Game News Road Gangs - Post-Apocalyptic Vehicular RPG

[Jason]

Tags: Road Gangs

<p>There's a new indie RPG roaming the wastelands - <a href="http://www.blackwatergames.com/roadgangs/index.html" target="_blank"><strong>Road Gangs</strong></a>.</p>
<blockquote>What is Road Gangs about?<br /><br />Road Gangs is a vehicle based RPG set in a post-apocalyptic United States. Your gang must find a number of nuclear scientists hidden in cities all over the country and use them to disable a certain number of nuclear silos before it's too late. Vehicle combat is real time, there are 23 vehicle types in Road Gangs and all vehicles have over a dozen upgrade options available.<br /><br />How do you play Road Gangs?<br /><br />There is a whole map of the United States to explore including an entire highway system and over 50 major cities to capture. The roads are very dangerous and your gang will be attacked by rival gangs, during combat you can issue attack orders to your vehicles such as ramming and boarding. The more cities your gang captures along the way the more points you will earn to upgrade your vehicles such as braking and mounted weapons. <br /><br />What is the vehicle combat like?<br /><br />Vehicle combat is in a pausable real-time format and very tactical and your gang can have as many as 10 vehicles. Combat takes place in the country side, on the roads and in ruined cities. You can't actually steer your vehicles but you can tell them what enemies to attack or even patrol a certain area. You can also attempt to board and capture an enemy vehicle during combat, or attack a specific location of an enemy vehicle such as concentrating fire power on the tires. There are a variety of combat options available which makes each battle unique and interesting.</blockquote>
<p><br />If you're not scared off by RTwP, grab the <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?eu9ig8d0g9pvua5" target="_blank">demo</a> and the <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?w5un5ufi0o70ut5" target="_blank">manual</a>.</p>
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<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://indierpgs.com/">IndieRPGs</a></p>

 

[Luzur]

.....uh...that sounds exactly like SSI's Roadwar.

 

[ElectricOtter]

Awesome. Better check this one out.

 

[MisterStone]

Roadwar sure as hell wasn't RTWP. Still, this could be awesome... only one way to find out. (goes to download demo)

 

[Tramboi]

Yeah, good memories of Roadwar 2K and Europa!

 

[MisterStone]

Also, why has no one ever made an autoduel clone? That would be awesome.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Little too pricey me thinks.

 

[Zed]

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Buy now and get a FREE "fucking moron" certificate!

 

[ortucis]

WTF, 25 USD??

$20 for Indie games is acceptable usually, esp. if it's 2D only (for 3D I am willing to go for 30 USD even). This however sounds like something that should be below $15.

Anyways, will wait for Codex review. :D

 

[BethesdaLove]

Anyways, will wait for Codex review. :D

Dont let the lights on.

 

[SharkClub]

$25 seems like a bit much for something that looks like it was made in Game Maker.

Though you never know, graphics aren't everything, but no way am I gonna be the one to find out how it is.

 

[FeelTheRads]

(for 3D I am willing to go for 30 USD even)

Because it's a well established fact that 3D>>>>>2D, right?

 

[ChristofferC]

We all know the price should solely be based on how advanced the graphics are.

 

[MisterStone]

OK I played the game (demo) for a bit, and it is pretty shoddy.

Granted, if it were a shareware game I'd probably play for a bit. But asking 25 dollars for this is a bit ridiculous.

I only played for about 10 minutes or so, did a couple of realtime w/ pause battles, and I can say that it is both simplistic, lacking in decent controls or user interface, and butt ugly. It's obviously meant to be a modern day clone of the RoadWar games, but it would have been a lot better if they'd kept it turn based. I say this not because I wear a monocle, but because the RTWP really does suck here, but I remember the RW2k games being rather fun.

When I say the game is butt ugly, I don't mean simply that the artwork is bad, but there is basically nothing but 2 frame animations; soldiers and vehicle moving across the ground just sort of sliiiiide wherever they are going. Sprites flicker and the f'ed up contrast/antialiasing makes my eyes bleed.

