Duskfade is a Capable Clockwork Platformer that Struggles to Stand Out
- Antal Bokor
- 9 hours ago
- 3 min read
For the last week or so I’ve been spending a lot of time with Duskfade, a retro-inspired 3D platformer that has a bit of Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter and Kingdom Hearts rolled into a stylistic clockpunk world. That is: a world that is a little bit steampunk, with an emphasis on clocks and clock parts. Hell, even protagonist Zirian is using a sword that is not only clockwork, but is itself part of a clock. They really went hard with the theme.
In Duskfade you play as Zirian, accompanied by your mechanical bird companion named Cuckoo. And while I get the whole clock thing, that name is a bit uninspired. A mysterious accident has plunged the massive central Clock Tower into eternal night. You have to travel to multiple different regions to undo the calamity.
Duskfade is a 3D action platformer in the vein of early 2000s games. That means exploration, jumping puzzles, and some combat. It also means each level is packed full of items to collect–which are handily tracked for you so you know when you have to go back because you missed something. If you grew up as a millennial or even an older Gen Z, I’m sure you played a few of these games growing up.
That’s not to say that Duskfade is bad, or that I don't appreciate what it set out to do. In fact, Duskfade is a very capable game that has a few clever design and story elements that definitely make it worth playing. But I have to break the bad news up front: I don’t think Duskfade is destined for any long term success or latent explosion in popularity. And that’s because it really is just okay.
Most of your time in Duskfade will be spent exploring new and doing lots of platforming. I would like to say that the platforming is superb, but it’s really just okay. I’m not saying the level design is bad, or the game doesn’t control well. But it’s just nothing that I haven’t played in a dozen or more games already. There aren’t any stand out moments or sections that made me think, “man, this is special.”
Part of the reason why is because Duskfade is a surprisingly easy game. If I think of a 2000s style platformer, they usually start out pretty easily, but then the difficulty often ramps up quickly. Not so in Duskfade. I kept waiting for that difficulty spike–or any sort of challenge–but it never came.
But I do have to say that the platforming is tight, and responsive. It doesn’t feel bad to play Duskfade–it’s just not something I want to sink hours into just because it’s fun to move around the world.
Combat isn’t the best part of Duskfade, but it’s serviceable. I think titles like Dark Souls have spoiled me a bit when it comes to good feeling combat. No, I'm not expecting weightiness and difficulty spikes like I would in those games, but the combat in Duskfade is always just okay.
As you progress through Duskfade, you’ll organically acquire new items and abilities. These abilities not only allow you to continue the game, but they also often open up the ability for you to backtrack and retrieve secrets and items in areas you previously visited but couldn’t access. This gives the game a metroidvania-lite sort of feeling. And I only say “lite” because backtracking isn’t necessary to complete the story (as far as I remember).
Visually, Duskfade is fantastic. It nails the 2000s platformer aesthetic while having some modern graphical flair and fidelity. While I’m not a huge steampunk fan, I really like the use of the clock aesthetic, especially for in-game items. Like I mentioned before, the protagonist’s sword is an especially fun design, and despite the uncreative name I dig Cuckoo’s appearance, too. But again, everything is really just “okay” and never spectacular. I think the part of Duskfade that worked the most for me was the story. Not necessarily the presentation, but the ideas that it was trying to convey. The game is about processing grief. The game’s narrative designer actually based the story on his own loss of his grandfather, who was a guide and role model.
I actually spent most of my time playing this on my Steam Machine. It’s a great couch co-op game, and it would be a great game to play on my Steam Deck on the go, too. It just never excels at any of the things it sets out to do. It’s an interesting world, with interesting characters, weapons, and other mechanics. But it’s not outstanding enough to make a huge splash–which is too bad. Developer Weird Beluga definitely accomplished their stated goal of making a retro-like platformer that hearkens back to early 2000s games, but it just ends up feeling like an imitation.
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