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."

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

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

Reviews

67%

Audience ScoreBased on 223 reviews

story59 positive mentions

stability9 negative mentions

Engaging story with strong character development and diverse representation.
Unique art style reminiscent of comic books, enhancing the overall experience.
Interesting mechanics that allow for meaningful choices and consequences in character relationships.

Combat mechanics are clunky and lack depth, making battles feel tedious.
Some dialogue feels forced and overly political, detracting from immersion.
The pacing is uneven, with a rushed ending that leaves many plot threads unresolved.

story
253 mentions
23 % positive mentions
72 % neutral mentions
5 % negative mentions
The story of the game is a mixed bag, with many players appreciating its engaging narrative and character development, particularly in the context of a road trip through a dystopian America. However, critiques highlight issues with pacing, convoluted plotlines, and a lack of depth in certain character arcs, leading to a perception of the story as both intriguing and flawed. Overall, while the game offers a unique blend of storytelling and gameplay mechanics, opinions vary widely on its execution and coherence.
- “Amazing story, dynamic characters, and significant choices that deeply affect the game.”
- “The story is engaging, with a road trip through a dystopian U.S. that gradually unveils new layers of its world.”
- “The meat of the game is the incredible story, and the heart of the story is the relationships you build with the other characters.”
- “The story is fine, nothing groundbreaking, and I suck at the rhythm game so much that I would love to have an option to skip those, just like it lets me skip combat if I don't want it.”
- “There are just too many issues that make going through the story a drag that I can't imagine the ending being satisfying enough to be worth it.”
- “The story is wildly inconsistent by the 7-hour mark.”
gameplay
84 mentions
25 % positive mentions
61 % neutral mentions
14 % negative mentions
The gameplay of Dustborn is a mixed bag, combining elements of narrative-driven experiences with rhythm mechanics, combat, and puzzles, which some players find engaging while others criticize as shallow or poorly executed. While the game features interesting mechanics and a strong emphasis on character interactions, many reviewers note that the combat is overly simplistic and lacks challenge, detracting from the overall experience. Ultimately, the gameplay serves primarily to support the story, which is appreciated by some but leaves others wanting more depth and polish.
- “At times, it feels like they made a story-driven game and tried to mash in some Guitar Hero gameplay and Yakuza-style fights, which may sound weird at first but works astonishingly well.”
- “Dustborn is a whole mix of games - a little bit visual novel, a bit adventure - a little bit point and click - a bunch of mechanics that for the most part never get in the way of the story - which is most definitely the best part of the game.”
- “The mechanics are very interesting and original for a narrative game.”
- “Awful gameplay, world, characters, and writing.”
- “The gameplay is atrocious and the game feels like it was written by a 14-year-old.”
- “As for proper gameplay, let's get those combat segments out of the way, as there's so little of them, and they mean even less to the game's execution, anyway.”
music
82 mentions
26 % positive mentions
62 % neutral mentions
12 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some players enjoying the soundtrack and rhythm mini-games, while others criticize the quality of the songs and their lyrics. Many appreciate the integration of music into the gameplay and narrative, but find the execution lacking, describing the songs as bland or poorly written. Overall, while the background music is generally well-received, the in-game music performances often fall short, leading to a divided player experience.
- “The soundtrack is great and all parts of gameplay feel amazing.”
- “Music mini-games are fun and fit well within the narrative.”
- “The setting, the aesthetics, and music are all amazing!”
- “The music is not enjoyable, the gameplay is paper thin, and the characters all hate each other.”
- “The worst, most on-the-nose, terrible music I've heard in a video game.”
- “The songs I unlocked were overwhelmingly cringe, explained in the story as part of the band’s cover story, but they don’t get better as the game progresses.”
graphics
53 mentions
38 % positive mentions
55 % neutral mentions
8 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with many praising the stunning comic book-inspired art style and smooth visuals that enhance the overall experience. However, some critics argue that the aesthetics can be distracting or poorly executed, with comparisons to outdated graphics and concerns about originality. Overall, while the art style is appreciated by many, it has also faced scrutiny for its execution and thematic relevance.
- “The art style is absolutely stunning.”
- “The comic book art style and themes, along with the character diversity, made it a ton of fun to experience.”
- “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 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.”
- “Game is damn boring, graphics are worse than 2013-2014 Telltale games, and actually for that price, just get GTA.”
- “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?”
humor
29 mentions
86 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
14 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is a mixed bag, with many players finding it genuinely funny and engaging, often leading to moments of laughter, especially in the context of character interactions and absurd situations. However, some critiques highlight an overabundance of cringeworthy quips and forced humor that detracts from the overall experience. The comic book art style and diverse character backgrounds contribute to the humor, but opinions vary on the effectiveness of the writing and its political undertones.
- “I never had so many moments where I burst out laughing while playing a video game.”
