Broken Roads
Review
The Walking Dead in Australia - minus the zombies
by William Thompson
reviewed on PC
'I love a sunburnt country'
The rusted tin shed is probably full of spiders, there are likely to be snakes slithering through the long grass, the dingoes are in search of their next meal, the kangaroos and emus are notorious for not taking a backward step. You’ve survived the apocalypse, but can you survive the harshness of the outback whilst knowing that the local pub is also short on beer?
Broken Roads begins with players choosing one of four player types - Hired Gun, Surveyor, Barter Crew or Jackaroo. Each of these provides players with starting stats as well as some additional dialogue options.But as the game progresses and your character levels up, players are free to allocate points against any of the available abilities, essentially making the initial choice somewhat of a moot point. After your chosen avatar is placed in a small outpost and you're given a rundown on how things operate in this post-apocalyptic world, you and several new friends will set out in search of vital parts. From there, the world is your oyster to explore.
'A land of sweeping plains'
Set in the Australian Outback (Western Australia, to be more accurate) - a tough environment in the best of times, let alone after an apocalypse - Broken Roads primarily expresses a bleak atmosphere throughout the game. For the most part, the towns that you visit are full of citizens just barely surviving and accordingly, most of them have a harsh outlook on life and are wary of strangers. As a result, walled towns feature throughout, giving Broken Roads a Walking Dead vibe - albeit without the zombies - where survivors have built their own little communities.
Many of these factions have their own specialties - such as one town that has improved irrigation techniques that result in larger crops, or a library that houses a range of important scientific texts. Other factions feature roving bands of mercenaries that are a threat to the smaller townships as well as anyone caught travelling the open road. Being able to converse and interact with these separate factions is important in surviving the wasteland.
'Of ragged mountain ranges'
Broken Roads features a bleak atmosphere, both in the story and the visuals. There are plenty of yellows and browns throughout, with run-down or makeshift buildings making up the majority of the landscape. Although the land is often barren, there is plenty of Australian Wildlife to see during your travels, with Kangaroos, Wallabies and Emus that wander across the outback. Indeed, the visual experience in Broken Roads, is a love letter to the Australian outback.
As players travel throughout the landscape with their party, most of the important items will be highlighted via a changing arrow pointer. Scrolling the mouse over an item of use will enable the player to pick it up, whilst other important locations will be identified by a question mark.
'Of droughts and flooding rains'
Some of these important areas can be quite small however, and players could often miss out on minor details that could add to the story. Indeed, early on there was a mission that required my characters to inspect a crashed plane. I wandered aimlessly around the plane looking for a way in, but couldn't find a way, until I stumbled upon the tiniest area that I could click on that allowed me to enter the cabin. No doubt there were other similar points along the way that I missed, but as they weren’t integral to the story, I may not be aware of them.
All the characters that you'll encounter in the game have Australian accents - which is fine for Aussies such as myself, but could take some getting used to for non-locals (unless you've watched multiple episodes of Bluey and have become accustomed to some of our colloquialisms). Luckily, the developers have thought of this, and included an encyclopedia of Australian slang terms that will help gamers to understand everything that is said. Almost all the non-playable characters can be interacted with, although some have little to say.
'I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea'
One major aspect of Broken Roads that sticks out, is the Moral Compass - and it often plays an integral part of the game. The Moral Compass splits character choices between four varied categories, from Utilitarian (where the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one), through to Nihilism (where my needs are the most important). When chatting with the characters in Broken Roads, many of the choices you make will alter your position within the compass. And depending on your position, your companions and other characters will perceive you differently, often changing the dialogue choices based on your current moral position.
Of course, you'll spend much of your time visiting various locations and completing tasks to further your cause. But there are plenty of people off the main storyline that have requirements that you have the ability to complete. In Broken Roads, it does pay to complete as many of the side quests as possible, as it enables players to increase the experience for both their main character and the party as a whole. As mentioned prior, once players have gained enough experience, they'll level up and will gain points to allocate to a range of skills. These skills will not only help when conversing with other characters, but will also affect how you'll perform within the combat phase of the game.
'Her beauty and her terror'
Combat plays out similarly to XCom, with each of your squad having movement points and action points. As you'd expect, the movement points allow you to position your character, whilst the action points will enable you to perform a range of tasks - be it shooting, throwing a grenade or healing (either yourself or a comrade). All the tasks will have a point value attached, so working out a strategy based on the available number of points each character possesses is important. Enemies and allies will take turns to perform their moves until the battle is complete.
I must admit that I jumped into one of the combat scenarios earlier than I should have (to help progress the main story) and ultimately had my arse handed to me on a platter by the more powerful enemy faction. Levelling up your characters and allocating points to the right abilities can allow the character to increase their movement and action points. So completing as many side quests as possible can make the combat easier.
'The wide brown land for me'
Broken Roads is certainly a tribute to Outback Australia as much as it is to role-playing games of the past, and as an Aussie myself, I found this refreshing.The bleak surrounds and the harshness of many of the characters really set the tone of the post-apocalyptic storyline. The Moral Compass and the ability to level up your character’s abilities in any way you choose ensures that the game feels more personalised as you travel from one location to the next. And although the questing can feel somewhat laborious at times, and the citizens can be somewhat abrupt, there is a story behind every interaction - one that provides hope for those that have struggled to survive the 'wide brown land' they call home.
Paragraph headings are an excerpt from 'My Country' by Dorothea Mackellar.
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7.9
fun score
Pros
Wonderful atmosphere and story, beautiful depiction of Australian outback
Cons
Tiny pointer actions mean objects can be missed
