Roadwarden is the biggest sleeper hit of 2022. For a game with relatively spartan graphics and no animation to speak of, it does a fantastic job of pulling you into the world. It’s like a Choose Your Own Adventure book on steroids. It’s what I wish every RPG could be – a game in which your choices aren’t just window dressing but actually matter.
Indie team Moral Anxiety Studio have crafted a world that should put bigger studios on notice. What really impresses me is that the factions don’t lean on stereotypes. You know what I’m talking about – most games with factions have the obligatory imperialist city dwellers, the struggling country yokels, the machismo warlords, and so on. The different settlements in Roadwarden, in contrast, all feel authentic. Every village has a history and a reason for being, and the NPCs, far from feeling generic, instead feel natural in their roles and help deepen the player’s connection to the world.
Roadwarden also deftly solves the “chosen one” story trope that’s so common in RPGs. At the outset, you’re sent by a corporation to explore a reclusive peninsula and report back about how it can be exploited for profit. How you go about that is up to you, and the choices you make not only define you character but also affect how your relationships with the locals develop. You can play as a heavy-handed mercenary who simply wants to squeeze the land for profit, or you can take on the role of a rational intermediary who tries to balance the needs of the locals with the wants of the corporation. If that sounds too black and white, however, fear not: there’s plenty of grey – probably more grey than you’ll find in any other game.
Be warned that there is a lot of reading, and if you’re looking for a game that’s heavy on combat this definitely isn’t it. But if you’re itching for a cozy adventure that lets you explore your own way, Roadwarden is absolutely the scratch.
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Just finished it. Fantastic game! It took its sweet time to hook me: at first it's overwhelming with all the names, places, people and the intricacies of the world. But after 2-3 hours, once I started to understand how it worked, it drew me in immensely. The setting is great spin on the dark fantasy theme -- dark, yes, but very grounded and believable, and it is unique in being much closer to bronze age than to medieval. The people and places you meet are just as interesting, even if they may not appear as such at first (which is great, the game rewards being inquisitive). The world is filled with awesome stories, which in any other game would be completely separate, but here are deeply interconnected, nearly every interaction gives you new information about someone or something you had previously encountered, you revisit things all the time, making you attached to them. And there is so much reactivity to what the player knows and can do, you will never have the frustrating thought "why can't I tell this person about this thing?!" that basically every other RPG except for Disco Elysium produces to some degree. Loved it.
the devs truly understand the fantasy genre