The way video games are made and delivered to players, they can often be specific enough to get categorised into buckets of other similar experiences. You have your action adventures, your roleplaying games, your first-person shooters, but for Red Thread Games‘ Dustborn, the whole point of this narrative journey is to blur the lines and put players through all sorts of situations. It promises to be messy, and that’s actually quite invigorating.
As part of our early preview of the story-driven, action-adventure set in 2030s America, we were put through the gauntlet. There was plenty of dialogue with choice options to show off your personality, the environment could be interacted with in a variety of ways, point-and-click sleuthing gave way to 3D hacking and slashing, and all the while, we were learning a little bit more about this future dystopia as it suddenly became a rhythm game.
Trying to put Dustborn into a box hardly works, and it is clear that this was the intention all along. The way the world is set up and the dialogue the various characters go through are certainly not shying from the more pressing topics of our current lives. Climate change and gender politics are just some of the themes that are being explored, and depending on your proclivities, this can either make or break your experience.
With Pax, the main character, having the literal ability to weaponize words, it isn’t a surprise that the language used in much of Dustborn is loud and proud. Getting used to the more progressive language, as well as the colourful cast of characters, will either serve as a clarion call for players or a clear red flag for those who prefer things in other ways.
What won’t be controversial is just how good everything feels when put together, even as crazy as it sounds. Individuals with special powers banding together and masquerading as a punk-rock band while travelling across the country makes for a really interesting trip. There is plenty of room for relationships and characters to develop, even if we didn’t manage to see it fully in action, but what was shown was enough to tip the scale in the positive direction of the likes of Life is Strange and the Telltale games. Put that together with varied gameplay, and you have a concoction that is sure to make an impression.
At the very least, the gorgeous visuals will be something for people to hold on to, effectively immersing players in this alternate world that Red Thread Games is fleshing out and looking extremely good while doing so. Even if we were given the keys to the tour bus in the middle of nowhere, we are intrigued enough to want to keep putting the pedal to the metal, and see just where Dustborn takes us this August.
Dustborn will launch on August 20 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
