Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.As you cruise down the near-future highway of Dustborn’s opening sequence, there is a lot to take in. The view beyond the window may be arid, but inside the car there’s a cheesy rhythm-based singalong game to contend with, a branching dialogue system with some fevered swearing, introductions to your three partners in crime and the mysterious cargo you’ve all apparently just stolen — and, eventually, flashing lights in the rear-view mirror.It’s an effective introduction, not least because if the narrative-driven game doesn’t get your attention at this point, it probably won’t for the rest of its frenzied runtime. In 2030, your foursome is on the run across North America, disguised as a punk-rock band called The Dustborn, after stealing a valuable data key from a technocratic cult. You’re also all Deviants — people with powers that manifest through their voice.In gameplay terms, you use conversational tropes such as gaslighting, triggering and normalising as powerups in the game’s occasional fight scenes, and there is enough nuance to force you to reflect on the power that everyday interactions can have on others. It’s not the most profound combat system — and the game perhaps knows this, sprinkling the engagements with entertaining banter between you and your opponents to keep things interesting. Most of them find this as unorthodox as you do: “Why do you keep talking? It’s just deeply weird,” asks one outwardly identikit henchman breaking from convention.Long-term, the way you interact with your companions will affect their responses as well as the destiny that ultimately awaits them. As you progress through the story, a comic book gradually fills up with the choices you’ve made; it’s a nice aesthetic counterpart to the game’s cartoony visuals, with more than a hint — thanks to the slick dialogue and musical asides — of graphic novel Scott Pilgrim.Dustborn’s is an incongruous cast, but the dialogue is smart and snappy enough to create chemistry between them all. Their exploits touch nicely on the game’s talking-points: driverless cars, smart technology, banned books and techno-propaganda, among many others. It is not unquestioningly critical of the future, instead reflecting its more controversial elements through the hopes and fears of its personable protagonists. If the narrative can be distilled into a single spirit, it is that of helping the characters come to terms with their fluid identities in a much more inflexible world.The voice-acting mostly stands up to this rollercoaster ride of late-stage capitalism, supernatural talents and on-again-off-again relationships, though I encountered a few technical jolts where lines overlapped or didn’t quite play out as they should have. But be prepared to embrace hours of dialogue — it’s the backbone of the game and there is a lot of it.Which makes Dustborn a unique proposition: a heartfelt but also wise-cracking and acerbic road-trip tale with a smattering of action sequences and punk-rock rhythm gaming, but above all a paean to the power of words. Just like its characters, its identity is constantly shifting; just like them, it’s all the more interesting as a result.★★★★☆On PC, PlayStation 4 and 5 and Xbox One and Series S/X from August 20
