphere!”
- “I really dig the atmosphere; it immerses you completely in the experience.”
- “The atmosphere feels lifeless and uninspired, making it hard to get immersed in the game.”
- “Despite the potential for a rich setting, the atmosphere falls flat and lacks any real depth.”
- “The game’s atmosphere is dull and fails to evoke any sense of excitement or tension.”