In Dustborn, the quiet moments speak loudest

GamesAdventureIn Dustborn, the quiet moments speak loudestWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Red Thread Games)

Characters share a conversation over knitting in the back of the Dustborn bus.

Dustbornis a game with a lot going on. A complex, politically messy alternate-earth setting, persecuted misfit heroes with vocal-based superpowers (it’s all rather X-Men, social justice commentary and all), conspiracies, adventures, a heist getaway plan that includes a pop-punk band tour across America—all of that and a bag of chips, wrapped in a sharp comic book aesthetic and told through a mixture of bantery, Bioware-ish RPG-lite action and Telltale-style episodic decision making.

Dustborn makes negative space a primary feature. It dedicates an uncommon amount of its (respectably beefy) play-time to just sitting down and talking through recent events with your crew. Lengthy after-action camping sequences divide episodes of adventure, and even during tense encounters characters will stop for a breather to talk through their feelings about the situation and each other. No gruff action-men conveying all their thoughts and feelings with a grunt and a nod here; superpowers aside, these are soft and fragile people with things to say, and the game gives them plenty of time to say it.

Talking heads

Negative space has always been an important part of games, especially when there’s a lot of plot or game mechanics to digest. Our squishy, porous brain-meats need time to properly sort, collate and comprehend what they’ve been up to. Often, this just takes the form of busywork, be it long travel times or inventory shuffling. It gives theplayersroom to breathe, but the cast are often expected to do a Hollywood walk-and-talk, ideally with the snappiest possible banter. Dustborn goes its own way and dedicates what feels like almost half its length to making these quiet segments memorable in their own way.

(Image credit: Red Thread Games)

The Dustborn cast pauses in a darkened stairwell.

While many of these sequences can be tapped out of early or even skipped entirely, I feel that they’re the heart of the experience. Each camp-site or location to sit down is a bespoke environment, often featuring the characters in fresh outfits and new poses. As the characters occupy themselves with their own hobbies and obsessions, you get to wander around and listen to them chatting, or sit down for a one-on-one and see how they’re feeling.

These quiet moments aren’t without mechanical value in Dustborn, either. Each of your crew have several named facets to their personality which can be encouraged or suppressed through dialogue choices. The game is keen to stress that none are explicitly good or bad—they’re just different ways for the story to play out. Those personality profiles offer different dialogue during quieter moments, but they can also determine what options are available during adventure sequences. When stranded on a highway with no easy routes out, stealing a truck might be an option if you’ve encouraged your party engineer’s more pragmatic side. But if you’ve nurtured their idealistic streak, they might reject that plan, forcing a search for an alternative solution.

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

(Image credit: Red Thread Games)

The cast of Dustborn sit around a canyonside campfire.

Fundamentally, it’s nothing new. Plenty of games have echoed the party member moments that BioWare made famous with Mass Effect and Dragon Age; the recent Baldur’s Gate 3 had its share of campsite conversations when your companions weren’t frantically trying to jump your bones. But Dustborn feels like a more extreme extrapolation, using the downtime to properly deconstruct and analyze itself through the lenses of its diverse and often disagreement-prone band of heroes. It’s not a trick that every game can pull off, and the indulgently long dialogues aren’t something that other mediums could easily manage.

It won’t be Dustborn’s clumsy combat sequences that’ll see me through to its end. It’ll be its characters, and the meandering conversations we share in the moments between.

More about adventureThank Goodness You’re Here! reviewTrain like you game with this adventure-inspired workoutLatestThe best part of Marvel Rivals Season 1 is Mister Fantastic’s obnoxiously fun chest-bump attack and his ridiculously OP kitSee more latest►

More about adventureThank Goodness You’re Here! reviewTrain like you game with this adventure-inspired workout

More about adventure

Thank Goodness You’re Here! reviewTrain like you game with this adventure-inspired workout

Thank Goodness You’re Here review

Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

Personal Trainer Tyler Buckingham and the Train Like You Game logo

Train like you game with this adventure-inspired workout

LatestThe best part of Marvel Rivals Season 1 is Mister Fantastic’s obnoxiously fun chest-bump attack and his ridiculously OP kitSee more latest►

Latest

The best part of Marvel Rivals Season 1 is Mister Fantastic’s obnoxiously fun chest-bump attack and his ridiculously OP kit

Mister Fantastic mid ultimate

The best part of Marvel Rivals Season 1 is Mister Fantastic’s obnoxiously fun chest-bump attack and his ridiculously OP kit

See more latest►

Most Popular

‘It’s simply impossible to make a difficulty level that’s just right for all players’: How Final Fantasy 14’s lead battle designer has been playing a precarious balancing game for Dawntrail’s dungeons and raids

Please join me in getting super excited for all the cool looking survival games coming in 2025 (and beyond)

Competitive shooters are at a crucial crossroads in 2025: ‘sweaty’ teamplay vs. casual fun

Call of Duty’s $28 Squid Game skins are the perfect crossover for our capitalist dystopia, and Activision knows exactly what it’s doing

These are the 14 biggest upcoming RPGs of 2025—get ready for another amazing year for the genre

Five new Steam games you probably missed (January 6, 2025)

I’ve seen enough: No more forcing singleplayer studios to make mediocre live service games

6 games that could be bigger hits than you’re expecting in 2025

What are your 2025 gaming resolutions?

The FBI put a $5 million bounty on the ‘Cryptoqueen’ last year but still hasn’t found her, so take your pick: Russia, South Africa, or murdered on a yacht in 2018

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review4Ikea Utespelare desk review5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

A bunch of the best Steam Deck accessories on a blue background.

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

Thank Goodness You’re Here review

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review

3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

4Ikea Utespelare desk review

Ikea Utespelare desk review

5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Talking heads#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

Talking heads

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals