Controversy and gaming are never far apart these days. It seems every week there is a new storm in a tea cup, or molehill being turned into a mountain. And the latest hot topic is Norwegian Red Thread Games‘ newest title, Dustborn.
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Dustborn is also published by Quantic Dream, a studio themselves who are no strangers to grabbing headlines. Quantic Dream, founded by David Cage, have given us titles like Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human.
Action in Inverted Commas
Dustborn is a comic book inspired single-player story-driven “action-adventure”, think of the studio’s past works, or Don’t Nod’s Life is Strange series and you’ll have a good idea of what awaits.
That is, 70% chatting and 30% gameplay-ish. Dustborn is billed as a tale of hope, love, friendships, robots, and the power of words.
Over Journey Starts in Real-World 2016…
A little bit more history on the game. Dustborn started development in 2016 and the studio have said in interviews pre-launch that it’s been “influenced by a series of political events that deeply affected us all, beginning in the summer of 2016 and continuing until, well, today.”
2016 was the year Britain voted to leave the European Union, Donald Trump was elected U.S. President against a backdrop of Russian interference. Syria was also brewing a civil war, and number of major terror attacks occurred around the world. And to top it all off, every single celebrity you loved died.
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Hence, 2016 as the catalyst to create a tale for a videogame is appropriate. And comes loaded with a certain tone.
Friendly Break-Up
Dustborn is set in 2030 and sees the US breaking into Justice-controlled American Republic. The game follows a road trip of sorts, where you play as Pax – a member of a band on the run from an epic job that has gone wrong.
Pax and her crew Theo, Noam and Sai are tasked with transporting the package from Pacifica to Nova Scotia, across the Justice-controlled American Republic. The hook here is that Pax and co are sort of X-Men. Insofar as they have powers. For example, Pax can manipulate language in a sort of Jedi way.
Forgetting It’s a Game
Things quickly turn as the tale unloads it political message and begins to wave around an agenda as if the game wants to its politics to be seen front and centre rather than make any attempt to work it into a game. The themes so inelegantly paraded touch on oppression, rebellion, and, again, the power and use of language.
Dustborn draws strong parallels to real world issues and situations. But, it does so in very ham-fisted ways. The force and frequency with which the message is parlayed turns the game into a commentary piece rather quickly. Stuff like singing a song about how refugees are welcome to border cops is shoehorned in with absolutely zero craft.
Briefly Remembering It’s a Game
Gameplay sees you spending a lot of your time talking and bonding with your crew and the cast of support characters, or bashing robots’ skulls in with a light bit of combat and puzzle-ish solving, or playing songs as the band along the way.
As a game, it’s mechanically dull. The rhythm mini-games are fun, but overly simplistic. The combat is shallow and more like a chore than a highlight.
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And, Dustborn does nothing in the new narrative-driven tale space. You have seen all the game has to offer before in some better shape or better form.
Not for Me, Probably Not for You Either
Now, I personally think you should do and be what you want as long as you’re happy. But, the message around which Dustborn is built is mishandled. The writing flips from sharp one moment, to being just out of place, or worse still, preachy.
More often than not, when it’s trying to tackle its more complex subject matters, Dustborn tries way too hard to boil it down to a witty one liner. And that’s its biggest issue – trying way too hard throughout the game to deliver the message. Time and time again with little style and zero finesse.
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I loved Road 96, which is, on its surface, a thoroughly message-driven game. But at no time did I feel it was preaching to me. Instead it left me to find the message on my own.
Gorgeous Look
Visually, Dustborn‘s comic book art-style is bold, vibrant and dynamic. Honestly, Dustborn is often a feast for the eyes. Every scene looks as if it was lifted from a graphic novel. The game’s striking visual identity is also helped by a consistency to its art.
The audio of Dustborn is well handled. The core cast do a solid shift, even if some conversations go on a bit too long. For a game seemingly so fixated on the power of words, the devs seemed to forget about the power of editing.
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On top of the oft too lengthy conversations, you can’t skip what you have already heard. The soundtrack by Simon Poole delivers a perfect blend of punk rock tracks to frame the games rebellious spirit.
Missing Its Target
Dustborn is a game that has heart and style. However, its torrent of political commentary, and how it’s delivered, is exhausting. Then again, I am a 38-year-old white heterosexual male from a sleepy back waters village and as such, I am not the target audience for this.
However, I would imagine that the target audience will also be left feeling numbed by the barrage.
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At times, I would imagine the target audience might feel talked down to. Dustborn feels the need to explain everything rather than trusting the player to align their own experiences with the characters or events unfolding on screen.
It’s a game that started life fuelled by passion, made with a vision and born from the ‘anti-woke’ movement that swept Trump to power and the UK out of the EU. But, the game clearly lost its way to an unshakable desire to make a statement more than an enjoyable game.