In recent years we have seen the unpleasant resurgence of fascism. It is not surprising that many people – especially those belonging to minorities – are trying to flee the countries where it has managed to come to power. Dustbornthe new game from the creators of Dreamfallshows us this painful scenario through a punk band with fantastic powers that travels across the United States from coast to coast.
This title can be described as an adventure game in the style of Life is Strange or Telltale titles like The Walking DeadIts most important elements are the conversations we have with other characters and the decisions we make to alter the course of the story. It also has exploration, rhythm mini-games and even combat.
Pax and her friends have no future in Pacifica, where people with Anomalous powers like them are discriminated against and persecuted. The opportunity to escape presents itself to them along with a plan to steal something from the authorities and travel to the East Coast of the North American Republic to flee the country. It all seems very simple, but nothing ever is.
We are Dustborn!
The idea of people with powers being treated as outcasts is clearly inspired by X-Menbut that doesn’t stop it from having its own personality. Also, The cast is made up of very diverse characters of different races, sexual identities and religions that fit very well into this cruel metaphor about discrimination.
The story and character development are excellentespecially that of protagonist Pax thanks to the way we can guide her relationships with her companions through our dialogue choices. Each companion—Sai, Noam, Theo, Zee, Eli, and Viola—can earn points toward different “codas” that determine that character’s ending and responses to certain events. But those mechanics aren’t clear enough, and it’s confusing to figure out which choices alter which coda. That can make replaying the game for different endings frustrating.
Pax’s powers allow him to convince or force someone to do something just by hearing his voice. This can be used in combat to force enemies to fight each other or freeze them in place, but its main use is during dialogue and socializing moments. It might seem like choosing the right command at the right time is a bit of a puzzle, but the truth is that the system simply asks us to exhaust the options until we choose the right one. This is not only disappointing on a mechanical level, but narratively. The game forces us to use this power at times when it is not warranted.. NIt doesn’t feel good to see Pax manipulate the people he loves like this.
Combat Rhythm
Talking, exploring small scenarios, and choosing dialogue options can eventually become tiresome in a 15-hour game. Surely that was what worried the developers of Dustborn when they decided to include combat and rhythm mechanics in the game.
That was a bad idea.
There is no other way to say it: The combat mechanics are very bad
The rhythm minigame is much better implemented into the story, but it’s not all that fun either. It feels like a bland remake of other music titles. At least the game’s original songs are good.
There are other mechanics like searching for Echoes in the scenarios (which are used to learn new Voice powers) and there are special moments like a motorcycle escape that has us throwing Molotov cocktails at our pursuers. Like the previous elements, they are nothing special and sometimes feel like filler.
A very bumpy ride
Just because I enjoy the dialogue, the personalities of the protagonists, and the story doesn’t mean I want to sit and listen to every syllable of dialogue, but Dustborn forced me to do it. At least in the pre-release version, There is no way to skip or complete lines of dialogue. This is absurd in a modern game and makes the pace slow down too much..
While the voice acting is generally very good during dialogue, it is absolutely terrible during combat. Pax is voiced by actress Dominique Tipper —who I loved in the series The Expanse
I wish that was the last of the flaws to mention, but there are more — many more. The graphics are very good and the animation with flat shading (cel-shading) fits perfectly with the comic style it has Dustbornbut the game has very poor performance. Frame drops are constant. Animations have a lot of glitches, collision problems and the characters’ expressions don’t match their supposed mood.
Is it worth crossing the Republic?
After carefully analyzing all its qualities and defects, I came to the conclusion that Dustborn It’s not a bad game, but it has too many problems to recommend it.. Its story is great and I loved all of its characters. That was enough to make me want to see it through to the end… but it was a journey with a lot of suffering. The fights are too boring, the pace is glacial due to not being able to skip lines of dialogue, and the performance drops made everything even more difficult. It’s up to you to decide if the adventures and misadventures of Pax and his friends are interesting enough to withstand its negative points.
This review was made with a digital copy of Dustborn for PlayStation 5 provided by Quantic Dream. This game will be available for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Series X|S and PC (Steam and Epic Games Store) from Tuesday, August 20, 2024.
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