Dustborn Review – A Super-Powerful Good Time

Dustborn on PlayStation 5

The power of language is at the core of everything Dustborn is about, making it an incredibly unique game. Exploring a time where the weaponization of information and how it is expressed can bring people together or sew even greater division between them, Red Thread Games’ single-player action-adventure aims to tell a relatable tale with a story-driven narrative in an alternate near future about hope, love, friendship, and robots.

With noble intentions and some fun ingredients on paper, most of what Dustborn sets out to do on paper is pulled off, making for a unique, heartfelt time overall. 

Set in the year 2030 in an alternate-history United States, Dustborn focuses on Pax – an exiled con artist/gig economy worker who’s been given the opportunity for a better life via a road trip of a lifetime by taking a stolen package from her home in Pacifica to Nova Scotia. 

Following an event in the year 2000 called “The Broadcast”, a mysterious signal of white noise, America saw the emergence of “Anomals”, individuals who’ve gained various superpowers based on the power of speech – including Pax and members of her present-day crew. However, this event 30 years prior also spread long-lasting fear, paranoia, and violence toward Anomals as a result of fear and misunderstanding, leading to their persecution. 

Traveling across the “Republic of America” on a robot-driven tour bus, Pax and her crew of friends with unique abilities aim to safely drop off their cargo and avoid the authoritarian Justice organization chasing them. That’s alongside avoiding suspicion from the inhabitants of a land where the concentration of fear-stoking disinformation towards Anomals is at its strongest, by making key decisions like choosing when is best to use your powers and in what way. 

Alternate-history “what if” stories are always interesting to explore, but Dustborn’s is fascinatingly fun to learn about – a great canvas on which the story can unfold. 

In a world where JFK’s wife is assassinated instead of himself, he sets up a federal homeland security force to enforce restorative justice and remarries Marilyn Monroe – the latter earning a legacy as “Lady Justice” from her time as the First Lady. When force becomes a neo-fascist army decades later, everything leads to a comic book-style road trip with millennial/gen-z X-Men in a Life is Strange/Telltale Games narrative.

Dustborn’s setting being so interesting helps the initial growing pains of getting used to its cast because, at first, they can be rather grating. Some character flaws are intentional to fit in with their “Vox” powers. For example, Pax manipulates emotions with negatively forceful commands to manipulate those to do what she wants. Noam’s “gaslighting” Vox invokes a sense of calm by getting people to believe she’s overreacting. 

However, some of the cast early on just feel brash and aggressively bratty for the sake of it – along with loud, cringey “OH. EM. GEE” humor coming across as the “how do you do, fellow kids?” meme. On the other hand, any dated comedy misfires in its script become far less noticeable over time as most of the cast begin to grow on you as the story’s personal stakes develop when you learn more about them. 

That’s especially true for Pax when you learn about her personal ties to the narrative and you start getting to know more about your crew in the relationship-management adventure gameplay loop. It’s one plenty of RPG/action-adventure fans will have experienced before, but you feel continuously driven to interact with each crew member after a mission to not only learn more about their role in this unique world and develop your special relationship with them but to hear from all of the stellar voice cast as well – letting each distinct personality shine through in the longer conversations within these quiet moments. 

To that end, as you make certain choices – mostly via dialogue options, including being able to use Pax’s Vox powers to manipulate people – those decisions carry extra weight since that steadily built investment will impact story developments and your endings with each crew member.

By this time, Dustborn’s chaptered, episodic narrative will have hooked you right in – gripping you with Red Thread’s skillful use of social commentary on the power of words & misinformation affecting society to make for a great story and gameplay angle. For instance, in Chapter 2, you’ll start discovering and collecting Echoes – ghostly fragments of disinformation left behind by the Broadcast, causing those near them to give into doubt and confusion before spreading hysteria to others. To combat the Echoes though, you use a device called the ME-EM to capture and collect them like a Ghostbuster, curing those who’ve been affected, and use them to craft new Vox powers for Pax to use.

In other games covering singular topics, this might be a little too on the nose since they may be culturally irrelevant soon after release. But since Dustborn’s societal woes of widespread misinformation and ignorance reflect real-world consequences of social media – those of which we’ll probably always be dealing with on some level throughout the years to come, you could say Dustborn’s lessons are actually timeless. What’s more, by putting these messages at the core of its gameplay, it becomes more engaging at the same time – as it makes you want to dive further into the alternate future sci-fi mystery of it all. 

Dustborn’s gameplay variety doesn’t stop there though. In its gameplay loop of traveling to your next destination to complete missions and hang out with your crew, you’ll also be performing gigs as the Dust Born band – occasionally throwing you into a rhythm game where you need to hit the right notes with your controller or keyboard, where you can also rehearse for practice and even write new music. 

The songs you can have Pax write and perform with the rest of the band make for a grand original soundtrack to eventually listen to on Spotify, but the rhythm game mechanic doesn’t really do much to break the mould. Nevertheless, you can opt out of some of it by not rehearsing when encouraged.

The other gameplay element is real-time, third-person combat – going into battle against various enemies with an upgradable bat and comrades, each with their own Vox powers to use and potential combos with your own. In a game where you’re dipping your toes into a selection of mechanics, there’s always at least one that will feel like it falls short – and Dustborn’s combat is the unlucky winner by far. 

While there are some fun points to going into battle, like being able to throw and recall your bat (similar to the Levithan Axe in God of War) or using Vox powers to buff your team or turn enemies against each other, the combat simply feels clunky. Alongside questionable camera angles and messy enemy/companion AI, every swing of Pax’s bat feels shallow and unresponsive. There are also special attacks and nefarious bosses to thwart, but none of the latter stand out outside of feeling as if you’re fighting a big brute one notch above a standard enemy. 

Thankfully, none of this impacts the enjoyment of the story as it gets better throughout the campaign, but that fact still doesn’t stop every combat encounter feeling like a chore.

Dustborn will take a few hours for you to get comfortable with the ride after you’ve strapped in. Afterwards, though, you’ll be immersed in an enthralling and heartfelt superpower adventure within an engrossing alternate version of a future United States. 

When you’re able to get through the half-baked combat, the eventually delightful cast and clever and powerful narrative around the impact of words and misinformation make it more than worth the effort.