With near-perfect execution, Roadwarden is a must-play for any adventure fan.
93
Verdict
94%
Steam
—
IGDB
Verdict score based on confidence-adjusted Steam reviews?
Very Positive on Steam (94% positive from 4.9K reviews)
Compelling narrative and story
Standout indie gem
Limited professional critic coverage
Roadwarden is a 2022 text-based role-playing and interactive fiction adventure video game for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Nintendo Switch. Developed by Moral Anxiety Studio, the game is set on a peninsula with multiple independent human settlements and features typical role-playing video game themes such as monsters and travelling bandits. The game centers on the player character, the "roadwarden", who is tasked with establishing trade and helping to secure the remote, dangerous peninsula, as well as investigating the disappearance of the previous roadwarden. Windy Meadow - A Roadwarden Tale, a game set in the same world, was released October 16, 2023.
Runs well on modern hardware.
Last updated 9d ago
This game takes place over 40 days unless you turned that off. It's okay, I don't feel like your choices matter all that much and there is a lot of disconnect between what you actually do and the impact of that depending on your choices. It's not a bad game but it's not great either. I think I'm about half way through my playthrough but I am too bored to finish it, I wasn't bored when I started playing. The lore is good and worldbuilding is solid, I think maybe there wasn't enough of what I was looking for to keep me invested or hook me, and I think 5 hours would be more than enough to hook me if it were going to. Maybe I'll revisit it another time.
I really love that game, but I also know I would not be able to recommend it to just anyone. You should play it: - if you like long reading sessions, storytelling with choices, lore, characters writing, charming atmosphere (the sound design and music are good and simple without trying to impress). You should not play it: -if you don't like reading, long conversations with NPCs, and humble pixel graphics.
It's a recommendation, but just barely. It's basically a choose your own adventure style game, with just enough content to keep it interesting for a couple of hours. There's a lot of reading that got too verbose at times. It seems kinda difficult to get a good ending, though, and I didn't feel there was enough reason to keep trying, as I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong.
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Data sourced from RAWG, Steam, IGDB, CheapShark, Wikipedia, HLTB, and GX Corner. Sources: rawg, steam, cheapshark, igdb, wikipedia.
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