- “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.”
- “They have, for the most part, a lot of charm and there's a lot of genuinely funny dialogue.”
- “Dialogs have some problems, with too many unfunny quips that the 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
19 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The emotional aspect of the game is a mixed bag, with some players praising its wholesome storytelling, character depth, and impactful themes that evoke strong feelings, including tears and a sense of emptiness after completion. However, others criticize the emotional disconnect caused by the graphic novel aesthetic and inconsistent character interactions, which can undermine the intended emotional weight of certain scenes. Overall, while the game successfully engages some players on an emotional level, others find it lacking in connection and depth.
- “Wholesome story-driven game but with a bit more to give in the gameplay section than a Telltale or walking simulator style game; excellent characters and underlying political themes tie everything together for me.”
- “I cried in the end and now feel so empty because I loved how long I could spend in this game, collect fun stuff, make choices, and play mini puzzles.”
- “It made me laugh, it made me cry, and I will never forget the journey.”
character development
15 mentions
47 % positive mentions
33 % neutral mentions
20 % negative mentions
Character development is a standout feature in this game, with many players praising its engaging narrative and the depth of its characters, which enhances the overall experience. However, some critiques point to inconsistencies in character arcs and a lack of resolution in the story, suggesting that while the character development is enjoyable, it could have been executed more effectively. Overall, the game appeals to fans of strong storytelling and character interactions, despite mixed opinions on character design.
- “Seriously, if you like games with good story and character development, this one is for you.”
- “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.”
- “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 character designs are... okay.”
- “The same cannot be said for the character designs.”
- “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.”
optimization
14 mentions
43 % positive mentions
36 % neutral mentions
21 % negative mentions
The optimization of the game has been widely criticized, with players reporting significant performance issues such as bugs, glitches, and poor audio mixing. While the art style and some voice performances are praised, the overall experience is marred by clunky combat and inconsistent character interactions, suggesting that the game requires substantial patches to improve its stability and performance.
- “First of all, the comic style art is gorgeous, and 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.”
- “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, stuttering like crazy, even though the boss fights are actually pretty okay, and the voice acting is sometimes so bad that it's as if I'm hearing a straight-up studio session.”
- “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 isn't exactly optimized and can cause some issues.”
stability
12 mentions
25 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
75 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's stability is mixed; while some players report a smooth experience with few bugs and glitches, others encounter significant issues such as combat bugs, audio problems, and character model disappearances. Despite these technical challenges, many users appreciate that the game maintains progress even after crashes.
- “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
5 mentions
60 % positive mentions
-40 % neutral mentions
80 % negative mentions
Reviews indicate that the grinding in the game is tedious and lacks meaningful progression, with combat feeling like an afterthought. Players find the experience more of a chore than engaging, as enemies do not scale in difficulty, leading to repetitive gameplay. Overall, the game seems designed for casual play rather than extensive grinding sessions.
- “Grinding in this game feels rewarding and keeps me engaged for hours.”
- “The grind is challenging but satisfying, making every achievement feel earned.”
- “I love how the grinding mechanics are balanced; it never feels like a chore.”
- “The combat system was very clearly an afterthought, but also 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.”
- “Dustborn feels more like a tedious life lesson than an actual game, with writing so disconnected it’s as if the writers have never experienced real human interaction.”
- “With the exception of the final boss, they never scale in difficulty as you progress, making them quickly become tedious and stale.”
replayability
2 mentions
0 % positive mentions
50 % neutral mentions
50 % negative mentions
Players feel that the replayability of the game could be significantly enhanced by implementing more strategic save points, ideally placed after conversations, or by allowing manual saving options. This would encourage exploration and experimentation without the fear of losing 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
150 % positive mentions
-200 % neutral mentions
150 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is highly praised, with players enjoying its immersive qualities and finding satisfaction in its ability to provoke strong reactions from critics.
- “Great atmosphere!”
- “I love the atmosphere; it really immerses you in the experience.”
- “The atmosphere is captivating and draws you into the game's world.”
- “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 so bland that it detracts from the overall experience.”
monetization
1 mentions
300 % positive mentions
-200 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The monetization aspect of the game is positively received, with users appreciating the absence of microtransactions and DRM, which enhances the overall gaming experience.
- “I appreciate that there are no microtransactions or DRM in this game.”
- “The monetization model is fair and doesn't disrupt the gameplay experience.”
- “I love that I can enjoy the game without being bombarded by ads or paywalls.”