Broken Roads - Demo available

HiddenX

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A demo of Broken Roads is available for download. It's a 5.5 GB download:

Broken Roads Demo Available Now

We're excited to announce that the Broken Roads demo is available now for you to download!

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 Broken Roads' turn-based combat, Moral Compass system, and gorgeous hand-drawn visuals as you explore a post-apocalyptic Western Australia and meet its inhabitants, each with their own individual stories and motives.

Before you hop into the demo, a quick note about localization. Although the full version of the game will support Chinese (Simplified), French, German, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, and Spanish (Latin America) at launch, this demo is available in English only for now. We hope to have a localized version available very soon!
Thanks Redglyph!

More information.
 
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I've downloaded and launched it, but it's a little late for me to start playing. I'll try that tomorrow.

It starts with an explanation of the morale compass followed by a few questions to determine how your character is oriented, rather than letting you set the compass manually. Then, you set your attributes and start.
 
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Looking forward to impressions!
 
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Just went thru a quick sampling, and...I don't know. Tried target practice against some mannequins and it feels clunky and 'pea-shooter-ish'. The TB interface seems weird and limited.
And no rotating the camera ?
10 minutes obviously not a fair sampling, but it doesn't feel right at all.
More impressions later...
 
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I downloaded it, and am looking forward to trying it out for a few hours when I have the time. This is a game that has been on my radar for awhile.

Though I managed to play it for a brief few minutes, and it seems promising so far. I like the interface, the Australian voice accents, and the different origin stories to pick from for your initial character. (though only one origin story is available in the demo) It also made me wonder if there will be different "beginnings" to the game, depending on the origin background you pick.

The graphics are a bit basic and stylized, however, I can tell that I personally like the art style, but that said, some may not like it. The customization is limited, you can select between male/female and choose between white/black/asian for your character's race, but all the characters are pre-generated as far as their appearance goes. (you get to pick skills and what attributes to focus on though by typical rpg point allocation system)

The philosophical morality system is pretty interesting. Complex and maybe a little confusing.
But definitely new and novel in a crpg, at least, its not something I have seen done this way before.

And lastly, the music is very good, at least the brief bits I heard.
Very fitting to the Australian outback setting, in my opinion.
 
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I had a quick try for like... 10mins?

I'm not a fan of voice acting... something just feels off. Dialogue has very uh.... Aussie outback (even edge towards bogan) feel. I like the art style. I hate the music.

Combat feels... clunky and boring.

I think I'm going to leave it here and wait for other's impression. Certainly am not motivated to continue.
 
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Hmm..looking like it wont be released this year. Hopefully not another missed deadline.
 
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I just finished the demo. It was ok. It's pretty short though and didn't convince me that it's something I have to have.

I found the accents a bit jarring at first, but I got used to them after awhile. There was only one real combat encounter, so it's hard for me to judge how good the combat is. I didn't think it was bad though. Maybe a bit simplistic.

I'm not a big fan of the soft art style, but I think the visuals are decent overall. I like that we can zoom in close to the characters. I hope they release a longer demo at some point so I can get a better feel for the game.
 
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I played a little, until a bug forced me to quit (the dialogue of the side quest about scrubbing the camel paddock blocked the game).

There is an atmosphere to the game, with its stylized graphics, the music, and the dialogues. However, it failed to capture me. At least the game takes the time to make introductions and enter into the game instead of rushing into the action, which is a good sign.

I don't dislike the music, but it's not my favourite style either.

The interface felt a little bare and unfinished. I'm fine with the top-down view without rotating camera, but some shortcuts are missing (end of turn in combat, for ex), the inventory doesn't make gear comparison easy, its filters don't even work yet, and there isn't any help to understand how the values are calculated in the character sheet.

The dialogues are fine and believable. I like the presentation in the classic RPG view with the chat box and the options. At least they didn't make the mistake of showing a close-up view. Some lines are spoken, but not all of them, which I like.

The little combat I saw wasn't particularly convincing. It's terribly slow and the placement of the characters is crucial but there's little aid for that. I spent a lot of movement points to find the spot from where I could fire on a target, which was apparently hidden behind a small crate (although visually it didn't look hidden at all). At the beginning of the game, I could do very little in each turn, so that was quite frustrating, but not uncommon in RPGs.

The morale compass looks similar to the old D&D alignment. There's a cone that may get larger or narrower, but I think it only depends on how much the traits are pronounced. It seems to be an interesting mechanics, even if it's nothing new. It limits the available options and so may give some replay value on top of the roleplay factor, whereas D&D alignments were mostly just for roleplay except for some classes.

I'll keep following the game, but I don't feel attracted to it; maybe because it's yet another post-apocalyptic game. I'm not sure yet if I'll play it or not, but it seems to have a good potential for who likes the setting.
 
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SplatterCatGaming:

Broken Roads - Dark Post Apocalyptic Caravan Tactical RPG​

 
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There's an update to the demo.

 
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There isn't much point in waiting for updates to a demo. It's only there for the player to get a general feel of what the game is going to be like.
 
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