The only controls for combat that I can find are move, and go from standing to kneeling to prone. I see no real reason to so simply be prone all of the time since I can just immediately spring to kneeling position instantly from pause. I can't even figure out how to change "squads" (it automatically just blocks the footsoldier units into "squads" for you, and yuo cannot seem to control units individually) in a battle. When the battle begins, real time is on and they are already blazing away at one another.

Seriously, I play better browser games than this on a regular basis. Weak, man, weak.

 

[Metro]

Really wish more indie developers would be a bit more reasonable in their pricing. Graphics aside, $25 is too high. This is why a lot of them flop and go out of business. They make something decent, charge a ludicrous price for what they deliver in the hopes to get a nice payday, and then no one ends up buying it given the competitive pricing of digital downloads. Granted Runic isn't as quaint as an indie as a lot of other developers but if they can sell Torchlight for $20 or Deizel Power can sell Nation Red for $10 or Hothead can sell Deathspank for $15, well, you get the idea.

 

[ortucis]

(for 3D I am willing to go for 30 USD even)

Because it's a well established fact that 3D>>>>>2D, right?

Considering most developers who bother with 3D actually have to put in some effort at making it look decent, yes it does. As far as 2D is concerned, click the link in the first post for more information.

BTW, I am not talking about the gameplay here, visuals only. 3D > 2D these days, esp. when commercial Indie games are concerned (like Depths of Peril).

However if the 3D game has retarded gameplay, it's worth nothing (which my guess is what got you raging, thinking I was talking about gameplay in 3D vs 2D). RIGHT?

 

[SuicideBunny]

Considering most developers who bother with 3D actually have to put in some effort at making it look decent, yes it does. As far as 2D is concerned, click the link in the first post for more information.

BTW, I am not talking about the gameplay here, visuals only. 3D > 2D these days, esp. when commercial Indie games are concerned (like Depths of Peril).

i've yet to see a 3d indy look anywhere near as good as aquaria or braid.

 

[ortucis]

i've yet to see a 3d indy look anywhere near as good as aquaria or braid.

Good for you?

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

(for 3D I am willing to go for 30 USD even)

Because it's a well established fact that 3D>>>>>2D, right?

Considering most developers who bother with 3D actually have to put in some effort at making it look decent, yes it does. As far as 2D is concerned, click the link in the first post for more information.

BTW, I am not talking about the gameplay here, visuals only. 3D > 2D these days, esp. when commercial Indie games are concerned (like Depths of Peril).

WRONG!
http://braid-game.com/
http://aedemphia.warparadise.com/screenshots.html

 

[ortucis]

Wrong what? Where did I say I hated 2D art? That I thought it was always ugly as fuck? I wouldn't be watching in marvel games like Blaz Blue while 3D fighters like SF4 were being made.

Maybe I worded it wrong but I prefer 3D and encourage Indie developers who pick 3D over 2D. Having worked on 2D isometric game then having turned to 3D I can tell that 3D makes your life easy when it comes to designing RPG's especially.

Think about how much money Indie developers can save by just changing few skin colors and releasing expansion for their games with more story and characters instead of waiting 2-3 years for new 2D art. There are more benefits to this of course (and some drawbacks of course) but the point is, 2D is good, but for Indies 3D should be the way. More content, less waiting for new art (personally, I think devs like Spiderweb can do wonders if they went full 3D).

 

[Charles-cgr]

Really wish more indie developers would be a bit more reasonable in their pricing. Graphics aside, $25 is too high. This is why a lot of them flop and go out of business. They make something decent, charge a ludicrous price for what they deliver in the hopes to get a nice payday, and then no one ends up buying it given the competitive pricing of digital downloads. Granted Runic isn't as quaint as an indie as a lot of other developers but if they can sell Torchlight for $20 or Deizel Power can sell Nation Red for $10 or Hothead can sell Deathspank for $15, well, you get the idea.

