Jay Krishnan of Gameffine checked out the postapocalyptic RPG Broken Roads:
More information.Exploring Broken Roads -- A post-apocalyptic RPG where you forge your path through a collapsed Australia
Making a role-playing video game has never been easier. The advent of crowdfunding, the Early Access model, readily accessible engines like Unity, as well as the advancements made in videogame development are helping smaller studios make their dream RPGs, the way they want. The past couple of years saw the release of excellent indie RPGs like Age of Decadence, Underrail, ATOM, Encased, and Disco Elysium that provided players with hours of entertainment or, in the case of some, defied the traditional RPG tropes to fulfill a far more cerebral experience.
Broken Roads, the debut title from Drop Bear Bytes (what an assortment of random cool words) aims to do the same for the RPG genre -- standing on the shoulders of genre classics such as Fallout, Baldur's Gate, and Planescape: Torment while challenging players with complex moral choices in an original setting. All the classic CRPG tropes such as overworld exploration, questing, combat, adventuring with companions, unexpected encounters, and a sense of discovery are present in the game, all the while featuring some gorgeous art by Kerstin Evans. Broken Roads is expected to launch for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in late 2021.
Recently, I got to pick the brain of Craig Ritchie, the founder and game director of Drop Bear Bytes regarding the game they have been making since early 2019. Here's what I found out!
Trouble Down Under
Broken Roads, at its core, is a traditional isometric RPG that puts you in a criminally-underused Western Australian setting in the aftermath of the apocalypse. Now, if you say oh it's set in Australia, so it must be like Mad Max, you couldn't be further from the truth. Broken Roads - initially conceptualized as a post-nuclear Heroes of Might and Magic style game, ditched the strategy and resource management elements in favor of a narrative-driven isometric RPG early on. While the game tips its hat to classic films like Mad Max, A Boy, and His Dog, Threads, and Stalker, it's heavily inspired by Cold War and post-Cold War era movies in which the threat of nuclear annihilation is really front and center, as well as post-Plato philosophical ideologies.
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