On the Gamescom Opening Night Live 2023, a new interactive story-driven game called Dustborn was released. It is an action-adventure single-player game with a story based on hope, love, friendships, robots, and words. Dustborn is published by Quantic Dream but is developed by an indie company, Red Thread Games.
The players play as an exiled con artist called Pax, who is an Anomal. Anomal is a person who possesses the power to weaponize words. Pax goes on an adventure across America to transport a package to an important organization, which also turns into an interesting and life-changing journey for her.
The game includes interactive moments that let you build and manage your crew, fight off robots, and complete quests until you reach your destination across the barren and robot-filled lands of America. This makes the story intriguing and fun, so do give this game a try.
The graphics of the game have a rich color scheme with 3D world-building. The art style gives you the feeling that you are looking into a visual novel in motion. Here is the announcement trailer which shows the gameplay of Dustborn.
A feature that is quite new for the gaming world is the introduction to “weaponized words” combat. Apart from melee weapons, the marketed way of fighting is through words. The game explains how weapons can be used for good and bad, and its use depends on the person and their morals. In an interview, the lead writer and creative director of Red Thread Games, Ragnar Tørnquist explained,
“Dustborn is a real-time experience, and using weaponized words in combat and conversations will often require quick thinking and split-second choices. The way words are used in different situations differ mechanically, but the idea is the same: you can threaten and coerce, charm and distract, and use positive and negative reinforcement to manipulate your friends and foes. Context and intent matter.”
Until now, the game has garnered a lot of attention, and not all of it is praise. Many gamers believe that the game is not relatable for a wide-scale audience as the characters are based on a super niche group of people. The diversity shown in every character has left gamers wanting at least one character who was usual to be present as playable.
The game is set to release in the first quarter of 2024 with no exact date revealed yet. However, the platforms are confirmed which include PC, PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox One, and Series X. If you want a cuter alternative to this in the meantime, check out Calico or these other Indie Games that are already released.
