Dustborn is a rhythm adventure beat-em-up game by Red Thread Games that was just released on PC and consoles. Its developer Red Thread Games released a statement condemning a review-bomb campaign related to culture war issues.
The review-bombing is due to the fact that Dustborn has political themes. Dustborn does very clearly pick a side in the culture wars. It has a left-leaning perspective, and you play as progressive activists who are in a punk band that are fighting a right-wing government in an alternative version of America.
It is not too surprising that some gamers on the other side of the culture war would have a bone to pick with the game, similarly to how last week, some gamers had a bone to pick with Soulash 2.
It’s worth pointing out in both cases, the developers have doubled down on their positions rather than apologize or edit their games.
‘We expected Dustborn to spark conversation and debate and looked forward to engaging with our players in a positive and constructive fashion,” Red Thread Games said. “Unfortunately, that conversation has been drowned out by a tidal wave of hate and abuse. We welcome thoughtful feedback and respectful criticism.”
They added, “We embrace discussion and debate. But we have zero tolerance for hate speech, harassment, and threats of any kind. Those who engage in such behavior will be removed from our community.”
At the time of writing, Dustborn is sittong on a Mostly Positive review rating average of 75% positive compared to 25% negative. Most of its negative criticism was seemingly posted on social media platforms like Twitter/X and Facebook.
It does not appear to have been negatively review-bombed as I’ve seen some outlets suggest, but it’s possible the accounts engaging in negative review bombing were simply banned by Steam.
I did find some oddly phrased reviews. For instance, one review states: “the game is aesthetically repulsive and an insult to the entire project of world-civilization,” yet this reviewer rated the game a thumbs up.
The review is clearly trolling, but most of the reviewers who gave a positive review are thoroughly sincere. For example, one reviewer defended the game, saying:
“I don’t care one iota about the political stuff. But yes, I can see that the characters are hyper-representative of… everything. I do want to point out that some people actually experience that in their friends groups, especially when they’re queer. This crew looks like the kind of people I’m usually around. Its not ‘unrealistic’. But it may be so alien to you that you just can’t enjoy it, and I get that. I feel the same way when I’m dragged into a religious service for whatever reason. I wish we’d quit trying to shoot down each other’s media and just accept that we live in different worlds.”
Dustborn is now available across Windows PC (via Steam and the Epic Games Store), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, PS4, and PS5.
