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NWN1 OC was a mess. It's almost like the map designers were all in separate rooms and had no idea what the other one was working on. You head East and you have something radically different than what's West or whatever third direction was left. I also wouldn't say it was a lot of time sinking for the sake of having a time sink, it was just a bunch of shit tossed together because the town is one direction, so you needed something for the other three regardless of if what was there made sense.
And honestly, I don't think this is a question of how long Broken Roads is, so much as it is a question of how long it is for $35. If it were 7-10 hours and $15, that's understandable. But Dwarf Fortress is $30. Last Epoch is $35. Neither one of those got grant money for development.
Why did I call the game confusing? Because the writing lacks direction and it's very unclear what this is supposed to be. It's not even limited to the writing, there are a bunch of items in stores that I can't tell if they have any use or not, some are labeled quest items without me having recieved any quest yet to get them.
The first screen you are met with in the game is some virtue signalling about there being dead people in the game, and the main menu has a long string of text at the bottom acknowledging the tribal people Australia supposedly belongs to.
So this is an ATSI thing - They have this ancient belief that you should never speak the names of, or play audio or visual recordings of, the dead. Obviously this is very impractical in the modern era, so we just tell them it's going to happen and they'll have to deal with it.
Land Acknowledgements are everywhere now, you can't escape them. And irrelevant, because it's not like they're getting it back.
I just love how CRPGs always get away with padding their playtime via hundreds of trash mob and copypaste combat, uninspired quests and walls of text, all rolling straight from the CRPG factory line. Actually, they're being recommended for it. As if that "100 hours of playtime" tag was a CRPG seal of official quality in itself. As if a game making you spend days of your lifetime with it was something inherently worthwile in itself.
Meanwhile, whenever a game is rumored to er on the shorter site, it's Sauron Incarnate at work: They must be trying to rip you off. Avoid until discount.
I kinda felt bad for Craig Ritchie after looking through some of the fallout, the bad press reception due to a lack of bribes and Zoe Quinn styled services, as well as the allergic reactions from extremist and racial supremacist sites like ResetEra, or libertarian sites with Balkan characteristics like the Codex. The poor guy can't catch a break and it's been an uphill battle since day one to make his game a reality. So I decided to check his game out due to pity and I hope to bring some nuance to this thread with my first impressions.
I've always liked seeing video games from areas of the globe without much of an established video game industry because they always bring a very local character to the table. When you start playing a game made in Croatia, or Finland, or Slovenia, you know you are in for something different than what the American global games industry has on offer. It's the difference between the soul of The Witcher compared to the watered down more international and Americanised experience of The Witcher 3, from something that could only have been made in Poland to something more Hollywood.
Because of this I've tried to check out obscure titles most haven't heard about, even if I haven't gotten some of them to run on Windows 10 yet.
So is this Australia's equivalent of The Witcher? Not really. It's unfair to credit Australia with Grimoire since it was developed by a neanderthal, so I will not compare it to Cleve's magnum opus, but The Land Down Under is responsible for Fallout Tactics and I don't think it lives up to that legacy. Let's take it from the top, shall we?
I've played a couple of hours of the game and so far I've been more confused than anything else. Earlier in this thread Craig Ritchie has been insisting that he hasn't been jamming the eyesore of current year American politics into his game and I was curious how true that was, and it sort of is? Kinda? The first screen you are met with in the game is some virtue signalling about there being dead people in the game, and the main menu has a long string of text at the bottom acknowledging the tribal people Australia supposedly belongs to.
This must have been partly for fundraising and investment attraction, knowing what sort of background Mr. Ritchie has, here from an interview with the Escapist.
Long before Ritchie got into game development, he worked in the realms of journalism and PR. Along the way, he had opportunities to gain familiarity with the ins and outs of development, ranging from QA to production, including running pre-alphas for EVE: Valkyrie during a stint at CCP Games.
This bowerbird-like gathering of skills over the years was one of the things that pushed him into action when a developer friend asked him, “Why don’t you actually try to give it a go and start your own studio?” That was December 2018, and Ritchie knew exactly the kind of game that he wanted to make — a project that would take advantage of his experience, familiarity with CRPGs, and good old business sense.
But if you've engaged with Australian culture you might also know that this is something they've been doing for many decades now. I think I remember seeing it in films from almost the 70's I think? They're always been a bit weird like that. And as far as I've seen so far none of that has been seeping into the story or gameplay itself. Since the majority of the last couple of pages have been about how woke it is I've given it a fair assessment and I'd say that it's far less in your face than many recent games. There is no orc-elf polycules like in the Pathfinder game, there has been no transsexual in the post-apocalypse talking about the struggle to find estrogen pills, and I haven't noticed any anti-White commentary like in Alan Wake 2. There is no pronoun selection and the game acknowledges your gender, even if it doesn't say male and female in the character screen.
