Broken Roads
- August 22, 2022
- Drop Bear Bytes
- 6h median play time
If you're looking for a game with tough choices and challenging combat to get lost in, you could do much worse than Broken Roads.
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Get on Epic Games Store"Broken Roads" is a post-apocalyptic CRPG set in Western Australia, where players can explore a rich narrative with branching quests and memorable encounters. The game offers a classless system for character development and a unique morality system, the Moral Compass, which influences and is influenced by dialogue options and questing decisions based on a character's philosophical leaning. Immerse yourself in a desolate yet fascinating world filled with intricate lore and compelling characters.
PC
Xbox One
Xbox Series X|S
Xbox
Reviews
- The game features a unique Australian setting with well-crafted world-building and cultural references, enhancing the immersive experience.
- The moral compass system adds depth to the gameplay, allowing for varied choices and consequences that can significantly impact the story.
- The art style and music are praised for their quality, contributing to the overall atmosphere and enjoyment of the game.
- Combat mechanics are overly simplistic and lack depth, leading to a feeling of imbalance and making encounters feel trivial.
- The game suffers from numerous bugs and technical issues, including quest-breaking glitches and inconsistent dialogue options.
- The pacing is slow, with many players finding the early game tedious and lacking engaging content, which can detract from the overall enjoyment.
- story151 mentions
- 13 % positive mentions
- 81 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The story of the game has received mixed reviews, with some players appreciating its engaging narrative and moral choices, while others find it linear and underwhelming. Many critiques focus on quest design, with reports of bugs and unclear objectives detracting from the overall experience. Despite its potential, the storytelling often feels disjointed and fails to fully immerse players in the world, leading to a sense of frustration rather than investment in the narrative.
“An enjoyable, story-driven game from an indie developer, which tells an engaging story with the added focus on moral philosophy.”
“The story, characters, and world are interesting, and some of the choices are genuinely gut-wrenching in a way that makes you really appreciate the nature of the world this story is set in.”
“The storytelling is immersive, and the choices you make help immerse you in the story.”
“Unfortunately, the story just wasn't that interesting for me.”
“The main story is a bit messy as well in a few different ways.”
“The game feels short, the story is okay but underwhelming for what I expected.”
- gameplay28 mentions
- 21 % positive mentions
- 64 % neutral mentions
- 14 % negative mentions
The gameplay in "Broken Roads" has received mixed reviews, with many players noting its lack of depth and polish compared to other RPGs. While the setting and atmosphere are praised, the combat mechanics are described as functional but simplistic, and the morality system feels underutilized. Overall, the game is seen as charming but clunky, lacking the complexity and engaging side quests that would encourage replayability.
“Once you get used to some of the game mechanics, it's easy to get lost in the story and caught up in the choices thrown your way.”
“Very cool game, they get the straya right and have solid game mechanics.”
“Fun immersive gameplay.”
“The combat is functional but not super mechanically deep, so manage your expectations.”
“Unfortunately, for all of its fantastic art style, epic music score and writing, the combat side of the game is obviously lackluster and leaves you wanting a bit more as far as tactical gameplay and AI are concerned.”
“There are no clever mechanics or little side quests to interact with the world or play around with the game's systems because there aren't any.”
- graphics21 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- 19 % neutral mentions
- 14 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their beautiful hand-painted art style and well-crafted environments, which contribute significantly to the overall atmosphere and immersion. Many reviewers highlight the love and detail put into the artwork, making it a standout feature despite some minor gameplay and UI glitches. While the visuals are generally considered impressive, some players feel that the combat and tactical elements do not match the quality of the graphics.
“Hand-painted graphics style is beautiful.”
“Beautiful artwork and well fleshed out locations plus some quirky easter eggs thrown in.”
“The game is graphically beautiful and I've gotten a lot of joy from the landscapes depicted and the corresponding wildlife.”
“As of June 2024, I had minor quest progression, graphics, and gameplay glitches, but because the game maintains several rolling auto-saves, it was always easy to reload before these glitches.”
“Beyond the art style, for every part of Broken Roads, you can find better graphics elsewhere.”
“It reminds me of my first time playing games like Fallout 1 & 2, but with much better graphics.”
- music15 mentions
- 60 % positive mentions
- 20 % neutral mentions
- 20 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received widespread acclaim for its quality and ability to enhance the overall atmosphere, with many players praising its fitting tone and memorable tracks. While the soundtrack is often compared to the works of notable artists like Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, some players express a desire for more dynamic and varied musical pieces during combat encounters. Overall, the music is considered a standout feature that complements the game's art style and setting beautifully.
“The music is pretty good and fits the game perfectly.”
“The art and music in the game are excellent.”
“The main menu didgeridoo music... I could listen to it all day.”
“The hand-drawn art captures the outback feel perfectly, reminding me of my trip across the Nullarbor when I was a young fella, and the music sets the mood just right.”
“I also really like the soundtrack, with some of the music reminding me of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis' work on 'The Assassination of Jesse James' and 'The Proposition'.”
