Dustborn (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, £24.99)
Verdict: Too many parts
Wow, Dustborn is a lot, even if it doesn’t necessarily seem that way at first.
There you are, a woman named Pax, on the run from the law in some sort of future America, after committing a robbery with her team of friends in the style of the X-Men.
They all pose as a punk band on a tour bus as they speed toward the border. They spend their time engaged in painfully honest conversations about their problems, society, oppression, and that sort of thing.
So this is going to be like a Telltale game, right? A narrative experience where the plot progresses based on the dialogue choices you make? Keep choosing your own adventure until you achieve freedom (or not).
Wow, Dustborn is a lot. Even if it doesn’t necessarily seem that way at first (Image taken from the Dustborn trailer)
Ustborn’s tone swings between seriousness, comedy, and wild sci-fi imagination, and the result is a game as raucous as its bright comic book art style.
And Dustborn is like that, except it starts to accentuate the experience with other forms of gameplay.
Since you’re pretending to be in a band, there are moments where you have to perform your (terrible) songs by tapping the controller buttons in time with the music.
There are other times when you and your crew use your powers (and baseball bats) to subdue the robots.
These interludes could be a nice break from all the chatter, but they’re more like whiplash.
Add to this Dustborn’s shifting tones between seriousness, comedy, and heavy doses of sci-fi imagination, and you have a game as loud as its brilliant comic book art style.
As I say, it’s a lot. There’s a lot to enjoy here (not least the relaxed camaraderie between Pax and his weird friends), but also too many distractions, too many unevenness.
Sometimes you just have to run to the border.
Kunitsu-Gami: Path Of The Goddess (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, £39.99 or included with Xbox Game Pass)
Verdict: A fabulous hike
Wise old bastards say that going down a mountain is even harder than going up. But what if the mountain has been invaded by terrible demons? That is certainly the hardest descent of all.
It’s also the basic plot of Kunitsu-Gami: Path Of The Goddess, one of the most intriguing games of the year.
You, as Soh, a mystical warrior in feudal Japan, must shepherd Yoshiro, a maiden with special purifying powers, up a mountain that has been corrupted by an evil power known as The Seethe.
Kunitsu-Gami: Path Of The Goddess is one of the most intriguing games of the year (Screenshot from Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess Kunitsu-Gami)
An incredibly satisfying hybrid, and oddly beautiful too. Kunitsu-Gami is a riot of violets, pinks, yellows, reds and oranges, like an English country garden in full bloom.
Together, with a mixture of power and mercy, you make the mountain good again.
If this makes Kunitsu-Gami sound simple, don’t worry: it’s not. It’s a unique blend of at least a dozen gameplay ideas, starting with its all-important day-night cycle. Daylight hours are a time to explore, rescue local villagers, and prepare defenses, while the darker hours are a time to protect Yoshiro from the claws and mewls of hellish monsters.
And “protect,” in this case, means a mix of action and strategy. As Soh, you run around, attacking anything that writhes. But you also order villagers to stand in specific places and take on specific roles to push back the wave of relentless horrors.
An incredibly satisfying hybrid, and oddly pretty too. Kunitsu-Gami is a riot of purple, pink, yellow, red and orange hues, like an English country garden in full bloom.
Except we’re actually on the side of a Japanese mountain, riding down a hill and showing the goats who’s the BEST.
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