Broken Roads

It took me a couple of hours to really get into Broken Roads but once I got my head around the avalanche of characters you meet in the first hour I found myself getting drawn into the story. This is a quite story-heavy game but fortunately it's shaping up to be a good story... something mysterious is brewing (no spoilers!) and I need to know what it is. The gameplay itself is a bit rough around the edges, it doesn't have the polish of a big budget game. For example gathering companions to go on a mission out in the world is janky because you just pick them by name with no information about them, not even a portrait. For the first few missions I had no idea who any of them were because I couldn't remember their names from the menagerie of characters I'd just been introduced to. Then the combat with those characters is just reactive and not strategic because I have a bunch of random characters who I couldn't distinguish between. I'd rather have less combat. This stuff detracts from Broken Roads and gets in the way of enjoying the story, but I can cope with it. Where Broken Roads shines is its atmosphere. They have built a world that feels legitimately post-apocalypic Aussie, and I love how much it leans in to its Australianess. The art and music in the game are excellent. It feels like real place and it has character. It's this world and story they've created in it which is drawing me back in despite the shortcomings of the game itself.

Broken Roads had a pretty rough launch. Despite that the game was fun to play even in it's rough state. Thankfully, the developers are standing by their game and not giving up on it. The last couple patches have addressed a lot and have made the game better. You are doing yourselves a disservice by not, at least, trying it. I do not think you will be disappointed.

So this is a game which is too tied to its rails to really be considered an RPG. Want to defend a town that the story demands be destroyed. Sure, but you can't win. . . Why give the player the choice to do something futile? It only wastes their time and guarantees frustration when, after repeated attempts and a restart to respec, they finally look for a solution online only to find the devs confirm its impossible. . .They designed a scenario as an option for players to pursue which literally cannot be beaten. The two fundamentals of an RPG are choice and consequence alongside risk and reward. They obviously don't believe in choice or reward which leaves something kinda broken and less than satisfactory. There is another fight later on where you are supposed to rescue an acquaintance from their captors. If you agree to help the town priest with their own plan a member of your party throws a fit, if you change your mind and do it their way without assisting the priest. . .You end up locked out of completing the quest because it fails to update to reflect the decision you made -after a lengthy combat against overwhelming odds when you are severely under-leveled. Again, no respect for player choice or agency. Again, all risk, no reward. Again a waste of time. It isn't a bad game, but the developers need a lot more seasoning. Hopefully they learn something from this. They are so set on telling the story they made they forget that the player needs to shape the narrative too. This is rough, but it isn't bad. Its low budget, but stable and lovingly made. It has some personality even if narrative aspects are a little thin. It is obvious a lot of care went into this, but it is equally obvious that it needed a little more work conceptually. Hopefully they will all go on to make better games and enjoy greater success.

The description mentions Pillars of Eternity, Disco Elysium, Fallout, Wasteland, Tyranny, Pathfinder, and Baldur's Gate. Play those instead.