You wake up in a city with a hazy memory. All you can remember is your time in the war. The only thing that stays in your mind is seeing nothing but your dead comrades and being piled in a trunk with their corpses. Waking up in this city, you’re alone, cold, and hungry. Your only goal is to survive the harshness of the city and reality of being a war survivor. This is the world of Duskpunk, a story-driven RPG with time management and harrowing dice rolling. As you maneuver through this city, you will need allies, money, and a means to avoid the draft.
Gameplay
From the start of the game, you get to create your character with one of four different backgrounds. You can either start as a writer, veteran, criminal, or an engineer. For my playthrough of this review, I’ve played two different runs with the engineer and criminal. Depending on which background you chose, you will have different stats that fit thematically with that background. Criminals start with higher sneak while engineers start with a higher engineering stat. From the getgo, you are meant to play with your character’s strengths and weaknesses.
One of the first and most important aspects of this game is that it heavily emphasizes time management. Every action you take at a location will move one of your four trackers to the right. This is the same for both day and night. If you go to the factory to work, your tracker will move one space. This game uses a dice rolling system for a majority of actions in the game. Most of them require a specific stat for the check. If you want to use your materials to build an item, the roll would be based on your Engineering stat. You can either fail checks, succeed them, or partially succeed. A percentage chance will show the probability that you will perform on a check. Some checks will warn you about the negative effects of failing them, so choose wisely and be prepared.
With how you progress the game, a majority of your progress is based on the quests you complete and the locations you find. Characters in the city will assist you if you complete their requests. Some of them want you to bring them materials, others require you to make multiple checks at a single location. With helping more allies, more locations in the city will start appearing. Just from what I was able to play in the demo, there was a decent number of locations to go to. The only thing I was locked out of were the other sides of the city.
Another important point about this game is its Wanted system. At a certain point in the game, your character will be met up with officers who are forcibly enlisting people in the draft for the war. After refusing to go back, the game puts a wanted level on you that increases everyday. There are ways to bring your wanted level down, but that has to be balanced with keeping your other stats in check and helping your allies.
Choosing Your Story
In the city, you can invest your time with certain story lines that can change the courses of how you go through the game. In my engineer playthrough, I spent a lot of time working at the factory to earn money and materials. After performing checks there a certain number of times, events will occur at the factory with the characters you’ve met there. In the case of the factory, you can involve yourself in workers’ strikes and be a part of their union. That’s just one of many storylines you can experience. The game encourages multiple playthroughs just to experience these different scenarios.
Conclusion
Duskpunk provides an engaging experience for those who enjoy decision-based story games. Strategy is still an important factor on how you play this game, but it’s all worth it to experience this game’s rich story. Take this with a grain of salt as I had been reviewing the demo of Duskpunk, so I am unaware of what’s to come after a certain point. The full game is available on Steam for $19.99 USD and there is a free demo to try out if you’re curious about the game.
