Game News Broken Lines is an alt-history WW2 tactical RPG that's kind of like Commandos meets Frozen Synapse

[Infinitron]

Tags: Broken Lines; PortaPlay

An increasingly common phenomenon in recent years has been titles that are announced as squad tactics games but are rebranded as "tactical RPGs" during the course of their development. One such title is Broken Lines by Danish indie studio PortaPlay, which we first spotted last year and has apparently been in development since 2017. Set in Eastern Europe during an alternate history WW2, Broken Lines combines gameplay with a team of distinct soldiers as in Commandos with a simultaneous turn-based combat system explicitly inspired by Frozen Synapse. It's also story-driven with CYOA events, which I guess is the RPG part. I thought the game looked silly at first, but the series of combat system dev diaries released by PortaPlay over the past five months convinced me it might be worth a second look. It's finally out today, so we'll soon know if that's true. Here's the launch trailer and description:

Story
Your squad has crash-landed behind enemy lines, in the heart of an alternate history Eastern Europe. With no intel or leadership to support them, these soldiers must fight their way back home before the horrors of war break them. Teamwork and strategy are paramount…

Each soldier has their own personality and ideas on what needs to happen next. Some want to investigate what caused the crash that left them in hostile territory, while others want to lay low and wait for rescue. There are even whispers of desertion.

You are the “unseen hand” that guides this ragtag group of soldiers to safety and possible rescue. Whether it’s as simple a choice as to which way to go next, or something as serious as how to engage their mysterious foes, every decision you make is serious and significant.

Key Features
Broken Lines combines a tactical RPG with story-driven gameplay. As your soldiers battle the mental strain of war, you’ll need to command them in combat— will they avoid the enemy, or go head to head with their foes?

Combat is similar to that of a turn-based tactical RPG, but soldiers move only when action phase starts. However, when new enemies and hazards appear, the game pauses to allow you to plan your reaction to this new change. Will you continue to charge forward, or back off and seek cover?

Choices you make will shape the story to your liking leading to a different campaign endings. Choose wisely as your progression through the game will affect not only soldiers you command but also a whole region and everyone who happen to live here. But you should also keep in mind that your soldiers have their own opinion on what is good for the squad so you have to maintain a balance between what you want them to do and what is good for keeping the squad in high spirits.
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Broken Lines is available now on Steam and GOG for $25.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

I like the idea but man, the quirky cartoony looks are so offputting. Looks like something Larian would cook up while laughing and slapping their thighs

 

[Mark Richard]

• 21 handcrafted maps, some only accessible through multiple playthroughs as choosing one mission locks off others.
• Story campaign is the sole mode.
  
• 8 characters. Typically 4 can be assigned to a mission, sometimes 5.
• Permadeath on normal or hard difficulties.
• Random encounters in the form of multiple choice text-based events.
• Multiple endings.
• Merchant's inventory is not static. If you don't buy that nice gun now, it may not appear again.
• A morale system. Soldiers may desert if morale is too low.

 

[Catacombs]

• 21 handcrafted maps, some only accessible through multiple playthroughs as choosing one mission locks off others.
• Story campaign is the sole mode.
  
• 8 characters. Typically 4 can be assigned to a mission, sometimes 5.
• Permadeath on normal or hard difficulties.
• Random encounters in the form of multiple choice text-based events.
• Multiple endings.
• Merchant's inventory is not static. If you don't buy that nice gun now, it may not appear again.
• A morale system. Soldiers may desert if morale is too low.

Came here to post that review, but you beat me to it. The game looks good, but it's still got a long way to go game play wise.

 

[Kalin]

Disgusting!

 

[Lilliput McHammersmith]

I like the idea but man, the quirky cartoony looks are so offputting. Looks like something Larian would cook up while laughing and slapping their thighs

I am pretty new to this site, why do you guys hate Larian?

 

[Catacombs]

I like the idea but man, the quirky cartoony looks are so offputting. Looks like something Larian would cook up while laughing and slapping their thighs

I am pretty new to this site, why do you guys hate Larian?

Whew, lad, you've got some catching up to do.

 

[luj1]

I like the idea but man, the quirky cartoony looks are so offputting. Looks like something Larian would cook up while laughing and slapping their thighs

Same. I like the concept behind it, but man... their artist is of low skill.

 

[Lilliput McHammersmith]

I like the idea but man, the quirky cartoony looks are so offputting. Looks like something Larian would cook up while laughing and slapping their thighs

I am pretty new to this site, why do you guys hate Larian?

Whew, lad, you've got some catching up to do.

Mind pointing me in some direction or another? Is it because of D:OS2 or BGIII or a combination thereof?

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

I like the idea but man, the quirky cartoony looks are so offputting. Looks like something Larian would cook up while laughing and slapping their thighs

I am pretty new to this site, why do you guys hate Larian?

I dont hate Larian. I liked Divine Divinity and some of the sequels, and i think Swen is a cool guy.
.
.
.
But i HATE their inane whimsical humor sense that pervades most of the newer games and makes em unplayable for me.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Also the writers responsible for D:OS 1 and 2 story deserve to be shot in the groin. Repeatedly

 

[Catacombs]

I like the idea but man, the quirky cartoony looks are so offputting. Looks like something Larian would cook up while laughing and slapping their thighs

I am pretty new to this site, why do you guys hate Larian?

Whew, lad, you've got some catching up to do.

Mind pointing me in some direction or another? Is it because of D:OS2 or BGIII or a combination thereof?

A bunch of things. The Official RPG Codex Search Bar™ should help you find what you're looking for.

 

[Morality Games]

Also the writers responsible for D:OS 1 and 2 story deserve to be shot in the groin. Repeatedly

Game development and even narrative isn't really primarily driven by writers, but by designers. Ergo, designers said that there needed to be a scenario in the elf cave with 4-7 different role-playing outcomes (including combat) and writers were forced to accommodate that. Also, every companion has to also potentially be a player character with unique lines that the NPCs must respond to personally, writers need to accommodate that too, etc, etc, etc.

Greater C&C and interactivity always comes at the expense of writing (or far, far more rarely, gameplay, as is the case with PS:T). It's true in tabletop RPGs and it's true in games. It's difficult to write anything meaningful when the game empowers the player to way total waste to all your narrative, stories, and characters at every single moment whenever they're ready, that doesn't happen in novels or other mediums that showcase writing.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Also the writers responsible for D:OS 1 and 2 story deserve to be shot in the groin. Repeatedly

Game development and even narrative isn't really primarily driven by writers, but by designers. Ergo, designers said that there needed to be a scenario in the elf cave with 4-7 different role-playing outcomes (including combat) and writers were forced to accommodate that. Also, every companion has to also potentially be a player character with unique lines that the NPCs must respond to personally, writers need to accommodate that too, etc, etc, etc.

Greater C&C and interactivity always comes at the expense of writing (or far, far more rarely, gameplay, as is the case with PS:T). It's true in tabletop RPGs and it's true in games. It's difficult to write anything meaningful when the game empowers the player to way total waste to all your narrative, stories, and characters at every single moment whenever they're ready, that doesn't happen in novels or other mediums that showcase writing.

Thanks for the post, didnt know that. My comment on the writers qas more on the forced sillines of everything

 

[Morality Games]

Also the writers responsible for D:OS 1 and 2 story deserve to be shot in the groin. Repeatedly

Game development and even narrative isn't really primarily driven by writers, but by designers. Ergo, designers said that there needed to be a scenario in the elf cave with 4-7 different role-playing outcomes (including combat) and writers were forced to accommodate that. Also, every companion has to also potentially be a player character with unique lines that the NPCs must respond to personally, writers need to accommodate that too, etc, etc, etc.

Greater C&C and interactivity always comes at the expense of writing (or far, far more rarely, gameplay, as is the case with PS:T). It's true in tabletop RPGs and it's true in games. It's difficult to write anything meaningful when the game empowers the player to way total waste to all your narrative, stories, and characters at every single moment whenever they're ready, that doesn't happen in novels or other mediums that showcase writing.

Thanks for the post, didnt know that. My comment on the writers qas more on the forced sillines of everything

Screwing around and being silly is pretty much tabletop role-playing games, which Larian tries to reproduce in their multiplayer isometric RPGs that entail the participation of multiple people who will take the story with varying level of seriousness (a random talking crab with delusions of being all powerful just hanging around the beach is intended to nurture joking and a sense of camaraderie among the players sharing the role-playing experience).

Aside from that, even in a single player context, it's fairly evident that serious and thought provoking material doesn't land hard with most people most of the time in basically any artistic medium, but if you give someone a line or role-playing opportunity that lets them act on their fantasy that being a barbarian, sorcerer, etc (even if the line or opportunity is necessarily of poor quality in order to accommodate the largest range of choices possible), then imagination will do the rest for you. Gaming is about doing, not about reading, so if your barbarian can smash some skulls in and doesn't matter how awful the one-liners that segue-way into the slaughter are.

The power of suggestion is generally more effective in video games than well-written content.