We all have our favorite creators, be they writers, filmmakers or game directors, whose work we admire no matter the subject matter. For me, Ragnar Tornqvist is one such creator: this post is not about the Dreamfall saga, which began a full quarter of a century ago with The Longest Journey (he winces with arthritis), but I urge anyone to seek it out and dare them to fall in love with the world he has masterfully created.
The Dreamfall series ended a decade ago, but Dust is a spiritual sequel. It’s a big road trip through the near-future “Split State,” where a bunch of weirdos with superpowers hurtle from the Pacific Ocean (California) to Nova Scotia (Nova Scotia) in a big silver bus while masquerading as a touring punk band. Like his previous work, it blends sci-fi and fantasy, this time combining cyberpunk technology with mystical shamanism in a world that’s half-inspired by Mad Max and half-inspired by Tumblr culture (both are kind of wastelands involving leather pants).
Yes, Dustborn is the kind of game that tells you every character’s pronouns. It’s probably the kind of game that wants you to ask for their consent before you start it. It’s all very modern, and while I don’t doubt its sincerity, it feels inauthentic. I don’t know if it’s meant to appeal directly to genderfluid and neurodiverse people, or if it’s more designed to annoy those who think pronouns are a threat to civilization while being indifferent to the rise of fascism or climate change—both of which are strong themes in Dustborn. Before I knew about Ragnar Tornqvist’s involvement, I remarked to my wife that the dialogue felt like Gen X writing for Gen Z. Kind of… “How are you, fellow countrymen?” Ruins the mood of everything. While he’s obviously not the only writer on the game, people still notice that he’s 53. You get what you pay for.
The dialogue is… not everyone’s cup of tea. It’ll test most people’s tolerance for awkwardness. And it doesn’t help that the combat system’s special moves are all built around text. The player character, Pax, is a composer whose ability to swing a baseball bat is enhanced by her ability to use “the shout,” which is, for all intents and purposes, a form of magic that allows for self-healing and crowd control via telepathy and mind control. In the game world, Pax maintains this power by constantly chattering during combat. That’s not a criticism on my part: the game’s enemies constantly point this out and politely ask them to stop. One of their battle cries is “Girlboss!”, which is probably enough to explain how well-intentioned yet pointless it all is. It’s like if the ships in Mass Effect were called Hillary Clinton.
Would anyone really say that? (Yes — edit)… My children are almost adults, and they’re at the intersection of all those demographics, and I can’t imagine they feel particularly represented by the way these characters speak and interact. They feel more like caricatures imagined by right-wing commentators than the real people they’re meant to represent.
Dustborn is, however, a brilliant piece of work. If you can accept that this is indeed how people talk to each other in a chaotic landscape of 2030s America, you’ll find the characters’ various quirks and foibles to be quite endearing. And they have a lot to do here. While it’s a linear road trip game with a fairly rigid narrative style, there was a dizzying fusion of genres in the 2-3 hour preview we played. It’s a point-and-click adventure game with a savvy dialogue system that allows for dynamic physical interaction with the world space even during conversations. It’s a hack-and-slash combat game with menu-driven special abilities and party packs. It’s a creepy exploration game with slight horror elements, in which you explore an empty high school full of decommissioned robots in weird poses you could swear were looking at you… It’s a rhythm game with a bunch of original pop-punk tracks that you perform at an impromptu concert for a group of otherwise well-meaning motorcycle gangs who you just kicked in the head four minutes ago.
As mentioned before, it’s also inspired by BioWare. The bus is your Normandy. Camps between missions function similarly to the off-mission ship dynamic in Mass Effect, or the camps in Dragon Age: Origins. Take advantage of that lovely dialogue system to strengthen your various relationships and/or romances. Give your friends gifts stolen from the fields. Practice your guitar (though sadly there’s no option to ruin a good night by singing Wonderwall or The Drugs Don’t Work at the top of your lungs). You can even choose to wash the dishes more than once, a mechanic that feels as perfunctory as closing the fridge door. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. One can’t help but wonder if this will be a great joke for the entire game.
I can’t wait to find out. Actually, Guardians of the Galaxy is probably the most apt comparison, because it’s also a decent action road trip with a great cast, but everyone turned their noses up at it because of the annoying chatter. But the thing is, strangers on the bus with you and your buddies are annoying to listen to. For now, we’re just strangers on this bus: this gorgeous comic book bus with its quirky crew and their guitars. I’m intrigued by what’s out there and I’m really looking forward to the full game, I believe in its heritage and how much fun it is to go on a big Benny Hill chase with a desert motorcycle gang.
Dustborn rolled into the bus station on August 20, serving Playstation, Xbox and PC.
