Broken Roads - turn-based Australian post-apocalyptic RPG with "unique morality system"

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamer.com/post-apocalyptic-crpg-broken-roads-can-be-finished-as-a-pacifist/

I spoke to Drop Bear Bytes recently for an interview you'll be able to read in an upcoming issue of our print magazine. Game director Craig Ritchie explained Broken Roads is following the example of the original Fallout, where it's possible, with the right stats, to beeline from the tutorial to the finale, talk the villain into giving up, and finish it right there. "They got it right in Fallout," he said. "It did require a little bit of an exploit in knowing exactly where to go, but that's one of the most inspirational games behind this game."

Though Disco Elysium was less of an influence than you might assume—the Estonian RPG was released five days after a demo of Broken Roads was first shown at PAX Australia—the fact Disco Elysium was successful despite the absence of combat did make them want to increase the amount of nonviolent options. Ritchie explains their thinking as, "Let's not just have an 'exploit' pacifist path. Let's actually try and design more peaceful resolutions than you might find in Pillars of Eternity or Tyranny or something like that."

Like Fallout, Broken Roads will apparently give players all kinds of different ways to approach each problem, says narrative director Leanne Taylor-Giles. "You can solve it with violence, you can solve it with dialogue, or if you are over here, and you're like, 'I wonder if I take this item the entire way across the world, if that's gonna have an impact?' It does."

"And sometimes you can just bribe people as well," adds Ritchie. "If you've got enough money."

 

[Abu Antar]

Demo is out for this one.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Demo is out for this one.

Taking this for a spin.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.brokenroadsgame.com/dev-blog/the-broken-roads-demo-is-now-on-steam

THE BROKEN ROADS DEMO IS NOW ON STEAM!​

We’re very excited to announce that you can now download the Broken Roads demo on Steam!

In this demo, you’ll play as the Hired Gun, one of the four origin stories available in the full game. As the Hired Gun, you’ll have unique attributes and starting skills, as well as a certain reputation around the world, which will affect how people you meet along the way will interact with you.

Get a taste of our turn-based combat, the Moral Compass, and he gorgeous visuals our art team have put together as you explore post-apocalyptic Western Australia!

Before you hop into the demo, a quick note about localization. Although the full version of the game will support Chinese (Simplified), German, French, Russian, Polish, Spanish (LatAm), and Brazilian (Portuguese) at launch, this demo is available in English only for now.

We hope to have a localized version available very soon!

 

[Roguey]

I don't give money or a significant portion of my time to cringe peddlers who make a big performance out of genuflecting without any meaningful action to go along with it (leaving Australia).

 

[Tweed]

Oh fuck off.

 

[quixotic]

My hopes for this game have been thoroughly dashed.

 

[GrafvonMoltke]

Based and native-pilled

 

[quixotic]

It’d be one thing if it was a short little message in the credits or something, but it’s so tacky and overembellished, it just reeks of virtue signalling.

 

[Tweed]

Modern devs don't make games to entertain, they make them to send messages.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Modern devs don't make games to entertain, they make them to send messages.

That's because their social media "skills" exceeds, by far their devs skills, so, sooner or later, they do what they do best...

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Modern devs don't make games to entertain, they make them to send messages.

That's because their social media "skills" exceeds, by far their devs skills, so, sooner or later, they do what they do best...

When you launch the demo there's couple splash screens about financial support from couple Aussie provincial governments.
Messages might be partly because of strings attached from that source.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

And they constantly denied the game being woke. Now we know the answer.

 

[d1nolore]

Pretty sure they said something about a grant for including Native stuff.

Black fellas would thrive in the setting, I mean they already survived there for 1000’s of years.

 

[Cpt. Dallas]

Achievement Unlocked 'Native': Play game while simultaneously drunk on wood alcohol and high from huffing spray paint.

 

[luj1]

My hopes for this game have been thoroughly dashed.

what hopes?

this was hot garbage from day one

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Is this what Niccolo taught to young princes?

 

[kyosuke]

Is this what Niccolo taught to young princes?

I don't understand, how is the 3rd response Machiavellian?

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Is this what Niccolo taught to young princes?

I don't understand, how is the 3rd response Machiavellian?

As far as I've seen developers seem to confuse machiavellism with "HA-Ha, me stab you in face".

edit.
Here's example from character creation.

 

[luj1]

wow they even more retarded than I thought

somebody who doesnt understand philosophy shouldnt include it in a game

 

[markec]

Is this what Niccolo taught to young princes?

I don't understand, how is the 3rd response Machiavellian?

As far as I've seen developers seem to confuse machiavellism with "HA-Ha, me stab you in face".

edit.
Here's example from character creation.

This is written by a person who is stupid but thinks is smart.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Original Fallout this isn't.
-What little demo included was pretty on rails, structured to scenes, like in HBS Shadowruns or other upcoming post-apoc game Prometheus Wept.
-Battle was pretty meh. AI felt bad, animations were annoyingly slow. Player can't just pull a gun and start fighting. Found only one actual combat encounter in demo, don't feel like playing it again to see if there are others.
-Didn't see anything that hinted into existence of mutants or other sci-fi elements.
-Yeah. Morality system is going to be full of cringe.
-There are other, more interesting projects coming. This seems to be trying to rely on its characters and writing to succeed; didn't work with me.
-At least on demo there wasn't overworld map and any free roaming.
Low expectations with this one. At least loading times were reasonable.

edit.
-There's no ammo management on inventory. Weapons can be endlessly reloaded.
-In combat there's different pools of movement and action points. There's also points which can be used to improve change to hit, those required points on some skill.
-Gained a level during demo, but didn't notice anything going up. Maybe disabled in this demo, like some morality wheel dependent skills/effects.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I don't understand, how is the 3rd response Machiavellian?

At first, I thought the third dialogue option was blocked due to the character being too Machiavellian, but after examining the graphic to the right of those options, along with the information provided in later posts, it seems the developers are just clueless.

 

[Infinitron]

I'm not sure if the line of dialogue fits either way, but "Machiavellianism" as a psychological term does not correspond exactly to the teachings of the actual Machiavelli: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machiavellianism_(psychology)