I decided to roll a talky character since this is supposedly inspired by Disco Elysium and it's a good test for this sort of game. My character concept was the descendant of a Chinese spy that had been trying to steal government secrets before the bombs fell, so I maxed Charisma, put the rest into intelligence, dropping the strength to a minimum. The character system is a bit odd, both your alignment and skills play into combat, but I've only been in one fight so far into the game, and I've been to three hubs now.
I did note that all the male models had more cleavage than the female ones, consistently.
Which kinda didn't suit the character I was going for, aiming to seduce, lie, cheat, trick, charm, persuade, intimidate and bullshit my way to victory as a female spy archetype.
The gameplay so far has mostly been Planescape Torment-esque but with less combat, a lot of dialogue, some skillchecks thrown in here and there. At character creation you get to choose an origin, and i think this actually changes your starting location, Dragon Age: Origins and Temple of Elemental Evil style. I picked merchant so maybe that's why I haven't seen much of any combat. However, the one combat encounter I did have happened before the combat tutorial and I was forced to face off against two raiders without any party members, while my build was centered around passing conversation skill checks and supporting party members with healing and buffs.
Why did I call the game confusing? Because the writing lacks direction and it's very unclear what this is supposed to be. It's not even limited to the writing, there are a bunch of items in stores that I can't tell if they have any use or not, some are labeled quest items without me having recieved any quest yet to get them.
I'm with the game as far as the intro, the bombs fell and Australia is now post-apocalyptic. Doesn't seem very different from how it normally is. Most of the time it feels like playing one of those late stage zombie stories that were popular for a while, with less of a focus on survival and more on rebuilding civilization. But it also wants to be Mad Max, with raiders that drive around. Characters are not properly introduced and when what I think is the leader of a settlement is supposed to have some mysterious backstory a prisoner tells me to ask about I'm never given the option to do so. During a raid I can either escape in a wagon or an ambulance, but I don't know what the purpose of this choice is. Characters come and go and I have no idea who they are or what any of it is supposed to mean. Currently I'm doing a quest for an Abbo elder to find a string, but it's not very woke, more like using the setting of Australia in a gimmicky way for the setting, like the cringe use of Australian slang in every dialogue.
I couldn't tell you what the plot of this game is supposed to be, what I'm doing, or where this is going.
Anyway, that's all I got for now, will post further impressions after playing the game more.
I'm not sure how I feel about game references five minutes into the game.
Emus and kangaroos, because this is Australia, they really want you to know it's Australia. Stop typing, the Kanagroo is out of frame.
The game is cute sometimes.
No trans or gay flags yet, only wholesome koalas.
I don't know what the point of this was. After getting the sheep out of the fence it stuck its head back in when I came back later. It's not a quest or anything, it's just there.
I only met these people like five minutes ago, last night in game time. This death scene means nothing to me.
Perhaps this is the plot of the game? A mysterious crash site like in Arcanum? I still don't know!
This game isn't suffering from the woke virus (only some minor simptoms here and there, nothing serious), and you can tell that the developers DID try to make an actual good game. I think they at least deserve credit for that and the game doesn't deserve the same amount of flak as something like Starfield.
Was it a good game in the end? No. But there's a big difference between a small indie studio jumping into the water and trying something new they're passionate about and a massive AAA game company that continually fucks up its products through sheer incompetence, ESG-compliance or both.
The developers of this game also comment on a ton of their Steam reviews who give negative reviews and they aren't bitchy about it either. That alone is enough to earn the respect of the average gamer, at least when it comes to their attitude as a company. They also stated in many of these comments that they're addressing these points and trying to improve things - while I think that's going to be hard to do for this game, they are definitely taking notes for their next project (if they're still around).
Regardless if we liked their game or not - it is NOT a woke product like many Codex neurotics are making it out to be. There were a myriad of new releases that are plagued with woke shit while this game has a symptom or two here and there.
I actually hope that the developer is still around to make another project and apply what they've learned through the feedback of this one. As a (TTRPG) developer myself, I can relate how hard it is to do everything right in the first go. But it definitely pays off in your next project guys, trust me.
I kinda felt bad for Craig Ritchie after looking through some of the fallout, the bad press reception due to a lack of bribes and Zoe Quinn styled services, as well as the allergic reactions from extremist and racial supremacist sites like ResetEra, or libertarian sites with Balkan characteristics like the Codex. The poor guy can't catch a break and it's been an uphill battle since day one to make his game a reality. So I decided to check his game out due to pity and I hope to bring some nuance to this thread with my first impressions.
I've always liked seeing video games from areas of the globe without much of an established video game industry because they always bring a very local character to the table. When you start playing a game made in Croatia, or Finland, or Slovenia, you know you are in for something different than what the American global games industry has on offer. It's the difference between the soul of The Witcher compared to the watered down more international and Americanised experience of The Witcher 3, from something that could only have been made in Poland to something more Hollywood.
