Broken Roads
BROKEN ROADS: a cerebral narrative adventure
The Kalgoorlie Silvers have received a tip. Some rabble-rousers are plotting unrest in a nearby apartment, and the authorities have ordered a raid. The plan is to bust down the door and secure the suspects by force, and while they don’t want to kill everyone, they expect two or three bodies at the least. Having been temporarily assigned to the squad, I propose a radical alternative. How about – and just hear me out on this – we try talking to them first?
Squad leader Irma Wakefield arches an eyebrow, “Convince me,” she says. I start off by appealing to her humanity. As officers of the law, we have a duty to protect people if possible, and surely that includes the people on the other side of the door. This is dismissed as bleedingheart liberal nonsense, so I try a more utilitarian approach. How reliable is the information we’ve received? Do we know exactly what these supposed rebels are planning, or if they’re even planning anything at all? Does this raid ultimately serve the greater good?
Wakefield says the orders came from the top, and she isn’t predisposed to questioning them. I respond to this with a sprinkling of Machiavellianism. Surely, by investigating the situation thoroughly, you demonstrate your aptitude for the job, and you cannot possibly be blamed for doing your job properly. You might even be rewarded for it. That gets through, and Wakefield lets me speak to the suspects through the door. But I’ve only got three questions before the door gets busted down, so I’m going to have to come up with a pretty convincing argument quickly.
Ekes an impressive amount of variety out of its setting
This is what Broken Roads is like at its best, a sharply written, intellectual adventure where your approach to dialogue and problem solving is drawn from philosophical concepts. But I must confess to a spot of Machiavellianism myself. I chose the path of dialogue not out of a fundamental respect for humanity, or to serve the greater good. I chose it to avoid Broken Roads at its worst – a barebones post-apocalyptic RPG with limited character progression, buggy quests, and tedious combat. Drop Bear Bytes’ road trip through a shattered Australia might have a knack for pondering the big questions, but when it comes to doing the basics it can be pretty bloody hopeless.
BACKGROUND
Where you start in Broken Roads depends on what background you pick for your character. I selected the trading background Barter Crew, escorting a merchant convoy out of a little village called Kokeby. But Hired Guns and Surveyors enter the game at a fortified enclosure called Bally Bally Hall. Whichever origin you choose, all roads eventually lead to a small town called Bookton, which is sprung upon by raiders from the aforementioned Kalgoorlie. As you flee from the flames and the gunfire, yo
