Broken Roads, the upcoming post-apocalyptic isometric CRPG from up-and-coming Australian developer Drop Bear Bytes, has dropped a tonne of news today of the good, bad, and intriguing variety.
So let’s dissect everything. Firstly, the intriguing. Though this phenomenon is not completely unusual in the gaming space, it’s infrequent enough that it warrants discussion. Broken Roads, once a partnership between developer Drop Bear Bytes and publisher Team 17, is no longer. Team 17 has left the project for reasons undisclosed, with publishing responsibilities picked up by another major indie publisher, Versus Evil. While Versus Evil has most recently been known for its involvement with The Hand of Merlin and First Class Trouble, they’ve also been there to publish titles such as Obsidian Entertainment’s Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire.
The good and bad news form a bit of a backhanded slap to those excited for the game. On one hand, in extremely exciting news, the developer/publisher duo announced that Broken Roads will be coming to consoles as well as the previously revealed PC platform. On the other hand, the console date was accompanied by less exciting, but surely important and incredibly valuable news that the game is being delayed into 2023. The news was accompanied by a Gamescom 2022 trailer that shares incredible insight into where the Aussie apocalypse setting is headed in the future. The developers themselves have been incredibly forthright with development blogs over the months giving fans regular sneak peeks into the growth of the game.
“A love letter to traditional isometric cRPG that brings exploration, strategic turn-based combat and meaningful philosophical choices to a densely-crafted post-apocalyptic future version of Western Australia. Broken Roads skillfully blends traditional and all-new role-playing elements on top of a classless system offering near-unlimited character development options built around four philosophies: Humanist, Utilitarian, Machiavellian, and Nihilist. Furthermore the game presents players with an original morality system: the Moral Compass which sees dialogue options and questing decisions influence, and be influenced by, a character’s philosophical leaning and the tough decisions they make along the way.”
Broken Roads will be coming to consoles and PC on a to-be-determined date in 2023.