Because of this I've tried to check out obscure titles most haven't heard about, even if I haven't gotten some of them to run on Windows 10 yet.
So is this Australia's equivalent of The Witcher? Not really. It's unfair to credit Australia with Grimoire since it was developed by a neanderthal, so I will not compare it to Cleve's magnum opus, but The Land Down Under is responsible for Fallout Tactics and I don't think it lives up to that legacy. Let's take it from the top, shall we?
I've played a couple of hours of the game and so far I've been more confused than anything else. Earlier in this thread Craig Ritchie has been insisting that he hasn't been jamming the eyesore of current year American politics into his game and I was curious how true that was, and it sort of is? Kinda? The first screen you are met with in the game is some virtue signalling about there being dead people in the game, and the main menu has a long string of text at the bottom acknowledging the tribal people Australia supposedly belongs to.
This must have been partly for fundraising and investment attraction, knowing what sort of background Mr. Ritchie has, here from an interview with the Escapist.
Long before Ritchie got into game development, he worked in the realms of journalism and PR. Along the way, he had opportunities to gain familiarity with the ins and outs of development, ranging from QA to production, including running pre-alphas for EVE: Valkyrie during a stint at CCP Games.
This bowerbird-like gathering of skills over the years was one of the things that pushed him into action when a developer friend asked him, “Why don’t you actually try to give it a go and start your own studio?” That was December 2018, and Ritchie knew exactly the kind of game that he wanted to make — a project that would take advantage of his experience, familiarity with CRPGs, and good old business sense.
But if you've engaged with Australian culture you might also know that this is something they've been doing for many decades now. I think I remember seeing it in films from almost the 70's I think? They're always been a bit weird like that. And as far as I've seen so far none of that has been seeping into the story or gameplay itself. Since the majority of the last couple of pages have been about how woke it is I've given it a fair assessment and I'd say that it's far less in your face than many recent games. There is no orc-elf polycules like in the Pathfinder game, there has been no transsexual in the post-apocalypse talking about the struggle to find estrogen pills, and I haven't noticed any anti-White commentary like in Alan Wake 2. There is no pronoun selection and the game acknowledges your gender, even if it doesn't say male and female in the character screen.
I decided to roll a talky character since this is supposedly inspired by Disco Elysium and it's a good test for this sort of game. My character concept was the descendant of a Chinese spy that had been trying to steal government secrets before the bombs fell, so I maxed Charisma, put the rest into intelligence, dropping the strength to a minimum. The character system is a bit odd, both your alignment and skills play into combat, but I've only been in one fight so far into the game, and I've been to three hubs now.
I did note that all the male models had more cleavage than the female ones, consistently.
Which kinda didn't suit the character I was going for, aiming to seduce, lie, cheat, trick, charm, persuade, intimidate and bullshit my way to victory as a female spy archetype.
The gameplay so far has mostly been Planescape Torment-esque but with less combat, a lot of dialogue, some skillchecks thrown in here and there. At character creation you get to choose an origin, and i think this actually changes your starting location, Dragon Age: Origins and Temple of Elemental Evil style. I picked merchant so maybe that's why I haven't seen much of any combat. However, the one combat encounter I did have happened before the combat tutorial and I was forced to face off against two raiders without any party members, while my build was centered around passing conversation skill checks and supporting party members with healing and buffs.
Why did I call the game confusing? Because the writing lacks direction and it's very unclear what this is supposed to be. It's not even limited to the writing, there are a bunch of items in stores that I can't tell if they have any use or not, some are labeled quest items without me having recieved any quest yet to get them.
I'm with the game as far as the intro, the bombs fell and Australia is now post-apocalyptic. Doesn't seem very different from how it normally is. Most of the time it feels like playing one of those late stage zombie stories that were popular for a while, with less of a focus on survival and more on rebuilding civilization. But it also wants to be Mad Max, with raiders that drive around. Characters are not properly introduced and when what I think is the leader of a settlement is supposed to have some mysterious backstory a prisoner tells me to ask about I'm never given the option to do so. During a raid I can either escape in a wagon or an ambulance, but I don't know what the purpose of this choice is. Characters come and go and I have no idea who they are or what any of it is supposed to mean. Currently I'm doing a quest for an Abbo elder to find a string, but it's not very woke, more like using the setting of Australia in a gimmicky way for the setting, like the cringe use of Australian slang in every dialogue.
I couldn't tell you what the plot of this game is supposed to be, what I'm doing, or where this is going.
Anyway, that's all I got for now, will post further impressions after playing the game more.
I'm not sure how I feel about game references five minutes into the game.
Emus and kangaroos, because this is Australia, they really want you to know it's Australia. Stop typing, the Kanagroo is out of frame.
The game is cute sometimes.
No trans or gay flags yet, only wholesome koalas.