- humor8 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is characterized by clever and well-written dialogue that resonates with Australian culture, often eliciting genuine laughter from players. While some found the comedic elements enjoyable, they noted that certain combat encounters detracted from the overall experience. Overall, the humor adds a unique charm, making the game engaging despite some gameplay shortcomings.
“Loving the Aussie humor and little quirks.”
“The dialogue and descriptions are well written; they feel very Australian, and some of them had me audibly laughing.”
“I'm not usually someone for games with a lot of reading, but the writing is funny and gives enough options in most situations to fulfill my desire for freedom.”
- stability7 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's stability has received mixed reviews, with some players experiencing minor glitches and issues that were manageable due to the presence of auto-saves, while others reported significant bugs affecting quest progression and achievements. Many users noted that quests often lacked clear guidance, leading to frustration and a perception of poor game design.
“The game is still pretty buggy; most of the Steam achievements didn’t unlock for me, multiple side stories became bugged and impossible to complete, as well as a couple of soft crashes.”
“There were plenty of times where quests wouldn't telegraph their intentions well enough or were outright buggy.”
“Many buggy quests or quests where it was unclear what to do and seemed blocked.”
- atmosphere6 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its unique Australian setting, creative execution, and engaging graphical style, which effectively immerses players without feeling overdone. While the atmosphere and characters are highlighted as strong points, some reviewers note that they are not enough to compensate for shortcomings in gameplay. Overall, the game's atmosphere is a standout feature that enhances the overall experience.
“The atmosphere and graphical style are great, and the uniqueness of the setting elevates the game a lot.”
“This game bleeds Australia, and they have done such a creative job producing an atmosphere that really grabs a hold of you without ever feeling like it's too rich or corny.”
“Where Broken Roads shines is its atmosphere.”
“I love the setting, I love the atmosphere, but the gameplay is just so clunky and bad.”
- emotional5 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The emotional aspect of the game is described as both powerful and chaotic, provoking a range of feelings from misery and anger to deep investment in the narrative. While it successfully draws players in with its intense prologue, the overwhelming and disjointed emotional responses can leave players feeling confused rather than fulfilled. Overall, it elicits strong reactions but may struggle to deliver a cohesive emotional experience.
“Like every piece of art, it should evoke an emotional response.”
“This masterpiece made me feel miserable and angry, and led me to question my life choices that brought me to this point.”
“It was a real treat to get sucked deep into the prologue, thinking it was more of a chapter one, only to get everything turned on its head and become emotionally invested in the consequences.”
- replayability4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game offers significant replayability, allowing players to explore various outcomes and approaches to situations, which enhances the overall experience. Users appreciate the depth of choices available, contributing to ample playtime and diverse replay options.
“It is an amazing CRPG, very replayable if you want to explore different outcomes.”
“The system provides different ways to approach a situation, adding a lot of replayability.”
“I can tell some people will get hung up on pedantics about whether something is actually humanist or utilitarian, but the system for what it is gives you different ways to approach a situation, and adds a lot of replayability.”
“Plenty of playtime and replayability options.”
- grinding3 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and boring, often feeling that missions require excessive back-and-forth travel with limited interaction opportunities. Many express a desire for faster movement options to alleviate the monotony of exploration.
“Boring, tedious missions.”
“I see my character at a full run, but it takes longer than I'd like to get to a location. I have to make a lot of passes back and forth to see everything. This, combined with the party's flying wedge shuffle and the general lack of interaction opportunities, makes exploring feel tedious.”
“My only complaint is that I wish there was a way to speed up walking, as it does get a little tedious.”
- optimization1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Players have noted that the game's optimization feels lacking, with character movement appearing sluggish in relation to the map size and a limited vision range that affects gameplay experience.
“It feels, relatively speaking to other similar games, that I'm running slowly relative to the map size. It also feels like the vision range is a bit short.”
“The game's performance is subpar, with frequent frame drops that hinder the overall experience.”
“I often encounter long loading times, which disrupts the flow of gameplay and makes it frustrating to engage with the game.”
- character development1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Character development is largely absent, with players noting a lack of meaningful skills to acquire or evolve, resulting in a stagnant progression experience.
“Character development is lacking, and there are no skills to acquire or develop that truly seem to matter.”
“The characters feel one-dimensional, with little to no growth or meaningful choices throughout the game.”
“I was disappointed by the lack of depth in character progression; it feels like a missed opportunity for engagement.”
Critic Reviews
"Systems that sound good on paper don't work as intended"
Broken Roads provides a strong draw with its Aussie take on the post-apocalypse and the philosophical strands running through its open-ended role-playing. Rather than leading to an interesting destination, however, these roads really are somewhat broken, with systems that don't feel properly integrated, bizarre leaps of logic and even bugs that lead you into dead ends.
50%Broken Roads Review – In Search Of Meaning
Broken Roads could've been an amazing game with a rich story, memorable characters, and an engaging world, but the lack of depth and enjoyment in the gameplay and combat makes it hard to appreciate the good aspects of the game.
40%Broken Roads Review
Broken Roads is a gorgeous Aussie world undone by incurious writing, ambitious but poorly implemented ideas, and unstable performance issues.
50%