It simply isn't about digital download competition. Clearly they address people with experience playing the Roadwars. They might have gone for real time to give it an Autoduel aspect as well.

Retro remakes cannot (and shouldn't even try imo) to compete with mainstream titles like the ones mentionned above because they don't stand a chance to get the exposure from portals that small studios can get. They (we) address a much smaller crowd. People that aren't in that crowd wouldn't even buy the games for $5, simply because they have zero interest in them.

But those that do have an interest have enough of it to pay a 'ludicrous' price for it, be it $20 or $25, if the game meets the gameplay requirements and does at least OK graphically.

$25 would seem ok for me if the game lives up to its implied promise: a good revisitation of the Roadwar experience. That's why I think real-time was probably a mistake for this project but I really can't tell for sure as the demo didn't load on my machine. Also a lot depends on what happens outside of combat (capturing cities, managing supplies, ...). I don't see anything about hiring & training troops on the site (maybe I missed it). I remember part of the roadwar thrill was reducing the number of dragoons & stocking up on armsmasters.

 

[JarlFrank]

http://aedemphia.warparadise.com/screenshots.html

This looks, even though it has JRPG-like sprites, fucking awesome.
Is it available in a civilized language too, or only in French?

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Wrong what? Where did I say I hated 2D art? That I thought it was always ugly as fuck? I wouldn't be watching in marvel games like Blaz Blue while 3D fighters like SF4 were being made.

Maybe I worded it wrong but I prefer 3D and encourage Indie developers who pick 3D over 2D. Having worked on 2D isometric game then having turned to 3D I can tell that 3D makes your life easy when it comes to designing RPG's especially.

Think about how much money Indie developers can save by just changing few skin colors and releasing expansion for their games with more story and characters instead of waiting 2-3 years for new 2D art. There are more benefits to this of course (and some drawbacks of course) but the point is, 2D is good, but for Indies 3D should be the way. More content, less waiting for new art (personally, I think devs like Spiderweb can do wonders if they went full 3D).

The only Indie cRPG with good looking 3d graphics that I saw so far was AoD.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

I am undecided as to whether this should have been released yet. I will continue on in the demo and see what happens. Though I have to ask people here...there is a demo. Try the bloody thing will you? Free. Demo. No excuses unless the concept doesn't interest you.

Have to say though, many people around here are hopeless. Equating the price with graphics, then actually comparing it to digital download prices! When there is a demo no less....

Did graphics make any of the next gen CRPG's better?

After answering this, did they sell for $25?

Did these games have demos?

I think we all know the answers...

Also, because an independant developer cannot rely on economy of scale, they must charge a certain amount based on possible return. It is all part of the equation. If you want something different today, sorry kids, you won't get it from the mainstream devs. You will just have to pay up for indy devs to cater for you, though it will never look anywhere near to what you are used to from AAA devs.

I shouldn't bother though. Typical Codex decliners that rush out to buy the next Mass Effect or Oblivion (or even waste bandwidth). Absolutely pathetic.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Indy devs != ugly graphics. Low budget != ugly graphics.
There are people who release games with decent to good graphics for free. Mexican Motor Mafia looks much better than this and is sold for only 8$. His Dark Majesty has great graphics and is free.

To be honest, the graphics are simply obscene but for some weird reason they look like someone put a lot of work into creating them.
Personally, I think that people who can't do good looking more advanced graphics should use much simpler 8-bit graphics like in Autoduel or Laser Squad as it's easier to get aesthetic looks. It's much less mainstream, though.

Did graphics make any of the next gen CRPG's better?

Why would good graphics be a feature of just mainstream cRPGs? Especially that they often have worse graphics than games of previous generations?
To me, Exile 2 has much better graphics than any next-gen game with blurred textures, because it's graphics are sharp.

After answering this, did they sell for $25?

You can buy most of mainstream games much cheaper after some time.

Anyway, it doesn't seem to work on Wine, so I can't say anything about the gameplay.