I don't know what the point of this was. After getting the sheep out of the fence it stuck its head back in when I came back later. It's not a quest or anything, it's just there.
I only met these people like five minutes ago, last night in game time. This death scene means nothing to me.
Perhaps this is the plot of the game? A mysterious crash site like in Arcanum? I still don't know!
This game isn't suffering from the woke virus (only some minor simptoms here and there, nothing serious), and you can tell that the developers DID try to make an actual good game. I think they at least deserve credit for that and the game doesn't deserve the same amount of flak as something like Starfield.
Was it a good game in the end? No. But there's a big difference between a small indie studio jumping into the water and trying something new they're passionate about and a massive AAA game company that continually fucks up its products through sheer incompetence, ESG-compliance or both.
The developers of this game also comment on a ton of their Steam reviews who give negative reviews and they aren't bitchy about it either. That alone is enough to earn the respect of the average gamer, at least when it comes to their attitude as a company. They also stated in many of these comments that they're addressing these points and trying to improve things - while I think that's going to be hard to do for this game, they are definitely taking notes for their next project (if they're still around).
Regardless if we liked their game or not - it is NOT a woke product like many Codex neurotics are making it out to be. There were a myriad of new releases that are plagued with woke shit while this game has a symptom or two here and there.
I actually hope that the developer is still around to make another project and apply what they've learned through the feedback of this one. As a (TTRPG) developer myself, I can relate how hard it is to do everything right in the first go. But it definitely pays off in your next project guys, trust me.
"I just mixed a dollop of shit into your sandwich filling but you can barely taste it, its just a minor symptom of shit otherwise its a good sandwich".
The 2002 NwN OC may had a railroaded "dragon ball" structure, where basically the same thing happened in every arc (e.g., collect the Waterdhavian creatures, collect the Words of Power, etc.) This is the main criticism. But other than that, the OC is solid. You have plenty of peripeteia, interesting quests, optional content, good writing, changes of scenery, etc. Don't compare it to this shovelware.
The 2002 NwN OC may had a railroaded "dragon ball" structure, where basically the same thing happened in every arc (e.g., collect the Waterdhavian creatures, collect the Words of Power, etc.) This is the main criticism. But other than that, the OC is solid. You have plenty of peripeteia, interesting questions, optional content, good writing, changes of scenery, etc. Don't compare it to this shovelware.
the main thing the Bioware NWN had going for it imo was the extremely moody atmosphere and the gorgeous soundtrack. I honestly can't think of any other RPG with a similarly dark atmosphere, with its plague ridden city, flammable piles of corpses, the human cries and begging that seem to fill the air. I'll never forget that main menu theme (of the original game, without the add-ons). I know the content isn't as rich and *cough* diverse, and some of the gameplay elements are even worse. but honestly, I prefer NWN over BG 1 and 2 with its rather bland settings and at times extremely juvenile writing.
The 2002 NwN OC may had a railroaded "dragon ball" structure, where basically the same thing happened in every arc (e.g., collect the Waterdhavian creatures, collect the Words of Power, etc.) This is the main criticism. But other than that, the OC is solid. You have plenty of peripeteia, interesting questions, optional content, good writing, changes of scenery, etc. Don't compare it to this shovelware.
I didn't compare the two because it's a no contest. My post was about bloated game length.
But OC was really terrible past CH1, especially when all the time travel started and lots of running around half empty barbarian lands, i had to force myself to finish it. So i have to disagree. When it comes to NWN i prefer expansions and modules.
This launch has been a rough one. We’re glad so many people have enjoyed playing the game. We’ve loved watching the streams, engaging with you all and hearing about your positive experience with Broken Roads.
But we know that, overall, we’ve fallen short of player expectations in some key areas and in many ways we’ve not delivered the quality game we had hoped to ship, so we’re changing that. Our work on Broken Roads is far from over.
We have taken the criticism on board. There’s a lot we can improve and a lot we can outright redo because it just isn’t good enough. On top of fixing bugs and issues with quest logic, we’ve also been gathering feedback on the main areas we need to refine. You want more freedom from the early game. You connected with the companions you met, but wish they had more depth and more to say along the way, and you want to level them up yourselves as you go. We greatly underestimated how much combat players expected during the origin stories. You want more features such as being able to click on the map to move the party. Moral or ethical moments that could have been far more interesting lack depth. Translations need to be improved. Combat needs a lot of work.
We’re on it. We have a short term roadmap that begins with what we’re delivering by the end of next week, a May patch goal that aims to flesh out some areas of the game where players have felt they wanted to see more, and we’re busy working on a longer-term list of improvements that all address your most commonly reported issues and areas where Broken Roads is falling short.
Thank you for your continued support and interest in Broken Roads, and for caring enough to comment and report issues. We welcome all feedback and suggestions, be it on forums or our official Discord, and are getting back to work improving the game from Monday.
She’ll be right.
Craig Ritchie,
Game Director
PLANNED 19TH APRIL 2024 PC PATCH
Add more combat in the early game.
Allow manually leveling up your companions (option will allow to auto level all, auto level some, or manually level up all)
Improvements to the random encounters, including more non-combat REs
Introduce a mechanic to the overworld that lets you flee based on cumulative party agility vs cumulative enemy agility, on or off as an option in the setting screen, and start a battle with 50% initiative if you fail
Add stat restrictions to different weapon types (for example, SR98 +1 requires shooting Mastery 25+, SR98 +2 requires SM 50+, etc)
Additional localization fixes and improvements
Additional VO throughout the game
Fixes to quest logic issues in Lake Deborah, Merredin and Korrelocking
More animations and gestures throughout the game
PLANNED MID-MAY 2024 PC PATCH
Allow users to set up different keybindings
More fleshing out of Kalgoorlie and the last chapter.
More reactivity to events in Merredin.
Additional Aussie slang entries in the ‘Cyclopedia
Many additional dialogue options and combat resolutions in quests.
More skill checks throughout the game
Additional low-level moral options throughout
Add considerably more companion interactions as well as some companion quests.
Overworld flee is as described above, but is also Puntable
MORE variety of beers
Adding more VO to consecutive dialogue nodes in conversations that currently have partial VO
Make gear more impactful (additional options of wearables and making them have more significance in combat)
And, maybe our most egregious oversight of all, allow you to pet more of the animals
The 2002 NwN OC may had a railroaded "dragon ball" structure, where basically the same thing happened in every arc (e.g., collect the Waterdhavian creatures, collect the Words of Power, etc.) This is the main criticism. But other than that, the OC is solid. You have plenty of peripeteia, interesting questions, optional content, good writing, changes of scenery, etc. Don't compare it to this shovelware.
the main thing the Bioware NWN had going for it imo was the extremely moody atmosphere and the gorgeous soundtrack. I honestly can't think of any other RPG with a similarly dark atmosphere, with its plague ridden city, flammable piles of corpses, the human cries and begging that seem to fill the air. I'll never forget that main menu theme (of the original game, without the add-ons). I know the content isn't as rich and *cough* diverse, and some of the gameplay elements are even worse. but honestly, I prefer NWN over BG 1 and 2 with its rather bland settings and at times extremely juvenile writing.
NwN may be fugly as fuck, blocky and look desolate (trademark of the era), but it had a ton of charm for a 3D game
Aurora is an underrated gem and a terrific toolset, it's powerful and easy and flexible. I think that's obvious by the amount of user-made content over the years (decades)
The music was excellent, the art was excellent
The UI is excellent
The OC is railroady but gets way too much hate. For me SoU > OC > HotU... HotU is a bit of a mess
In my view NwN 1 is underrated, NwN 2 is overrated. It had none of the charm of its sequel.
I kinda felt bad for Craig Ritchie after looking through some of the fallout, the bad press reception due to a lack of bribes and Zoe Quinn styled services, as well as the allergic reactions from extremist and racial supremacist sites like ResetEra, or libertarian sites with Balkan characteristics like the Codex. The poor guy can't catch a break and it's been an uphill battle since day one to make his game a reality. So I decided to check his game out due to pity and I hope to bring some nuance to this thread with my first impressions.
I've always liked seeing video games from areas of the globe without much of an established video game industry because they always bring a very local character to the table. When you start playing a game made in Croatia, or Finland, or Slovenia, you know you are in for something different than what the American global games industry has on offer. It's the difference between the soul of The Witcher compared to the watered down more international and Americanised experience of The Witcher 3, from something that could only have been made in Poland to something more Hollywood.
Because of this I've tried to check out obscure titles most haven't heard about, even if I haven't gotten some of them to run on Windows 10 yet.
So is this Australia's equivalent of The Witcher? Not really. It's unfair to credit Australia with Grimoire since it was developed by a neanderthal, so I will not compare it to Cleve's magnum opus, but The Land Down Under is responsible for Fallout Tactics and I don't think it lives up to that legacy. Let's take it from the top, shall we?
I've played a couple of hours of the game and so far I've been more confused than anything else. Earlier in this thread Craig Ritchie has been insisting that he hasn't been jamming the eyesore of current year American politics into his game and I was curious how true that was, and it sort of is? Kinda? The first screen you are met with in the game is some virtue signalling about there being dead people in the game, and the main menu has a long string of text at the bottom acknowledging the tribal people Australia supposedly belongs to.
This must have been partly for fundraising and investment attraction, knowing what sort of background Mr. Ritchie has, here from an interview with the Escapist.
Long before Ritchie got into game development, he worked in the realms of journalism and PR. Along the way, he had opportunities to gain familiarity with the ins and outs of development, ranging from QA to production, including running pre-alphas for EVE: Valkyrie during a stint at CCP Games.
