Dysmantle [Xbox]
10tons’ Dysmantle is a dystopian action-adventure RPG set in a post-apocalyptic world. After spending years underground, you’ve finally run out of supplies - the well stocked shelves now barren, a reminder of your need to vacate the safety of your shelter and brave the strange new world outside. There are zombie-like creatures roaming the streets - that instead of being given the usual zombie moniker, are referred to as ‘Ex-Humans’ which is quite funny and unique - and these are the least of your worries. You’ll set off with nothing but a small backpack, a crowbar and the clothes on your back, over time gaining access to new tools, weapons and more. Equippable items are broken down into specific categories: Headgear, Outfits, Tools, Special Items and Trinkets; with each providing various stat boosts or advantages in combat/destroying breakables. There’s a good variety of each available, including trinkets such as a flashlight or dice, that will increase certain stats, or special items like throwing knives that will prove useful in combat. As seemingly the last human alive, you’ll have to venture across the land to piece things together, and uncover the mysteries that lie in wait.
Over 99% of the world is available for you to dismantle, whacking things and breaking things apart piece by piece for materials and supplies. You don’t have the usual worries of hunger and stamina, as cooking and eating provides you with permanent upgrades to your stats, such as increasing max health and reducing enemy view range. At campfires you can upgrade gear, such as your backpack or tools; as well as view your inventory, although this can also be viewed at any time via the pause menu. As you level up, you’ll unlock the ability to do other tasks at your Camps, like Inventing & Crafting, which utilises a vast tree of upgrades and craftable items; and you will be given the option of different Skills to upgrade, from improved stats for farming and gathering, to gaining the ability to pet animals out in the world, and eventually being able to have them as allies against the ex-humans. Using Campfires will replenish your health, but will also respawn any monsters in the area; however there is the ability to create something that will prevent this from happening, but will need to be done for each area you come across via Link Towers. You can destroy objects you find for materials such as wood and plant matter, with upgraded weaponry being required to destroy stronger items.
Combat is decent, if slightly basic, with a very dodge-centric system in place in order to keep enemies at bay whilst getting hits in. Thankfully, without a stamina meter, this means you can dodge till your heart’s content without having to wait on a cooldown. X to hit, or hold X to charge attacks (or hit repeatedly when breaking objects), B to dodge roll, and hold B to run; not a lot to have to remember. You’ve got full control of the camera, which surprised us as initially it felt like it was meant to have a fixed camera-angle, with its isometric view - but you can actually rotate around the environment, making it much easier to see anything you might have missed in any wee nooks and crannies. Searching inside cars, shelving units and washing machines, as well as the numerous other storage areas that might be hiding goodies within, is crucial - as gaining items that will help you not only upgrade but survive is, as you’d expect, pretty important.
Dysmantle has a variety of enemies, from the fairly typical zombie-like “ex-humans” to their variants, with each type having their own particular attributes; such as Pukers being able to vomit toxic bile in your way, and Stalkers being far more challenging to take down. Done in a semi-realistic style with a cartoonish slant, everything looks great with the vibrant colours of nature. The world is well detailed and filled with the remnants of people’s lives, before whatever shit hit the fan, and the map is huge, with new areas being uncovered as you find and activate the relevant Link Towers - which also provide you the ability to fast travel. The environmental sounds are very well done, with the soft crackle of your campfire along with the chirping and cawing of birds in the background, as you thump and smash through everything in sight, and the horrifying screeching of various enemies to snap you back into the post-apocalyptic vibe. Music kicks in at various points, via cutscenes and boss fights, and this works well to enhance these moments in particular.
As well as the Main Quests and Side Quests available for you to complete, you’ve got a Collection recorded within the Pause menu, filled with different things you collect, as well as Medals for maxing out the experience of doing certain things. Materials, Medals, Recipes, Skills, Points of Interest, Creatures, Keys and Total Progress are all recorded within this section, which makes it super handy to refer back to whenever you need it. There are also collectibles in the form of radio broadcasts called ‘Echoes of the Past’ (22 available), and you can find Wishing Wells that will reward you with a choice of useful items upon providing the requested materials. Similarly there are timed crates that were a bit of a struggle to figure out, as each time we encountered them they’d have locked recently; however, by resetting things at a nearby campfire, this reopens them for a short time - as long as you can run to them fast enough!
Dysmantle is one of those types of game that is super easy to sink an absolute tonne of time into, where you can spend hours exploring and just combing through areas for every single thing you can pick up, just in case you need it, or you can stroll through, only stopping for supplies when required and focusing on the task(s) at hand. With no ‘survival’ elements, like hunger to have to contend with, it can actually be quite relaxing to play, as you can often sneak past enemies and just go spend some time fishing and exploring the world if you so choose. Dying isn’t an overly negative thing either, as you will simply respawn at a camp, and be able to go and retrieve any loot from your corpse, which takes away a lot of the stress. There’s a lot of secrets and mysteries to unfold in Dysmantle, with tombs to find and strange myth tablets hidden throughout the world, and this all helps to keep you totally sucked into the story, wanting to know more and more. If you’re looking for a game to get deeply invested in, and like the sound of Dysmantle, you can find it at the price of £16.74 on the Xbox Store.
In the end, we decided to give Dysmantle the Collecting Asylum rating of 8.5/10.
Are you interested in Dysmantle? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to 10tons for the Dysmantle Xbox review code!
