Unbelievable what can come out these days. A videogame that is putting cancel culture on a pedestal as something "right" and teaching absolute insane levels of toxicity from people that are (apparently) against toxicity and want equality, equity (God I hate that word) and love.
When you dissect the game it gets pretty disturbing because of the idea that there are people out there that honestly believe in what this game is preaching.
Dustborn faced intense criticism upon release, often labeled as one of the worst games ever made. However, much of the backlash was driven by unfortunate timing, as it launched during a period of growing frustration among gamers over the increasing presence of radical political themes in the industry. Additionally, its release came just days before Concord, one of the biggest flops in gaming history, further fueling excessive negativity and rage-bait content, unusual for an indie title.
In reality, is not a disaster, but rather a mediocre game, which is a big burden in an industry overflowing with great choices. As a narrative-driven experience, it suffers from poor writing, weak character development, and a lack of understanding from its own writers. The game relies heavily on exposition, violating the basic storytelling principle of show, don’t tell. Instead of experiencing the world, players are simply told about it.
Gameplay-wise, it's a very shallow game all around as everything lacks depth. The combat is repetitive; the RPG elements fail to evolve over time and the band dynamic is atrocious.
One of the game’s core mechanics revolves around using language as a weapon, allowing players to influence others through dialogue-based interactions. While this concept is intriguing, its execution feels underdeveloped, often reducing choices to simplistic outcomes rather than meaningful player agency.
Visually, it has strong artistic direction, with comic book-inspired aesthetics, solid voice acting and brings a few new ideas to the genre. However, these elements can’t compensate for the narrative collapse in Act 2, leading to a rushed, unsatisfying ending, a road trip story where you never reach the destination.
Ultimately, Dustborn is a niche game. Even for those who appreciate its themes, the story’s structural failures make it a frustrating experience.
For a full breakdown, check out my in-depth review at Nines.tv or search "Nines TV Dustborn" on YouTube.
The characters are unlikable. The dialogue is awkward. The combat is clunky. And don't even get me started on how the game pretends like cancelling or bullying people is all right if done to "bad people" (which in this case means people the "protagonists" disagree with).
"Dreamfall Chapters" (much as I dislike that game) is nothing like this game. Not even close. But at least its characters weren't completely unlikable. "Road 96" does the oppressive government theme far better. "Gone Home" or "Caravan SandWitch" do LGBT themes far better.
Steam still has the demo for this game, if you want to see with your own eyes just how bad it is. Don't waste your money.
I bought this on STEAM several months ago when it debuted. I though..."Hmmm....it might be interesting." Well, I could not have been more wrong. Needless to say, it was refunded in about thirty minutes. This is no game at all. It has the facade of a point and click game, but it's actually just a forced social narrative in an Alternate Universe. The characters are absolutely modern stereotypes of what modern people should be...in the minds of...well....the modern establishment. The diaolog is cringeworthy, the mechanics of gaslighting, cancelling, and bullying are implemented to get the characters' ways in a situation. Basically, this game is trying to turn you into a a cliche while slowly mind raping you.
On the other hand, this might actually be the greatest TROLL and biggest joke ever perpetrated on the gaming community. Ever heard of Joaquin Phoenix? Yeah..he trolled Hollywood for years acting crazily and doing insane things...just to have it all be a big troll at the end culminating in a movie. If this is what Ragnar has done, then he's a genius. I highly highly doubt it though.
My original review of this game got deleted, something iv never experienced once before on this site, so I will be writing down exactly why this game, that used tax money to be funded, is not a good game and is very toxic to its core.
Art style: This game seems to be going for a cell shaded like art style. Think of games like XIII and Cel Damage. This may be the only positive thing about this game because its not that bad, but compared to the other 2 games I just mentioned it still looks off to me. It also doesn't help that the characters are just not that pleasant to look at too. Not a fan of the character design for anyone.
Music: Pretty dull and forgettable. Background music/ambience is just kinda there and doesn't really catch your attention at all while playing the game. The music that comes from the mini-games are also pretty dull and not good too. Maybe this is someones style of music, its not mine.
Characters: This is the big one because I can say with confidence that pretty much every character is an annoying piece of garbage in some way. Person doesn't agree with you in game? THEY must be the bad ones! This is something you have to see to believe but yes, these characters are downright evil and if your anything like me, if you hate the main characters in a game you just don't care about their goal.
Gameplay: Clunky, is the best way to put it. Hitting enemys feels off, the hit boxes feel off, the powers you get like "PUSH" dont feel like they have a big oomph to them when they should. People have compared it to Dark Souls and while that is accurate, I would compare it more to Dark Souls 2 if Dark Souls 2's combat was even clunkier and weird. Its just not fun at all. There is also things like being able to cancel people, bully people, ect. You have seen it all already and yes, its absolutely disgusting and makes you hate the main characters more.
Overall: This is a mistake of a game that is toxic and again, used tax payers money to fund. Avoid this.