This bowerbird-like gathering of skills over the years was one of the things that pushed him into action when a developer friend asked him, “Why don’t you actually try to give it a go and start your own studio?” That was December 2018, and Ritchie knew exactly the kind of game that he wanted to make — a project that would take advantage of his experience, familiarity with CRPGs, and good old business sense.
But if you've engaged with Australian culture you might also know that this is something they've been doing for many decades now. I think I remember seeing it in films from almost the 70's I think? They're always been a bit weird like that. And as far as I've seen so far none of that has been seeping into the story or gameplay itself. Since the majority of the last couple of pages have been about how woke it is I've given it a fair assessment and I'd say that it's far less in your face than many recent games. There is no orc-elf polycules like in the Pathfinder game, there has been no transsexual in the post-apocalypse talking about the struggle to find estrogen pills, and I haven't noticed any anti-White commentary like in Alan Wake 2. There is no pronoun selection and the game acknowledges your gender, even if it doesn't say male and female in the character screen.
I decided to roll a talky character since this is supposedly inspired by Disco Elysium and it's a good test for this sort of game. My character concept was the descendant of a Chinese spy that had been trying to steal government secrets before the bombs fell, so I maxed Charisma, put the rest into intelligence, dropping the strength to a minimum. The character system is a bit odd, both your alignment and skills play into combat, but I've only been in one fight so far into the game, and I've been to three hubs now.
I did note that all the male models had more cleavage than the female ones, consistently.
Which kinda didn't suit the character I was going for, aiming to seduce, lie, cheat, trick, charm, persuade, intimidate and bullshit my way to victory as a female spy archetype.
The gameplay so far has mostly been Planescape Torment-esque but with less combat, a lot of dialogue, some skillchecks thrown in here and there. At character creation you get to choose an origin, and i think this actually changes your starting location, Dragon Age: Origins and Temple of Elemental Evil style. I picked merchant so maybe that's why I haven't seen much of any combat. However, the one combat encounter I did have happened before the combat tutorial and I was forced to face off against two raiders without any party members, while my build was centered around passing conversation skill checks and supporting party members with healing and buffs.
Why did I call the game confusing? Because the writing lacks direction and it's very unclear what this is supposed to be. It's not even limited to the writing, there are a bunch of items in stores that I can't tell if they have any use or not, some are labeled quest items without me having recieved any quest yet to get them.
I'm with the game as far as the intro, the bombs fell and Australia is now post-apocalyptic. Doesn't seem very different from how it normally is. Most of the time it feels like playing one of those late stage zombie stories that were popular for a while, with less of a focus on survival and more on rebuilding civilization. But it also wants to be Mad Max, with raiders that drive around. Characters are not properly introduced and when what I think is the leader of a settlement is supposed to have some mysterious backstory a prisoner tells me to ask about I'm never given the option to do so. During a raid I can either escape in a wagon or an ambulance, but I don't know what the purpose of this choice is. Characters come and go and I have no idea who they are or what any of it is supposed to mean. Currently I'm doing a quest for an Abbo elder to find a string, but it's not very woke, more like using the setting of Australia in a gimmicky way for the setting, like the cringe use of Australian slang in every dialogue.
I couldn't tell you what the plot of this game is supposed to be, what I'm doing, or where this is going.
Anyway, that's all I got for now, will post further impressions after playing the game more.
I'm not sure how I feel about game references five minutes into the game.
Emus and kangaroos, because this is Australia, they really want you to know it's Australia. Stop typing, the Kanagroo is out of frame.
The game is cute sometimes.
No trans or gay flags yet, only wholesome koalas.
I don't know what the point of this was. After getting the sheep out of the fence it stuck its head back in when I came back later. It's not a quest or anything, it's just there.
I only met these people like five minutes ago, last night in game time. This death scene means nothing to me.
Perhaps this is the plot of the game? A mysterious crash site like in Arcanum? I still don't know!
This game isn't suffering from the woke virus (only some minor simptoms here and there, nothing serious), and you can tell that the developers DID try to make an actual good game. I think they at least deserve credit for that and the game doesn't deserve the same amount of flak as something like Starfield.
Was it a good game in the end? No. But there's a big difference between a small indie studio jumping into the water and trying something new they're passionate about and a massive AAA game company that continually fucks up its products through sheer incompetence, ESG-compliance or both.
The developers of this game also comment on a ton of their Steam reviews who give negative reviews and they aren't bitchy about it either. That alone is enough to earn the respect of the average gamer, at least when it comes to their attitude as a company. They also stated in many of these comments that they're addressing these points and trying to improve things - while I think that's going to be hard to do for this game, they are definitely taking notes for their next project (if they're still around).
Regardless if we liked their game or not - it is NOT a woke product like many Codex neurotics are making it out to be. There were a myriad of new releases that are plagued with woke shit while this game has a symptom or two here and there.
