Numerous gaming and media outlets are attempting to convince gamers to purchase Red Thread Games’ controversial left wing political adventure game Dustborn. However, it appears to be having no effect whatsoever as gamers have outright rejected the game.
Key art from Dustborn (2024), Red Thread Games
Carli Velocci over at Games Radar explains the game’s story, “Dustborn is first and foremost a visual novel of sorts where you play as Pax, who teams up with a group of friends and strangers to deliver a valuable package across the Republic of America to a resistance movement in Canada while pretending to be a touring punk band called the Dustborn. All of this is to hopefully be free of the oppression and danger of a f*scist, broken America.”
And Velocci has high praise for this, “Combined with its oddly sustained length, the sheer amount of topics and issues it wants to address, and its growing cast of colorful LGBTQ+ characters, it almost lives up to its promise as an epic, political road trip saga about people with superpowers.”
A screenshot from Dustborn (2024), Red Thread Games
READ: ‘Dustborn’ Fails to Hit 100 Concurrent Players On Release Day
Over at Forbes, Matt Gardner admits, “Dustborn is among the most unrepentantly liberal and left-leaning games out there.”
Nevertheless, he also attempts to convince readers to purchase the game by claiming you just need to have an open mind, “If you have an open mind and you’re willing to give it time to grow, Dustborn is a fun trip, even if it occasionally feels like it’s trying to be a bit too edgy for its own good–especially for the type of people who will immediately click with its socio-political outlook. Of course I know them–they’re me.”
A screenshot from Dustborn (2024), Red Thread Games
Diego Nicolás Argüello at Polygon aptly describes the game, “The road-trip story begins with a group of four 30-year-olds inside a minivan, making their escape after a heist. The mission is to make it across an alternate-reality version of the United States to eventually deliver their stolen package in Nova Scotia, Canada. Your biggest obstacle is avoiding surveillance from Justice, a fascist regime that’s particularly interested in persecuting Anomals. These are people who can speak certain words to invoke special powers after a mysterious event that took place decades ago.”
He later acknowledges, “As much as Dustborn leans into its science fiction setting, its story is told from a viewpoint that has clear parallels to reality. There are nods to jokes like “my husband and I saw you from across the bar” as well as mentions of “woke mind virus” speeches and how blatantly stupid they are.”
Similar to Gardner, Argüello concludes his review writing, “In a game informed by decisions, the most gratifying choices didn’t involve a right answer — they were about getting a different perspective.”
A screenshot from Dustborn (2024), Red Thread Games
Despite these outlets and writers attempting to sell this title to their readers, it appears they have had absolutely zero effect. As of writing, there are only 35 people playing the game and the game’s peak concurrent player numbers only hit 83 when the game initially went on sale on Steam.
SteamDB player numbers for Dustborn (2024), Red Thread Games
In contrast, the game was added to KabrutusRambo’s Sweet Baby Inc. detected Steam curator list as well as his DEI Detected website. He describes the game, “Dustborn is basically DEI-The Game. It has everything you could hope from a DEI game: forced diversity, virtue signaling, self-insertions,” all being “forced down the player’s throat, a bunch of alphabet people.”
He adds, “It also features the most soy-filled combat mechanic I’ve ever seen: you fight with the ‘power of words’! Yes, in this game ‘words can hurt’ and the whole combat system revolves around this premise. They don’t even try hiding it, do they?”
A screenshot from Dustborn (2024), Red Thread Games
Dustborn appears to be the latest in a growing list of games that are identified as DEI-infested by KabrutusRambo and others that gamers are simply refusing to purchase.
The list includes, but is not limited to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Forspoken, Tales of Kenzera: Zau, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, and Alan Wake 2.
A screenshot from Dustborn (2024), Red Thread Games
What do you make of gamers not purchasing the game despite these access media outlets trying to convince them to?