I actually hope that the developer is still around to make another project and apply what they've learned through the feedback of this one. As a (TTRPG) developer myself, I can relate how hard it is to do everything right in the first go. But it definitely pays off in your next project guys, trust me.
"I just mixed a dollop of shit into your sandwich filling but you can barely taste it, its just a minor symptom of shit otherwise its a good sandwich".
Impressions of Broken Roads, part deux: wrapping it up.
I haven't actually beaten the game yet but it might be a while before I get to the ending, even if it is just an hour or a half away, and I don't want to forget what I have to say about the game. Chances that the ending slides will change anything are next to non-existent anyway. First to respond to a couple of comments, since I'm one of few people to play this game.
The game is very strangely varied in its tone, in some places it's like Bethesda's Fallout with shenanigans, like someone finding a train conductor uniform in a trainyard and wearing that, or an escaped indentured servant starting to do magic and wearing a traffic cone on his head as a wizard's cap, but then it also deals with mass murder and slavery. To respond to your question, I have come across just the one mention of cannibalism so far and it came from an aboriginal female gang leader, mentioning she ate your friends after you buried them and went away. So big props to Drop Bear Bytes for respecting the rich culture of the... Noongar, Wadawurrung, Lutruwita, Turrbal, Boonwurrung, Darumbal, Whadjuk, Kabi Kabi and Jinibara people.
This will make a great entry point to the second half of my impressions. IMO there were some ideas here, it's just that the execution of them didn't mesh and they weren't developed enough.
The feeling you get playing this, and it is somewhat backed up by interviews, is that this is a video game that was built around a sincere love of video games and RPGs, but without much to say by itself. I don't know if there is a term coined for it but I will try to explain it.
At the start of the game you have the feeling of playing the Disco Elysium version of The Walking Dead. The apocalypse came, is now over, and everyone that survived it is now standing around fiddling their thumbs. It goes for some early character drama, the dramatic deaths of people you haven't gotten any opportunity to know. For my character at least, this was a section without combat, and it lasts for about one third of the game. Later on the game opens up, picks up the Fallout format, with a large overworld map with random encounters and different screens, some towns, some a shack, and some wild areas. Only to then drop you into a city again towards the end where you start going dialogue mode again, with less exploration and combat.
The ideas are scattershot.
Post-apocalyptic Australia - Because of Mad Max, and this is where the game is made.
Philosophy - Because Disco Elysium was about ideology and that's why it sold, right? -Padme face- Right?
Fallout - Because Craig thought that Fallout 1 and 2 was the best thing ever.
Monty Python meets Threads - Maybe the tonal shifts are an Australian thing, idk.
Walking Dead - There's a subtle difference between a bunch of losers having slapfights over who gets to lead a group of survivors plus a lot of melodrama, and the world of Fallout 1.
And they are all very start and stop. Sometimes you're supposed to be heavily involved with characters, sometimes your party members are nothing more than disposable mercs you use as combat fodder. In the first and last section of the game you get to make a bunch of skillchecks with your ethics system and stats, while in the middle it's mostly uninteresting sort of X-com revival combat and fetch quests. The game has pretenses of being about philosophy, you get quotes on loading screens like Baldur's Gate 1 quoted Nietzsche, there are books on philosophy to find, but it is all entirely detached from the game. Then towards the end of the game you get what might be AI summaries of a person's first philosophy course introducing these thinkers and schools, but it's not something that is lived, experienced, or felt.
The Australian setting is mostly used to the effect of Sigil in Planescape Torment, you get dictionary entries on Australian slang, you get to punch koalas, kangaroos and fight off giant spiders, and there are aboriginals living in caverns like hobbits,
An even more important issue is that there is no hook. I thought that the planecrash might finally be what would set me off on some grand adventure with my collected band of sketchy Aussies and give me some reason to explore or do something. In the early game a town you are in gets burnt down to the ground and there's a guy among them that you learn the name of. So is this your nemesis and is this a game about revenge? I didn't think so, because I had just met all those people. But then towards the end of the game you can track the guy down, kill him easily, he's not a boss fight as far as I could tell, and then that plotline just ends without fanfare while the game continues on.
A while later a plane comes crashing down, a rarity in the post-apocalypse, and inside I found a key. Is this my great quest? Not really, I couldn't ask anyone about the key and I might just have missed a chest somewhere.
Is it a game about philosophy? Not really. It's mostly set dressing.
The classics all had strong hooks. Fallout, get the watership, explore the dangerous world outside the vault, wait a minute, supermutants? Arcanum, who was that gnome, I'm the living one? Planescape Torment, who am I, why am I immortal, who is this skull? Baldur's Gate, who is after me, who killed my foster father, what is this conspiracy? Grimoire starts with a simple text screen premise: wind up the clock of fate.
Even if the developers introduced combat into the more story-centric sections of the game this lack of impetus will not be fixed without a total rewrite. I'm near the end of the game and I still have no idea where I'm going or why. I've entered a city built on the principles of Plato's Republic, supposedly, but I had no reason to enter it other than that it was there. Perhaps I should find meaning and create purpose myself, in this very philosophical RPG, but my character isn't fond of Nietzsche and I made no übermench build.
Woke levels are the least of the game's problems and they are on acceptable levels for a Western game. There's plenty of evil women in the story and only hints of the usual White man bad narratives that I know Westerners get pushed in all their media. There's a bit of the noble savage stuff in there, and a slightly too many super horny lesbians however.
Craig's self-insert, might be commentary on running a development studio in Australia or trying to serve gamers. He has a sad story about losing his cat.
It's all good and well until they start putting political messages on your liquor bottles but you're not allowed to say anything about it.
It's a bit of a shock, coming from this linear text adventure to an even more combat centric Fallout experience with random encounters.
Combat is functional and I don't have many complaints about it.
Really now?
Did the game even need to take place after the apocalypse?
One of a few visual gags in the game.
I know that image.
He can actually do magic now.
The Australian aboriginal is a cross between a cannibal, a hobbit and Na'vi. This might be woke, or it might be gigachad racism using them to stand in for silly fantasy races.
The last town of the game sure is pretty.
I'm going to become a greenseer?
It's a shame that there isn't much of a plot skeleton or unified game concept to carry the rest of the game because it's very nicely done. The audio is atmospheric, the soundtrack being mostly slow riffs that complement the Australian landscape. The environment art had a lot of care put into it, with a lot of small details and neat animations making the scenes less static. Even the characters are animated at times in the conversations.
The animals are very varied, well animated, and very, very cute, and bring a lot of life into the gameworld. There are a lot of items to find, most being seemingly pointless, but with descriptions and very well made icons. There is no fighting with the game camera, the combat as far as I experienced it was solid, no bugs, no jank. Everyone on this project was very talented except the writers, or at least some of them. Wait just a moment!
Colin McComb? One of the guys that ruined the golden opportunity during the kickstarter years that they had with Numanuma? I'm sorry Ritchie, you should have known better.
That concludes what I have to say about Broken Roads. It's obvious that some people on the team put their all into the game, and had skills that the genre could use to see more of at other dev studios, and there are times when you can tell they have souls, but for a narrative heavy game it seems the writers were out of their depth. I had to keep myself from bullying them when it comes to their attempts to deal with philosophy later on in the game, but my real life INT and WIS was too high for this game, and if you have or do read philosophy yourself I don't think this game is for you.
- One star for the wildlife, one star for the petting of cats, and one star for the art direction and not being janky. Minus two stars for bad writing, not having a plot and for getting a D- in philosophy. The broken conversation and quest nodes aren't much worse than what I'm used to in other games, or pre-fan-patch classics.
A very common phenomenon from creators that are passionate about the medium and sincere but talentless. Works from them just end up reference storm of the great classics without any real attempt to actually walk the talk. The problem isn't about being pretentious because the classics can come off as such too. It is more that they have no understanding of the medium, of the interplay between the audience and creator within the context. Like a storyteller supposed to tell a story but end up reminiscing about his prior experience of hearing a better one and just bore the audience. It is a shame really. At least they avoid the also common problem of self congratulation and ego.
Hey - overarching is mine. Colin is one of numerous writers on the team. A few have come and gone over the years for a range of reasons. I head up all the overall direction and approvals. The overall flow, the routes through the game and the different endings possible are still mine (at the most simple level. Of course discussed with writing team, minor adjustments made over time, and other disclaimers before someone tries to use that out of context)
Hey - overarching is mine. Colin is one of numerous writers on the team. A few have come and gone over the years for a range of reasons. I head up all the overall direction and approvals. The overall flow, the routes through the game and the different endings possible are still mine (at the most simple level. Of course discussed with writing team, minor adjustments made over time, and other disclaimers before someone tries to use that out of context)
It's worth remembering that McComb was responsible for by far the weakest parts of Fallout 2 and Planescape: Torment. His reputation as some kind of prolific RPG writer/designer was always unearned.
It's worth remembering that McComb was responsible for by far the weakest parts of Fallout 2 and Planescape: Torment. His reputation as some kind of prolific RPG writer/designer was always unearned.
It's worth remembering that McComb was responsible for by far the weakest parts of Fallout 2 and Planescape: Torment. His reputation as some kind of prolific RPG writer/designer was always unearned.
- One star for the wildlife, one star for the petting of cats, and one star for the art direction and not being janky. Minus two stars for bad writing, not having a plot and for getting a D- in philosophy. The broken conversation and quest nodes aren't much worse than what I'm used to in other games, or pre-fan-patch classics.
